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.

Don’t even start

I will start by saying that I have tried to read 3 different series by this author. The story ideas are great and usually have a good start and a good premise. The problem is this author has the same lazy writing style for all his books. There are two things that he does regularly that infuriate the reader and make the books unreadable. 1) having his characters do stupid or out of character things just to move the story along. 2) make the villain/villains the luckiest people/things ever imaginable just to move the story along. These two constantly happen especially in the last books just to wrap the story up. A good story is moved along by events, not incompetent actions by “elite” characters. “Example” 6 elite Delta force operators who we are told are the best in the world and are armed to the teeth with their own specialty weapons take turns doing absolutely incompetent things like not counting shots or breaking radio silence at the worst possible moment. It’s ridiculous and frustrating and will make you not want to finish reading the series. Save yourself time and frustration and read another author.

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.

Be patient!

When starting this series you need to exercise some patience. The first book starts of slow and i felt it lacked in character development. You never really feel like you know any of the characters by the end of book 1, but you really get caught up in everything from the second book and you never look back from there! Narration is good! Anyone who enjoys these types of zombie / monsters apocalypse storie will love the seried as a whole!

Great series!

I'll start with the negative and say that the narrator is good, but he works with a narrow range of voices and at times i couldnt tell who was speaking unless he read the name. His voice did fit for the sciency stuff and doctors, not to sound stereotypical (maybe a bit), but he did have that slightly flat tone many seem to have in his voice. His female voices sounded almost over exagerated with the woe is me tone or that im fragile tone. You do get used to it though and the ride is worth it. My only other complaint is that i think he reads some dialogue off a little too whiney for soldiers who've gone to hell and back again.
That aside, he read the action well and overall was easy to get used to. The story is amazing and made the author's version of "zombies" scary as hell and hard to see any hope of survival. Very few punches are pulled. By this I mean bad things keep on happening and there are a lot of consequences to people's mistakes. Though it seems like nothing will go well, the author does a great job of allowing you to hold onto that small bead of hope. I was cheering the mc's on and even some side characters through these books, hoping they get through each trial. At one point I even pumped up my fist and shouted "YES!" Books rarely get me to do that, but for the characters every small victory is worth celebrating as the author guides them through hell.

Make a movie!!!!

As usual Sansbury smith knocks it out of the park. Her provides just enough detail to give you specifics while still allowing your imagination to paint a picture.
As for the narrator, I loved his inflections and changes of speech patterns. Can’t wait to finish the series.

awsome

great story and vivid story telling. you womt be able to puts it down. you will love the characters

An amazing series, the best bar none imho

Astounding. Team Ghost forever! #ALLITTAKESISALLYOUGOTMARINE.

MSGT Beckham is the VIP of apocalyptic fiction.

Get ready for an emotional roller coaster as N.S.S. takes on the Zombie genre with science and accurate military culture. This is an epic for the ages.

good good good

was excellent. nice split between action and story. just when you start to think alright enough story, it goes straight into well written action. captivating, engrossing, found it hard to find a point to pause and do other stuff. only complaint is that occasionally the jump from story line to story line makes it feel like you are missing information. that aside , get it, listen to it, love it. also the narration is spot on.

Awesome series

Absolutly terrifying, tense, and thrilling. The best sci-fi end of the world book out there. Bronson Pinchot crushed the narration.

The story is dumb and the characters are dumber

Guess I'm going to have to break with all of the other raving reviews. The story is so full of holes it may as well be swiss cheese. The characters are lackluster. The heroine of the story is a mousey unlikeable character. The story is an interesting take on a zombie story but there are too many things that don't add up.
You have an elite delta force team go into a secret government facility with 6 members only to come back with 4.
Then you send them on a critical and extremely dangerous mission to capture an infected where they come back with 3 members. Later you learn that they had other teams retrieve 19 more infected--making the delta force team's mission seem pointless. Then one more time you send the 3 members out where one member becomes permanently disabled. So now we're down to two. In the meantime you learn that there are at least hundreds of other military available for missions. So naturally you send the last two members out alone on another hopeless mission. You establish that these zombies are extremely dangerous and they run in packs of dozens or more but you have no problem sending 2 guys to face down a 100. It's not even close to how that would play out in the real world. Yeah I know this is not the real world, but that's kinda the point. You could have come up with a thousand possible reasons that the missions had to go down exactly as they did. Set the scene so the mission to capture the infected is in a briefing room with 20 or 30 teams and the delta force team just happens to be one of them. There are many more examples. For me it just makes the whole book unbelievable. I did manage to get about 4 chapters into the second book, but it didn't get any better.

Naive, maybe good for teenagers.

Idea for the story not so bad, but problems they encounter are naive with even worse resolution for them. In my opinion if you are 14yr old you will be content otherwise don't bother.
Regards
Tom

Brilliant

I read a bad review which gave me concerns about the narrator before getting this, but I found it brilliant, really well read with engaging character voices and emotions. Great job. Getting the next one asap!

Very good

Enjoyed these books will be getting the next ones in the series great story well done

Brilliant

Fantastc...
Absolutely amazing had me on the edge of my seat!! Well worth a read

Very poor narration.

The narration made a good story boring for me. A dull monotone didn't keep my attention.

It is what it is but it's great in it's execution.

These books are gripping thrill rides from start to finish. It's pure schlock but it's great schlock! I do wish there was a bit more creature variety but in general really solid stories from an author which I am now a new fan of!

Wow Rip-roaring series

If you could sum up The Extinction Cycle Boxed Set in three words, what would they be?

A horrifying bleak view of the world when man tries to play god

Who was your favorite character and why?

Reed Beckham, not your typical grunt!! deep emotions to his team and to what is right and wrong

What about Bronson Pinchot’s performance did you like?

Excellent narration, with various pitches heightened emotions and made you believe in what you was listening to.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

No where to run no where to hide the variants will find you

Any additional comments?

Fantastic series, with a different take on zombies, think like world war Z and mix with 28 days later, it will scare the beep outta you. Excellently written and superb narration makes you really care for the characters and to what happens to them. This is definatly the series you need and want in your library! Don't forget to switch on the lights!

extinction cycle

great book, realistic characters super nonstop action, if you love military and zombie combination reads. great military detail and armourment explanation....just love this series!!!!

Terrible

The best special forces who never take any explosives with them. make lots of mistakes

Poor performance

What disappointed you about The Extinction Cycle Boxed Set?

Can't really comment on story as the performance totally killed it early on for me. No passion, monotone narration .

What will your next listen be?

Similar theme

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Bronson Pinchot?

R.c.bray, Scott Brick, Ray Chase

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment