The Five Pillars

Extinction New Zealand #3

by Adrian J. Smith, Nicholas Sansbury Smith (Foreword)

Can anything or anyone stop the evil?  Lost. Trapped. Chased by monsters and sent on a crazy mission. Not exactly what Jack Gee had in mind when he used to daydream about the apocalypse.

Seven months after the Hemorrhage Virus swept across the world Jack, his wife Dee, friend Boss and the Renegades, a ragtag collection of civilian and military personnel, have been sent on two missions. Jack likes the first. Recon. The second is insane. Re-enter the laboratory they barely escaped from a few months back and retrieve a logbook, a logbook that could provide the cure to end the madness.

Through the chaos, old friendships are tested and new alliances are formed, but new and dangerous enemies emerge in the fight for the future of New Zealand.  
Note: Extinction New Zealand is the action-packed trilogy set in the Extinction Cycle world of New York Times Bestselling Author Nicholas Sansbury Smith. The Five Pillars is now being offered in print, and audio for the first time ever. Readers outside of the USA will also get to experience these stories for the first time as well. Thank you for reading!

Genres: Horror, Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Fiction, Zombies, Dystopia

321 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 26, 2019

Reviews

[Claude's Bookzone · Rating 3 out of 5]

CW: Gore, loss of loved ones

Well that was a satisfying conclusion to a good zombie action series. The Kiwis performed admirably in this imaginary apocalyptic scenario. Again, I loved the diversity and inclusion in the book it's just sad that they didn't employ a voice actor who could do justice to all the characters and cultures represented. A gory and fun series!

[Tracy P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Five Pillars' - ENZ #3 - picks up where book #2 left off without missing a beat. The survivors fought some of the most jaw-dropping, intense, and horrific battles against the Variants of the series. This edition was the perfect mixture of hardcore, graphic life and death battles combined with incredible character development. I appreciated following along and taking note of how much characters interactions, relationships, and trust in each other has evolved since the first book. As their bond grew so did their confidence and determination to survive. It goes to show that when people band together and work selflessly for a common cause they can effect unimaginable change.
Originally, this was written as a three book series and am very glad to see that there is a fourth book in the ENZ series - 'The Sixth Law' - scheduled for release this November (2022). Count me in.
Many thanks and the highest of accolades to narrator Raphael Corkhill for the (23+ hours) of listening enjoyment he provided in the first three books of the ENZ series. His phenomenal narrative skills for all the characters - male, female, children and monstrous Variants - is prodigious. I look forward to hearing his voice again in the next book of series and beyond.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

-3.5 stars- Jack recounts it best: "courage, persistence, grit, strength" This was Intense! I love the determination to survive and how people from different backgrounds came together when it counts.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit reductive, in my opinion. It didn't really offer anything but a conclusion to the prior book, and I feel that all three books in the series felt very indistinguishable, as did the characters. This wasn't bad necessarily either, I just don't think it had enough of what makes the genre interesting to ME. I love when the more mundane aspects of survival and the apocalypse are addressed, whether that be things like setting up safe zones, finding survivors, dealing with the trauma of it all, which the first book did have to an extent. If you love pretty much nonstop action and gore and military thematics, you would probably enjoy this book. It just was a bit too heavy on those aspects for me. I also felt that there was little, if any, character growth, so I never ended up really feeling like I cared about any of the characters other than the dog. On another note, the dialogue was a big miss for me, and I know I'm not a Kiwi, but I can't imagine people talk so awkwardly down there either. If I took a shot every time the book used the words "nerd" "nerdboy" or referenced the LotR trilogy, I would be dead by the first book alone and this one would have killed my ghost. I don't mean to be harsh. It does have a good backdrop and setting, and I think if you like reading action sequences, this was actually fairly solid. Lastly, though not the fault of the author specifically, the narration was very flat, and I felt a bit annoyed by it at times. If you love gritty war adjacent apocalypse media, definitely give it a try. If not, I would probably just read book one if I were still wanting to read it in some capacity.

[Michael Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The operation to take back New Zealand from the Variants is on! The Renegades are right in the middle - again!

If you haven't read Extinction NZ Books 1 &2, The Rule of Three & The Fourth Phase, then you will probably find some spoilers in this review. I strongly advise you to quit reading this review and start reading The Rule of Three and The Fourth Phase. In those books you will find the beginnings of the Hemorrhage Virus in New Zealand and you'll get to meet the Gee family, Jack and Diane ('Dee'), for the first time. Their struggles against the Variants and their human collaborators and the people they meet and help along their journeys. You won't regret reading these two books!

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!

Jack Gee and the young boy he rescued from the Trophy King's lair, George, and Jack's wife Dee and the teen boy she called Boss were formally members of The Renegades. Captain Ben Johns had formed the unit, adding Staff Sergeant Colin Simpson, Lance Corporal Yolanda Caro, Gunner Robert Chang and Max, their Variant sniffing Heading dog. The Renegades were tasked with aiding in Operation Utu to take back New Zealand from the Variants and their new Alpha - Abezi, a huge winged Variant with plans for dominating their food source - humans.

As amazing as this storyline is told, the characters are truly detailed and fleshed warmly and dear as your favorite neighbours. I've fallen in love with Jack and Diane and want to adopt Boss and George. Seriously, the cast is terrific and tells their tale as native New Zealanders. The spirit and character of the Maori is richly included.

Worked into the fabric of the narrative are the Five Pillars of the Warrior - Righteousness, Courage, Compassion, Respect and Loyalty. I think the new character introduced as 'Pig' learned or displayed each of those traits in his journey to himself. But, you're going to have to find out for yourself! I can highly recommend this book and this series. I'm also going to look forward to the next book from Adrian!

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic ending to the EXTINCTION NZ trilogy

This is the last book in the EXTINCTION NZ trilogy that takes place in New Zealand and is based on the EXTINCTION CYCLE series by author Nicholas Sansbury Smith. The prior two - THE RULE OF THREE and THE FOURTH PHASE - were both five star tales but this one is even better. There is non-stop action, kick ass characters, and gallons of blood, guts and gore.

Jack and Dee Gee continue to hold integral parts in the ongoing battles against the multitudes of Variants and even mutated Variants. And they gather other characters around to become a close-knit fighting force.

I also have enjoyed all of the different sections featuring the Maori people, the indigenous population of New Zealand.

I highly recommend this entire trilogy and, if you haven't read it yet, you should get to reading the EXTINCTION CYCLE series. If action books, thrillers, and post-apocalyptic tales along with great writing expertise are something you look for in your books, don't miss out on these gems.

I received this Advanced Reading Copy from Great Wave Books in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review. But I have also pre-ordered the book because I want to support this author.

[Nath · Rating 5 out of 5]

These were a lot of fun in the end! I particularly liked the 'collaborator' element to the story.

Would the Zombies be smart enough to keep a few Humans on retainer to work for them?
Would an element of humanity willingly subject themselves to serving the zombies, betraying their fellow humans to death in order to stay alive?
Would a group of Māori really be able to make and defend a Pā against the zombie hordes?

I don't know the answers to these questions, it's hopefully only ever going to be an academic series of questions. But they were great questions! I loved the characters, the complexities of relationships, the love and camaraderie among the assorted fighters.

[BookLoversLife · Rating 5 out of 5]

Months have passed and Jack, Dee and the gang are still knee deep in surviving each day as it comes. After successfully saving George and Boss, you would think they'd get a few days rest but The Renegades, now with new members, are sent one two missions. The first is recon and the second is to enter the lab that nearly killed them the last time!!

As with the previous 2, this was incredibly fast paced and intense. The humans now have to deal with the evolved Variants. New Zealand is seeing the winged ones, the beetle like ones and all the other variants of them. The gang are sent on a recon mission to see what's happening and learn all they can about the new ones. One of the worst is Abezi, the new Alpha. I loved seeing the introduction of the new variants since in the original Extinction Cycle it was told that the Variants had longer to evolve outside of America and we saw the new ones when Team Ghost were sent to France. I was also so happy to see the Maori brought back for this one. They were awesome.

There are quite a lot of new characters in this one. Each one was well written and developed and added more to the story. Pig was such a stand out character for me. He is intriguing and seeing him deal with his inner thoughts was fascinating. He slowly starts to remember who he was and it made him more real. All he remembers are the five pillars of the warrior and he keeps repeating them to himself. They are Courage, Compassion, Loyalty, Respect and Righteousness <--- words to live by right there!!

In all, this was a worthy addition to one of my favourite series. The Extinction Cycle is an amazing series and Adrian Smiths' books just add to it. They are filled with amazing characters, rich culture, action, witty dialogue and everything that makes a book great. I highly recommend these books and look forward to more from this author.

[TP · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third book improved a bit compared to the second one.

But it still carried on the points i criticised previously.
Some open questions i mentioned in my review of book 2 were actually addressed in this book.
What carried the book were more action scenes and new characters.
Still it left many things unanswered like Dee’s mum and what role Katherine played in the lab bunker?
What experiments did they conduct down there? Because we know from the extinction cycle that it wasn’t the animalistic mutated variants.

Then there was this plot thread.
I found the conflict between racism, religion and collaborators pretty petty.
The island saboteur Quasim had social problems by being excluded and facing racial hostility as well as suffering from verbal and in general abuse in his past.
What religion had to do with the general Indonesians and their collaboration with variants to simply save their own hides by sacrificing any and all human survivors they found without any distinctions, i didn’t comprehend.
That Quasim helped them on the basis of origin and his hatred of the NZ people after a failed societal integration I can understand.
But to turn this into a religious show down was unnecessary and downright ridiculous. After the leader of the Indonesians infringed their own plans by sacrificing himself for all people on the island, the remaining COs knew they were backed into a corner. As any villains would be when their sinister plans were revealed and destroyed.


In general It was an ok read.

[Rachael Ashak-Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!

With each new book the story grew progressively better- this leg of the journey being my absolute favorite!
Extremely creative battle scenes which keep you riveted and continually swiping. The relationships between characters, carried often by humorous dialog, only became richer here. I definitely became more invested in each of the characters. And wished death by dismemberment on some.
The creatures continual evolution also makes for an exciting read, which ensures the book is fairly impossible to put down.
Only thing I find odd is the use of "gramma swear words"? I think I recall regular old swear words being used sparsely and appropriately in the previous two books. But I could be wrong?? This is something I believe I would notice, however, as it's extremely annoying to me and pulls me immediately out of the story. A hardened SAS soldier who has fought in many wars, who has trained many soldiers, finding himself in the midst of battle once again - well, I highly doubt he'd say, "these motherforking Variants need to die today! Do all of you silly birds understand?" Ahhhh..... No. Lol The soldiers would stop in their tracks to laugh at him. And this anti-swearing theme carries on throughout the book for every character, in every situation. It is simply strange. Unnecessary. Doesn't match up with the overall plot. And detracts from the story.
That said -- PHENOMENAL book!! Fantastic series!!

[Tristen Kozinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Five Pillar's closes out the Extinction New Zealand trilogy in a solid, more of less satisfying fashion. In retrospect, I wish the horror elements would have been emphasized more, because while new Variants are added they do have the effect of rendering the base model more like bullet-fodder. They would also have been more effective if they had been allowed to be effective, either stalking, or ambushing or something that allowed them to actually kill some of the soldiers in the book by more than just luck or sheer numbers. In the first book, bullets and guns were by no means any guarantee of safety, with even fully trained and armed soldiers falling prey to a handful of variants. The Five pillars sees the base Variants being mowed down like chaff, and even the newer variants not being allowed to kill indiscriminately. A horror story needs a dangerous monster, and the most dangerous monster in the Five Pillars only appears very late after many name-drops and hyping. There are still some effective scenes, but the most perilous foe our protagonists face really ends up being running out of ammo.
Still, the Five Pillar is a solid action story. The LOTR's references are too much though.

[Lynn Hallbrooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

"To the end."

Before you read this book you should know that it is the third book of a spin-off series. Books one and two of this series were part of the Extinction Cycle Kindle World. This latest one might be best read after book 2, Extinction Edge or perhaps a little further down the Nicholas Sansbury Smith series. It is a post-apocalyptic world with lots of violence. There are some mild adult language and situations as well.

Jack and Dee Gee have made lots of sacrifices since the war against the monsters some call Variants began. They are doing their part to take back New Zealand. Fighting for humanity may ultimately take a toll on them and their friends.

This is one of those stories that has you feeling as though you are part of "the action" wanting to do your part - meaning you have to finish to the end to make sure all turns out the way you would like... never really sure if it will.

[Tim Mullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third instalment of this series sees Jack, Dee, Boss, Ben and some new Renegades reunited with Hone and his Maōri warriors involved in a long, bloody battle against an endless stream of Variants and new creatures that are even more deadly and harder to kill.

The battle occupies much of the book but fringe characters from earlier stories are expanded and given central roles.

The writing is a little simplistic, and Jack and Dee repeatedly managing to find time mid battle for a kiss and cuddle is stretching credibility even for the genre, but the characters are generally likeable and believable and keep you invested in the plot.

[Penny Bowden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is amazing!!

Thoroughly enjoyed this series of books by Adrian, reading them all in a little over 24 hours. A post apocalyptic tale with a bit of a twist. Loved following Dee and Jack and am sad the series is at an end - would love to know how they get on in expanding family and clearing variants.

[Lana Mccall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series

Great series with plenty of action.

Good storytelling and interesting look through the eyes of a writer from New Zealand. Not only entertaining but I learned about the people and some of their traditions. The writer was attentive to describe the area of mountains, valleys and cities.

[Aletia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an end!

The action scenes are very reminiscent of the original source material by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. The new characters were a good addition in showing us different views of the world we've been reading about. I'm pleasantly surprised by how the story went. I truly thought the it was going to end differently. I am definitely looking forward to Adrian's next book!

[Jesse Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adrian J Smith knocks it out of the park in this thriller. This is really three suburb novels put together in an anthology. And they are all fast paced, fun, and above all it had many scary moments. (A must for an Extinction Cycle book). However this far more of a survivor horror. I enjoyed every second of this book. Highly recommend.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced, lots of action as the people of New Zealand continue the fight for survival against blood thirsty humans transformed by a virus into hideous monsters. This is not your basic zombie apocalypse. No, this is so much more

[Wancket Enterprises · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks

Thanks for entertainment and exciting adventure. I am a dedicated NSS fan and I thank you Adrian J. Smith for your well written books. Keep up the great job. I also enjoyed reading facts about New Zealand.

[Barb Gunzenhauser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this whole series

I love this series and Adrian's way of keeping it interesting and real. Jack and Dee and the group Renegrades are truly great characters. Thanks Adrian for a great series!

[Susan Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Cow!!!

Wow. What a great ending to an amazing series!!! I want more!!!! So good, so action packed, so wow!!! If you feel we are alone and that Science will not cause greed and people who only care about themselves....you are wrong!!!! So great!!!!

[Michael Rein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great continuation and ending of the series. The action was fast paced and the violence was just as intense as the previous books. The three book series is a great addition to the Extinction Cycle series as it fits in perfectly with the timeline of the story.

[Todd Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evil has a new mascot...the kiwi!!!

Take a mutant ravaged earth, throw in an elite Military force to be reckoned with, and off this exciting book full of mutant attacks leaving most of New Zealand's cities under siege.
But never underestimate a Kiwi.

[John Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story.

Good story, lots of continuous action and edge of your seat thriller. And yes one of the characters had characters flaws but I didn't need to be reminded of it several times.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable end to the trilogy of the virus that was wiling out humanity in NZ. This story shows how people can come together when it counts, regardless of differences, and was filled with action, gore, tension and suspense. A very fitting end to the story.

[Mark Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

A different take on apocalypse, enjoyed the three books; perhaps a different ending would have been appropriate.

[Kathy Ann'tie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adrian, I loved your 3 book series as part of the Extinction Cycle World. I can’t wait to see what you are doing next!

[Vicky Quenault · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good book in an enjoyable series. This one felt a little rushed in places. There were also a few loose ends that were never tied up, for example what is going on with Dees mum?

[Chez Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series from beginning to end!

[Wongi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was definitely entertaining reading a book that had Nz characters and places, overall it was a cool book and cool series.