The First Bird

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!!

I liked this enough that I bought the combined version even though I own the three episodes purchased separately when they first came out. Long story short: Beck is consistently one of the most inventive authors on Amazon and one whose works are well-crafted and well-written. This novel is a great send up of one of Conan Doyle's works and worth the read. Beck has done an outstanding job re-imagining and evolving settings originally built by others, such as Conan Doyle's Lost World (Primordia series and First Bird series) and Verne's Center of the Earth (Center of the Earth series) and Mysterious Island (Lemuria series). This is work well done and worthy of support!

SPOILER ALERT! I expected treasure hunters, some interesting characters, science and ideas, and of course, DINOSAURS. The first half started great, although there was one character, a linguist named David Brenner. I wanted to see his character grow in his arc. Instead he's eaten by an anaconda almost immediately after he's introduced. I was a little disappointed by that, But when they got to the village, and then into the ''lost world'' i forgave it. That reminds me, a couple of characters are just....there. There is a palaeontologist Joop (pronounced yope), who is just there, and doesn't get much focus at all. Another problem i had with the book is that Greig Beck doesn't take the time to identify some of the animals in the ecosystem. This didn't effect me much because i'm a huge palaeontology nerd but what about someone who isn't? Max Steinberg, the filmmaker who finances and leads the expedition gets almost no growth at all, and when he finally gets some thing that resembles it, he gets killed by prehistoric spiders. He's pretty much a greedy Hollywood businessman stereotype. And then there is the Chinese entomologist, He just sacrifices himself no questions asked as soon as an animal (it's a Gorgonopsid, i think) attacks the women in the team. Also, there are no treasure hunters per se, and no actual dinosaurs per se (except for the archaeopteryx). Which really disappointed me, I wanted to see an Allosaurus or something. And for a book called The First Bird, the bird doesn't play a big a part as one would expect. Really it should've been called The First Spider or something, because the Mesothelae spider (which doesn't exist in real life by the way) pretty much steal the show. I quickly forgave these things and devoured the fist two halves with pleasure. Even though i felt the second half ended too soon. The third half is where the book falls apart for me. I expected episode three to be more like a medical thriller like the Andromeda Strain. Our heroes trying desperately to stop the parasite from spreading and causing mayhem. Loaded with intrigue and science. What we got instead feels more like a pathetic attempt to top the first and second halves. Okay, MAJOR spoiler alert here. Episode 3 lost all credibility for and is basically a zombie apocalypse. Some of the main characters do pretty dumb things. Things that just made me scream, ''YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL FOR GOD'S SAKE, ACT LIKE ONE. and ''NO! DON'T DO THAT!'' For example. The main characters have the cure from the Amazon and have to take it to the CDC building in Atlanta. They are picked up in this armoured military truck one of them (Kurt Douglas, the bodyguard/ ex-soldier or something) decide it would be a great idea to LEAVE the group and the truck, despite the risk of getting infected or being shot by the psychopaths roaming the streets, so he can go home be all alone wit his gold. The soldiers try to talk him out of it but instead of detaining him or something, they go ''Eh, whatever. If you wanna kill yourself, you have every right.'' and let him go, Spoiler warning: he dies. And then there is Dr Carla Nero, the CDC woman. After losing two more people on their way to atlanta due to the stupidity of the characters, they drive on. All of a sudden Nero goes all ''STOP TRUCK I HAVE TO SAVE THIS INFECTED GIRL I DON'T KNOW!'' She literally gets out of the car takes off her hazmat suit helmet to comfort this girl. Her stupidity not only gets her infected with the parasite but almost got everyone in the group killed. It was all for nothing too, since the girl got shot by a sniper that was trying to kill everyone. And the ending, I hated it. Basically the book ends with the cure backfiring. I'm not saying that all thrillers should have happy endings but if their going this route, then it should have a message of sorts. Or how about, not having zombies in your Lost World novel! ok they're not actual zombies but they pretty much function the same way. All in all. I was disappointed with the ending.

(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).

This was my first Matt Kearns book, and I enjoyed it a lot. I like that he gets to have adventures without the HAWKs, and these books feel a bit more whimiscal than the Arcadian series. This was a fun and fast paced book, and Kearns definitely gets involved in world altering mysteries.

Greig Beck is my husband's and my favorite author. All his books are so good. This novel was released in three separate episodes (June 1st, July 1st, August 1st). I waited for the omnibus novel (released on August 1st) which has all three episodes. I'm really glad I did because it would have been horrible to have to wait for the next episode to come out. It was a complete novel and very hard to put down (which caused me to read until 4:00am). Greig Beck has such a wonderful imagination. His books are so full of adventure, strange creatures, human attractions, scary scenes, they have it all. Most of this book, The First Bird takes place in an unknown area in the deep wild jungle in South American which is hard to get to and just as hard to get out. Someone did get in and out and brought something back to the United States that caused problems so an expedition was sent down to find out what was going on. It was so good. I can't wait until his next book comes out. This is a must read. Buy the omnibus edition. You won't be disappointed.

I’ve read all of Greig Beck’s books and they’re all very good. This one was no exception, although a departure from his usual adventure with Alex Hunter. I waited for the complete (omnibus) edition of the First Bird instead of reading the 3 monthly installments (mainly because once I start reading one of his books I don’t put it down until it’s finished and didn’t want to wait over those 3 months). Mr. Beck’s imagination is unbelievable and sometimes with his imagination you have to suspend belief. However, I do believe there are unexplored areas on or under our planet so his premise for this novel could be true. This book has everything you see in his: action, adventure, science, fast paced dialog, believable characters plus this time an ominous world affecting “plague”. For Greig Beck fan’s, this book is a must read and you won’t be disappointed.

Enjoyed the book

Ein gutes Buch, werde von dem Autor weitere kaufen.

Another excellent read. The story just gets on with it and keeps going from start to finish. Highly recommended.

Series of 4 books with paleo linguist Matt Kearns. Hugely enjoyable 📖

This book made me a Craig Beck fan. I have read several of his books since and enjoyed all of them.