Extinction Game is Gary Gibson’s new novel, out this month from Tor UK. Rather than another space opera in his Shoal universe, Extinction Game is a near future novel that explores parallel worlds, all with a common theme: apocalypse.
From the publisher:
COULD YOU SURVIVE THE END OF YOUR WORLD?
When your life is based on lies, how do you hunt down the truth?
Jerry Beche should be dead. Instead, he’s rescued from a desolate Earth where he was the last man alive. He’s then trained for the toughest conditions imaginable and placed with a crack team of specialists on an isolated island. Every one of them is a survivor, as each withstood the violent ending of their own alternate Earth. And their new specialism? To retrieve weapons and data in missions to other apocalyptic versions of our world.
But what is ‘the Authority’, the shadowy organization that rescued Beche and his fellow survivors? How does it access timelines to find other Earths? And why does it need these instruments of death?
As Jerry struggles to obey his new masters, he begins to distrust his new companions. A strange bunch, their motivations are less than clear, and accidents start plaguing their missions. Jerry suspects the Authority is feeding them lies, and team members are spying on him. As a dangerous situation spirals into catastrophe, is there anybody he can trust?
Due to its underlying theme, Extinction Game starts out relatively bleakly. Jerry Beche is surviving alone in the world after a man-made virus wipes out humanity. He’s physically surviving, but it’s clear that his mental state is far from normal, as shown by his increasing hallucinations of – and conversations with – his dead wife. That is until he sees footprints in the snow, a sign that he is no longer alone, and the start of revelations and events that he can scarcely believe. Taken to Easter Island on an alternate Earth, Jerry discovers that the crew manning the island work for the Authority, travelling to different parallel worlds where an event has all but wiped out humanity on each of them. With his fellow survivors – Pathfinders – he begins to accompany them on missions to these desolate Earths, but not all seems right to him. With the truth as his aim, Jerry starts looking into events that some want left well alone…
Firstly, I think that the premise to Extinction Game is fascinating and could be the source for so many scenarios. Having parallel Earths, all of which have faced, or are imminently facing, and apocalypse-type event, allows Gibson to let his imagination run free. However, each time we see something new Gibson makes it believable, as if it could really happen in our future. It’s interesting to see an author have the freedom to stretch their imagination with stories like this, and shows that great sci-fi can take on many forms.
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself there. At its heart Extinction Game is a mystery, one that has little hints throughout the story that lead to the resolution. It’s interesting in a way not many books are, mainly because of its premise and settings. With many factors affecting the Pathfinders and the Authority-run base on Easter Island, it’s easy to get carried away with the explorations of other, almost dead, worlds. But Gibson keeps the threads running throughout, offering explanations for some, but not all, questions raised. This factor is, perhaps, one of the more frustrating aspects to Extinction Game – wanting answers that aren’t given. Does this affect the overall story being told? No, not really, but it’s an aspect that begs for further exploration and detail.
Regarding the characters, I found them to be interesting and multi-layered. Jerry is obviously the main protagonist with the story being told exclusively from his point of view. It allows us to get inside his head and see how he changes as the narrative progresses. From the early, rather eerie moments when he’s by himself, losing his sanity, and struggling to adapt, to the later more confident traits, he’s adaptive and inquisitive. His fellow Pathfinders are also interesting, each with their own history from their alternative worlds. Of course, no story would be complete without the source of unrest, here in the form of Greenbrooke, part of an internal agency at the Authority. That’s all that needs to be known, for he makes his presence felt whenever he’s on the page with his arrogance.
Suffice to say, I thoroughly enjoyed Extinction Game. It reminded me more of his Final Days novel more than his Shoal books, and that narrower focus (not that this is particularly narrow by any stretch of the word) seems to work exceptionally well for him. With work on a sequel underway the few niggles I had with Extinction Game – namely the lack of answers to some aspects – can be more or less swept under the carpet.
Ultimately, believable characters, interesting situations, stunning settings, and, above all else, a compulsively readable story makes this a must-read for sci-fi fans. Highly recommended.
Publisher: http://torbooks.co.uk
Author: www.garygibson.net
September 2014, 400 Pages
Hardcover, ISBN: 9780230772700
Review copy received from the publisher
© 2014 Mark Chitty
