Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me a copy. Life got in the way of me reading this before the time expired :(
it seems really good, so will be checking it out from the library or purchasing it from my local bookstore
5 stars for the vibes it gives

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

REVIEW TO FOLLOW.

I don’t like to give lack luster reviews but this one for me was hard to get through. I found the characters hard to relate to. Clearly the main ranger character has his social anxiety problems and reasons for being secluded, but he literally acts like he needs a sign around his neck “Does Not Play Well with Others and Doesn’t Even Try.” That’s okay, because anti social people are full entitled to be who they are, but it severely hinders him in the ability to do his job, to protect the wilderness’s singular surviving bear, from a small posse of poachers who see dollar signs over the value of conservation. When the poachers are introduced, it seems like the slow burn plot will catch fire but instead it drags on into a last man standing show down that was sometimes confusing, sometimes just hard to read. I’m sorry, this is just my honest opinion.

What a great read!! We need more books like this one. So don't be fooled by descriptions and reviews. Just pick a time to sit down and swallow it whole, because you will not put it down!!

Genre: Action adventure (light sci-fi)

Synopsis: When poachers descend upon the last remaining grizzly bear, Ranger Ben must decide what he’s willing to do (or lose) to defend the animal he’s promised to protect.

Review: This is definitely a page-turning wild ride! Let’s talk genre for a second because I think this often draws or deters readers. This book is listed as apocalyptic/sci-fi but most of it takes place in the woods with rifles, with only secondary references to the downfall of civilization, so don’t let this deter you if you aren’t a huge sci-fi fan. What this is, to me, is a heart-pumping, thought-provoking, back-to-basics action adventure novel! We’re talking mad dashes through the woods, heart racing shootouts, classic showdowns. That’s not to say this novel isn’t without depth. The environmental themes are on-point without being preachy. The writing is literary-esque, with vivid descriptions of nature. But most importantly, this book is entertaining. My one complaint is I wanted more of Poppy! She was such a great character. Anyway. Highly recommend!

Overall, a blood pumping action adventure with poignant themes and lyrical writing.

I very much enjoyed this book. I would recommend it, and look forward to reading more from this author!

Do you ever have nightmares where you’re trying to rescue someone or something but you’re mired in slow motion?

I suspect a lot of us feel that way right now about our planet and the environment and all the disappearing animals and habitats.

I loved Bradley Somer’s novel Fishbowl, a fine literary tale of a fish’s slow fall from the terrace of a high-rise, so I’m interested in reading anything he writes. Even if it is as different from that previous novel as you could imagine.

Extinction is a literary chase and hunt, rescue and fight, wilderness adventure. If it were a movie, there would be mostly action shots and very little dialogue. The literary and poetic prowess is used to describe every action of the hero, Ben, in his fight to save the last bear on Earth in a time in the future when the planet’s human inhabitants are split into conservationists and trophy hunting maniacs.

My heart pounded during fights, I yelled things like “Oh no!” and of course, I rooted for the bear.

The ending was completely unexpected and wonderful. Rather than give even an inkling of what it is, I’ll say that, based solely on the ending, I would shelve Extinction beside Richard Powers’s The Overstory, Richard Flanagan’s The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, and Charlotte McConaghy’s Migrations.

Did not read this fully because there were too many formatting, editing, grammar, etc. errors on the copy that I was sent. It quickly became confusing and distracting. Look forward to reading it once it comes out officially.

Ben is a ranger in a vast, unnamed, mountainous forest, and his only job is to protect Earth's last surviving bear. When his solitude is broken by three interlopers intent on tracking down his bear, Ben must decide just how far he will go to ensure the animal's survival.

Extinction explores a future for the planet where climate change and human interference have irrevocably altered the environment, resulting in widespread species extinctions, worldwide wars, famine, and ultimately humanity's colonization of (and departure to) the moon and further space. It's a microcosm of that world, though, an intimate story tightly focused on one man, one bear, and the enemies hunting them both. In some ways it feels more like a story about the past than one about the future, with its strong ties to nature and primitive survival.

This book worked for me both as a cautionary tale and a metaphor, but also as a propulsive, violent, action-packed survival story. There is treachery and betrayal, physical and mental anguish, and fear and danger to be found in these pages. It's laced with tension that ratchets up by degrees, and there's a dramatic, cinematic quality to Bradley Somer's writing resulting in several exhilarating, pulse-pounding scenes that had me turning pages quickly. The conclusion is executed flawlessly. Somer's descriptions of nature are vivid and lush, and yes, sometimes those descriptions are a bit too expansive. But overall the peaceful, natural atmosphere is juxtaposed brilliantly with the gritty violence of the story. It reminded me in some ways of both The Revenant and The River. I think this book would make a fantastic movie.

Extinction manages to do a lot in under 300 pages. It's thought-provoking, sobering, and melancholy, and explores the resilience of the human spirit in harrowing, haunting ways. It made me feel an entire range of emotions. This is an immersive, exciting thriller with a compelling and affecting deeper message, and I highly recommend it for readers of survival stories, dystopian fiction, and cli-fi. And can we talk for a moment about that cover? Because it's stunning.

The last bear on Earth is threatened with extinction in this new book by Bradley Somer. A post-apocalyptic world has humans abandoning the planet and moving out into space colonies. The event is not mentioned specifically, but hinted at throughout the book. Somehow, there is only one bear (unknown species) left on the planet and two young rangers, Ben and Emma, are assigned to protect him. One day, Ben hears voices in the forest and goes to investigate. That touches off an adventure.

The people he meets are not the best of humanity. Their greedy intentions toward the bear become obvious over time. Ben and Emma are in a race to keep the bear safe.

This story has some exciting elements, like the passage over the old railroad bridge and the gunfights. I wish there had been more scenes with the bear though, and that we knew which species it was. Polly was a great character. I think she’s my favorite character in the whole book. She really saves the day and is a unique, strong individual. Ben and Emma were a little less believable as rangers. Conservation rangers would need to know more about the biology of the species they are protecting. The bear tracks were described OK, but the gait it was indicated using wasn’t, in my opinion as a professional tracker. But, that’s not a big deal to anyone outside the tracking community, really. The descriptions of the area where the action takes place were good for setting the scene. You get a picture of decayed industrial sites, old fire scars, abandoned railroads and mines, etc. There was not much information on the event that caused humanity to abandon the planet. That would have been a good story element to add, I think.

The story is fast-paced, with chases and gunfights, and narrow escapes. Extreme weather is thrown in too. I thought it was sad what happened with the bear, but it was inevitable in a post-apocalyptic story. The ending was good and offered some hope for the future of the planet though.

This was a good overall adventure/thriller and had some sci-fi/post-apocalyptic elements that were not deeply addressed. All around, a solid thriller set against a wilderness backdrop.

The following review will publish Nov. 1 in The Cullman Times, The Athens News Courier and the St. Clair News Aegis:

By the book: A suspenseful November includes ‘The Break’ by Katie Sise, ‘Dark Rivers to Cross’ by Lynne Reeves and ‘Extinction’ by Bradley Somer

By Tom Mayer
tmayer@cullmantimes.com

‘The Break’ by Katie Sise

If you haven’t read Katie Sise — “Open House,” “We Were Mothers” — consider her latest, “The Break,” (Little A, Nov. 1) a primer: the author’s suspense novels capture her cinematic roots, but delve deep into our collective unconscious, featuring strong female leads faced with inconceivable choices and situations.

The dedication page of “The Break” is telling: “For every woman who has experienced a traumatic birth. For anyone whose path to creating a family has been marked with loss. For every woman who had battled postpartum mental illness.”

Mystery writer Rowan O’Sullivan has the perfect family — newborn baby girl, Lila, devoted husband, Gabe, and a part-time au pair, June, to help the family settle into their new life — though you wouldn’t know it from the opening salvo. Rowan has blocked the traumatic birth and when we first meet her she’s in Lila’s nursery chatting with a therapist. The cracks widen.

Rowan “just knows” something isn’t right with her life, her baby, her marriage and she suspects June is at the core of the disruption. When the nanny disappears, Rowan is left to untangle her fragile and unreliable memories, trying to uncover what happened to June while simultaneously burying a dark past.
Remarkably readable, “The Break” explores Rowan’s growing instability, delving into depths of emotional trauma that come full circle to a satisfying and unexpected end.

‘Dark Rivers to Cross’ by Lynne Reeves

Trauma can be generational, and this is the river Lynne Reeves’ novel “Dark Rivers to Cross” (Crooked Lane, Nov. 8) plunges us into from page 1. Like “The Break,” Reeve’s novel is “For women torn between impossible choices” — and includes directly after that dedication what every novel of this stripe should harbor, a content warning for those whose issues of family violence and trauma can act as triggers.

It’s little wonder that Reeves includes such a disclaimer. Her day job for more than 30 years has been as a family and school counselor; she knows the aftermath of childhood nightmares.

In “Dark Rivers to Cross,” so does Lena Blackwell, a woman who has sheltered her adopted sons for decades by erasing nearly every connection to their shared past. When one of the boys decides he wants to uncover his biological roots, Lena’s actions to keep her children from the trauma that could overturn the calm waters of their lives — a neat literary device by the author are dictionary definitions sprinkled throughout, each centering on the dark forces of river currents — shows the depths and choices to what a mother will descend to protect those she loves.

“The Break” is the second novel Reeves has written under her own name — she has three, family-focused books as Lynne Griffin — and coming on the heels of last November’s “The Dangers of an Ordinary Night,” the author is showing herself to be competently in control of domestic suspense, churning lives into stories that reach our own inner recesses.

‘Extinction’ by Bradley Somer

You’ll have to work to make some of the connections that tie the speculative fiction with the near-apocalyptic storyline in Bradley Somer’s novel, “Extinction,” (Blackstone Publishing, Nov. 22) and you’ll almost get there — but going along for the adventure is worth the effort.

Ranger Ben has perhaps the loneliest job on the now environmentally devastated Earth, tracking and protecting the last bear in existence. Part of a severely stripped team that works in the most rural place on the planet to count and watch over the world’s vanishing breeds, Ben — and to an extent, a colleague, Emma — develops a moral code and work ethic that Somer matures well. When he is confronted after weeks alone in the frigid wilderness by a wealthy poacher, his son and Ben’s estranged mentor acting as guide for the pair, Ben’s ethics and physical endurance are tested, twisted and reshaped as moral dilemmas develop.

A subplot involving references to lunar colonization and the psychological trials of space travel seems almost superfluous in this near-future adventure story, but you’ll understand the call to action the author is laboring after here, even if the path to get there is more circular than the straight moonshot if could have been.

A book for nature lovers. I was instantly transported to the setting. It's atmospheric and oddly cozy at times. Tons of descriptions, and a lot of little details. They add to the atmosphere and contribute to the story, but sometimes it was too much for me.

There's definitely a conversation to be had with this one. About our planet and how we treat it, what we could lose. Thats not to say that this book is dry. Its definitely not. There's tons of action.

I like the way the book asks ‘why.’ Why do anything? What makes something important? I could definitely see this being a great movie. Honestly, I'd love to see it.


‘What you do next is important.’ Poppy rubs her thumb and index finger together . ‘Don’t doubt that. You will be judged, by me for sure, but more importantly by your own damn self.'

Poppy is a savage and I like her. I think more people should be like her and I'd like to have a Poppy in my life.

Thank you to the author and Blackstone Publishing for the e-arc to review!

This is a very well written and immersive story. There's a near future backstory with moon colonies, but really you're just along for a harrowing couple of days in the frigid woods with Ben, as he is pushed into deciding whether or not he should or can kill other humans to save the bear his job is to protect. This is a bleak dive into human greed and capacity for betrayal, but Ben is admirable and saving the bear very much feels like the right choice. It's dark and heavy, but not without some hope at the end.

Good writing in a story that is not a very happy one. I like sci-fi, and this is not the kind of story I normally find in that genre. Generally, that's a good thing for me. I liked overall, and recommend it to those seeking dystopian stories. I look forward to Somer's future work.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

A futuristic dystopian novel with few redeeming qualities, other than the writing. One man, a sort of conservation ranger, is tasked with keeping the one remaining bear alive. Black bear? Brown? Polar bear? Doesn't say
Earth is pretty much dead , as we know it. Humanity is on its way to other galaxies. As hopeless as one would think. The bear doesn't even have a mate, as the treasonous actions of another ranger had killed it for sport and for profit.
What I want to know Mr Somer, is how one man can traipse through the wilderness for months on end, without a bath, without shaving; sleeping very little, and eating even less, and then run into his girlfriend and have torrid sex in a burnt out car in the middle of a blizzard, and then leave without making sure she's satisfied. I mean, you smell like a goat, you have no food. Sure, you offer her body heat, but you have an orgasm and you really dont care about her at all.
Far be it from me to question your view of the future, but I would hope the male of the species can evolve past the "Wham-Bam-Thank you ma'am" stage. Animals!

A war in a valley that has stood the test of time. Industry has come and gone leaving behind abandoned buildings, railroad lines hanging in the air across chasms and wrecked equipment. Mankind is also abandoning the globe and preparing to move across the universe. Meanwhile, the valley also provides a home for the last bear in the world!

A pair of rangers and an elderly woman, who has spent her life in the valley is all that stands between a renegade ranger and a wealthy man and his son who want a bearskin for themselves. The author brings the battle through the woods and debris to life. No one is left unscathed, the elements bring misery to all and the fury is relentless. It’s the final battle between the past and the future and it’s a nasty one!

Plot: 5
Characters: 4.5
Writing Style: 5
Cover: 5!!! I want it as a poster!
Enjoyment: 5
Buyable/Re-readable?: Yes.

Having recently returned from Colorado, it honestly made reading this all the more enjoyable and special, as I pictured myself back there when envisioning the book’s setting. If I had had a chance to read it outside whilst there, I totally would have. Makes sense, too, since the author resides near the Rockies.

Somer has a most fantastic writing style, some things gorgeous, some fierce. There were a few *very* intense scenes that had me holding my breath or unconsciously tensing my muscles. Somer was able to evoke emotions (especially if one is empathetic towards animals and the like - if you view other living things as commodities, as items, then I can't guarantee you'll appreciate this novel to its fullest extent). I teared up, for sure. It drops you right into the story and doesn’t provide much background/past information, but what we are given is enough. Including the ending, I think. There's a neat as a heck concept he introduces in the post-apocalyptic setting, as well, called Earth Dreams. I'll let him and the main character, Ben, explain it -

"‘Some of the first migrants are suffering them, these vivid, completely immersive dreams of Earth. Where they’re in a jungle or a forest or on the plains, and there’re herds of animals, swarms of insects, and the sounds of birdsong on the breeze....(T)hey say that Earth Dreams are the brain’s way of coping with the fact it’ll never see Earth again.....(A) resurgence of two-hundred-thousand-year-old memories from the deepest folds of our brains, something to comfort those who go farther from home than anyone has ever been, knowing they won’t be returning.....(W)e know how our bodies can deal with it, we don’t have much a clue how our brains will. The primal brain is set up to react, not to think. It’s there to make us survive at all costs. Doesn’t seem out of the question that it would start taking over, fighting for us where our conscious brain has failed. Genetic memory they’re calling it. A manifest of evolution, buried deep in our heads.’"

Love it, believe it, insanely cool and unique.

There's also a scene towards the end of the amazing book where the main character performs such an intimate, loving, respectful act that had me nodding my head and thinking, 'Yep, I would do the exact same thing'.

For fans of post-apocalyptic, space travel (-ish, since we stay on Earth but it's discussed numerous times), animal protection/ranger duties.

A story about the last bear in existence, being guarded while poachers are out for its blood. More people live off Earth than on it. And most of the remaining have chosen careers to get them on the next shuttle. But a few have chosen to stay behind to guard the last known bear in existence from being killed. However, aiding poachers might just secure someone their seat on the next flight out.


Loc 2067= supposed 'to'