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Extinction Biome #1
Invasion
THE EARTH WAS NEVER OURS
Alex Miller trained for years in the Army, waiting for a war that never came. Now a corporate bodyguard and driver, he’s about to bear witness to the end of the human race.
An ancient ecology has reawakened, and like a Biblical plague it threatens to consume all life on Earth. Hordes of parasite-infected humans riot in the streets, as vast fungal blooms destroy our crops and fast-evolving horrors stalk our cities.
The last time this happened, T-Rex found itself on the menu. But mankind’s got more than teeth – it’s got guns. Miller and the men and women of COBALT, the Schaeffer-Yeager Corporation’s elite security team, are pressed into service to fight the onslaught, but they have no idea how cut-throat their company masters can be...
EBOOK INCLUDES BONUS CONTENT: "A Brief History of the Apocalypse"
“Ruthless and fast-paced, Extinction Biome is a planetary gut-punch.”
Weston Ochse, award-winning author of Grunt Life and Seal Team 666
Alex Miller trained for years in the Army, waiting for a war that never came. Now a corporate bodyguard and driver, he’s about to bear witness to the end of the human race.
An ancient ecology has reawakened, and like a Biblical plague it threatens to consume all life on Earth. Hordes of parasite-infected humans riot in the streets, as vast fungal blooms destroy our crops and fast-evolving horrors stalk our cities.
The last time this happened, T-Rex found itself on the menu. But mankind’s got more than teeth – it’s got guns. Miller and the men and women of COBALT, the Schaeffer-Yeager Corporation’s elite security team, are pressed into service to fight the onslaught, but they have no idea how cut-throat their company masters can be...
EBOOK INCLUDES BONUS CONTENT: "A Brief History of the Apocalypse"
“Ruthless and fast-paced, Extinction Biome is a planetary gut-punch.”
Weston Ochse, award-winning author of Grunt Life and Seal Team 666
448 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 25, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 18, 2016
I wanted to like this book, but it fought me every step of the way. The basic idea is okay, until we learn that all these weird lifeforms have supposedly only been hybernating/dormant/whatever for 30,000 years. Remember learning about how our caveman ancestors stalked plains covered in scarlet fungus, and hunted skull-headed carnivorous beasts? Yeah, me neither. But fine, alternate history, whatever.
Then there's the matter of the parasite; we're never actually told what exactly it is. A fungus? A worm? A mite? A bacterium? An insect? Who knows? It's as if the authors just assumed "parasite" was a genus or family of organism, and left it at that. There's scientific fudging, and then there's scientific illiteracy. I could have accepted the complete lack of any fossil evidence of these weird creatures, the implausible explanation that they somehow went comatose for millennia, or even the nebulous "parasite"...on their own. All together though, it just feels sloppy.
Not that the human element is much better. The entire story is mired in the old "Who are the real monsters?" trope--and tired as that is, it can work, if done right. But when one side is blowing up food trucks, and taking bites out of people, while the other is trying whatever they can to find a cure for the other side (and later, just to survive), it's pretty clear: The monsters are the first group. The moral relativism here feels woefully forced (at least until the plot decides to go with Zombie Movie Cliche #4, AKA, "the settlement gone wrong" about 70 pages from the end. But that still leaves most of the book with Miller, the protagonist agonizing over shooting mindless, parasite-ridden horrors, because they used to be people.
And to top it all off, the writing and the plot aren't even internally consistent. Take this exchange between Miller and du Trieux, for example:
Miller: "There's only four of us. I'm not risking even one without some sort of plan."
Du Trieux: "I thought [breaking into a compound for a stealth mission] was a plan."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "A better one."
"How are the Archaeans supposed to help us with that?"
"I'm not sure yet," he admitted, "but at least there will be more than four of us."
So, "I'm not risking anyone without a good plan" became "I'm going to risk everyone on what's essentially NO plan," in the span of three sentences. Right.
Then there's a scene where Miller shoots a couple of guys guarding a door, then kicks the door down and shoots another "unsuspecting" guard in the back. The guys inside the room hadn't even stopped their conversation, after gunfire erupted out in the hall. Because that's plausible.
Or how about the truck full of pheromones that was hijacked by a group of the Infected? The scent is apparently strong enough that their leader can't think straight when they go back to the truck, but they somehow never noticed it when they took the truck in the first place? We're never told that the drums holding the stuff got ruptured or anything, so it's not that--it's just sloppy, inconsistent writing.
I could go on, but it all boils down to the same thing: a book with a decent enough premise, that not only shot itself in the foot, but emptied the entire damn clip in the process. If I hadn't had a few slow days at work in a row, I probably wouldn't have even bothered finishing it. I can't really recommend Extinction Biome to anyone, sadly.
Then there's the matter of the parasite; we're never actually told what exactly it is. A fungus? A worm? A mite? A bacterium? An insect? Who knows? It's as if the authors just assumed "parasite" was a genus or family of organism, and left it at that. There's scientific fudging, and then there's scientific illiteracy. I could have accepted the complete lack of any fossil evidence of these weird creatures, the implausible explanation that they somehow went comatose for millennia, or even the nebulous "parasite"...on their own. All together though, it just feels sloppy.
Not that the human element is much better. The entire story is mired in the old "Who are the real monsters?" trope--and tired as that is, it can work, if done right. But when one side is blowing up food trucks, and taking bites out of people, while the other is trying whatever they can to find a cure for the other side (and later, just to survive), it's pretty clear: The monsters are the first group. The moral relativism here feels woefully forced (at least until the plot decides to go with Zombie Movie Cliche #4, AKA, "the settlement gone wrong" about 70 pages from the end. But that still leaves most of the book with Miller, the protagonist agonizing over shooting mindless, parasite-ridden horrors, because they used to be people.
And to top it all off, the writing and the plot aren't even internally consistent. Take this exchange between Miller and du Trieux, for example:
Miller: "There's only four of us. I'm not risking even one without some sort of plan."
Du Trieux: "I thought [breaking into a compound for a stealth mission] was a plan."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "A better one."
"How are the Archaeans supposed to help us with that?"
"I'm not sure yet," he admitted, "but at least there will be more than four of us."
So, "I'm not risking anyone without a good plan" became "I'm going to risk everyone on what's essentially NO plan," in the span of three sentences. Right.
Then there's a scene where Miller shoots a couple of guys guarding a door, then kicks the door down and shoots another "unsuspecting" guard in the back. The guys inside the room hadn't even stopped their conversation, after gunfire erupted out in the hall. Because that's plausible.
Or how about the truck full of pheromones that was hijacked by a group of the Infected? The scent is apparently strong enough that their leader can't think straight when they go back to the truck, but they somehow never noticed it when they took the truck in the first place? We're never told that the drums holding the stuff got ruptured or anything, so it's not that--it's just sloppy, inconsistent writing.
I could go on, but it all boils down to the same thing: a book with a decent enough premise, that not only shot itself in the foot, but emptied the entire damn clip in the process. If I hadn't had a few slow days at work in a row, I probably wouldn't have even bothered finishing it. I can't really recommend Extinction Biome to anyone, sadly.
May 15, 2023
Quite poor, abandoned after reading about a third
January 11, 2017
Now this book hit the spot.
An ancient ecology has awakened and is taking back the planet. At the same time a parasitic infection (from an ancient source of water we bottled and sold, of course) is controlling the majority of humanity. Spread through any fluid contact the infection is swift. While it can be treated, the infected don't want it to be. They want to share it. Creatures that haven't walked the earth in an age are now roaming the streets looking for an easy meal. A fungus infection has already destroyed food crops and finds an easy source of resources in petroleum based lubricants and fuels.
Into this we have our main character, former army now corporate bodyguard. New York is a mess and getting worse but his boss has an idea to create a protected enclave based around some corporate holdings.
The book leaps into the action when things are already falling apart. Explanation of what's happened is given on the run and doesn't bog itself down trying to be overly detailed. Having a solider as a main character means the techno-babble is kept to a minimum and the action flows from there.
I greatly enjoyed this book and am even happier that there's a sequel already on the way.
An ancient ecology has awakened and is taking back the planet. At the same time a parasitic infection (from an ancient source of water we bottled and sold, of course) is controlling the majority of humanity. Spread through any fluid contact the infection is swift. While it can be treated, the infected don't want it to be. They want to share it. Creatures that haven't walked the earth in an age are now roaming the streets looking for an easy meal. A fungus infection has already destroyed food crops and finds an easy source of resources in petroleum based lubricants and fuels.
Into this we have our main character, former army now corporate bodyguard. New York is a mess and getting worse but his boss has an idea to create a protected enclave based around some corporate holdings.
The book leaps into the action when things are already falling apart. Explanation of what's happened is given on the run and doesn't bog itself down trying to be overly detailed. Having a solider as a main character means the techno-babble is kept to a minimum and the action flows from there.
I greatly enjoyed this book and am even happier that there's a sequel already on the way.
June 17, 2016
I read this one as it was "new Sci fi"and I wanted to see what the authors in this genre were writing. this was certainly up to date with modern technology and medical research etc but it is too violent for me. It is very descriptive of the bloodshed sso I read more than a quarter and gave up. If my friend doesn't want to read it I'll donate it to our library.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews