Extinction Peak by Lucas Mangum
When the raptors come out of sinkholes across the United States, Deandra Antigone Merriweather’s elder brother Johnny sees the chaos as opportunity. Overrun by prehistoric beasts of increasing size and savagery, the world has completely gone to hell, but he doesn’t suspect it will stay that way, and he wants to be a rich man by the time things get back to normal.
Though less optimistic about the future, Deandra thinks it might be a good idea to have some money stashed away just in case, if only so she can one day get away from the abusive Johnny for good. Together, they embark on a perilous journey across the wasteland to rob the mountain home of a corrupt California senator. But the home isn’t empty.
The senator has stayed behind to live like a king in this post-apocalypse world. With specially trained raptors, his sadistic wife, and sexually stunted son, all manner of misery awaits Deandra within the house’s walls.
All the while, the outside world crumbles under the trampling feet of monsters long thought extinct.
United StatesDinosaurs, Brutality And Gore!
Sinkholes, dinosaurs and savagery…yes please! You know that feeling when you are at the top of the first drop of a rollercoaster? Mangum masterfully puts the reader in that position from the start of the story! The story takes twists and turns that are an unexpected ride through an apocalyptic world where humans are not the top predators. Sinkholes have opened all over the earth allowing dinosaurs and nightmarish creatures to invade and rule in our modern world. Deandra and Johnny are headed to a place where they know they can find enough cash to keep them financially set. Hel and her group of warrior women are looking for a place that offers safety too. A corrupt Senator has captured women for his own amusement and is certain he can do what he wants with no one to govern his actions. Mangum gives us just enough information on his characters to understand where they all came from and what led them to this point in time. This is a fantastic story with awesome descriptors of gore, brutality, and sickening sounds. Humans fighting dinosaurs. Dinosaurs fighting dinosaurs. The carnage is real! I loved it so much that I read this in an afternoon! I think the book has a new cover now, but it’s definitely worth checking out!
United StatesAction Packed Dino Fun
Before I get into the book, you have to know that this story is flipping fun. It’s entertaining as hell and everything I could ever want. Extinction Peak is fast paced and exhilarating, full of killer dinosaurs, giant monsters, and firefights. All across the US sinkholes open up and release dinosaurs of every variety, choosing mass chaos and hysteria. During the bloodshed the Dinos cause, siblings Deandra and Johnny Merriweather make their way towards a wealthy senator’s home to steal his cache of money so they can be rich when the world goes back to normal. Unfortunately for them, the senator has also survived the catastrophe and has already grabbed the world by the balls and made himself a sort of post-apocalyptic king. Mangum has created the best thing to happen to dinosaurs in fiction since Michael Crichton. I cannot stress enough about how fun this book is. The action alone is worth at least a dozen rereads, but that may just be my biased towards awesome dinosaur fiction. Regardless, Lucas knows how to write a damn good book that will have you hoping for a sequel.
United StatesDinosaurs, Giant Monsters, and Mangum!
In the interest of full disclosure, I read this book quite a few months ago, and now I find myself needing to procure yet another physical copy solely because I love this artwork. Lucas Mangum's Extinction Peak borrows heavily from themes familiar to fans of Jurassic Park/World franchise, Dino Crisis, and Land Of The Lost while painting a dizzying portrait of an apocalypse no one could have seen coming (except for those who made it happen, but that's a bit of a spoiler, so I'll leave it at that). We're first introduced to Deandra and her brother, Johnny, as they plan to leave the basement they've been sheltering in as the world outside descends into a carnage-filled nightmare Michael Crichton wouldn't have dared explore, even in writing. Children of a deceased drug lord, neither Deandra nor Johnny are well adjusted or particularly sympathetic characters, particularly Johnny. I found myself wanting both of them to be devoured by dinosaurs almost immediately but knowing there wouldn't be much of a story to tell if that were how it played out. As we follow those two (and other characters we encounter along the way, many of them equally flawed and broken), we see far more detail of just how terrible and dangerous the world has become as these beasts emerged, seemingly from Hell, through the sinkholes around the world. As with most monster-themed horror, we soon find that the worst monsters aren't the obvious ones, that it's other people we really need to worry about. Fueled by greed, contempt derived from old world biases, and sadistic impulses that shouldn't surprise any of us (but somehow always do), the story continues its fast-paced and character-driven journey through an increasingly unreal end to the world as we know it. In all honesty, I would love to see Mangum explore this particular apocalypse in greater depth and detail, through the struggles of other people in other places, but this book is so detailed as to make it simple to close our eyes and imagine precisely what it might be like for others, even ourselves when the holes in the Earth begin opening up. This book is filled with graphic violence, gruesome deaths, and subject matter that absolutely nudges it into splatterpunk territory…be warned that this is not a book for your dinosaur-loving children…unless you parent the way I would…and did.
United StatesDinosaurs, Giant Monsters...and MANGUM
In the interest of full disclosure. I own the physical edition of the earlier Extinction Peak release...with less awesome cover art. I will be procuring a physical copy of this edition too, because it looks so damn cool. I just wanted to be sure my review is in place for this AMAZING and imaginative vision of the end of our world. Lucas Mangum's Extinction Peak borrows heavily from themes familiar to fans of Jurassic Park/World franchise, Dino Crisis, and Land Of The Lost while painting a dizzying portrait of an apocalypse no one could have seen coming (except for those who made it happen, but that's a bit of a spoiler, so I'll leave it at that). We're first introduced to Deandra and her brother, Johnny, as they plan to leave the basement they've been sheltering in as the world outside descends into a carnage-filled nightmare Michael Crichton wouldn't have dared explore, even in writing. Children of a deceased drug lord, neither Deandra nor Johnny are well adjusted or particularly sympathetic characters, particularly Johnny. I found myself wanting both of them to be devoured by dinosaurs almost immediately but knowing there wouldn't be much of a story to tell if that were how it played out. As we follow those two (and other characters we encounter along the way, many of them equally flawed and broken), we see far more detail of just how terrible and dangerous the world has become as these beasts emerged, seemingly from Hell, through the sinkholes around the world. As with most monster-themed horror, we soon find that the worst monsters aren't the obvious ones, that it's other people we really need to worry about. Fueled by greed, contempt derived from old world biases, and sadistic impulses that shouldn't surprise any of us (but somehow always do), the story continues its fast-paced and character-driven journey through an increasingly unreal end to the world as we know it. In all honesty, I would love to see Mangum explore this particular apocalypse in greater depth and detail, through the struggles of other people in other places, but this book is so detailed as to make it simple to close our eyes and imagine precisely what it might be like for others, even ourselves when the holes in the Earth begin opening up. This book is filled with graphic violence, gruesome deaths, and subject matter that absolutely nudges it into splatterpunk territory…be warned that this is not a book for your dinosaur-loving children…unless you parent the way I would…and did.
Dinosaurs, Giant Monsters, and Mangum!
In the interest of full disclosure. I own the physical edition of the earlier Extinction Peak release...with less awesome cover art. I will be procuring a physical copy of this edition too, because it looks so damn cool. I just wanted to be sure my review is in place for this AMAZING and imaginative vision of the end of our world. Lucas Mangum's Extinction Peak borrows heavily from themes familiar to fans of Jurassic Park/World franchise, Dino Crisis, and Land Of The Lost while painting a dizzying portrait of an apocalypse no one could have seen coming (except for those who made it happen, but that's a bit of a spoiler, so I'll leave it at that). We're first introduced to Deandra and her brother, Johnny, as they plan to leave the basement they've been sheltering in as the world outside descends into a carnage-filled nightmare Michael Crichton wouldn't have dared explore, even in writing. Children of a deceased drug lord, neither Deandra nor Johnny are well adjusted or particularly sympathetic characters, particularly Johnny. I found myself wanting both of them to be devoured by dinosaurs almost immediately but knowing there wouldn't be much of a story to tell if that were how it played out. As we follow those two (and other characters we encounter along the way, many of them equally flawed and broken), we see far more detail of just how terrible and dangerous the world has become as these beasts emerged, seemingly from Hell, through the sinkholes around the world. As with most monster-themed horror, we soon find that the worst monsters aren't the obvious ones, that it's other people we really need to worry about. Fueled by greed, contempt derived from old world biases, and sadistic impulses that shouldn't surprise any of us (but somehow always do), the story continues its fast-paced and character-driven journey through an increasingly unreal end to the world as we know it. In all honesty, I would love to see Mangum explore this particular apocalypse in greater depth and detail, through the struggles of other people in other places, but this book is so detailed as to make it simple to close our eyes and imagine precisely what it might be like for others, even ourselves when the holes in the Earth begin opening up. This book is filled with graphic violence, gruesome deaths, and subject matter that absolutely nudges it into splatterpunk territory…be warned that this is not a book for your dinosaur-loving children…unless you parent the way I would…and did.