Extinct

Extinct by Ike HamillThis is apocalyptic literature, of course. The title gives it away. But there are two general kinds of apocalyptic stories, it seems to me. One is "Apocalyptic-Survival" where the focus is on how some people, because of wise prior planning and survival skills manage to beat the odds and survive. The other is "Apocalyptic-Horror" which focuses on a sort of "ain't it awful" morbid fascination with the grisly details of the deaths of millions, and which shows the pitiful survivors as surviving mostly by random chance. A good example of the latter would be "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I rather enjoy the first kind of apocalyptic literature. The second type, as exemplified by "The Road" and "Extinct," are not at all to my liking. So my review is naturally not going to be favorableThis book has hundreds of ratings on Amazon, so I see little point in explaining the plot in detail. But the focus is on two guys, Robby Pearce and Brad Jenkins. Robby is a gifted teenager, and Brad is a self-employed computer programmer in his 30's. Both somehow survive the extinction and are able to continue to evade the aliens or whoever they are. But their good fortune seems mostly due to random chance. There are actually three waves of attacks, which seem to be a cross between the paranormal and incomprehensible alien evil. People are transported upward into the sky; others are slain where they stand, eyeballs exploding. There are intelligent pools of water that dissolve anything they wish to eliminate. There are intelligent tornadoes and columns of fire that touch down to incinerate and destroy. Somehow, Robby and Brian must try to survive and make sense out of all of this.What I Liked:On the whole, the writing is not bad. The writer is able to evoke a sense of place and the two major characters seem like real people. Some reviewers said they found Brad to be boring. I can't agree with that, though he does seem to be a bit hapless, and Robby seems just a bit too smart. But I don't find either of them boring. Several reviewers found the dialogue trite and stilted. Again, I don't agree. One example of trite dialogue shared in one review was an exchange between a government agent, Herm, and Brad. This is supposed to be "horrendously bad dialogue":“So that’s what you expected?”, Brad asked.“Yes,” Herm said.“You’re going to get people out here to remove those vines?” Brad asked.“We’ll get a crew out here as soon as we can,” Herm said.“When do you think that will be?” Brad asked.“I don’t have any insight into the scheduling”, Herm said.I think this is actually great dialogue. It captures the kind of bureaucratic exchange that you would expect. So I have major problems with the book, but dialogue is not one of them.What I Did Not Like:There are editing mistakes, to include typos and the like. "Make due" when "Make do" is meant, is a typical example. Some gratuitous obscenities are sprinkled throughout, which some might find objectionable. The repetitive description of the dead bodies is gruesome and some might be repelled by that. The plot, such as it is, seems to be a series of incidents loosely strung together. Worst of all, there is no real conclusion or explanation for what the heck is going on. That last problem is a major one, and that alone would not allow me to rate the book above three stars. This is not a "happy ever after" book.Conclusions:This is a sub-genre of Apocalyptic Fiction that I do not like. But the lack of an explanation is a typical and obnoxious feature of much post-modern writing. I don't really recommend this book, but I do think that those who enjoyed "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy might also like this book. I rate it at THREE STARS.

I LOVE this series! Buy them and read all 5! I couldn't stop reading, what an interesting and wonderous adventure. Carve out some time so you can savor the story without interruption, you are not going to want to stop reading about Robby, Brad, Romie, and Lisa and the many interesting characters and plots in this series.I first heard of Ike Hamill on Maine Cabin Masters (a reality television show) when they redid his cabin and decided to check out his books. I picked Extinct because I like end of the world books. I also bought Instinct since it was the sequel to Extinct. I like books that take place in Maine since I have a camp there. I was not disappointed! I love these books and continue to think about the story many weeks after having finished them.I took the books to my camp in Maine and read both in one weekend! That is how captivated I was by the story. I loved the characters and the plot. A 13 year old genius, Robby, and a greiving man, Brad, were destined to meet and try to save the world. I liked the main characters and cared about them - that is a sign of a good book. It was nice to read about a smart teenager and man who was struggling but doing the best he could. The book was full of interesting characters (some decent - some not so good). The main characters are trying to do the best they can under extreme situations and I was rooting for them to succeed! I like the various story lines of the different characters. I really enjoyed the journey in reading these books and have passed the books along to family to read. I rarely re-read a book but I will return to read these two books because I enjoyed getting to know the characters and following their complex and facinating journey.A really good plot with interesting twists and turns and great characters - you can't go wrong!Buy all 5 books because you will want to know how the story turns out.Note: Imagine my delight when I realized there are 5 books in this series! The other 3 are Kindle additions. Extinct: Black Friday is a novella (50 pages long - about how Robby and Judy met - nice backstory! I ordered the Kindle additions and read Distinct and Succinct on my next trip to my Maine camp when I had some uninterupted days to absorb myself into their world. I love these books! I am so glad the journey continues, I wish there was a book 6. Thank you!

I didn't get very far with this. Loved the premise, right up my street, so I persevered for a while, but, alas, it's not very well written. The author seems to have a problem with the word 'he'; one one page, a third person narrative about a character called Robby uses his name ten times. Also, there are unnecessary dialogue tags throughout ("said Jim" "Robby asked", etc, in long conversations between the two of them), and too many unnecessary explanations. I quite liked some of it, but the writing is a bit amateur and I abandoned.

Good creepy horror

Extinct, great choice for the title. I do like a really good conspiracy theory and this brought the theory alive. What ever we believe in, this book kind of has all theories in there.The story it self was a little disappointing in places, missing out chunks, that seem to be needed, so we can understand the characters thinking.I won't spoil the ending but I understand why Ike Hamill felt the need to leave out these chunks of the characters lives.He did a great job in portraying different people's characters, we are not all the same, however, people do tend to act like sheep or lemmings in times of crisis, either wanting to survive and sod the rest, or being a leader and wanting to help.I really felt for Robbie, he wanted to be a leader but was still a child, and those childish emotions showed them self throughout.I will say, I really enjoyed the book once I understood what was happening, it took me a while to figure out what was going on between the Robbie story and Brads.It is a book that you have to stick with and I'm glad I did.

I'm enjoying this one so much that I feel compelled to write a review before I have even finished reading it. This is gripping (and generally I don't even like horror) . I have been in a state of generalised anxiety since I started it, and reading too late/not getting enough sleep. Ridiculous, I know, but this one has it's claws in me in me as much as a Stephen King. Sure, as many 1-star reviews point out, this book has plenty of weaknesses. The characters are not well fleshed out. I sometimes have difficulty picturing what he's describing. And I haven't even finished it yet! So no, it's not as good as Stephen King at his best. But it still immerses me and suspends disbelief, so it's a lot better than King's weaker novels. And while that may seem like weak praise, whether you love or hate King, you have to admit he's the master of the genre.OK, I need to backtrack a little... I haven't read enough of the genre to definitively say who the master is. So feel free to disagree with me on that last point!

A solid book with an interesting premise and the kind of tension that creeps up on you from behind before whacking you over the head. The idea of a teenager being in charge is a brave choice, but the author does a good job of making it believable - although some opportunities to explain Robbie's behaviour were missed. For example, at one point he loses it in the LL Bean store but the rest of the group never call him on it, and it's never really explained. We get hints of what's going on inside his head, but not enough to really, completely root for him, which is a shame because he, and Brad particularly, are otherwise extremely believable characters.A few plot holes dropped the star points on this: the relationship and situation around Nate and Brynn was never explained, and when they dropped out of the story there was no real sense as to why they were in it in the first place (unless they were simply a plot device to separate Brad from the group); it seemed like what happened in the Volvo was a red herring, never explained nor mentioned again, even though it clearly was profound for Robbie. Robbie's theories about the cause of the disaster were just...too convenient - this goes back to not fleshing out his character enough so that, when he made his pronouncements it was kind of like wtf did that come from? Is he a savant, for example? Is his memory eidetic? How does he know this stuff? It felt a bit deux et machina at times.But the writing is good. The ideas are interesting. The tension of the story was excellent - a proper page turner and, all in all, a darned good read. I'd definitely read other work from this author.