Extinction Point (Extinction Point, 1)

This was... just terrible. Please don't be tempted by the 4 star rating (really?) this currently has.

No spoilers, just opinions

Cons:
- Full of pointlessly vulgar dialogue for absolutely no reason.
- Poorly focused attention: it spent three paragraphs on the protagonist making coffee, but one on the latest piece of apocalyptic earth the protagonist had stumbled upon. The later might actually be interesting, if it was described with any artful detail.
- Main character's actions and emotions are shallow and erratic
- The ending is unsatisfying because it does zero plot wrap up

Pros:
- it's $1 on the kindle store.

Don't bother. To echo the protagonist's truly deep (*cough*) feelings about the end of the world, only with regard to my having read this book: "It was all just too... sad. Yes, that was exactly the word to describe this situation. It was all just too goddamn sad."

Too much effort and words describing mundane trivia. Page upon page of little action. The average customer rating of 4 stars was off base in my opinion. One star at best.

This book was extremely disappointing. I'll just get that out of the way first.

I got it based on the average review on Amazon. This taught me a valuable lesson about actually reading the reviews as opposed to just looking at the scores. I'm not going to fling any accusations about false reviews, it's entirely possible that a number of people genuinely enjoyed this book. I do not count myself among that number.

So why did I not enjoy Extinction Point? I'll list some bullet points below:

- Too short. This book felt like it ended abruptly after the prologue and a few chapters. Really this is more of a novella than a novel. Add a couple of sequels to this and you've got a full-length book. In the Kindle version I read, the author included part of another book he had written to flesh out the page count.

- Cliched characters, unrealistic behavior. The main character is (gasp!) a Strong Female Lead! I have nothing against this, per se, but I prefer when an author gives me a believable character. The lead in this novel is drawn too broadly and is far too shallow to catch my interest. I just didn't really care what happened to her.

- Poor writing. I found several grammatical and spelling errors, which I'm entirely willing to forgive. What I'm less willing to accept is the constant, grinding use of lazy cliches to describe action and emotions.

- Deus ex Machina. She's about to die when (gasp!) something unexpected happens! We are subjected to this several times in this book. I wish the author respected his audience enough to not use this cheap, gimmicky method to resolve conflicts. It's acceptable in young adult fiction, but not in books intended for adults.

- Mutants and Aliens and Zombies oh My! I can't really pin this one on the author... maybe I've just read too much apocalyptic fiction in the past few years. But is anyone else just sick of the same plots being relayed over and over? It feels like each new entry is just the same tired theme relayed with a slight twist. This one has zombies, but they're telepathic! This other one has mutating aliens, but they make structures! This next one is about vampires, but they're afraid of the dark! I'm ready for some true originality, and this novel contains nothing of the sort.

I'll leave this review with two stars to at least appreciate a more thorough attempt to proofread than I've seen in other Kindle books. If I can leave one piece of advice to the author, it would be this. Do something creative. Having an invincible female lead who trudges through Armageddon will not make anyone remember your book five years from now. Tell the next story through the view of the ice-bound survivors as they wait for their daily update from the hero. Detail their search for other survivors. Maybe even kill your hero and tell us about the despair that enfolds that group. Be original, be creative, and be bold. You'll end up with a story that people will remember.

The idea of an alien virus/nano machines infesting earth is good, and has some legs, but the writing is awkward, overly wordy and simplistic. I suffered through the first volume on a plane trip, but won't be reading any more of this series.

and my brain suffered nearly complete disfunction, this story would be interesting. Just another in a long line of ebooks where the authors are driven to write every bit of minutiae because they are compensated by subdividing a single 'book' into 3+ portions.

That's in addition to the poor decisions of the main character. But I assume these have been detailed heavily in other reviews.

The writing is at a 6th to 8th grade level with the extremely tedious and overwrought descriptions that incorporate the minutiae of her life and surroundings. There has to be a decision point that this is not necessary in every new situation. It just became so monotonous after the third or fourth time that I was getting frustrated with it all yet I plugged on waiting for something similar to "I Am Legend." And yet when explanations were needed regarding the red rain or the alien presence, none was forthcoming and all meaning was obscured behind a red cloud of dust. Once she traveled through the red forest and her "help" appeared, I just completely got fed up. Then the novel abruptly ends. This has to be a title that is devoted to teen readers. If you want a truly great end of world novel, read "The Road" or just reread it and save yourself the agony of this tome.

I just love a good story, and I am a sucker for a good apocalypse story, so I bought this book with some anticipation. Imagine my surprise and disappointment to find that this was only the first PART of a book. I hate when authors and publisher decide to rip-off their readers by splitting what should be a single book up into separate pieces. This certainly is the impression I got with this one. The story plods along just well enough to keep me reading, but then ends abruptly with the protagonist having only just gotten started on the post-apocalypse journey without answering even a single question or plot line. Save your money and skip this one.

I really, really need to start reading more of the reviews of books before I buy them. I cannot feel that this books overall rating is somehow padded or manipulated. I cannot fathom how an adult could regard this novel as warranting more than 3 stars. As mentioned in other reviews the level of useless detail is staggering over the first 2/3's of the book. The authors attempts at creating a scene for the reader come off as monochromatic and forced. It almost seemed at times that he was writing to fulfill a certain predetermined length. Being science fiction it does take a healthy suspense of disbelief to enjoy the genre as a whole. That said, the best of science fiction makes the reader question "what if". This book fails to do that. The premise of Emily's survival isn't even hinted at and seems arbitrary at best. If the station at Fairbanks survived then what of all of Northern Canada, Scandinavia, Siberia,etc? Either cold weather has an effect or doesn't. Do all of the other northern survivors happen to lack internet or phone connections? Emily won't even try to drive given the distance of her trip? Seems incredibly unplausible that a person would have the ability to suddenly take on the role of survivor yet still be afraid of cars. She'll confront aliens but no driving for her?!

This book would be pretty entertaining for a 14 sci-fi enthusiast for adults it's a bit insulting. The author clearly needs and editor or needs to fire the one he's paying now. I don't think he'll ever be a O.S. Card, Niven or even Hugh Howey but I think with some cold, hard editorial rigor he could write some mature, entertaining and most importantly coherent work.

So, the main character could have been someone coming off a heroin high, a crack dealer, a stock broker or struggling used book store owner or even you or me, an idealist who jettisoned the megalopolis lifestyle for a cabin in the woods. The main character could have been a survivalist, a savant or someone struggling with Aspergers. What we do get is Emily who is definitely OC, a workable, slightly dysfunctional mind set faced with Armageddon. I choose what I read carefully and so it was with 'a little' apprehension that I stepped into this world. I love the imagination and creative act so I'm always looking for an active participant in that process. I've never folded my underwear or made sure everything was where it was when I returned home and I have spent many years working with disabled adults. Having said this I must admit that following Emily is at times tedious if not redundant but, ah the but, but IT IS a character study of how a young female reporter who is OC literally fights her way through the conflicting images of shape shifting Earth dealing with not only survival issues but a tumultuous whirlwind of emotions that tear at the foundations her reality base. Drawing on an already hardwired coping skill for stress she begins this journey by focusing on the minutia, the details of each movement, action or idea. Brave Emily makes mistakes and learns. Overly hyperactive Emily screws her will towards a goal. It's enthralling and at the same time tests my patience but for all that I continue and watch her wrap her head around something that would try the best of us while throwing up my hands and groaning but keep reading on.

I want to start out by saying that I absolutely LOVED the beginning of this book. When the red rain started I was completely sucked in! Finally, something with a little fat to chew on! What a great concept! My enthrallment while reading through the first few chapters was just utter immersion .... but then:

Summary: The red rain falls around the world. The world watches this amazing phenomena with excitement ... until the excitement turns to horror in a matter of 12 hours. The world watches in terror as they watch their fate displayed upon televisions around the world. Emily, a reporter in NYC finds herself in an interesting situation - she survives. The only other survivors she finds via Internet are in Alaska. Emily needs to get to Alaska. Her journey awaits ...

Mr. Jones does the one thing I find myself asking for in many books. He gives a detailed description on the characters, surroundings and actions. I applaud this! This is the one thing I find myself craving for with many writers. Sadly, Mr. Jones also does one of the things I dread. He is a little over verbose with details. He pens extended details for mundane actions. As an example, "Emily wiped her forehead with her left hand to remove some of the sweat, and then used the other side of her left hand to remove the rest of the sweat that was beading up there." I find this occurrence unnecessary when a simple, "Emily wiped the sweat from her forehead," would have been more than enough to get the point across. Maybe it is just me, but I felt like the longer the story went on, the more this occurred. The over abundance of cliche's was also distracting and many times unnecessary. It appeared that he was looking for ways to describe things, that in most cases, would have been better left not described rather than to have been done so by a cliche'. Had Mr. Jones held back just a fraction, the book would have been just oh so much more delightful. It just, unfortunately, made the book seem to drag, especially in places where you wanted the action to fly!

My other problem with this story was our main character, Emily. I found myself swearing at her (which probably made me seem like an insane person in rush hour traffic as I listen to my Kindle while driving) out loud. I found her to be one of the dumbest lead characters I have ever read. She left me asking far to many questions:
*Why, dear God, did you put down your camera?!? The perfect opportunity to document this event for humanity and you choose THIS moment to stop being a journalist?
*Where did you get that backpack? I'm sure Dora and Diago are looking for their magic explorer gear .... unless they too were destroyed by the red rain.
*Did you really NEED to stab it?
*Did you really need to sleep in the room after confronting it?
*Did you really HAVE to walk ACROSS that forest?
*You smelled the ammonia, you knew what it was. Was it necessary to put yourself in harm's way to check it out?
*You are the only human left in NYC, do you really not want a better bike? Like maybe one with a cart to put camping gear in?
*One box of shells? Really, Emily?
*Did you think you were going to get pulled over for driving like a student driver?

That last one actually ... why did she not get in a car and go! I would have found a dealership, found a nice economy car, or a Jeep, steel it, and load it up. Hell, she could have taken a Winnebago for that matter. But she chooses a bike? to get to Alaska? Seriously?

Here is the thing. I do truly love the POTENTIAL of this story. I would love to see the author (or any author) rewrite this story in a better outlined and researched method. I think Mr. Jones has the potential to pen some beautiful works as he is obviously very creative. I want to love this book. I truly want to. Unfortunately the other things are just too hard to overlook. What a bummer.

I am giving this two stars because I did actually love the first few chapters. I loved it right up until she went to the store. Thank you Mr. Jones. I know this is one of your first attempts at writing a novel series. I'm just sorry I could not rank it higher.