With a premise that is off-the-beaten-path and full of questions, Rule of Extinction takes the listener on a journey far from Earth yet still familiar in eerie and terrifying ways. The characters are engaging and differentiated; their actions and perceptions making up for nuance and depth. The story plays out like a PvPvE (player vs player vs environment) video game complete with fanciful discoveries, struggles for power, and the ramifications of learning the devastating truth. Stacy Carolan delivered an admirable performance of a wide range of character voices and narrated descriptions. The gritty and dark themes of this book intermixed with realistic observations about people’s approaches toward survival will appeal to a wide range of readers across sci-fi cultures. [Disclosure: I received this title for free and listened at 1.9x.]
