Quote: Day 5: 900 million infected, 180,000 dead - Day 7: 2 billion infected 800,000 dead - Day 9: 3.8 billion infected 1,600,000 dead
The numbers and chronological progress tells it all, this is NOT a novel where the threat of pandemic is narrowly avoided at the last moment. A. G. Riddle goes no holds barred to justify an ominous title such as Pandemic. The first in the series of the “Extinction Files” , Pandemic has a mysterious illuminati-type organisation sworn to save a world perceived to need saving, no matter how high the cost and no matter the how evil the means. For hundreds of years satisfied to pull the strings from the background, their Machiavellian puppet mastery takes to the stage as they unleash the eponymous pandemic upon the world. The only man that can stop them was once a member of said organisation and thus must serve as our protagonist. In the usual manner, I shall examine this character in detail.
Desmond Hughes, at least initially, reminded me of a James Bond, which anybody who knows me will attest to is not a portent for a positive review. However, progressing into the novel I found Desmond to be infinitely more intriguing and likable than the rather bland, flat character of a 007 with his clinically implanted behavior and lackluster catchphrases.

What the author did especially well is his description of Desmond’s childhood that makes it clear that his smarts and physical strength were hard-earned, that he is no Superman and his childhood did break something inside which needed fixing.
Orphaned Desmond spends his formative years with his uncle Orwell who himself traumatized by a non-described event, unwillingly stunts the boys emotional growth. In the end Orville, at least partly, redeems himself by means of a last letter where he reveals some positive emotions towards Desmond. In a general sense, their relationship is akin to one described in a Johnny Cash song "A boy named Sue" which is all about preparation for the perceived hard life with induced and quite artificial hardships becoming a self-fulfilling and rather sad promise.
As part of the flashbacks that Desmond has of his earlier life we are introduced to the world of Silicon Valley’s internet startup culture; here A. G. Riddle’s utilization of his own real life experiences as a one time internet startup are to the benefit of the reader.
All in all Desmond is the author’s best character, and it is just as well as this character drives the story. There are many more quasi main characters including an Aussie antagonist whose spoken voice may be convincingly “Down Under” accented and appearance scary, if a bit cliched (massively scarred) but makes otherwise for a rather uninspiring adversary of our protagonist, mind you scourge of the civilized world. Some characters are merely underperforming - their appearance annoying; a few even superfluous - competing for verbal space that they needn’t even inhabit. In sum, none of them is nearly as well-rounded and believable as Desmond.
Nothing as bad as a dealbreaker, though. A.G. Riddle is a solid writer, he clearly knows his craft. His prose serves the type of fiction he writes well and he knows how to build up a puzzling mystery as the story progresses along that keeps you guessing to (almost) the very end. ( )

A bit slow at times, flashbacks can get a bit annoying as they tend to happen frequently and right in the middle of a plot point. In the end everything ties together in a way that is satisfying and things come together in a nice way. Hopefully book 2 will clear up a few points that are left unanswered. ( )

60% DNF. Too many characters to keep up with, didn’t really follow or care about the plot line. Loved his other books though. ( )

I loved, loved, loved this book. I couldn't put it down. I am a sucker for action catastrophe stories so that helps. There is a worldwide pandemic, a nefarious secret society, lost memories, love story, battles, strong women. Can we save the world from ourselves? This is the first book in a series. The second book is due in October 2017.

At first I thought it was going the same way as Dan Brown's Inferno but the plot was different enough.

But again my main complaint with many novels is by the time the author gets to the end of the book I think they get tired of writing it and hurry up the story. They magically get to Australia from Ireland and there are other magic things that happen that would be spoilers if I went on. I have a lot of problems with the final 15 % of the book.

Even with the problems I can't wait for book 2. ( )

I'll start by saying that this story was not without its flaws. For one, there was a lengthy segment about 2/3 of the way through that was just back story and, while it did help build the characters and explain their relationships and motives, I couldn't help but wonder if it couldn't have been even a little bit shorter (and normally I do love plenty of backstory!).
That said, the story was full of adventure and intrigue that kept you guessing. Some things were more predictable than others, but the story was no less interesting for it. Quite looking forward to the next installment to see where it goes from there. ( )