The Extinction Cycle Boxed Set

Extinction Horizon, Extinction Edge, and Extinction Age (The Extinction Cycle, Books 1 - 3)

By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 25 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Here are the first three books of the best-selling, award-winning, and top-rated Extinction Cycle series.

Extinction Horizon

The worst of nature and the worst of science will bring the human race to the brink of extinction.

Master Sergeant Reed Beckham has led his Delta Force team, code named Ghost, through every kind of hell imaginable and never lost a man. When a top secret medical corps research facility goes dark, Team Ghost is called in to face their deadliest enemy yet - a variant strain of Ebola that turns men into monsters.

After barely escaping with his life, Beckham returns to Fort Bragg in the midst of a new type of war. The virus is already spreading. As cities fall, Team Ghost is ordered to keep CDC virologist Dr. Kate Lovato alive long enough to find a cure. What she uncovers will change everything.

Total extinction is just on the horizon, but will the cure be worse than the virus?

Extinction Edge

A new threat that will bring humanity to the edge of extinction.

The dust from Dr. Kate Lovato's bioweapon has settled. Projections put death counts in the billions. Her weapon was supposed to be the endgame, but it turned a small percentage of those infected with the hemorrhage virus into something even worse.

Survivors call them Variants. Irreversible epigenetic changes have transformed them into predators unlike any the human race has ever seen. And they are evolving.

With the doomsday clock ticking, the fractured military plans Operation Liberty - a desperate mission designed to take back the cities and destroy the Variant threat. Master Sergeant Reed Beckham agrees to lead a strike team into New York City, but first he must return to Fort Bragg to search for the only family he has left.

At Plum Island, Kate discovers Central Command may have considerably underestimated the Variant population in New York. As Operation Liberty draws closer, Kate warns Beckham that Team Ghost won't just face their deadliest adversary yet, they may be heading into a trap.

Extinction Age

On the eve of extinction, all seems to be lost, but there is still one final hope.

Operation Liberty has failed. Humans are losing the war. With no other option, General Kennor decides to pull back the troops and give science a second chance.

Trapped in the extensive sewer system beneath New York, Master Sergeant Reed Beckham and the survivors of 1st Platoon must battle through the tunnels - where they make a grisly discovery in their attempt to escape.

At Plum Island, Dr. Kate Lovato is working on a new bioweapon to destroy the Variants. But when a derelict Navy destroyer crashes into the Connecticut shoreline, she is forced to deal with a nightmare she thought had ended.

As the doomsday clock ticks down and military bases fall across the country, the human race enters the age of extinction.

©2016 Nicholas Sansbury Smith (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Simply Fantastic

I'll be honest. At first I had little to no intrest. I am a little tired of zombie novels, but the monsters in this story just did not appeal to me. The story moved at a steady pace, which made it hard to focus with out interest. About 1/3 of the way through book 1 the monsters are scientifically explained and their nature are revealed. From that point on, it has been a non-stop thrill.
There are plenty of characters that you will get connected to, and some you can watch develop. The action is top notch and Bronson Pinchot bring it all life. My only complaint with Nicholas Sansbury Smith is that his novels tend to be on the shorter side, but he is a very talented storyteller. With box sets such as this and cheaper price tags his pros far out weigh the cons.

Human Potential on Display; Good and Bad.

I am writing this after listening to the first five books in the series.

Yes this is a zombie apocalypse series but it is not just another zombie apocalypse series. If you have read my reviews you will know that no fan of zombie books am I; but a fan of Bronson Pinchot I am. Having recently finished listening to The Anubis Gates I was hungering for more Pinchot. This series had many good reviews, so many that I felt it might be worth a chance. From the start the story pulled me in with its realistic characters and Sci-Fi based verisimilitude. The epigenetic justification for humans becoming hungry monsters is at least in the realm of science and not unexplainable magic. The battle scenes are well done, reminiscent of the best military science fiction scenes I have heard. Zombie novel fans may find that the character development and plot development sequences get in the way of the non-stop action they are used to, but fans of military science fiction will find familiar ground here.

Each volume in the series escalates the development of the infected and the desperation of the remaining humans to the point where the survival of the race is in serious question—hence the title: Extinction Cycle. Desperate times are ahead for the listener if you decide to take on the variants in this series. The writing is terse and tight with little opportunity for humor. This is the end of the world as we know it, that’s no laughing matter you know!
Just a little mention of the so-called science behind this piece of science fiction: The zombie-like creatures in this piece of fiction are deliberately created in a military lab as a weapon of war. The designers tapped into the hidden capabilities locked in the DNA of humans and unleashed them through means of epigenetic triggers. When the infected manifest these hidden characteristics it is explained in the novels as evolution. This is typical of the thinking of neo-Darwinians, that any change is evolutionary change. Actual epigenetic change requires the capabilities waiting to be manifested be already present in the DNA sequence of the organism; a preexisting condition. When these capabilities are switched on new capabilities are manifested in the organism, and may even be preserved in the offspring. But these new capabilities are not new as in, never have been seen before; they are only new to the organism. The fact that the DNA stored this information, that the DNA had retained these hidden capabilities in its database, means that these capabilities were already there waiting to be triggered. Epigenetic DNA expression is the evidence of prior planning—dare I say design—and not the evidence for evolution.

Need I mention that Bronson Pinchot delivers a wonderful performance? Okay then, Bronson Pinchot is amazing! His voice is always clear and precise. Every character voice rings true. You always know immediately who is talking. This is such an advantage to understanding a book that it makes any book whole degrees better since the listener is able to engage with the story so easily when the narrator gives the proper queues. Pinchot does everything perfect. His pacing is just right; escalating when things get moving and slowing when things are tense. This is just the Pinchot fix I was hoping for.

The Extinction Cycle:
ENTINCTION HORIZON
EXTINCTION EDGE
EXTINCTION AGE
EXTINCTION EVOLUTION
EXTINCTION END
EXTINCTION AFTERMATH is due to be published October 13, 2016. If Bronson Pinchot narrates watch this space.

Nonstop action

The first three books
This series is fast paced! It gets better as it goes!

Suck a great series, I can’t stop listening!

It’s hard to get my attention. This series has it.
In fact my girlfriend is jealous of how much time I spend listening to it!

Love it!!

Bought the three book set and am going through it for the second time. Great story with awesome reading!

awsome

awsome series, cant wait to start next set of books. reader is great as soon as you get use to him.

Fantastic ultraviolent horror!

These three books bring apocalyptic action and horror to a whole new level. I had trouble stopping the audio book to resume my normal life! Not for the faint of heart.

Absolutely riveting!!

Very exciting book with action from beginning to end! Great characters that you really care about and terrific narration!!

Just bought the next boxed set. Great use of my credits:)

Not a bad set, but needs to be less expensive

Ideas in the book are very good. They are written very thinly however, with a little too much dues ex machina. But I think the ideas in the book could have been a very good series if they were fleshed out. Each book would have been better at 2x to 3x the length allowing for character development and a better explanation of how these characters went from being milktoast whiny NYer to badass. The trek just isn't explanation enough for me.

I won't purchase any books $10> that are less than 15hrs. The value just isn't there. I would purchase these at $5 or the set at $13, but not $13 each. They are a thin broth for that price.

Bronson Pinchot, is just horrific as an orator.

His pronunciation of the simplest words grates on my nerves. I always wondered what happened to his characters, now I know.