The Extinction Trials by S. M. Wilson
The continent of Earthasia is overpopulated, and the cities are full to the brim. It’s gotten to the point where people work in shifts in order to be able to share beds, sleeping in assigned hours during either the day or the night. Food is lacking, health care is non-existent, and the crowded cities are plagued by a rapidly spreading disease no one knows how to cure. But there might be a solution to all this suffering.
Just across the (somewhat deadly) ocean, the untouched continent of Piloria is sprawling. There’s clean air, endless space, and a plenitude of eatable plants. The only problem is that Piloria already is populated. By people-eating dinosaurs.
Rating 🐖🐖🐖🐖🐖
The Extinction Trials has been described as a fusion of The Hunger Games and Jurassic Park, and after having read the book, that depiction feels point on. This is a dystopian adventure story, fast paced and plot-driven, but it’s also resting on a fine net of personal background stories and political conflicts.
The two main characters of the story, Stormchaser and Lincoln, both tells their life stories while competing in the insane trials to qualify for the (even more insane) Piloria-expedition. Together with the ongoing adventure, these stories, and secrets, contribute to further reflections about life and extinction, as well as that of human rights, unfair rulers, and a not too comfortable but alarmingly possible future if we keep on treating our planet this way. But unlike Jurassic Park, which I recently wrote a review about, those discussions doesn’t take over the novels story. So for those of you that are just looking for some good old velociraptor action: you won’t be left disappointed.
In my opinion, The Extinction Trials is the perfect dystopian adventure. It’s trustworthy, it’s emotional, it’s full of political tension, and it’s packed with hungry dinosaurs. There’s simply nothing more to wish for.
Dr. Bea approves
If you want more dystopia, check out The Lunar Chronicals or Outwalkers. And if you just can’t get enough of dinosaurs, this surprisingly new book may float your goat.
I love dystopia, so this sounds right up my street. I wish you’d gone into a bit more detail in your review though!
Oh, I did find it so hard to write this review without any spoilers! I ended up cutting out a lot of text, so a lot of the details got cut out as well. Sorry!