I’ll be upfront and say I’m a long-time fan of Michael Crichton and the Jurassic Park series of books and movies. If you enjoy that sort of sci-fi/thriller, Extinction is the book for you. I read it in its entirety in one night. I simply couldn’t put it down.
Erebus Resort, a safari-type resort populated with prehistoric animals recreated via genetic manipulation, is set in the Colorado wilderness. The uber-wealthy can pay for backpacking trips to see wooly mammoths and other creatures up close and personal. When a newly-wed couple disappears, law enforcement presumes an eco-terrorist group is responsible. As incident piles upon incident, the resort starts to crumble. The last ten chapters or so reveal how wrong they are.
Preston takes current genetic research and turns it in a horror story as he depicts the pros and cons of mankind resurrecting extinct species. He does this quite successfully without bogging the reader down in arcane scientific terms. Like Jurassic Park, it’s a marvelous cautionary tale on hubris of man as well as our rapacious appetite for destruction in the guise of progress. The afterword was an interesting read as well.
Preston’s prose is tight. The suspense bounds off the page. The female protagonist, Frances Cash, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s agent in charge, is an atypical female in modern fiction: overweight but fit, sharp-tongued, and outspoken. However, Preston seems overly concerned about her diet and size. The remaining characters are full-realized and interesting (other than the surprise folks at the end who work as a mob rather than individuals).
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Extinction (Forge Books, April 23, 2024) is available through:
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