Just recently I read "Hell Divers," also by Nicholas Sansbury Smith and it was beyond fantastic! I'm seriously still thinking about that book today. I loved it so much I was determined to buy and read everything else the author has ever written, then lo and behold the next day, I received this awesome email from the author himself generously offering to gift this series to me if I was interested in reading & reviewing it. I was not only pleasantly surprised and ecstatic but I was thinking damn, this is a man after my own heart. Not only is he a fabulous writer but he can read my mind too! Needless to say, I told him of course I'm interested, so he graciously gifted me the books and here we are. *Just to be clear, my review is totally my own and is in no way influenced by my outside communication with the author...
What happens when a variant strain of Ebola starts turning man into flesh seeking, deranged monsters aka Variants? Absolute chaos! A military ghost team and a team of scientists are doing everything they can to contain and stop the virus but the virus is spreading so fast that the only realistic outcome is extinction of the human race! Can they figure out how to eradicate the Variants before the Variants eradicate the entire human race?
From the moment I started listening to the story the action was in full force and didn't let up until the very end which is exactly what I was in the mood for. I especially appreciated the level of technical detail and complexity that went into the virus and Variants plot. It was completely realistic and 100% believable. The author also has a knack for developing characters that you want to read more about and ultimately form an attachment with. I did have deja vu a couple times though. I felt like there was some redundancy in several areas of the plot. That's the main reason I went with a 4.5 star rating. All-in-all though, this was a very solid start to the series and I'm looking forward to continuing the action in book two, Extinction Edge.
*I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thanks Nick!