Extinction by Mark Alpert

Published by Thomas Dunne Books on February 12, 2013

Extinction reads like a cross between The Six Million Dollar Man, a mediocre spy novel, and a cheesy "computers try to take over the world" science fiction novel. It is a fast-paced, unchallenging time-killer that doesn't stand out from other formula fiction.

Jim Pierce builds prosthetic devices. His estranged daughter Layla is a computer hacker. China's Ministry of State Security is displeased that Layla hacked the Chinese government's network with the help of a former Chinese agent named Dragon Fire. Dragon Fire (whose ability to travel unimpeded to the US on short notice goes unexplained) shows up in New York long enough to give Layla a flash drive with information about the evil Dr. Zhang, who has networked the brains of twenty-nine lobotomized dissidents. The network, hidden in a remote compound, is named Supreme Harmony. It is designed to analyze surveillance videos in real time. In a surprise to Dr. Zhang but not to readers of trashy thrillers, Supreme Harmony has an "I am alive" moment and develops a collective consciousness of its own, not unlike the Borg. And like all Computers Gone Bad, it decides it needs to destroy humanity to preserve itself.

Pierce lost his wife, son, and arm during an attack by "al Qaeda martyrs" in Nairobi, one of many overused plot devices upon which Mark Alpert relies. Now Pierce has a bunch of prosthetic arms. He can detach one and snap on a replacement in seconds. One incorporates a machine gun. Yes, a machine gun arm. That, at least, is good for a laugh, as is a Dr. Strangelove moment involving a different prosthetic arm. Even more amusing are the weaponized flies that are forever chasing Pierce and Kirsten Chan, the deputy director of the NSA, a woman who turns into a field agent solely to give Pierce a new romantic interest.  All of this may be based on sound science, but that makes it no less silly in execution.

Life is just a little too easy for Pierce, Kirsten, and Layla. When Pierce needs to make it through a roadblock, the police conveniently leave a gap big enough for Pierce's vehicle to squeeze through. When Layla needs to find a computer password, it's conveniently written on a Post-It note. When Layla needs to escape from a room, she finds a convenient ventilator shaft that's big enough to crawl through. A can of insecticide (handy for killing weaponized flies) seems to last forever. Two characters fortuitously find each other in a remote part of China. The leading characters seem to have infallible memories for trivial details, including maps and history, but the silliest aspect of this life-saving knowledge is Pierce's convenient recollection of a forty digit binary code that he had no reason to memorize. Pierce also has the amazing ability to "bury" specific memories, and to bury them in specific locations, next to his other buried memories. He can even choose to bury some memories deeper than his other buried memories. Really? I wish I could do that.

Much about Supreme Harmony is left unexplained. Why does Supreme Harmony find human behavior "inexplicable" if it has absorbed all the thoughts, memories, and emotions of the humans it has assimilated? Why does a machine intelligence care whether it survives? If it absorbed some sort of survival instinct from its human hosts, why didn't it also absorb the human instinct to preserve and perpetuate the human race? If it is offended by body odor, why isn't it offended by genocide? If it cares so much about the environment that humans have devastated, why doesn't it care about the humans? If it feels contempt for humans because they spend so much time hurting each other, why doesn't it feel contempt for itself when it decides to kill everyone on the planet? Is Supreme Harmony such a stupid computer that it seriously believes orchestrating a war between China and the United States will perpetuate its existence? If Supreme Harmony is so worried that someone might discover its existence and unplug it, why doesn't it worry about nuclear warheads raining down on its servers?

The background to Supreme Harmony is presented in expository chapters that make for dull reading. The novel as a whole is written in a style that ranges from ordinary to awkward. Despite the graceless prose, banal dialog, cheesy romance, and unoriginal plot, Extinction does offer some interesting information about drone surveillance and cyborg insects and biotechnology. The swift pace quickly brings the reader to concluding chapters that are more imaginative than the rest of the novel. Diehard fans of formula fiction might therefore get a kick out of Extinction, but I don't know how many readers will tolerate the silliness long enough to reach the ending. 

NOT RECOMMENDED