extinction-horizon

 A great start to the series

4.75 out of 5 stars

They thought they had a cure for ebola — what they did have was so much worse.  The potential cure ends up turning the ebola patients into crazed monsters out for flesh and blood.  Beckham and his Delta Force team thought they’d seen it all when they were called to check out an off-the-grid research center where the virus was being tested.  They had no idea what they were walking into.

The narration of Extinction Horizon was done by Bronson Pinchot who does a really nice job.  This book is gritty and at times nasty — having Pinchot narrate it really helped move some of the goriest parts along.  My only complaint was that either the author or narrator never looked up or have ever read a book with USAMRIID in it — even if you jump over to the Wikipedia page about it, you’ll quickly see that it’s commonly referred to as “you-sam-rid” — every time Pinchot said it, he said every letter.  And it was said enough times that it started to get on my nerves by the end.  If you didn’t know that or just honestly don’t know/care it won’t both you at all.

This story was good.  Smith really went into detail about the virus (which I really enjoyed) giving the readers a lot of background on the why and the how.  A lot of times, books like these will skip over these details because they think they’re not needed or take too long to explain, but I’m glad that Smith took a while explaining it.  The science behind everything he wrote seemed real to me, which makes this an even scarier book.

The action in this book was brutal.  Lots of quick scenes with brutal and needed gore.  This is one of those books that I wouldn’t have expected anything less.  I knew that it was going to be a gore-fest, but Smith made it feel needed.

I thought that the characters were well thought out and explained.  Sure some of them are just army hardasses, but there are also people who care and act on emotion rather than on instinct.  Even the way that he wrote about the infected people felt emotional and real.

Overall, Extinction Horizon was a great introduction to this absolutely terrifying world, and I’m glad that I’ll be reading at least 2 more books in the same world.  I also completely understand why there is an entire world open for writers in the Kindle Worlds for this series.  There is just so much to cover.  So many places and angles that Smith couldn’t cover in 10 books if he tried.

Book Description:

Extinction Horizon (Extinction Cycle #1) by Nicholas Sansbury Smithfour-half-stars
Extinction Horizon by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
Narrator: Bronson Pinchot
Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
Series: Extinction Cycle
Published by Blackstone Audio on February 10, 2015
Genres: Bio-Thriller
Format: Audiobook
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The worst of nature and the worst of science will bring the human race to the brink of extinction.

Master Sergeant Reed Beckham has led his Delta Force Team, codenamed Ghost, through every kind of hell imaginable and never lost a man. When a top-secret Medical Corps research facility goes dark, Team Ghost is called in to face their deadliest enemy yet - a variant strain of Ebola that turns men into monsters.

After barely escaping with his life, Beckham returns to Fort Bragg in the midst of a new type of war. The virus is already spreading. As cities fall,
Team Ghost is ordered to keep CDC virologist Dr. Kate Lovato alive long enough to find a cure. What she uncovers will change everything.

Total extinction is just on the horizon, but will the cure be worse than the virus?

©2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

I received this book for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Also by this author: Extinction Edge, The Extinction Cycle, Extinction Age, Hell Divers
Also in this series: Extinction Edge, The Extinction Cycle, Extinction Age, Extinction War

 About the Author:

Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Nicholas Sansbury Smith is the USA Today bestselling author of the Hell Divers trilogy, the Orbs trilogy, and the Extinction Cycle series. He worked for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management in disaster mitigation before switching careers to focus on his one true passion—writing. When he isn’t writing or daydreaming about the apocalypse, he enjoys running, biking, spending time with his family, and traveling the world. He is an Ironman triathlete and lives in Iowa with his fiancée, their dogs, and a house full of books.

If you’d like to hear more about Nick’s books, you can join his spam free mailing list here: eepurl.com/bggNg9

four-half-stars

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