One of the strongest starts of the 6 books in my batch. Word of warning, this book is truly a dark fantasy, with elements of horror that entails people dying the most horrible of deaths, and the reader will be swept right into it, no ominous foreplay. 

One day, the burning rains come across the wuld (read: world*). Rolling green skies unleash acid like rain that leaves none of the organic matter, well, in solid form. Should one be unfortunate enough to stand outside, uncovered from literally head to toe, there’s naught but a wet spot left of you. As if the acid rain isn’t bad enough, there is also an illness that can make you go … crazy? Feral? You get that from another’s saliva should they bite you, and there’s an Old Mother and some shared dreams… and The Stand by King vibes, anyone? 

Luckily, I have read The Stand, and other than those few elements making me draw the similarity line, nothing else is like The Stand. Reign of Extinction is its own man! Ahem, its own book! 

At the start of the story, we are introduced to a young girl, Rose, who is living a real crap existence with a drunk of a mother who likes to beat her kids around. Rose does all she can to protect her siblings. And then the rains come… Can’t get any worse than that, surely? Wrong. 

Then there is the soldier, Wylum. A soldier to unpack, and I don’t mean that in a Chippendale way. As Wylum’s past slowly unravels, and as I got to know him through his actions (isn’t it brilliant to come to know a character in such a way?! Love it!), I could be sure the book would deliver more interesting facts by way of solid storytelling. When he and Rose meet, I could tell straight away that Wylum has some serious internal conflict. Man, do I LOVE a good internal conflict and murky past and tons of regrets and doom and gloom emotions! When written and developed well, these characters are the strongest in the sense of the decisions they must make and the turnaround for the better is so much sweeter to witness. It’s nearly like a psychological effect that makes me drool over characters that find themselves in the darkest of hours, days and nights, only to come out the other end through hard work and sheer will! 

Likewise with Rose – when her character is set in the spotlight, I felt connected to her hardships, struggles and spiralling mental state. Quick enough but without being overly dramatic, the author had given just enough of a glimpse to make me invested. Rose is good. Will she remain good? Time will tell.   

Anyway, the book is getting along at a fine pace from the start and the author has made it an easy to like book because the writing is smooth and it’s clear from the start that various threads must come together for a common cause – the stopping of the acid rains. 

What made this book ultimately even better for me, was the introduction of characters like Yohaynn and Gar. Hello entertaining dialogue and a pair of characters so unexpected and so bloody cool! They’re not humans, I think, Gar definitely isn’t – I imagined Gar to be like a man made of stone… What’s his name in Guardians of the Galaxy? Korg! Yeah. And Yohaynn is a bit of a mystery to begin with – the wit, the sarcasm, the joviality! Also, levitating? Of some sort? So, yes, these two bounce off each other in great dynamics and I am enjoying how they made the otherwise gloomy trip to save the wuld definitely a more fun to follow quest. 

I read 45% of the book and I promise this is not the end. I will finish this title to find out exactly how it’s going to end and what will happen to these characters. So, why a cut? Ha… well, I love books of all sorts! I am very tolerant towards all sorts of content and when an author takes me on a journey, I can’t fault them. Entertain me through a book and you’re a winner already. Alas, as far as competition goes, I need to base my decisions on something and with this particular book… It was the deathstare bears! I would have been horrified of them if the description given to justify their actions wasn’t so weird! Yes, scary bears but (and maybe this is a dead giveaway of my mental state) but bears using brain-paste for their artistic needs and… writing? Also, there was a scene, after building up on the INSANELY dangerous reputation of the bears, where someone meets a mother bear with cubs and the beasts do nothing? I get that it’s fiction, you can make anyone do just about anything, but a mother bear with cubs, if not outright attack, will certainly be more dangerous than without cubs. I CANNOT OVERLOOK THIS 😀 

Perhaps, also something that would make me go ‘hmm’ is that fact that whilst I love Wylum’s and Rose’s internal conflict aspect, I can’t help but enjoy the secondary characters of Johaynn and Gar more. These two should have their own adventure book! A prequel, even… But when the secondary characters outshine the MCs, for me, then I am already approaching the story from an angle that perhaps was not intended. 

*I wanted to mention that there are some cool, unique to the book aspects, such as play on words. World is wuld. Summer is sumyr. Dragons are dragyns.