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The Darwin Elevator (Dire Earth Cycle) Kindle Edition
| Jason M. Hough (Author) See search results for this author |
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- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTitan Books
- Publication date19 July 2013
- File size1782 KB
Product description
About the Author
Review
Product details
- ASIN : B00MLDKLDU
- Publisher : Titan Books (19 July 2013)
- Language : English
- File size : 1782 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 497 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0345537122
- Best Sellers Rank: 573,085 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 1,733 in Hard Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 2,989 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)
- 3,002 in High Tech Science Fiction
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Jason M. Hough (pronounced 'Huff') is the New York Times bestselling author of The Dire Earth Cycle and the near-future spy thriller Zero World, which Publisher's Weekly said is "a thrilling action rampage that confirms Hough as an important new voice in genre fiction.” In a former life he was a 3D artist, animator, and game designer (Metal Fatigue, Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction, and many others). He has worked in the fields of high-performance cluster computing and machine learning, and received a patent for an invention related to location-based content licensing.
Jason's latest novel, Mass Effect Andromeda: Nexus Uprising, released on March 21st, 2017 from Titan Books. The book is co-written by K. C. Alexander.
He lives near Seattle, Washington with his wife, two young sons, and a dog named Missbuster. When not writing, reading, or playing with his kids, he spends his time exploring virtual reality or trying to coax his 3D printer into doing something useful.
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Earth is now a wasteland filled with mutated humans (NOT zombies, honestly...), all except for a small enclave in Darwin Australia. Anyone leaving the safe zone becomes infected and will turn into a not-zombie unless they get back within the borders, whereupon the mutation will stop at whatever level of partial not-zombie they are. All except for a few "immunes" who make a living leaving the safe zone to salvage equipment that the survivors of the not-zombie apocalypse so desperately need for survival. Oh and there's a space elevator that has been constructed by an unmanned alien ship that may or may not have something to do with the initial outbreak. Mix in the troubled hero, the unbelievably beautiful (but still intelligent) love interest, previously mentioned OTT bad guy and some plot twists that will have you rolling your eyes and there you go.
I've read worse.
But it is very well executed and the addition of details like parajumping into zombie infested locations via sub-orbital military dropships give it a nice futuristic feel. The story is fleshed out with a potential extra-terrestrial origin for the zombie plague and a mysterious alien built space elevator that has an unknown but pivotal role in the whole affair.
Unfortunately this isn't a stand alone book. It's part of a trilogy - and the trilogy ends itself on a note which could lead to future novels. Unfortunately the quality of the books drop as the story progresses and by the end the whole narrative just feels tired and limps to an unsatisfying conclusion.
It almost feels like the author has spun two books worth of plot out into three (quite long) books and in the meantime hasn't paid enough attention to how he was going to end the whole thing. Despite the fact the trilogy is (arguably) too long the ending feels rushed and many plot points are left hanging and unexplained. It reminds me a bit of the TV series Lost - the author gives us lots of cool scenes which pose more and more questions about the whole ET/Zombie mystery but then in the end all the questions are dismissed/ignored and no satisfying answers are given.
Perhaps these are to come in a future trilogy but by now I no longer trust the author to deliver them and am unwilling to invest the time to find out. For me a drip feed of answers to at least some of the questions and an indication that the book is more than a load of cool scenes strung together - that there is a satisfying overarching story that is going to link it all together - is needed.
So 5* for the book itself and the concept but I couldn't really recommend anyone who wasn't a massive space zombie fan taking on the trilogy as a whole - so 3* for the trilogy, 4* overall.
No spoilers here, because the reader's journey and interpretation of the plot and drama is important (as with any work). Jason M. Hough's characters are well described which ensures early reader adoption, the use of technology plot devices is not fantasy, as with one example; VTOL aircraft which use electric motors powered by super capacitors are a present day reality.
It is a voyage of mystery and an immersive adventure. It makes you think - a story which will make you stop and look around you and ask "how would I survive?"
My only comment which is not really negative is the title; before I read it The Darwin Elevator had me conjuring images of Charles Darwin and this was the story of the evolution of the species. Darwin = theory, elevator = evolution, yes I know I'm too deep for my own good.
The series deserves high acclaim and I eagerly await the cycle getting another wheel.





