The First Bird Paperback – November 26, 2013

Just finished this last night and I have to tell you, it's Beck's best work yet! He has improved with every novel he's written and this one's no exception. FIRST BIRD starts out sort of like Dustin Hoffman's OUTBREAK, then becomes a sort of mutated JURASSIC PARK/ANACONDA hybrid, then wraps things up with a slam bang finale that's part THE STAND, part SWAN SONG and part WORLD WAR Z. The peril and panic are cranked all the way up to '11' here... right through to the unsettling climax.I feel it does help a bit if you've read Greig Beck's previous novels, as they are all sort of loosely inter-connected. This one's actually kind of a stand-alone adventure surprisingly, so while I recommend the earlier novels, they aren't absolutely required reading to fully enjoy this book. Beck has filled this story with another great cast of characters, both good and evil, who feel very real and grounded. This time around, rather than another para-military adrenaline fest featuring Beck's fascinating super-soldier character Alex Hunter, Beck has wisely chosen to shift the leading man duties over to easy-going Matt Kearns, a goofy, nerdish, foolhardy young college professor from Beck's earlier novels, BENEATH THE DARK ICE and BLACK MOUNTAIN. I swear that Beck based Kearns on a couple of guys I grew up with; he comes across as being that real. The other characters are equally fun and interesting, and often not entirely what they seem. Beck loads the book up with plenty of action and just enough science to lay a plausible ground work to make his wonderfully terrifying story seem believable, without bogging the reader down with reams of techno-babble claptrap. After all, this is an rip-roaring adventure story, not a yawn-inducing science lecture. FIRST BIRD also features the terrific over-the-top, balls-to-the-wall action we've come to expect from Greig Beck. He also infuses this story with a heavy helping of genuine tension and outright dread. You might break out in a cold sweat reading certain parts of this one!The ending is unlike anything that's come before in Beck's work. I don't know how he's going to move forward with further installments in this gripping series of books without some major... ummm... adjustment. Or perhaps he's setting up a hell-bent, apocalyptic showdown to wrap everything up sometime in the near future?? I'm all in, regardless! This book rocks and you owe it to yourself to indulge in this latest adventure. Be prepared to spend some long evenings sitting up with this one. I lost a lot of sleep racing to the finish. LOL. It's hard to put down, which is the sign of a truly great, fully engrossing adventure. Once again, Greig Beck does not disappoint. 5 stars!!!

I hadn't realized I'd purchased this book until it appeared in my Kindle, but I am SO happy I did!! This story was completely mesmerizing!I was pulled in from the 1st pages, and as the story progressed it just got better and better. I don't want to give anything away, so let me just give a quick overview.After finding a lost tribe in a part of the Amazon, a scientist brings back a creature that leads to his, and countless other peoples demise. To stop the contagion that this scientist unknowingly unleashed upon the world, a mismatch team is sent to find a cure, though most of that team enters this jungle wonderland for an entirely different reason. The team ends up discovering much much more than they bargained for. In a race for their lives, and the survival of humanity, the team must find their way back to civilization.What I loved most about this omnibus was the world that was discovered. There was, literally, a whole undiscovered place man had never known about with lots of different elements. There was suspense, adventure, action, crazy wildlife and a ton of fun packed into this book.There were a few things that bugged me, however, which made me deduct a star. First, the editing could have been tweaked a bit more so that it was flawless. Little screw ups can add big irritation to readers like myself. The other thing was that certain descriptions could've been done better. I can't recall the exact combo that was given for a creature, but as close as I can recall there was a giant predator that was described as "crocodile, bear, hippo" and possible 1 other animal. That was the *initial* description. I just wish Beck had, at some point, chosen a good way to describe certain things like this particular animal. Perhaps describing how the head was shaped, what color it was, how the body was shaped, so on and so forth. It was hard to visualize certain things based on a vague hodge podge of animal names being thrown out. I also wish more had been done with the woman in the blood jungle. The short one. Where did she come from? Were there more? She hung around for awhile, here and there, but when she finally made herself known nothing much more was learned and I REALLY would've enjoyed if Beck had taken that angle and explored it deeper.Other then those minor complaints I thought the story was a fantastic thrill ride from start to finish. I'm only sad that it doesn't appear as though anyone will be returning to that blood jungle. I feel like there's a lot more that could happen.I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who loves a great action-adventure, sci-fi, hidden world type book. I also recommend this to fans of James Rollins, Jeremy Robinson, and David Lynn Golemon. This is a MUST read!! If you see this book and are on the edge, I hope you make the same accident purchasing it as it did, because it turned into a phenomenal read!!

(Reviewed by Gary McCray, Barbara's husband):I've read all of Greig Becks Alex Hunter books and really liked them.Greig says this one was inspired by "Valley of the Gwangi" (also seen), but it could also have been "The Lost World".It has non stop action and as is normal for Greig, the know it all jerks come to a satisfactory "conclusion" along with a whole lot of other assorted people (reminds me of the guys in the red shirts on Star Trek.)In this book things go from bad to worse to really worse to nearly killing everybody, but Matt and crew after nearly getting killed themselves an uncountable number of times manage to - well that would be telling, but you probably already knew that much if you have read any of Greig's other books.Unlike the Alex Hunter series that leaves the World pretty much as they found it with the public pretty much none the wiser, this one doesn't.Sadly, by various means, it's outcome may be more accurate at predicting our actual future than was ever intended by the author.Plenty of science, technology, geology, natural history and ancient cultures and languages like always and well done too.Watch out for spiders (and for Greig - next time think of CRISPR).