EXTINCT Book Review, A Fascinating Invasion Story

Extinct, by Ike Hamill, is a captivating read about an alien invasion (I think) that keeps you engaged, curious, mystified and fascinated, all at once.

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Extinct's teaser text reads as follows:

"The snow won’t stop, and there’s something dangerous out there in the blinding storm. One by one, as they try to reach safety, people disappear. Robby only has one chance for survival. He has to escape the little Maine island where his family has lived for generations. Back on the mainland, things are even worse. 

Miles away, Brad battles the same blizzard. Alone, he attempts to survive as the snow envelops his home. When the storm breaks, he makes his way south to where the snow drifts end and the world lies empty. 

Join Brad, Robby, and the other survivors as they fight to find the truth about the apocalypse and discover how to live in their new world."

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The story starts out with a set of mystifying events that takes place at Robby's home. Robby is a highly intelligent, analytic young boy of thirteen years old, When strange events start to evolve amid an unnatural snow storm that hits the region and doesn't let up, Robby starts to put the pieces together, no matter how extreme they may seem.

The events that take place around Robby's house has reader wondering what the hell is going on and what the hell it is doing it. When people scream then just disappear into the air, you have no clue what just did it. But then later on, columns of fire chasing people is a different kind of doomed, so you're always wondering exactly what is up.

And in the beginning, while people are disappearing into a snow storm, you start out with the standard questioning mode of "What the heck?"

Then there's Brad, a freelance computer programmer who is more a loner than anything else, especially after the death of his girlfriend. We learn about Brad through the letters he continues to write to his departed other half, so there's an excellent opportunity for much to explore there regarding the man.

Unlike Robby, who experiences this event from under a snow storm, Brad's experience comes from finding a new kind of vicious thorny plant that is taking over the woods in his backyard. It comes to the point that once Brad reaches out to a plant expert, the government mysteriously shows up, takes over and, well, things are obviously afoot.  And not in a good way. But they're with the government and they're here to help, right???

As the story evolves, we follow both Robby, then Brad, then Robby, then more Brad until events bring them together to fight this thing that is taking over the planet.

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The attacks are part of a multi-fold or confusing, depending on how you read the book. It's like different enemies are attacking at once, but it may be the same, it's up to you to read and figure out. Or is it even an alien? Maybe it's the planet being totally sick of humanity slowly destroying it from our day-to-day use?

Then the resolution that Robby comes up with to possibly fight the enemy is mystifying at best, and for whatever reason, might work. But I had a curious time trying to follow why. You'll see what I mean when you read it.

But who cares.

Aside from a few glib moments, or oddly introduced sets of characters, or weird, out of the air explanations, I felt like Extinct was still a fun, "page turning" (Or in this day and age, that might be 'scroll flipping') read. When the world is ending, does everything really have to make sense to work out? Nope.

But in this world of apocalyptic endings coming from so many different angles, which more or less end up feeling like the same rote doom, Hamill definitely comes out of left field in a good way, giving us an interesting, original or refreshing scenario of doom

I liked it, and the ending was definitely an eye opener of sorts.

Regardless of what I've said, the book has a 4.1/5 on Amazon. I'll let that speak for itself.

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