I think this novella is set in a world explored in other works by Gibson – a novel, I believe, or perhaps more than one. I’ve not read his last few books, so I’m not sure. In the world of Devil’s Road, an experiment gone horribly wrong opened a portal to other dimensions in an invented island nation in the Far East, and out of this portal came various kaiju – ie, monsters. They’re confined to the island by an international blockade, and once a year because reasons a handful of people are allowed to race around the island for prize money. Dutch McGuire, the only person to have survived repeated races, is broken out of a Russian prison to compete once more. But this time she’s to help an industrialist get hold of some alien tech discovered on the island by a rival corporation. I didn’t think people still wrote science fiction like this. The whole ersatz cyberpunk kick-ass heroine thing is pure 1990s, although the kaiju add a twenty-first century spin. I really like Gibson’s space opera series, but this novella did nothing for me. But then I’m the sort of person who loves the films of Ishiro Honda but thought Pacific Rim was rubbish. ( )

As a fan of Gary Gibson’s previous series, the Shoal Sequence, I was excited to get a chance to read this first volume in his new universe. Or multiverse, I guess. Jerry Beche, hero and protagonist, is the last man alive on Earth. A devastating man made plague has wiped out the rest of the human race, or so Jerry thinks until he comes across footprints near his snow bound cottage. While he may be the last human on Earth, he isn’t alone. Rescued and taken to an Earth not quite like his own, he is recruited into the Pathfinders. The Pathfinders, a group of explorers from other destroyed Earth, work for the Authority to help explore the parallel worlds. There is some hint to the bigger picture of the multiverse, of braids and strands of possibility.

If this is beginning to sound like an episode of Sliders, I’d agree. Using jump platforms and timed returns, our crew of Pathfinders slips from world to world. When Gibson shines in this novel, he shimmers. The imagined worlds - and their destruction - are each glimpses into Earths that we ourselves might face. Each apocalypse we face in Extinction Game is well thought out and described.

Unfortunately, I found the secondary characters to be somewhat lacking in development. The antagonist and supporting cast were hollow sketches for the most part. The result was a somewhat uneven experience. Between well thought out extinction events and the sometimes cardboard characters that catalog them, there was just enough story to keep moving forward. Recommended as a mashup of Sliders and Doomsday B movies, it just needed a little more than it delivered to wow me.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for making this ARC available to me prior to US publication. ( )

Gary Gibson’s the Extinction Game starts with a wonderfully imagined frozen world where one man fights for survival. Dogs have become feral. Ice has covered the land. And it’s the winter of mankind’s existence. Then everything, including the story, changes.

Extinction, it seems, could come from multiple directions, perhaps even simultaneously, and the brave lone survivor becomes one of many in a team of extinction explorers. Characters, mystery and plot take on a computer game-like feel, as the team is compelled to collect ancient artifacts without ever knowing quite way. Politics lurks behind the scenes with hints of terror and questions that shouldn’t be asked. And then the story begins to take shape again as threats become real.

Questions of identity, selfhood and self-determination; issues of terrorism and plot; the value or negation of freedom or free will -- there are serious undercurrents in this tale, bound together with nicely different survivalists, complex situations, well-drawn worlds, and a pleasing sense of personal solutions mattering more than the global. It’s an intriguing, thought-provoking tale that would convert beautifully into a computer game.

Disclosure: I read the first few pages in the store and I was hooked. ( )

Science Fiction is an area I dip into occasionally, and Gary Gibson was a new author to me, but when I was offered a copy of Extinction Game to review, something caught my attention, and so I agreed. I wasn’t sure how quickly I’d get to it, but I took a quick peek, and was soon hooked.

The story begins with Jerry Beche, who has managed to survive a deadly world-wide viral attack, and as far as he knows, he’s the only survivor on Earth. Until one day when he’s ‘rescued’, and taken to an island where there are others who have also survived the end of their own alternative Earth. He learns that there an infinite number of alternative Earths, and many of them have had their own apocalyptic event. A small group of survivors have been brought together and trained, and their role is to enter these Earths and rescue data, records, technology etc.

There’s a lot going on from this point – each world the teams visit has it’s own ending or strange future, and Gibson describes each one vividly, including the events leading up to the end of Jerry’s Earth. This was fascinating enough in itself, but we also explore the relationships within the team members, during their visits and in between. They’re an interesting group, with some handling events far better than others.

As well as this, they have to deal with the Authority, the organisation who brought them all together. Who exactly are they, and why do they need the data and technology? Also, where exactly did the ability to enter these other timelines come from?

The mix within this book was just right for me, and I read it within a couple of days. I wanted to find out as much as I could about the alternative worlds, and how it was possible to visit them, but I also found myself invested in the individuals involved, including Jerry. The balance is good, the SF aspect is there, but never weighs down the overall story, and it’s good to see characters being just as important as plot.

I’m going to recommend this one, but maybe especially to those, like me, may be a little wary of Science Fiction. I’m definitely putting some of his other books on my wishlist, and will wait rather impatiently for the sequel.