ABR's original The Martian Race audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.Nicholas Sansbury Smith continues his exciting series with this second book, Extinction Edge. At the close of Extinction Horizon, we are told there is a cure or rather that Dr. Lovato has created a “larger monster.” We expect things to go much better on Plum Island and the rebuilding of civilization can begin. Uh, no!Lovato sets the “larger monster” loose in the U.S. killing off most of the variants – all but about 10% … of over 300 million people – that leaves close to 30 million variants NOT dead. Beckham, Horn and others are charged with going into New York and laying claim to the city by eradicating the remaining variants … 2000 or 3000 supposedly.As is usually the case, the military has underestimated the number of variants and the bigwigs are broadcasting and strategizing with the wrong intel. Lovato knows better – she tries to correct the military’s error but is ignored. Not only are the numbers wrong but the variants are smarter! They communicate, they fight united and they strategize!Beckham, Horn and now Lovato are fighting for their lives. The human race is quickly moving towards true extinction. It seems no one can win against the new and improved variants.And if this is not scary enough for you – imagine the dark murky depths of the sewers and large coccoons of spider-like webbing holding what few survivors there are in New York … The description of this was horrifying!Smith does an excellent job of continuing the story plot and keeping the actors growing. Lovato and Beckham are dancing around a romance but it is far from the true focus of this story – no, its the flesh ripping, terrifying variants!I keep wondering what more can Smith dish out in the way of horror but it seems he knows no bounds! Read his series if you are a true lover of horror, apocalyptic worlds far scarier than zombies and gore!Smith remains true to horror fans and delivers! Smith is definitely an author to keep an eye on … he only gets better with each book. I recommend this book as a must read.The narrator, Bronson Pinchot, performs excellently! His voices are consistent and his pronunciation is clear. His transition from one character to another is clear and smooth.Blackstone productions did an excellent job of producing this audiobook!Audiobook provided for for review by the publisher.
I've discovered that I like hard sci-fi somewhat belatedly, and perhaps unexpectedly, given that I haven't studied sciences since I was 15. Given the similarity of deep space exploration narratives to post-apocalyptic ones, though, maybe it's not so odd. This book is an excellent example of that. The stakes are high, life is hard, options are few, etc. The criticisms made by others definitely have merit: the characters aren't particularly developed (although I came to care a lot for Julia) and the writing can be clunky. What I found more annoying, though, was the didactic tone sometimes taken on by the science. Extra information to contextualise events (especially as the book follows the point of view of a scientist) was fine, but was it really necessary to repeat so often that "mass weighs less on Mars, but inertia is the same"? Perhaps I don't mind being treated as a student so much as being treated as a stupid student.Nonetheless, I enjoyed this book a lot and sometimes found it genuinely tense or (less often) moving. If you like the genre, this is a fine example of it.
What do You think about The Martian Race (2001)?
In the early 21st century, after NASA's Mars program has been grounded because of a Challenger-like catastrophe, a $30 billion prize is announced to be awarded to the first private organization that can land a spaceship on Mars, do serious science and return in one piece. Enter John Axelrod, eccentric billionaire and space aficionado. His Consortium launches a bare-bones Mars expedition that is closely followed by a Chinese-European attempt, and the race for Mars is on.
—Al
This is near-future, hard (no "warp drive", ESP, or even nanotech) SF. Benford doesn't really milk the tension of the race to return from Mars, which is probably a good thing. Instead he mixes that drama with character development, the story of exploring Mars, and trying to survive on Mars. All in all, it's a fairly well-paced book. It never really elevates itself to a gripping, "just one more chapter before I go to bed" level. But it never really drags either, so I never really found myself bored and wanting to put it down.
—Jon
Ce roman raconte, dans un futur trop proche, une possible mission d'exploration de la planète rouge. S'il n'a pas l'ambition du cycle de K. R. Robinson, il est en revanche aussi précisément documenté qu'on peut l'attendre d'une novelization de plan de vol. Évidemment, comme l'auteur est plus physicien que romancier, la précision des détails vient parfois gâcher l'ambition littéraire. Mais je crois bien que, d'une façon presque perverse, l'une des ambitions de l'auteur est précisément en faire une oeuvre non littéraire. Malheureusement, comme toujours dans ce genre de situation, je crois que l'auteur a fait pencher la balance du mauvais côté, ce qui altère nettement pour moi les qualités de cette oeuvre.Cela dit, il y a quelques moments d'authentique grâce (qui n'ont rien à voir avec l'hypothèse de la vie martienne développée dans ce livre).A lire pour tous les adeptes de la planète rouge.
—Nicolas
