Capture Lost Valley: An Extinction Cycle Story Executed By Walt Browning Shown As Script

book isnt bad.
Why I gave it only two

Firstly, it is too short to properly get into the story and connect with the characters.

If you wouldnt have read the series extinction cycles/Sansbury Smith beforehand this book would be a disaster, It lacked a proper background, despite piggy backing off an awesome series,
Which brings me to my next point, there were little inconsistencies, I normally would overlook but not when you place this book in a world already created by another author.
That is just negligence.
Do people hear explosions on a regular basis, that they just ignore it
Do people have sudden rashes and pain in their eyes with blood coming off of it on a regular basis to just ignore it It is the way it is written with not mentioning that the brain suffered already as well to ignore such things in that way.

I cant tell how I would react in such an extreme “zombie” situation, But I doubt I would be that calm, level headed and even make jokes to flirt with someone, shortly after their first contact, for regular people.

The transmission and subsequent infection was also off, With the different scenes it was unbelievable that some were infected and some werent, The haemorrhage virus is part of the infection in the beginning after all,
To not check new arrivals for infection
Jen doesnt even think once about the people she left behind at the camp, not one single thought about the needed insulin
That and many more inconsistencies, silly behaviour and actions make the characters look incompetent and not appealing.



I liked the perspective of

the dog and the little homages to Reed “Beckham” and his team “ghost”,

Schreck/Shrek doesnt mean Ghost in german, Not sure where the author got that from, Schreck means a scare, Geist would be Ghost in german,

It wasnt bad, and some characters were good, like Carver, But in general I expect more from an author, in addition that, the author didnt even create the world he is writing in.


Sigh, I really wanted to like this book series, Audiobook: Please read my review of the Extinction Cycle series, I can't image coming into this book without reading the EC series first, The story was OK, but lacked much the depth and suspense the original series included, The end of the first book in this sidequest seemed abrupt, but it was clearly a lead in to a next book.


One thing that is interesting about this book is the voice of the dog, I did not expect to hear what the dog was thinking or how he would think about the monsters,

I did enjoy that this story happens in parallel to the timeline in EC, While reading EC, I wondered what is happening in other parts of the world, This book shares one of those stories,

I'm not sure I'll continue this series, Every so oftensay, after I've read about the latest Climate SummitI get an urge to read about the end of the world.
Zombies are a particularly solid way to end it, something like a visual disease state and an antagonistic threat all rolled up into one happy disaster.
Lost Valley is apparently based on a 'shared world,' and the hook, at least according to Browning, is that the zombies are 'sciencebased.
' Well, no, unless you also consider claims of crystals preventing influenza to be sciencebased, But I'm not really expecting that in a zombie book, Just don't claim it, okay 

The setup is a retired SEAL and his wardog, Shrek,  and one of the things that truly does set this book apart is the occasional chapter from his dog.
Much like the cougar in Faith Hunter's Skinwalker series, the dog perspective is fairly limited, and tries to stick fairly close to what an animal range of perception and thought might be.
Perhaps.  

Anyway, John Carver and his dog Shrek have a remote ranch in California, They occasionally visit the nearby Boy Scout camp, helping out the retired Marine who works there, Browning does a nice job of building a sense of normalcy, of giving the reader the feel of the remote California environment, the kind of life John and his dog are living, and the easy camaraderie with the camp staff.
A cute single mom and her teenage son live nearby, and the son's been helping John on his ranch, The director of the camp is a woman, Jen, and is off for the weekend visiting her longtime and serious boyfriend, on shore leave from the Navy.


Perspective is mostly from John's viewpoint, although it does hop around a bit so that the reader can get the feel of looming disaster.
As the story advances, it jumps to a pilot on a runway in Chicago, a father who is stranded at a Chicago baseball game, and a man doing a delivery run to a country club.
As the epidemic spreads, we witness various characters become victims in the plague,

The virus spreads shockingly fast and within a week or two of discovery, it's sweeping the nation, Those bitten or killed when not eaten, I suppose transform into equally hungry mindless beings, so it's an exponential growth pattern, All is standard horror fare, until the dead start becoming a bit extraspecial, including being able to crawl along ceiling and being capable of actively hunting their prey.


If one can ignore this extraordinary zombieonsteroids aspect, I'd say it's a solidly written book, The military detail feels real clearly the author either knows or interviewed a variety of military personnel to get the diverse crosssection of armed forces personnel we meet in the course of the story.
The California scrubmountain foothills also feels quite real, There's a few details that seems a bit unbelievable for the setupbesides zombies, duhwhen it becomes obvious that the zombies can use brute force at the country club to break through doors and into cars, why is John allowing people to stay in tents and why are they letting the twins stay together even after one is bit 

Action is fastpaced and there's a nice variety.
The actual word choice and storytelling is decent, I'd say it was surprisingly well done for the genre, I was initially lured by the 'sciencey' angle, but that's a total bust, There's nothing 'science' about this setup, and in this scenario, I fail to even understand how it could be sciencebased, Browning is telling a survival story, with military overtones in the type of people and their approach to problemsolving, That said, it's well done and more appealing than I would have expected, Three female characters come to mind, but one is largely girlfriend role, one mother role, and one a young, sassy woman who takes a fair amount of initiative.
A friend and coworker of the mother seems to be acting with stereotypical gay behaviors, I could be wrong. I'm not even sure why it mattered, Ah, diversity. To be inclusive, or not, amIright Especially when almost all the characters are stereotypes, except John,  

So would I buy I probably would have, if I hadn't gotten this during my Kindle Unlimited membership, and I wouldn't have regretted it.
Just go in with normal genre expectations, and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised, Just, for heaven's sake, do NOT go on to the next book, Leave it alone.  .