Reviews

Extinction by Douglas Preston

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christy59's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.0

becks4books's review against another edition

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medium-paced

2.0

ozreus's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This was a roller-coaster novel for me, initially it lagged in the beginning and I had a hard time getting myself to read it. This was, in part, thanks to reading some reviews beforehand which I let color my perspective of the book to start. That being said, the ending and afterword completely and absolutely saved this book for me.
If you do read this, do yourself a favor and avoid reading any reviews or opinion pieces; completely expose yourself to it without any preconceptions and it will be better. I will say that the biggest thing (that you may not be able to keep yourself from seeing or concluding on your own) is the comparison to Jurassic Park. This is NOT Jurassic Park (as is pointed out heavily in the first half of the novel) but the tone and warning are the same.
Overall I did eventually find the book to be very fascinating and I couldn't put it down, the most fascinating thing for me being the introduction of the twist and the science and the explanation included in the afterword. I'm also a big fan of James Rollins' Sigma Force novels that similarly explore scientific breakthroughs, theories, and conjectures in a fictional space. I hope that exploring scientific advances and advances on the horizon in fiction continues to be a trend.

ashlina8's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious tense

3.75

ktlvaughan's review against another edition

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One of those stories in which the female lead is written by a man with poor understanding of how women function. Not as bad as "she breasted boobily down the stairs," but close.

belle_cb's review

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

arthur_pendrgn's review

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2.75

The comparisons to Crichton's Jurassic Park are inevitable. While Chrichton focused on the "just because we can doesn't mean we should," Preston adds in the entitlement of the rich, the arrogance of modern humanity, and racism--well, speciesism--okay, just believing in an inferior "other."

Then I read his afterword and that shifts his plot a little bit.

Very cinematic book, but pleasant enough.