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gt_story 's review for:
Extinction
by Douglas Preston
adventurous
fast-paced
Extinction is not Jurassic Park. It may be a cousin (once removed), but it lacks the thrill, the specatcle, and the nuance of that cousin. While the setting may be intriguing, it is nothing more than a two dimensional backdrop for a middling murder mystery with not enough mystery, unfortunately making this book just a footnote in the fossil record.
Spoilers Below
I wish I could say I loved Extinction. Jurassic Park and its sibling, The Lost World are two of my favorite books after all. But I can't say that, because Extinction is just a different book entirely. Perhaps if I didn't go in with high expectations, I would have enjoyed it more, but that wasn't the case. A nature preserve focused on the Cenozoic period sounds excellent, but the location doesn't really matter. In JP, the animals are the star of the show and have just as much character as the humans. I can actually say the same for this book, but that is because the characters are as flat as its backdrop.
Before I get into what I really didn't like, let's talk about what I liked. I enjoyed the brief moments of awe the characters experienced looking at the extinct animals (those being the Woolly Mammoths, Glyptodon/Giant Armadillos, Irish Elk, the Giant Beaver, Paraceratherium, and my personal favorite; Megatherium AKA the Giant Ground Sloth), and the alternative POV characters of Doyle and Romanski (two of the only characters I thought weren't completely flat). I think the general mystery and mystique around the killers was satisfying and Preston set it up well enough that a keen reader could figure out the Neanderthal twist fairly early on. Speaking of, I did enjoy the twist of the Neanderthals being brought back and those being the twist villain. At first I was disappointed that the killers were human, but that was a humorous red herring, as they literally were not human as we know them.
But I really can't say much good about the book without mentioning the negative aspects. Those brief moments of awe are, as I said, brief and inconsequential. With only 6 species, you could almost expect these majestic beasts to be a secondary cast in themselves, but that is not the case. The Mammoths are heavily featured, but their only real characterization is that they are cowards due to them being made peaceful (which kills the only named animal, poor Tom Thumb, savagely murdered for plot reasons), the Irish Elk are hardly shown, if someone doesn't know what the Glyptodon looks like they would never know, the giant ground sloth is referred to as ugly, I don't think the Giant Beavers are even shown or referenced other than a line in passing, and Paraceratherium is referred to as Erebus's crown jewel, but at that point you hadn't even heard of the beast. That said, Paraceratherium did have my favorite moment in the book, when Doyle has narrowly escaped his killers (somehow) and is sure they are stomping after him, only to realize that the shaking ground is this giant woolly rhinoceros, and Doyle finds God (note, the next chapter mentions that the Neanderthals have an incredible sense of smell, I thought we were sure to cut back to Doyle being killed, but no he gets a line in passing that he is going on talk shows in the epilogue).
In JP, the best scene in the book is when they have realized they have miscounted the dinosaurs, and that they are breeding. When the numbers flash across the screen that there are not 8 Velociraptors, but 37, it is a intense moment where you just know, this placed is seriously fucked up. The closest scene we get to that, is when Doyle is set to blow up a Styrofoam train set with a metric butt-load of dynamite, only to find out that the dynamite was stolen, and surely the whole valley is about to explode. This was actually a good anticlimax, I thought for sure the explosion would rock the valley, trapping Cash and her team in Jackman mine and causing some revelation.
I am going on very long and I fear I am losing interest in my distaste for this book. The characters are flat and I don't enjoy any of their endings, there is more focus put on the forced coupling of Cash and the sheriff than there are on the actual animals. The animals, who have been referenced numerous times as needing around the clock care in this very special environment (which really just feels like a AI generated forest, with little character), are not mentioned after their home is burnt and exploded. But instead we get to see Cash and the sheriff drink coffee for the 18th time. That's another thing, these people drink SO MUCH coffee, it is insane. Maybe that is the only way someone can continue on in a boring book like this, is if they are caffeinated to the gills, only eating sugar and pringles.
I feel myself getting angrier as this review goes on. As a fan of nature, and a huge fan of these extinct creatures, I expected far more. And I don't feel my expectations are ill-placed. This is a subpar mystery pseudo sci-fi thriller that happens to feature extinct animals, that are ultimately of absolutely no consequence to the story. I understand the primary focus was on the Neanderthals (who are discovered in a very lame, Stranger Things-esque hidden area in the mine), and I really did enjoy learning more about them, but even their ending was disappointing. Apparently there were so many that they just completely overpowered the security forces and police, but then the primary group ends up going with the doctor into a nature reserve. None of this feels good, the story feels like a Dungeons & Dragons game where the Dungeon Master started heavily improvising midway through, forgetting about the key points and draws of the story.
To end, on one final point, a character references a book by "Preston and Child" (as if they are A list authors) and says the book he was reading was so good that he "feared I wouldn't be able to get any sleep". Well Preston, I certainly got plenty of sleep while reading this book.
Spoilers Below
I wish I could say I loved Extinction. Jurassic Park and its sibling, The Lost World are two of my favorite books after all. But I can't say that, because Extinction is just a different book entirely. Perhaps if I didn't go in with high expectations, I would have enjoyed it more, but that wasn't the case. A nature preserve focused on the Cenozoic period sounds excellent, but the location doesn't really matter. In JP, the animals are the star of the show and have just as much character as the humans. I can actually say the same for this book, but that is because the characters are as flat as its backdrop.
Before I get into what I really didn't like, let's talk about what I liked. I enjoyed the brief moments of awe the characters experienced looking at the extinct animals (those being the Woolly Mammoths, Glyptodon/Giant Armadillos, Irish Elk, the Giant Beaver, Paraceratherium, and my personal favorite; Megatherium AKA the Giant Ground Sloth), and the alternative POV characters of Doyle and Romanski (two of the only characters I thought weren't completely flat). I think the general mystery and mystique around the killers was satisfying and Preston set it up well enough that a keen reader could figure out the Neanderthal twist fairly early on. Speaking of, I did enjoy the twist of the Neanderthals being brought back and those being the twist villain. At first I was disappointed that the killers were human, but that was a humorous red herring, as they literally were not human as we know them.
But I really can't say much good about the book without mentioning the negative aspects. Those brief moments of awe are, as I said, brief and inconsequential. With only 6 species, you could almost expect these majestic beasts to be a secondary cast in themselves, but that is not the case. The Mammoths are heavily featured, but their only real characterization is that they are cowards due to them being made peaceful (which kills the only named animal, poor Tom Thumb, savagely murdered for plot reasons), the Irish Elk are hardly shown, if someone doesn't know what the Glyptodon looks like they would never know, the giant ground sloth is referred to as ugly, I don't think the Giant Beavers are even shown or referenced other than a line in passing, and Paraceratherium is referred to as Erebus's crown jewel, but at that point you hadn't even heard of the beast. That said, Paraceratherium did have my favorite moment in the book, when Doyle has narrowly escaped his killers (somehow) and is sure they are stomping after him, only to realize that the shaking ground is this giant woolly rhinoceros, and Doyle finds God (note, the next chapter mentions that the Neanderthals have an incredible sense of smell, I thought we were sure to cut back to Doyle being killed, but no he gets a line in passing that he is going on talk shows in the epilogue).
In JP, the best scene in the book is when they have realized they have miscounted the dinosaurs, and that they are breeding. When the numbers flash across the screen that there are not 8 Velociraptors, but 37, it is a intense moment where you just know, this placed is seriously fucked up. The closest scene we get to that, is when Doyle is set to blow up a Styrofoam train set with a metric butt-load of dynamite, only to find out that the dynamite was stolen, and surely the whole valley is about to explode. This was actually a good anticlimax, I thought for sure the explosion would rock the valley, trapping Cash and her team in Jackman mine and causing some revelation.
I am going on very long and I fear I am losing interest in my distaste for this book. The characters are flat and I don't enjoy any of their endings, there is more focus put on the forced coupling of Cash and the sheriff than there are on the actual animals. The animals, who have been referenced numerous times as needing around the clock care in this very special environment (which really just feels like a AI generated forest, with little character), are not mentioned after their home is burnt and exploded. But instead we get to see Cash and the sheriff drink coffee for the 18th time. That's another thing, these people drink SO MUCH coffee, it is insane. Maybe that is the only way someone can continue on in a boring book like this, is if they are caffeinated to the gills, only eating sugar and pringles.
I feel myself getting angrier as this review goes on. As a fan of nature, and a huge fan of these extinct creatures, I expected far more. And I don't feel my expectations are ill-placed. This is a subpar mystery pseudo sci-fi thriller that happens to feature extinct animals, that are ultimately of absolutely no consequence to the story. I understand the primary focus was on the Neanderthals (who are discovered in a very lame, Stranger Things-esque hidden area in the mine), and I really did enjoy learning more about them, but even their ending was disappointing. Apparently there were so many that they just completely overpowered the security forces and police, but then the primary group ends up going with the doctor into a nature reserve. None of this feels good, the story feels like a Dungeons & Dragons game where the Dungeon Master started heavily improvising midway through, forgetting about the key points and draws of the story.
To end, on one final point, a character references a book by "Preston and Child" (as if they are A list authors) and says the book he was reading was so good that he "feared I wouldn't be able to get any sleep". Well Preston, I certainly got plenty of sleep while reading this book.