Extinction End

The Extinction Cycle, Book 5

By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Hope rises in the hearts of those still left standing, but safety seems to be just an illusion. In a single night of shattering terror, Plum Island is destroyed, and key scientist Dr. Kate Lovato is abducted.

The end has arrived....

Almost seven weeks have passed since the Hemorrhage Virus ravaged the world. The remnants of the United States military have regrouped and relocated Central Command to the George Washington Carrier Strike Group. It's here, in the North Atlantic, that President Jan Ringgold and Vice President George Johnson prepare to deploy a new bioweapon and embark on the final mission to take back the country from the Variants.

With his home gone and his friends kidnapped, Master Sergeant Reed Beckham and his remaining men must take drastic measures to save what's left of the human race. But not everyone at Central Command has the same plan for victory. As the Variants continue to evolve, only a handful of heroes stand between the creatures and mankind's total extinction.

One way or another, the battle for the United States of America ends here.

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

This final book is the ultimate in zombie horror.

The Hemorrhage Virus, created by doctors of the military hoping to create the perfect soldier, is still a deadly threat but now the variants have morphed and become more deadly over the last seven weeks.  Dr. Kate Levado and her colleague, Ellis, have tried to save the world only to discover that the variants are morphing to fit their environments and they are breeding!

Master Sergeant Beckham has his hands full with the variants but now he has to rescue Kate, Horn’s daughters and Meg from the variants who kidnapped them.  Face to face with the Bone Collector and the human collaborators, Beckham and his small team fight to reclaim their family and loved ones.

During all of this, President Ringgold and VP Johnson plan to strategically release a new bio weapon to defeat the off-spring of the variants – the perfect soldiers.  Ringgold and Johnson are faced with a mutiny; Lt. Davis must defeat and squelch the coup before it’s too late and the nuclear bombs are released on Team Ghost!

Fitz, Horn, Beckham and others face life changing decisions – not everyone makes it out alive or in one piece.

This final book is the ultimate in zombie horror.  There is not one moment of down time for anyone – there is constant action, danger with twists and turns that leave the listener in stunned awe.  At times, I railed against Nicholas Sansbury Smith calling him every name in the book only to have my husband remind me to be patient!  Smith masterfully puts all the pieces together in one last book, demonstrating why our military soldiers and others fight the fight, what the U.S. means to some and how life is never something to be taken for granted.

This is a tear jerker at times, an emotional roller coaster making the listener experience ups and downs that are monumental.  There are some beautiful moments where life and death are experienced in ways that only someone skilled in story telling can relay with words.

This is one of my few favorite zombie series.  Smith ends this series well leaving room for other characters to move forward if and when he chooses.

Again, Bronson Pinchot did an excellent job of narrating.  His skill at drawing the listener in with his voice is surpassed by none.  He projected the right emotions each time and caught the listener up in the rush of excitement.  I enjoyed listening to his narrations and look forward to hearing more from him.

There were no issues with production.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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I always avoid zombie and horror novels...

...so I prefer to think of the outstanding Extinction Cycle series as apocalyptic/post apocalyptic novels. The variants created by infecting humans with an Ebola variant are indeed zombie-like as they quickly multiply and evolve into killing machines with increasing capabilities as well as ever more deadly offensive and defensive weapons.

If the potential listener is looking for continuous action and intense suspense, this series provides both. After listening to novels 1-4 in the series one year ago, I decided to wait for a year to listen to the 5th and final novel only to find that the 6th novel, Extension Aftermath, has been released. This is a serialized series that cannot be understood unless the novels are read in order. Listening to the entire series is a 58 hour time commitment.

Exceptional.

I have started this review many times but wasn't able to formulate the words that I wanted to say, not because this was bad, but because it was exceptional and the words I wanted to say weren't enough. This book, and indeed the whole series, has been phenomenal.

So Kate, Meg, Tasha, Jenny and a few other islanders were taken by the variants and their collaborators back to the lair of the Bone Collector. Beckham and team Ghost (well what's left of them anyway) immediately set out on a rescue mission. It might just be their toughest fight yet because the girls are in danger.

Meanwhile, there is dissension in the ranks, with someone wanting to send a nuclear bomb to wipe out the variants, even with men still in the field, but the president denying the request. The culprit isn't happy though and a mutiny is about to take place. Can Lt. Davis and a handful of hurt marines stop it in time?

This is just a drop in the bucket of what happens in this book!! As with each book, the action is non stop, and I mean non stop. Every page is chock full of it and it's hard to take a breath because you know something is about to happen!! I didn't just read this... I devoured it as I couldn't put it down!!

The author isn't afraid to take risks either. In every book characters die, but he also kills off some prominent ones, and I was afraid to find out who was killed here!!! There are deaths, some of them painful ones, and no-one is left unscathed. My heart was in my mouth so many times with this and I was in tears a lot too, but it all added up to a simply amazing book.

These characters have become some of my favourite and even though this was supposed to be the end, I'm so glad the author decided to write 2 more. This would have been a satisfying ending to Beckham's tale, but there were a lot of unanswered questions and I'm delighted we get to see some of Team Ghost go to Europe and take back the world!!

I don't know what else to say about this... other than it's one of the best series I've read in years! Extinction End was stunning, stupendous, amazing, exceptional and extraordinary!! Brilliantly written and developed, it's a must read for everyone!

To me, Bronson Pinchot is Beckham and Horn and all the other amazing characters!! He nailed the performance and gave every character their own tones and voices. He captured the very essence of the book perfectly and drew me in with his inflections. Brilliant!!

Wow

I've now listened to the whole series 2x and what can I say? I laughed, I cried, I got angry at the monsters both human and variant. These books were written in a way that each character came alive and in the end I was relieved at the the victories achieved by each and every person in the books. Thank you Mr. Sansbury Smith for the introduction to my new friends and if I happen to have the privilege of meeting them again in the future, I wouldn't complain!

Pretty Good Series

I enjoyed this series. The story developed smoothly from book to book with natural flow. The continued growth of the variants as enemies maintained interest, though the pace at which the events moved seemed a bit too fast at times. I do not mean the individual scenes, which were written with extraordinary detail, but the overall story arc. That is why I left off a star.

Bronson Pinchot is a solid narrator, though not my favorite. I find some of his pronunciations irksome, such as the word "why"; it sounds like ha-wie. Some of his female characters lack original voices too. Again, solid but not 5 star worthy.

loved the series

The ending of this book was perfect I really enjoy I will be purchasing more books by this author which I have found this series earlier

Oh Man, Reed's Pissed

Man I love these books! If you're this far in I don't have to persuade you to continue the series, I just need to tell you: Wait till you see what Reed does!

As always, Bronson is awesome!

Just ok

I liked the book/ series, but I didn't care for the love story that was attached to every hard core action scene.

Better than most but ...

What a brilliant narrator! Pinchot provided hours of superb entertainment and although I cringed at the swearing and blasphemy I finished book five because This novel is definitely better than most and the unexpected twists and turns will keep fans of post - apocalyptic novels well-satisfied.
Enough now though, also of "help me!" and "No" and then happy romantic endings.

Awesome! !

A fitting end to an amazing series!! Well done sir!!! I listened to all 5 books in less than 2 weeks, and just found out there is a 6th!! PUMPED!!!