A solid start then gets a bit confusing with too much going on.
A good read for those who like a lot of action.
Author
workingh
3 years ago
Another great read from AG Riddle. Can’t wait to read the follow-up.
Author
maryann
3 years ago
At present I am three-fourths through the book and I cannot read fast enough. If books about really bad guys, unknown diseases and interesting characters is your idea of a good read then this book is for you.
Author
lori
3 years ago
Great character and story development. Loved it from beginning to end!
Author
lindareister
3 years ago
really like this writer, have about all the books
Author
livesandlovesofabooknerd
3 years ago
Pandemic (The Extinction Files Book 1) Kindle Edition
by A.G. Riddle
I borrowed this book via Kindle Unlimited and am choosing to leave a fair and honest review.
“Disasters are an opportunity for the worst of humanity. And the best.”
AG Riddle is the king of apocalyptic science fiction! Pandemic proves that without a doubt. The pacing and cinematic writing makes this read like Michael Bay had a child with Stephen Speilberg and hired Dean Emmerich to raise her. In fact, I find it fascinating that Emmerich’s name appears. Dean Emmerich is responsible for ELE movies like Independence Day (the first one), 2012 and Godzilla. Riddle is playing a game with his readers and he is playing it well. Every word he writes is carefully chosen for how the pace of the book or how visual the scene. That really shows.
I’ve read the Atlantis Gene series and I wasn’t overwhelmed. This series has me whelmed! Not only with the pace, the characters and the story itself, but with the knowledge that Mr. Riddle had to absorb and research he must do to produce this kind of work. I lost at least one night sleep because “One more chapter” of a Riddle book is never enough.
The characters are well-drawn and their history justifies their knowledge, so there is no Mary-Sue who comes in and saves the day with brilliant plot-armor. In fact, much of our time is spent chasing anarchists who have released a virus on the world.
Mr. Riddle has a devious way of laying out the clues to the issue. Every bit fits just right into the puzzle of what Looking Glass is. Of course, even using Looking Glass as a name for a project. During the Cold War, Looking Glass was a specialized plane that stayed in the air at all times watching for any nuclear aggression from the Soviet Union. Crystal Mountain was the NORAD location seen in War Games – the Matthew Broderick break out hit.
Every sentence and every scene drew me deeper into the story and revealed at how right Mr. Riddle was in his creation of his virus and what happened in our real world. The only thing he missed was the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020.
Awesome read during the Pandemic of 2020
Great except the characters were not engaging = maybe the writing style.
Author
ecfrey
3 years ago
Several things were implausible in the last 1/4 of the book, but that did not stop me from enjoying this book. I often read more character-driven stories, but A.G. Riddle’s books are so plot driven that the characters just seem to come along for the ride.
Author
cmonahan258
3 years ago
The Extinction Files, Book 1. Love this author.
Author
avataress59
3 years ago
Makes you think… the scariest things out there may just not he a fictional issue
Author
meh17
3 years ago
A very good book.
Author
caroljamesmarshall
3 years ago
I did something I didn’t think I’d do when I started Pandemic by A.G. Riddle on audiobook format. I instantly bought book 2 in the Extinction Files. This was surprising because I did not instantly care for Riddle’s writing style. Riddle writes in an action perspective. I tend to lean more towards the thoughts and emotions of characters rather than a play-by-play of what is going on. However, once I settled into the story, I found myself wanting to know more and then more. I find the story line very clever and well planned out.
Author
brandi
3 years ago
Kept me interested. Reading the second book now.
Author
acmb
3 years ago
A. G. Riddle has done it again with this action-packed page-turner! Can’t wait for the next book in this series – The Extinction Files: Genome.
Author
helene
3 years ago
I love all of A. G. Riddle’s books
Author
lisa
3 years ago
Loved it
Author
karen
3 years ago
I give 3.5 stars to this very complex and circuitous story. It took me eighteen (18) days to read this book and that is about twelve (12) days to long for any book. The problem was not so much with the story as a whole, but that there just seemed to be almost to much going on. There were wars, conspiracies, secret societies, romance, intrigue, and a host of other things. The characters were all good and I was happy to get to know them. I became very invested in the bulk of the characters, and there were quite a few of them. It was kind of hard keeping track sometimes though because there are so many twists in relation to the characters and the situations which change on a dime.
A mysterious outbreak starts to spread across Kenya and the CDC and WHO respond but are unprepared for what they find. A submarine with no identification markings is found sunken one hundred miles north of Alaska with evidence of scientific experiments having been performed there. Dr. Peyton Shaw is deployed to Kenya from the CDC to help trace the pathogen, as she does she starts to believe the outbreak may be a part of a larger plan. Desmond Hughes wakes up in a Berlin Hotel with a dead man and no memory of who he is, but a clue leads him to Peyton Shaw who knows him but will not tell him how. All this and more.
While I liked the book there were a few things that made me a little crazy. While I appreciate the fact that the book was well researched I don’t think every bit of that research needed to go into this one book, particularly since it is the beginning of a series. The thing was 137 chapters long, I hate having to go through that many when some are only a paragraph long. Though it may only be me, I do not think Disco music was around in 1965, even in Hong Kong. The thing that I did like a lot was that things tied up well for all the round about that went on.
I would recommend this but warn you to be prepared for a lot of information. If you like medical thrillers this may work for you.
A solid start then gets a bit confusing with too much going on.
A good read for those who like a lot of action.
Another great read from AG Riddle. Can’t wait to read the follow-up.
At present I am three-fourths through the book and I cannot read fast enough. If books about really bad guys, unknown diseases and interesting characters is your idea of a good read then this book is for you.
Great character and story development. Loved it from beginning to end!
really like this writer, have about all the books
Pandemic (The Extinction Files Book 1) Kindle Edition
by A.G. Riddle
I borrowed this book via Kindle Unlimited and am choosing to leave a fair and honest review.
“Disasters are an opportunity for the worst of humanity. And the best.”
AG Riddle is the king of apocalyptic science fiction! Pandemic proves that without a doubt. The pacing and cinematic writing makes this read like Michael Bay had a child with Stephen Speilberg and hired Dean Emmerich to raise her. In fact, I find it fascinating that Emmerich’s name appears. Dean Emmerich is responsible for ELE movies like Independence Day (the first one), 2012 and Godzilla. Riddle is playing a game with his readers and he is playing it well. Every word he writes is carefully chosen for how the pace of the book or how visual the scene. That really shows.
I’ve read the Atlantis Gene series and I wasn’t overwhelmed. This series has me whelmed! Not only with the pace, the characters and the story itself, but with the knowledge that Mr. Riddle had to absorb and research he must do to produce this kind of work. I lost at least one night sleep because “One more chapter” of a Riddle book is never enough.
The characters are well-drawn and their history justifies their knowledge, so there is no Mary-Sue who comes in and saves the day with brilliant plot-armor. In fact, much of our time is spent chasing anarchists who have released a virus on the world.
Mr. Riddle has a devious way of laying out the clues to the issue. Every bit fits just right into the puzzle of what Looking Glass is. Of course, even using Looking Glass as a name for a project. During the Cold War, Looking Glass was a specialized plane that stayed in the air at all times watching for any nuclear aggression from the Soviet Union. Crystal Mountain was the NORAD location seen in War Games – the Matthew Broderick break out hit.
Every sentence and every scene drew me deeper into the story and revealed at how right Mr. Riddle was in his creation of his virus and what happened in our real world. The only thing he missed was the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020.
Awesome read during the Pandemic of 2020
https://www.amazon.com/Pandemic-Extinction-Files-Book-1-ebook/dp/B06Y382BHS
Great except the characters were not engaging = maybe the writing style.
Several things were implausible in the last 1/4 of the book, but that did not stop me from enjoying this book. I often read more character-driven stories, but A.G. Riddle’s books are so plot driven that the characters just seem to come along for the ride.
The Extinction Files, Book 1. Love this author.
Makes you think… the scariest things out there may just not he a fictional issue
A very good book.
I did something I didn’t think I’d do when I started Pandemic by A.G. Riddle on audiobook format. I instantly bought book 2 in the Extinction Files. This was surprising because I did not instantly care for Riddle’s writing style. Riddle writes in an action perspective. I tend to lean more towards the thoughts and emotions of characters rather than a play-by-play of what is going on. However, once I settled into the story, I found myself wanting to know more and then more. I find the story line very clever and well planned out.
Kept me interested. Reading the second book now.
A. G. Riddle has done it again with this action-packed page-turner! Can’t wait for the next book in this series – The Extinction Files: Genome.
I love all of A. G. Riddle’s books
Loved it
I give 3.5 stars to this very complex and circuitous story. It took me eighteen (18) days to read this book and that is about twelve (12) days to long for any book. The problem was not so much with the story as a whole, but that there just seemed to be almost to much going on. There were wars, conspiracies, secret societies, romance, intrigue, and a host of other things. The characters were all good and I was happy to get to know them. I became very invested in the bulk of the characters, and there were quite a few of them. It was kind of hard keeping track sometimes though because there are so many twists in relation to the characters and the situations which change on a dime.
A mysterious outbreak starts to spread across Kenya and the CDC and WHO respond but are unprepared for what they find. A submarine with no identification markings is found sunken one hundred miles north of Alaska with evidence of scientific experiments having been performed there. Dr. Peyton Shaw is deployed to Kenya from the CDC to help trace the pathogen, as she does she starts to believe the outbreak may be a part of a larger plan. Desmond Hughes wakes up in a Berlin Hotel with a dead man and no memory of who he is, but a clue leads him to Peyton Shaw who knows him but will not tell him how. All this and more.
While I liked the book there were a few things that made me a little crazy. While I appreciate the fact that the book was well researched I don’t think every bit of that research needed to go into this one book, particularly since it is the beginning of a series. The thing was 137 chapters long, I hate having to go through that many when some are only a paragraph long. Though it may only be me, I do not think Disco music was around in 1965, even in Hong Kong. The thing that I did like a lot was that things tied up well for all the round about that went on.
I would recommend this but warn you to be prepared for a lot of information. If you like medical thrillers this may work for you.