#BookReview: The Genesi Code by Tristen Willis

Solid Book Within Genre. This is one of those dystopian YA tales that shows clear influences from and, at least to my mind, similarities to some of the biggest YA dystopian franchises of the last 15 ish yrs or so – Hunger Games, Divergent, and Maze Runner in particular. Indeed, in many ways it is actually an improvement on many of them as we get a better explosive prologue and initial “normal life” / “world establishing” view up front – what many other reviewers decry as too slowly paced, but I found pretty spot on. When the action and intrigue picks up a bit, so does the pacing, and yet the more rapid pace works well even here, as by this point we’re halfway ish into the book and making good steam towards the end game here.

Filled with more political intrigue and over the horizon menace than actual action, this is going to be right up many fans’ expectations – ala Hunger Games in particular – but may leave those seeking more balls to the wall action of a Maze Runner or a Unity by Jeremy Robinson a bit wanting.

Still, for what it is and the genre it is in, this really is a solid book of its type, and fans of that particular genre or those open to it will find this book quite enjoyable indeed.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Genesi Code by Tristen Willis was originally written on December 31, 2024.

#BookReview: The Extinction Trials by AG Riddle

Preachy Philosophy And Just-Too-Far-Out-There Part V Mar Otherwise Stellar SciFi Novel. Outside of some hyper preachy philosophy in Part IV and a Part V that simply breaks everything previously established and shatters all possible suspension of disbelief, this book was truly a stellar scifi suspense/ action tale. One that should have simply ended with the conclusion of Part IV. You’ve got elements of Brett Battles’ PROJECT EDEN, James Dashner’s MAZE RUNNER, THE MATRIX, WATERWORLD , BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, Ted Dekker’s CIRCLE QUADRILOGY, and a jump-right-into-the-action opener ala Jeremy Robinson’s UNITY or (a bit more precisely) MASS EFFECT 2’s opening level. And these are all franchises that I personally LOVE. In other words, if you like scifi at all, this is going to be something you’ll want to explore. Even if scifi isn’t really your thing, the meat of the story here, of forced proximity creating a family-of-choice, secrets, lies, betrayals, and survival… those are all human elements that Riddle uses effectively to tell his story remarkably well. So well that were it not for the issues noted at the beginning of this review, this is very *easily* a 5* tale. As is, it is still a mostly solid, action packed book, and still recommended.

This review of The Extinction Trials by AG Riddle was originally written on October 10, 2021.