The Extinction Trials

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From the bestselling author of Departure and Winter World , comes a standalone novel with a twist you'll never forget.

There are some psychological things here coming into play, what with all the mistrust going around. And - not too surprising - we find some philosophy at the core of the story. And at the very heart the conclusion that mankind itself is it's greatest adversary. Homo homini lupus, as Thomas Hobbes wrote (or lupus est homo homini in the original words by Plautus). Now don't get me wrong. I still LIKED the book. I just didn't love it the way I've loved Riddle's other stuff. I consider Riddle to be an A level author, and this was more of a B-. Still good, and certainly above average, but not on par with what I've come to expect from him. Stormchaser has violet eyes. Sure, it’s a strange world people can have violet eyes, yeah? Except the color is apparently unusual even for people who come from far reaches of Earthasia so she’s most likely the only one with eyes this color. She has no parents, mother died a few years ago, never met her father, her mother didn’t allow mention of him. Usually that’s a sign the father is alive and evil. So who else could have violet eyes but the chief Stipulator sending a hundred people to die on a deadly continent? This guy gives her weird looks throughout the book, this coupled with the fact that they both have the same “unusual” eyes, it still took someone else politely mentioning it for her to realize that this guy may be her father. Not the ripest apple on the tree, this girl. It is a month after the end of the Trial and Storm is not a popular person. Her relationship with Dell has yet to recover from the strain of her helping others and not helping him and they disagree about the killing of the dinosaurs with the virus that is still being constructed. She is finding living with a huge group of people, her 'claimed family', impossible after the solitude she had before, and isn't coping with the responsibility. She is well aware that Reban Don knows she is lying about her 'family' to get them the food and healthcare they need and she fears at any moment it will all be taken away from them. Now her lies about her skills have led to a change of job, working in with the very people she needs to avoid. Exile has a steady pace, the first half has us getting to grips with how things are in the aftermath of the previous book, meeting some shady characters and getting clued in that something is going on...something possibly not quite right, as well as some clues about a potential cure.I've talked about The Cube at the start, and while our group is not in a maze filled with deadly traps, their situation is similar: They are - kind of - trapped in a small underground research facility (with failing power), fighting for their survival and totally unaware of any details - where they are, how they got there, how long they've been there, what happened in the meantime. The only person who could shed some light unto those questions suffers from partial memory loss. Also, and more weirdly, even though these people aren’t primitive (they have weapons and buildings and electronics), they have next to no knowledge about dinosaurs? I mean, okay, we’re talking about a vastly different world altogether but that sounds so far-fetched to me. How old is this world that when we get to the current situation of diminishing space, food and power, people still have virtually no idea or knowledge about dinosaurs? Only for the past nine years, since the start of the “Trials” (which I will get to in sweet time) have they begun to get some sort of information about how the dinosaurs live? Which makes NO sense to me because clearly they already know the names of all the dinosaurs! WHAT is the deal? The beginning of this reminded me of the Wool books from a few years ago - I need to be careful with my comparisons to avoid giving anything away - a small group of survivors from a deadly world-changing event in an unspecified future where the very air outside can kill you. It then heads in a different direction - with a lot more more sci-fi than supernatural elements. You spend most of the book wondering what on earth is going on - rather than keeping me in suspense I found myself disengaging in mild frustration - especially when the characters experience a revelation that is not shared with us until chapters later, something I find particularly annoying in fiction. I’d been warned about the twist ending but didn’t see what was coming and can’t decide if I like it or not - it’s certainly clever. That does mean we get to see Leif again, and it was interesting to see the relationship between the three of them after the events of the previous book. They had to work at their friendship, but it was heart warming to see them working as a team again! Plus Leif and new character Jesa where totally cute together! Jesa is Blaine's daughter, oh yeah, his family is coming in to play in this book! I wasn't sure I liked her at first but I ended up loving her, she was scared but she persevered and she was actually kinda like Storm! Which is just as well because they buddy up! I'm hoping we get to see more of her in the next book! Such an entertaining book!! I loved the rush I experienced while reading about this dangerous adventure. It's exactly what it's promised out to be; a mix between Hunger Games and Jurassic Parc!

The character development was the best part of the novel. Each character was amazingly written with unique personalities. As the characters slowly regained their memories I loved witnessing the changing relationship between each character; some relationships became stronger while others slowly degraded. They'd left a world of destruction and grief and toxic unbreathable air, of self-driving cars, robots and drones and the machines' human masters. They will awaken to a new world - far beyond expectations. Speaking about memory: There are also philosophical ideas and concepts spread throughout the book. How do our memories of the past shape or future? If our memories could be altered, what would that mean for us?

Thank you to legion books and Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Reban was an interesting addition to the cast, I know he was in the last book but we didn't get to see much of him, and in this book we really get to know him and see what he's like. We also get to see him interacting with Storm, which was an interesting development and we learned a few revelations about Storm's family. I was rooting for him and Storm to establish some kind of relationship bt it was a tough road, I can't say I was surprised by Storm's decision at the end, but it's certainly opened up an interesting avenue for the next book! Starting this book was swamped in absolute mystery - the cast if characters opening their eyes, trapped inside an unknown tube with in a completely unknown location. A strange android that greets them and to let them know the world as they know it is no more. And it is up to them to save humanity, but only a strange set of clues and each others distant memories to guide them. The beginning third of this book hooked me instantly. Learning about each of the character, understanding their personalities and taking the journey of discovery alongside them. The two main character in Owen - an ex-fire fighter who had an issue with the fire robots turning on their crew and Maya - contracting a deadly virus that is slowly erasing her memory. These two characters are both engaging and the chemistry between them is believable and the author did an excellent job at using these two characters as a platform for telling the story. Overall this was a great apocalyptic novel with plenty of twists and action, great characters, an interesting world and a perfect conclusion. I would suggest it to all post-apocalyptic fans. And then, of course, everything goes south. Looks can be deceiving. It's true in everyday's life, and it is especially true in the world of the extinction trials. Before we reach them, though, we get a good look at our two main heroes. Immediately likeable characters are a boon for every story, but especially for stories of dystopian suffering that want you to suffer alongside their characters.

As usual, I was super attracted to this dystopia set in a future in which a group of people has decided that resetting humanity and putting them through trials was the best way to help the planet, and make Earth a better place. The Change, as they call it, has killed many humans and destroyed civilization as we know it. Know, a group of strangers wakes up in a bunker, and it's up to them to figure out what happened, why, and how to survive in this seemingly hostile environment. I really loved the way we just jump in with the action. I was left with questions that were slowly answered as the book progressed. I enjoyed reading this adventure and by the end I felt like I knew them all and was rooting for their survival! This was a nice sci-fi read with a virus that causes the Change in the entire population of the planet, and causes a huge war between 2 main groups. Charting the terrain requires food, supplies such as medicine, clothing, weapons and information about what they’re facing. Although Exile didn’t feature quite as much dinosaur action as the first book, I still loved it. There was more focus on the relationships between the characters and the complicated feelings they had towards each other. The lines really started to blur when it came to characters we had seen as unfeeling villains in the first book. There were still plenty of tense dinosaur moments and the introduction of new dinosaurs we didn’t get to see in the first book. I love the descriptions of Piloria in these books, I almost feel as though I am there.Thank you to AG Riddle, the publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary reviewer's copy. I am choosing to leave a fair and honest review. The world building was great but it felt standard for post-apocalyptic novels (in comparison to the world of Hell Divers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith for example).

It was my first time reading one book from A.G. Riddle and i must say i loved it. even the moments that seem slow, are in the right speed for me, and the ones with action, are also well written and well described, for me it was the perfect novel, even knowing that you will have the after trials book it feels complete. The book follows a group of survivors that awake inside a "Fallout shelter" of the sorts, more closely Owen and Maya that we are introduced to their life before waking up, Owen is a fireman, a brave man that cant read faces or read into the situation since he was born and he has his mom in a nursing home and he cares deeply for her, Maya in other hand, we dont get to know much about her because she seems to be forgeting her past.. only knowing for sure that she wants to know her mom and sister are ok and people seem to want to hurt her. They wake up in a station with a small group of other people, none knowing what’s going on. They learn that they’re in a post-apocalyptic world and participants in something called The Extinction Trials. Each person has an envelope containing an item they recognize from their past, but no reason why the items were left. They learn the power to the station is failing and they need to leave. What follows is a series of events and twists that reveal everything isn’t quite as it seems. Even once everything is more or less resolved and you think the story is finished, there’s one or two final twists at the end.

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At the sanctuary, two advanced androids meet them and assure the couple that they can remove the changes to their brains and preserve them along with the rest of humanity. The couple emerges thousands of years after the rest of the awakened population and find themselves on a new virgin planet. During the time of their extended cryogenic sleep, humanity had built new civilizations on earth and was at a technical level similar to the 1960s. The robots provided the two main characters with a large endowment in the form of diamonds, stones that were plentiful in their former world but are rare on earth and very valuable. Using that endowment, the couple invests in promising world-changing technology companies. At the end of the book, they are going on to prepare the population for settling other planets so that the human race no longer faces extermination at the hands of its political factions. In The Extinction Trials, six people wake up in a research facility and find they’ve been saved from the recent apocalypse that wiped out most of the people and created a toxic atmosphere. They are told they’re part of the trials to restart humanity. All in all, an amazing read with a lot of fun science and an interesting turn on the end of the world as we know it. The moral dilemma going side by side with all this, was honestly not appealing. You need the space, you need the food, you need new resources, medicine and a shitload of things your continent has run out of. People have been dying of a Plague (without being quarantined?) so colonizing Piloria is possibly the only choice they’ve got left. But noooo. Storm’s like, we’ll just leave the dinosaurs alone and let the humans all die and suffer. If you’ve got any bright ideas, girl, humanity is listening.