I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide me review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Fast paced novel, with Ben starting hunting the last bear. Humans leaving to go to other planets. Interesting take on the dystopian genres really enjoyed it!!

Not my usual and was hard to get into but glad I worsened because I loved it, brilliantly written and very enjoyable!

An interesting novel that took some time to get into but was a refreshing new read. Well written and intriguing premise

I ended up not finishing this. The writing wasn't for me to start with. But I also struggled to get invested enough to really know or understand what was going on.

A dystopian thriller novel that kept me riveted. I was gripped by Ben's story; a ranger in the desolate wilderness and of his survival at any cost or saving the endangered bear.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

Thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for ARC.

Well, this is interesting. This speculative novel, set in what would seem to be the very near future, uses the premise of a ranger keeping watch over the last bear to explore love, loss, greed and what the future of this planet might be.
The start is very slow, descriptive, and with an oddly flat affect as Ben is alone, with only snatches of walkie-talkie communication with another ranger. Sticking with it, it gets more bleak and brutal, but also more interesting.
I don't read a lot of speculative fiction, current reality being complex and terrifying enough for my taste, but this got me thinking, kept me turning the pages, and thinking about it long after I'd finished reading.

This was a very bleak look at a possible future of Earth with global warming. Following Ben who is trying to protect the last living bear on Earth as it is hunted for sport this book does not hold back.

The characters are believable, the action brutal, and the message plain. This book was great and the pacing brilliant, I would enjoy reading more from within this universe from other perspectives.

Have tried three times to read this and just couldn't get into it. The writing is very slow and the characters seem oddly flat.

This book is a little close for comfort!

Humans have destroyed the planet and left for another one. The book makes you feel the true desolation left on earth and the characters allow this.

The two sides of the situation are interesting and I really hope this isn’t a prophecy.

Bit of a slog this book, took me ages to read.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

Starting off in the wilderness where ranger Ben is tracking the last bear, with stunning and evocative scenery. The story soon ramps up pace to become a full blown action packed thriller - with guns, chases and action galore! A great exciting read.

I would love to see this on a screen, the images on the page are so vivid and fast paced, it would be a great film!

Extinction is the story of Ben and the last bear on earth. Ben is a ranger Who must protect the bear from hunters,

Throughout the story you can feel the loneliness of the unforgiving environment and the impossible task that Ben has been given.

I liked Ben’s character and I followed his journey while willing him to win. It was a well written story which left me thinking about it long after I had finished the book.

I spotted this novel what feels like a very long time ago — it was the cover, really, as well as the suggestion of an environmentally damaged near-future (at the time, the full synopsis wasn’t available). I read it shortly before it was published, and enjoyed it quite a bit. A shorter novel, and one that focuses more on atmosphere and place than plot (though there is one, so no fear), it was an excellent introduction to Somer’s work.

In many ways, this is a climate change novel — not strictly speaking due to climate, but this is a future that is certainly caused by humanity’s voraciousness.

"Watched the water tables drop, the dirt turn sour, the plastics pile up, and on and on. It was all in tiny increments, each seemingly manageable, but together … ecological exhaustion, they called it later."

Much of the population has fled the planet, but a fair number remain — unwilling or unable to leave their home planet. Some — including Ben — are happy to live their lives in the wilderness, to protect it at all costs. In Ben’s case, it’s the last bear, one that has gained a certain mythic quality in our protagonist’s mind: a sign that something is still great on this planet that has otherwise been despoiled by humanity’s relentless consumption. It’s not just Ben, of course, who is aware of the impact we have on nature. Somer sprinkles plenty of interesting, sharp observations throughout the novel.

‘Before we got fat,’ Arnott continues, ‘we burned the forests for better hunting grounds, dammed rivers to irrigate our crops, and engineered bigger tits for our chickens. Didn’t think anything of it until we were nations full of bored predators looking for a cause.’

An interesting, well-written novel. It is one seemingly more interested in atmosphere and description than plot-driven action (although, there is enough of that, too), Somer’s writing is really what sets this novel apart. His descriptions are evocative, and each scene and location is brilliantly brought to life on the page. The story is by turns contemplative, moving, depressing, wrenching, and yet even hopeful.

I’m certainly interested in reading anything else that Somer writes in the future.

This is a fast-paced action novel that I struggled to put down. It was really interesting and the momentum of the novel made it very engaging. I wish there was more information about the societal context and a little more insight into the characters' thoughts but otherwise enjoyed it.

I loved the concept for Extinction as soon as I read the blurb. To an extent Extinction lived up to expectations but there were aspects I wasn't overly keen on.

Ben is a conservationist who has devoted himself to tracking and observing the last known bear. One night he hears voices in the isolated valley and knows that he may have to protect the bear from danger. Upon confronting the trio Ben is digusted and worried to learn that one of them is his former mentor on The Ursa Project and an expert tracker. Shots are fired and Ben realises not only is the bear in danger but so is he.

Is he willing to put his life on the line to protect the bear? Will it change anything? Is he willing to end the life of someone else for a seemingly lost cause?

"Ben sighs, knowing it's a panicked plan, a bad one, but i's hard to think straight.

They tried to kill him.

The bear will be fine on his own, Ben reasons. Or he won't.The chances of them locating him are slim, even with Tomas as a guide. Without a tracker to sniff out his microchip, they won't find him...They probably won't find him."

The environmental aspect of Extinction is a huge draw for me and played a large part in my enjoyment of the book. The sad truth is I could easily imagine a scenario where someone would be trying to protect the last bear in existance from extinction. Poppy was my favourite character in this book because I felt like the anger she felt at the destructive nature of humans was extremely thought-provoking. It was also what I was expecting when I began reading.

The one area of the book that felt out of place was the science fiction elements. I didn't enjoy them as I wouldn't choose to read a book relating to space and I also felt it just didn't gel with the rest of the book.

"I don't look at the moon anymore. Last time was when the lights first went on. It made me dizzy, like I was falling into it."

The author was able to create a sense of suspense throughout the book and I defintely wanted to keep going until the end. Whilst I have said parts of this book were not for me, I did enjoy this book on the whole.

This was an interesting read and quite different to what I normally read. The author's writing style kept me engaged as did the plot and storyline, but I'm not sure whether I loved it.

I enjoyed the beginning of this book and the author's writing style describing the dystopian world it imagines, and the role of the rangers
However, i was disappointed when it then went off into the well-worn plot line of men running around with guns, hunting each other. The token female characters seemed to be plot devices to move the story on a bit, and overall it seemed like there was a much better book in there waiting to be written
Thank you to netgalley and harper Collins for an advance copy of this book

Ben and Emma buck the trend and study Conservation whilst everyone plans and packs to head off to the space colonies. They face an impossoble hurdle as the animals are dying off in their droves. Ben and Emma feel very protective of their charges, including The Boss a large brown bear. their job is to monitor the habitats and animals in their district. However, fewer animals mean that those left are at a premium.

A remarkable book, helping to highlight the changing shifts we are seeing.

Bradley Somer definitely has a talent for throwing you into a fully formed world and then, slowly, revealing more and more information to bring that world to life. In Extinction, we are in what I imagine is a near-future version of Earth where human beings have destroyed the planet to such an extent that those who can afford to do so have gone to live on the moon. Those left behind are either poor or tasked with protecting what little wildlife there is left on Earth.

Our protagonist - Ben - is a park ranger whose job it is to protect what is believed to be the last living bear on Earth. One day, along his travels, he encounters a group of men set on finding the last bear and, he suspects, killing it for some kind of trophy. And so begins a kind of race for who can get to the bear first.

I typically don't gravitate to stories like this peppered with manly bravado, gun fight scenes and a battle for survival in the woods. It all seems rather uncivilised and I much prefer literary fiction with a strong focus on the thoughts and feelings of the characters rather than on plot. For this reason, I think Extinction just wasn't quite the book for me. Almost every sentence read like a scene from a film, giving you a frame by frame depiction of everything Ben sees as he carries out his ranger duties and races to find the bear he's been trained to protect. I could definitely see this being made into a movie - maybe a summer blockbuster.

To his credit, Somer does include a couple of female characters who provide some relief from the "me man, me chase bear" storyline. And while I was grateful for Emma and Poppy's inclusion, it felt like their only role was to protect or comfort the protagonist with little room for their own character development. I would have liked to learn more about their stories and their reasons for choosing to stay on an ever crumbling Earth (though - no spoilers - we do learn a bit more about Emma's reasons by the end of the book).

The writing was a mixed bag. It had moments of beauty and brilliance but they almost seemed out of place buried as they were in a much simpler, staccato writing style. It felt as though Somer wanted to write literary fiction expounding on the beauty of the natural world but was hindered by his own plot which needed to move forward in order to keep the momentum going.

The conclusion of the story was satisfying in some ways - a number of loose ends were tied up and there were enough unknowns that I could imagine there being a sequel to this novel. If there is a follow up, however, I unfortunately won't be among its readers not having found enough in Extinction to make me want to come back for more.