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RIFT: The Sixth Extinction
Northern Africa, 2053: a groundbreaking paleontological discovery sparks hope for restoring the world’s collapsing bird populations as a “de-extinction” renaissance unfolds. Nearly a century later, deep under the Sahara, physicists explore the universe’s mysteries while massive surface domes test self-sustaining ecosystems filled with revived, genetically resurrected species. As these timelines converge, humanity finds itself entangled in a brutal creation of its own making. One that unleashes ancient lifeforms, once lost to extinction, into a denuded world. A hidden reality is unmasked—revealed by the RIFT—and it does not bend to us.
724 pages, Paperback
Published October 31, 2025
5 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Asher
1 book5 followersThomas Asher uses writing as a medium to explore big questions. Through his work, he takes a deep dive into the depths of scientific understanding to develop compelling, character-driven stories. As a former researcher in the fields of neuroscience and biochemistry, Tom's passion for science has a profound impact on his cautionary tales for humanity's future.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 22, 2025
RIFT is a sci-fi action thriller to its core, and one that's been missing from the bookshelves of fans of the genre for a long time. A true page-turner, Thomas Asher hits a home run with this story. The book is, in some ways, a spiritual successor to Crichton's Jurassic Park. In reality, it is so much more; it explores topics that are perhaps more relevant than ever, and marries documentary quality depictions of prehistory with science and horror that sometimes feel all-too-real.
As a dinosaur lover and palaeontolgy enthusiast I was giddy with excitement while reading this book; I turned page after page in a furious ecstasy, as I ultimately devoured the ~700 page book in just three days. The book is meticulously researched, in a way that almost made me weep tears of joy when I realized how diligent the author was in depicting not just the prehistoric fauna, but also applications of technologies we may well see in the near future. The way Asher combined all his different ideas into one cohesive package is truly impressive.
But who is it for? Obviously it's geared primarily towards the science fiction crowd, but whatever you might want from a story like this, RIFT has it all: quasi-military future dystopia, horror (both cosmic and conventional), genetics, physics and more. The glossary and bestiary sections at the end will help even unfamiliar readers get familiar with the science. Realistic characters with complex backstories combined with careful world-building create the impression of a world that isn't just the product of an imaginative, futurist mind, but one that really is coming; and in some ways is already here. All wrapped in a tight, hard-hitting narrative that gets your blood pumping and your skin crawling as your hands keep turning the page.
I digress, though. I could about this book for hours, but spoiling even an inkling of this story would be doing it a disservice. To conclude, Asher has managed to pen one of the most impressive books I've read in recent years. His exploration of humanity, ethics, trauma and science all come together in the form of RIFT: The Sixth Extinction. A great book, in every sense of the word; I would (and will) recommend it to anyone.
Thank you, Thomas. I'm really hoping for a sequel.
As a dinosaur lover and palaeontolgy enthusiast I was giddy with excitement while reading this book; I turned page after page in a furious ecstasy, as I ultimately devoured the ~700 page book in just three days. The book is meticulously researched, in a way that almost made me weep tears of joy when I realized how diligent the author was in depicting not just the prehistoric fauna, but also applications of technologies we may well see in the near future. The way Asher combined all his different ideas into one cohesive package is truly impressive.
But who is it for? Obviously it's geared primarily towards the science fiction crowd, but whatever you might want from a story like this, RIFT has it all: quasi-military future dystopia, horror (both cosmic and conventional), genetics, physics and more. The glossary and bestiary sections at the end will help even unfamiliar readers get familiar with the science. Realistic characters with complex backstories combined with careful world-building create the impression of a world that isn't just the product of an imaginative, futurist mind, but one that really is coming; and in some ways is already here. All wrapped in a tight, hard-hitting narrative that gets your blood pumping and your skin crawling as your hands keep turning the page.
I digress, though. I could about this book for hours, but spoiling even an inkling of this story would be doing it a disservice. To conclude, Asher has managed to pen one of the most impressive books I've read in recent years. His exploration of humanity, ethics, trauma and science all come together in the form of RIFT: The Sixth Extinction. A great book, in every sense of the word; I would (and will) recommend it to anyone.
Thank you, Thomas. I'm really hoping for a sequel.
November 1, 2025
This book is a must-read for all lovers of prehistoric creatures, suspense and science thrillers. Asher combines the technical grit of Crichton with the visceral dread of Vandermeer in this stunner of a novel. Solid research makes this book feel real, but the characters, human and creature alike, bring it to life.
October 20, 2025
RIFT: The Sixth Extinction is a dark, fascinating story that will equally terrify and intrigue with suspenseful moments of horror and convincing worldbuilding. I found so many scenes to be gripping, disturbing and memorable, and the Introduction will not disappoint the readers who came for a cerebral sci-fi/horror story featuring a variety of prehistoric animals. The scenes they are present for are reminiscent of the animals featured in Jurassic Park: always with realistic anatomy and behavior in mind, with well-paced, memorable sequences that never overstay their welcome.
This story’s text also features intriguing, complex characters with distinct voices, set amidst a grounded yet grim futuristic setting that left me turning page after page. The author’s fascination with such scientific subjects as paleontology, genetics and quantum physics is infectious, and really helps to make the world depicted here as realistic and visceral as possible. These areas of research are presented with little jargon and are quite easy to follow with Asher’s writing.
RIFT is a fantastic read and I cannot recommend it enough.
This story’s text also features intriguing, complex characters with distinct voices, set amidst a grounded yet grim futuristic setting that left me turning page after page. The author’s fascination with such scientific subjects as paleontology, genetics and quantum physics is infectious, and really helps to make the world depicted here as realistic and visceral as possible. These areas of research are presented with little jargon and are quite easy to follow with Asher’s writing.
RIFT is a fantastic read and I cannot recommend it enough.
February 7, 2026
An interesting dino book that I was very keen to get into. The prologue got me hooked, but the first 100 pages after that were a little slow. It felt like I was being introduced to one character after another with nothing really happening to any of them. But it was worth pushing through, the dinosaurs were really cool and I have always thought Azhdarchids would be great in a horror setting. They were really scary! Fairly violent book but I really enjoyed it, nothing felt gratuitous. I was invested in all the story lines and I wish there had been a little bit more pay off for some of the characters at the end. I was really happy to see such a diversity of Dinosaurs and I love a book with an appendix and reference list!
Side note: I am slightly concerned that they are still using BLAST in the year 2147.... At least that means there is some job security and I don't have to worry about learning new analyses any time soon :D
Side note: I am slightly concerned that they are still using BLAST in the year 2147.... At least that means there is some job security and I don't have to worry about learning new analyses any time soon :D
February 14, 2026
Combine Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer and you have this insane and horrifying ride 😂 I absolutely loved it! There are also fantastic illustrations and reference points to make the experience more immersive. They also show off all the effort Thomas Asher put into his research for this chilling story.
February 4, 2026
5 stars.
Genuinely one of the BEST science fiction books I've read in a while. I even think it's even up there as one of my favorite science fiction books period.
There are so many commendable aspects to this book: the scale of world and the geopolitics, the depth of the characters, the science, the prose; the list goes on and on.
The characters are incredibly well written, and they're the soul of this book. We're given glimpses of their pasts, and when the shit started hitting the fan at around the 200 page mark I was already fully rooting for them all, with my worry for them only increasing as the book went along.
The science fiction elements here reminded me the most of Crichton who's a clear inspiration for this work. Where Jurassic Park deals at the intersection of science and capitalism, Rift works with a world ravaged by climate change where scientific progress is a necessity. There's a harmonious blend of quantum physics, genetic science and paleontology, and it all feels plausible. The thematics are poignant and relevant. Admittedly some bits went over my head, but HEY! Asher has an entire appendix at the end of the book with definitions and explanations for some of these scientific terms and concepts, and he's also included a BESTIARY with pictures!
Just the quality of the whole package here is overwhelmingly good. The book is interspersed with gorgeous artwork. Also the cover is beautiful - I read the paperback and have put in an order for the hardcover just because I also want that sweet cover art by Pablo Dominguez.
Let's talk about the creatures. The Jurassic movie franchise has unfortunately derailed since the Lost World, and dinosaurs are only depicted as monsters in the mainstream nowadays. Thankfully Asher treats his dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures-I'm saying this aware that Pterosaurs and Plesiosaurs aren't dinosaurs-as animals. They aren't monsters with the sole drive of killing every human that comes into their sights. They are nonetheless terrifying and brutal. And INSANELY cool too, did I mention? A major chunk of this book has a horror tinge and rightfully so. Dinosaurs ARE scary and alien. There's also a larger cosmic horror element which I found super fresh.
Ultimately, to say this is a dinosaur book would be hugely reductive. This is a dark and meditative science fiction that deals with very real and relevant threats, in which prehistoric creatures also appear and play a major part.
Everything else I want to gush about will delve into spoilers, so I’m going to shut up. I think this is Asher’s first book, and that blows my mind because of the sheer quality of the work. I’m praying he has a sequel in the works. And I can tell he’ll soon be a household name in the sci-fi literary space.
Genuinely one of the BEST science fiction books I've read in a while. I even think it's even up there as one of my favorite science fiction books period.
There are so many commendable aspects to this book: the scale of world and the geopolitics, the depth of the characters, the science, the prose; the list goes on and on.
The characters are incredibly well written, and they're the soul of this book. We're given glimpses of their pasts, and when the shit started hitting the fan at around the 200 page mark I was already fully rooting for them all, with my worry for them only increasing as the book went along.
The science fiction elements here reminded me the most of Crichton who's a clear inspiration for this work. Where Jurassic Park deals at the intersection of science and capitalism, Rift works with a world ravaged by climate change where scientific progress is a necessity. There's a harmonious blend of quantum physics, genetic science and paleontology, and it all feels plausible. The thematics are poignant and relevant. Admittedly some bits went over my head, but HEY! Asher has an entire appendix at the end of the book with definitions and explanations for some of these scientific terms and concepts, and he's also included a BESTIARY with pictures!
Just the quality of the whole package here is overwhelmingly good. The book is interspersed with gorgeous artwork. Also the cover is beautiful - I read the paperback and have put in an order for the hardcover just because I also want that sweet cover art by Pablo Dominguez.
Let's talk about the creatures. The Jurassic movie franchise has unfortunately derailed since the Lost World, and dinosaurs are only depicted as monsters in the mainstream nowadays. Thankfully Asher treats his dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures-I'm saying this aware that Pterosaurs and Plesiosaurs aren't dinosaurs-as animals. They aren't monsters with the sole drive of killing every human that comes into their sights. They are nonetheless terrifying and brutal. And INSANELY cool too, did I mention? A major chunk of this book has a horror tinge and rightfully so. Dinosaurs ARE scary and alien. There's also a larger cosmic horror element which I found super fresh.
Ultimately, to say this is a dinosaur book would be hugely reductive. This is a dark and meditative science fiction that deals with very real and relevant threats, in which prehistoric creatures also appear and play a major part.
Everything else I want to gush about will delve into spoilers, so I’m going to shut up. I think this is Asher’s first book, and that blows my mind because of the sheer quality of the work. I’m praying he has a sequel in the works. And I can tell he’ll soon be a household name in the sci-fi literary space.
October 30, 2025
I was lucky enough to get a chance to read this book early. Rift is a tremendous work of science fiction/horror and an instant classic for lovers of dinosaur fiction. It's a harrowing, grounded vision of both a possible future and our prehistoric past. The world of the novel feels immense, and it's filled with futuristic technology, detailed science both real and speculative, and human characters thrown into direct contact with what may be the most haunting depictions of dinosaurs I've read to date. It's meticulously researched and wonderfully written. For me, the language and style of a novel is incredibly important, and Asher's use of words on the page is fully immersive, graceful, technical but not overwhelming. I hoped that the book would be unafraid to go fully into the dark recesses of where a sci-fi novel featuring dinosaurs could go, and it did not disappoint. The narrative is told from various character perspectives and the characters feel distinct and believable and multidimensional. I'm a massive fan of dinosaurs, and Rift would easily scratch that itch for any with similar interests, but I'd also emphatically recommend it to the sci-fi community at large. Highly recommend.
October 30, 2025
Rift is poetry and raw meat simultaneously. Its pages seamlessly lay out a chain of effects, directly resulting from the characters' actions, that mirror the principles found in Newtonian and Quantum physics.
Despite the fact that these outcomes are governed by laws that perhaps not even the protagonists can fully comprehend, their harrowing repercussions are as inevitable as nature doing what it does best: simply being nature. Thomas Asher haunts his story with a list of ceremonial breakdowns, in the shape of biological forms as much as the characters’ expectations, which are narrated with exquisite attention to their inner and outer details. And by doing this, he includes us in one of the greatest science fiction horror stories of our time.
Despite the fact that these outcomes are governed by laws that perhaps not even the protagonists can fully comprehend, their harrowing repercussions are as inevitable as nature doing what it does best: simply being nature. Thomas Asher haunts his story with a list of ceremonial breakdowns, in the shape of biological forms as much as the characters’ expectations, which are narrated with exquisite attention to their inner and outer details. And by doing this, he includes us in one of the greatest science fiction horror stories of our time.
January 19, 2026
This is Sci-Fi at its maximum!
Primitive War meets Project Hail Mary meets the Book of Job in Thomas Asher's Rift.
Read it. It's worth your time. From the get-go, I could not put Rift down, it was like I was sucked into another world. Ultimately I was here for the dinosaurs and boy does Asher deliver. An Azhdarchid horror scene?? A Spinosaurus treated like a river god?? A Deltadromeus with vocal mimicry?? Got me hyped!
For me there were a couple of stumbling blocks: the swearing was a bit over the top, some of the Pagan elements were strange and didn't make a whole lot of sense, some of the writing drug on (it did create vivid imagery though).
Crichton would be proud!
Primitive War meets Project Hail Mary meets the Book of Job in Thomas Asher's Rift.
Read it. It's worth your time. From the get-go, I could not put Rift down, it was like I was sucked into another world. Ultimately I was here for the dinosaurs and boy does Asher deliver. An Azhdarchid horror scene?? A Spinosaurus treated like a river god?? A Deltadromeus with vocal mimicry?? Got me hyped!
For me there were a couple of stumbling blocks: the swearing was a bit over the top, some of the Pagan elements were strange and didn't make a whole lot of sense, some of the writing drug on (it did create vivid imagery though).
Crichton would be proud!
October 19, 2025
A true hard science fiction thriller with dinosaurs, it will keep the reader on the edge of their seats with exciting scenes from a fascinating, terrifying, and almost real world.
RIFT is greatly differentiated from other works of its genre by its content: cosmic and existential horror, military fiction, climate change... and dinosaurs. All of this coexists in a great story full of vivid characters, marked by loss and pain, who will have to face situations more dangerous than the fears that overwhelm their fragile minds.
RIFT is greatly differentiated from other works of its genre by its content: cosmic and existential horror, military fiction, climate change... and dinosaurs. All of this coexists in a great story full of vivid characters, marked by loss and pain, who will have to face situations more dangerous than the fears that overwhelm their fragile minds.
October 26, 2025
Rift: The Sixth Extinction hooked me from page one.
Thomas Asher does an amazing job balancing the science with real emotion and tension. The characters feel human, the world building is detailed without ever dragging, and the suspense builds perfectly. By the end, I couldn’t stop thinking about the message behind it all…how easily good intentions can spiral out of control.
If you like Jurassic Park, Interstellar, or anything that makes you question our future, this book is a must-read. It’s smart, thrilling, and unforgettable.
Thomas Asher does an amazing job balancing the science with real emotion and tension. The characters feel human, the world building is detailed without ever dragging, and the suspense builds perfectly. By the end, I couldn’t stop thinking about the message behind it all…how easily good intentions can spiral out of control.
If you like Jurassic Park, Interstellar, or anything that makes you question our future, this book is a must-read. It’s smart, thrilling, and unforgettable.
October 30, 2025
The Rift is the book I’ve been waiting for. As a fan of master storytellers like Michael Crichton and Andy Weir, I was thrilled to find that Thomas Asher has achieved a perfect balance between meticulously researched science and an imaginative world that feels eerily close to our own. His prose is immersive, his attention to detail remarkable, and his storytelling both intelligent and gripping. Beautifully crafted from start to finish, The Rift is sure to become a new favorite for fans of science fiction and thrillers alike.
October 19, 2025
An amazing first dive into Sci-Fi by author Thomas Asher
RIFT is in every way emblematic in what you want from great Science Fiction, Horror and Creature Feature storytelling. Blending a mix of the best Crichton-esque storytelling with fascinating near-future world building that commentates on our own in ways that feel natural. A must read for those interested in paleontology, Sci-Fi, and great fun thrillers with a hint of cosmic horror. Read it!
RIFT is in every way emblematic in what you want from great Science Fiction, Horror and Creature Feature storytelling. Blending a mix of the best Crichton-esque storytelling with fascinating near-future world building that commentates on our own in ways that feel natural. A must read for those interested in paleontology, Sci-Fi, and great fun thrillers with a hint of cosmic horror. Read it!
October 31, 2025
I’m a big horror fan and this story delivers! There are passages that are truly terrifying similar to some of HP Lovecrafts tales. This book had me turning the page and anxious to know what comes next. The sci fi elements are detailed and well done. The characters in the story are really well developed and each one has a unique place within the story. This is a well crafted tale that kept my attention. I highly recommend this one!
October 17, 2025
Author has captured what could likely happen in the near future. The story is a well crafted and believable piece of hard sci fi. Characters are realistically complex and the story is compelling. Illustrations, appendix and bestiary are an added bonus to an already excellent cautionary tale. I have read a lot of hard sci fi, this one is in the top 5.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews