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A review by terminalfin
Extinction War by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
5.0
Man, oh man, where to start with this gem. Nick has really outdone himself with this entry in the series and I must say that I am sad the journey is over. Team ghost has finally hit a resting point and the series has been brought to an awesome conclusion (or has it? I wonder if demand from fans will drive Nick to write another entry in the series).
Let me start out with the intro to the story. Nick’s choice of the MacArthur quote for the pre-prologue hit home for me, as a soldier. “The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.” I want to shake Nick’s hand just for selecting this quote. Very powerful start to the story and this quote set the tone for Team Ghost. Also related to the intro was the first line of the prologue which gave me memories of Mark Watney in “The Martian”.
Nick has a knack for words and descriptions. This trait continued to shine through in War. From his descriptions of the monsters encountered by the characters, to the wounds inflicted upon the same, to the scenes which each character found themselves in, Nick definitely had a way of painting a vivid picture of what was happening.
There were a few key references that I was able to pick out, whether or not they were intentional or accurate I don’t know. The use of the resin by the variants to secure captives to the wall brought me back to the Alien franchise. Nick expanded upon this through the use of the resin by the Variants to help seal a wound to preserve a captive in a living state for a longer period of time. Similarly, I caught a clear Gladiator reference with Beckham’s encounter prior to the scene with Andrew Wood.
I loved Nick’s integration of modern tech into the story, namely the use of the MOAB. Nick also integrated a fear I maintained in my early childhood years, and one which I felt would clearly be a much bigger problem in day-to-day life, and that was the quicksand.
Character development was top notch. I found myself drawn to, hating, being annoyed with, and having various other deep-seated feelings for several of the characters in the story. From Colonel Bradley’s overly macho attitude throughout most of the story to the relationship between Fitz and Rico to Davis and Diaz, each character/relationship was extremely well written.
I say all of this about character development to highlight what I consider to be the number one character pair/relationship I have encountered in any book I’ve listened to so far. This relationship was between Pierro and Ringo. I have never found myself more drawn to a character pair than I have with these two. To say I had intense emotions develop throughout the story because of these two would be an understatement. At one point, two words came to mind after a certain scene unfolded and those words were “You monster!”
Nick wrapped up the loose ends for this series very nicely. This was a fantastic addition to the series and, as I said previously, I am sad to see it end. My only complaint was Mr. Pinchot’s narration of Andrew Wood at points was a bit too low in volume and I found myself rewinding/turning up the volume to hear certain pieces of dialogue. Again, extremely minor this allowed me to prolong this awesome adventure. Other than that, Mr. Pinchot did a fantastic job accentuating each character and bringing Nick’s words to life. There was intensity and emotion where it was needed and the story flowed really well.
Team Ghost is now on some well-earned block leave. And to celebrate this other-worldly level of awesomeness that is the War entry of the Extinction Cycle series, I cannot see how this story would receive a rating other than 5/5.
Let me start out with the intro to the story. Nick’s choice of the MacArthur quote for the pre-prologue hit home for me, as a soldier. “The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.” I want to shake Nick’s hand just for selecting this quote. Very powerful start to the story and this quote set the tone for Team Ghost. Also related to the intro was the first line of the prologue which gave me memories of Mark Watney in “The Martian”.
Nick has a knack for words and descriptions. This trait continued to shine through in War. From his descriptions of the monsters encountered by the characters, to the wounds inflicted upon the same, to the scenes which each character found themselves in, Nick definitely had a way of painting a vivid picture of what was happening.
There were a few key references that I was able to pick out, whether or not they were intentional or accurate I don’t know. The use of the resin by the variants to secure captives to the wall brought me back to the Alien franchise. Nick expanded upon this through the use of the resin by the Variants to help seal a wound to preserve a captive in a living state for a longer period of time. Similarly, I caught a clear Gladiator reference with Beckham’s encounter prior to the scene with Andrew Wood.
I loved Nick’s integration of modern tech into the story, namely the use of the MOAB. Nick also integrated a fear I maintained in my early childhood years, and one which I felt would clearly be a much bigger problem in day-to-day life, and that was the quicksand.
Character development was top notch. I found myself drawn to, hating, being annoyed with, and having various other deep-seated feelings for several of the characters in the story. From Colonel Bradley’s overly macho attitude throughout most of the story to the relationship between Fitz and Rico to Davis and Diaz, each character/relationship was extremely well written.
I say all of this about character development to highlight what I consider to be the number one character pair/relationship I have encountered in any book I’ve listened to so far. This relationship was between Pierro and Ringo. I have never found myself more drawn to a character pair than I have with these two. To say I had intense emotions develop throughout the story because of these two would be an understatement. At one point, two words came to mind after a certain scene unfolded and those words were “You monster!”
Nick wrapped up the loose ends for this series very nicely. This was a fantastic addition to the series and, as I said previously, I am sad to see it end. My only complaint was Mr. Pinchot’s narration of Andrew Wood at points was a bit too low in volume and I found myself rewinding/turning up the volume to hear certain pieces of dialogue. Again, extremely minor this allowed me to prolong this awesome adventure. Other than that, Mr. Pinchot did a fantastic job accentuating each character and bringing Nick’s words to life. There was intensity and emotion where it was needed and the story flowed really well.
Team Ghost is now on some well-earned block leave. And to celebrate this other-worldly level of awesomeness that is the War entry of the Extinction Cycle series, I cannot see how this story would receive a rating other than 5/5.