Take a photo of a barcode or cover
inkandtome 's review for:
Extinction
by Douglas Preston
MIND-BOGGLINGLY INTERESTING… AND TERRIFYING.
I never thought an Afterword could unlock a deeper appreciation for a novel, but in this case, it did.
Let me start by saying that Extinction was a bit of a change reading-wise for me. I wanted a taste of something a different from my normal genres of choice, and boy did I get that here. Sure, this had a hint of Science Fiction to it… but that’s what’s so scary about it. The Fiction part may not stay that way forever.
Humanity has always had a propensity for stepping as close to the proverbial “line” as possible. Whether by some grand, species-wide moral framework or maybe just sheer luck, we’ve mostly managed to self govern ourselves away from the line time and time again.
But science has a funny way of moving that line closer to us. Extinction looks at a vein of science actively being pursued, and follows it to what seems to be a fairly possible and even expected conclusion, played to its darkest possible outcome for the sake of a thrilling novel. According to the Afterword, we may be less than a decade away from the de-extinction of the wooly mammoth.
That’s mind boggling. And terrifying. And just the tip of the iceberg for what that kind of technology could do to the world.
If nothing else, this book has me thinking in ways I don’t believe I’ve ever thought after finishing a book. Ultimately, it plays to the inevitable wonder of looking upon a living, breathing creature brought back from the dust by humankind… and the horror that could be unleashed by humanity playing at godhood.
I never thought an Afterword could unlock a deeper appreciation for a novel, but in this case, it did.
Let me start by saying that Extinction was a bit of a change reading-wise for me. I wanted a taste of something a different from my normal genres of choice, and boy did I get that here. Sure, this had a hint of Science Fiction to it… but that’s what’s so scary about it. The Fiction part may not stay that way forever.
Humanity has always had a propensity for stepping as close to the proverbial “line” as possible. Whether by some grand, species-wide moral framework or maybe just sheer luck, we’ve mostly managed to self govern ourselves away from the line time and time again.
But science has a funny way of moving that line closer to us. Extinction looks at a vein of science actively being pursued, and follows it to what seems to be a fairly possible and even expected conclusion, played to its darkest possible outcome for the sake of a thrilling novel. According to the Afterword, we may be less than a decade away from the de-extinction of the wooly mammoth.
That’s mind boggling. And terrifying. And just the tip of the iceberg for what that kind of technology could do to the world.
If nothing else, this book has me thinking in ways I don’t believe I’ve ever thought after finishing a book. Ultimately, it plays to the inevitable wonder of looking upon a living, breathing creature brought back from the dust by humankind… and the horror that could be unleashed by humanity playing at godhood.