Erebus Resort, occupying a magnificent, hundred-thousand–acre valley deep in the Colorado Rockies, offers guests the experience of viewing woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths in their native habitat, brought back from extinction through the magic of genetic manipulation. When a billionaire’s son and his new wife are kidnapped and murdered in the Erebus back country by what is assumed to be a gang of eco-terrorists, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash partners with county sheriff James Colcord to track down the perpetrators. As killings mount and the valley is evacuated, Cash and Colcord must confront an ancient, intelligent, and malevolent presence at Erebus, bent not on resurrection but on extinction.
Extinction by Douglas Preston. Published by Forge Books, April 2024. Total of 384 pages.
*Thank you Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
*Trigger Warning: Animal death
I’m a big fan of Douglas Preston’s non-fiction writing and his co-written fiction with Lincoln Child. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve read any of Preston’s solo fiction. I was really looking forward to reading this one!! 😀
Extinction has a plot that I’m a total sucker for. Prehistoric animals coming back to life through the magic of science. DUH! Of course I will be reading this one!! 😀 It is a tiny bit of a bummer that the “de-extinct” animals don’t play a bigger role in the story. 
They are hardly in it at all!
I hate to say it, but the lack of “de-extinct” animals is not the only bummer to be found in this book. D: The overall writing is just….. odd. There is this pretentious vibe throughout the whole novel that gives off “white old rich guy” feels, if you know what I mean? Just… out of touch. A disconnect from the 2020s.
The main character, Agent Cash, was another bummer. Well, not her per se, but how she is written. It feels like Preston has never talked to or met a woman before. He sure didn’t know how to write one in this book! Cash says so many outdated things, stereotypical woman things, like constantly talking about this diet she is on or how fat she is. My favorite is the she sleeps in the nude to be more “efficient” when getting ready for work in the morning. 😐 Ok. I’m not saying women never talk about their weight, diet or never sleep in the nude…. It’s how it is written that is the problem. Like I said, it never feels like something a woman- who by the way is the agent in charge of a huge crime at the moment so she def. has bigger things on her plate then her diet- would actually say. It felt instead like something an older man would think a woman would say / do / think about. D: Oh boy. Is that sexist or just bad writing? Or both?
There are other bummer red flags within the weird writing. Once or twice Preston has characters reading one of his RL books. Ok, some authors can pull this off as a cheeky wink wink nudge nudge sort of thing. Preston is not one of those authors. Instead it comes off as self absorbed and cringe. D: Not a good look, my dude.
Other strange choices are the big “twist” reveal. It was beyond obvious from the very beginning. D: That’s not always a bad thing if the main characters aren’t so…. for lack of better word, dumb about it. For most of the investigation, it feels like nothing really goes on. They just kind of get lucky and stumble on to the answers. What was the point of so much of the investigation if you aren’t going to properly use that info? For example, so much time is spent on collecting CSI forensic stuff but it never really is utilized in the story. Why spend that much time on it? Why have a whole character fleshed out and dedicated to the forensic stuff if he isn’t really using his CSI skills? Is the author getting paid by the word? Very frustrating!
And so is the ending! Are you kidding me with that end?? Choices are definitely made. Anticlimactic. Not to mention it really makes the main characters look like total chumps!! I just don’t get why the ending is so weak? C’mon man, you are a better writer than that….
Now…. Extinction is not the best Douglas Preston book I’ve ever read. I also didn’t totally hate it. Some of it was pretty entertaining and I enjoyed the over all plot premise. It’s too bad the writing was so frustrating.
I don’t regret reading this book. I’d still read other books from this author. Overall, Extinction wasn’t horrible. Just a little disappointing because Preston is a talented and creative writer who seems to have flown on autopilot for this book. Again, that’s a big bummer.
Creature From The Book Lagoon 