Bridgers 5 – The Trial of Extinction, by Stan C Smith

 I received a free ARC from the author in return for an honest review. This in now way impacts my opinion.

I’ve been enjoying this series so far. The basic premise revolves around the people of earth discovering an alien technology that allows them to travel to different forms of earth that have deviated somewhere from the timeline of our own, This lends itself to some weird and wonderful worlds that are vastly different from our own, such as a world where arthropods rule. This is where we find Infinity and company at the start of this book, due to the destruction of the original earth. But a new threat has appeared, another alien species, who deliver an ultimatum that humanity (or at least a selection of representatives) must fulfill in order to save the species. Here are my thoughts on the book:

• Infinity is the kind of hero you want to root for. Life continues to be unkind to her, yet her grit and sheer desire to survive drive her through. This is not self interest though, Her goal is to keep everyone in her charge alive too, and often risks her own life to save others. She’s not perfect though. She’s quick to anger, doesn’t suffer fools and cowards gladly (hang on, that’s a criticism?) and violence is often the first response of her reactive nature (her backstory covers this). Desmond, her top dude, is the opposite. More of a thinker, he likes to look at the big picture before acting, which isn’t all the greatest plan when faced with hippo-sized insects or 8-foot tall hominids. Between them, they get the job done and make a good team. We root from them throughout to have the happy ending they deserve
• As mentioned earlier, the different types of creatures are important to each story, as is how our merry band of human refugees deal with them, In this they face a society of lemurs (yes, those lemurs), who are, at the very least, on par technologically with us. Different, as one would imagine, but not dissimilar. They have cities, TVs (kind of) and a hierarchical civilization that goes beyond animal groups. However, we also find that there are other, differently marked lemurs who are kept in compounds and hunted daily. The author goes to great pains to point out the differences in appearance of each “tribe” and, while he doesn’t come out and say it, the parallels with racism are obvious
• One thing the author does particularly well is to keep the story fresh. While he could just make this an Animal Planet version of Quantum Leap, visiting different planets with different critters every book (which he does), he also adds in other plot strands to keep us hooked. The obvious main one was the destruction of the earth, and the death of billions of people (if you’re reading book 5, you know this). We’ve seen alien species show up before, but now we have one who considers themselves some kind of bridging enforcers, threatening to wipe out what’s left of the human race, with vague ultimatums. Who the hell are they, and can Infinity and Co figure out what they are meant to do in time?
• Time for a complaint or two (although minor). Imagine someone – an alien being – showed up on our current earth, claiming to have a key that would allow us to travel to different versions of our earth. Would we believe the visitor? Some might, but I think the powers-that-be, in their infinite wisdom, would poop themselves laughing (unless they could make a few quid), then lock the alien up and start experimenting. I feel like the lemurs jumped on board too quickly, which suited the plot, but not necessarily the reality of it
• Secondly, and speaking of aliens, I don’t know what to make of the aliens who delivered the ultimatum. We don’t learn a lot about them, although we probably (hopefully) will in the final book. They’re ridiculously advanced, and I can’t see a scenario that will allow us pathetic humans to overcome them, especially if there are millions as opposed to the three we met here. I wait with bated breath.

Verdict

I’ve enjoyed this series so far. This wasn’t the best of the books, but it certainly fits in nicely with the rest. If you’re interested, I’d suggest starting with book one, then making your way through, as the author doesn’t waste a lot of time filing readers in on what they missed (yay!).