It’s actually rather difficult to find a good middle grade adventure book featuring dinosaurs. So when I stumbled onto Laura Martin’s Edge of Extinction series, I was excited to dive in. Discovering it was also a dystopian novel for middle graders ratcheted up the suspense and tension even further.
Sky Mundy has lived her entire life underground, inside a place known clinically as North Compound. Living underground is the only safe place in the world since dinosaurs took back the planet nearly a 150 years ago. But when Sky receives a mysterious message from her missing father, she sets out for Topside — the place where dinosaurs rule and humans run for their lives. Can she find her father? Will she be able to survive long enough? Or will she end up like so many before her: chased down and eaten by dinosaurs?
While at times a bit derivative of Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay, book one in this dinosaur series,The Ark Plan, meanders for the first hundred pages or so before things really start cranking along. Pretty much until Sky gets topside, the book crawls a bit setting up the world and the characters a hair too slowly. But once it gets going, it really gets going and doesn’t let up until the very end of the book.
Speaking of the end of the book, this is not a spoiler, but the story definitely doesn’t “conclude” at the end of this first installment. Some plot details are wrapped up, and there are a few mild surprises along the way, but the most burning questions are not answered. Be prepared to dive into book 2 once you’re done.
One of the most fascinating parts of this book was its discussion of the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark. At times, characters talk about dinosaurs having lived 65 million years ago in the past, but they also acknowledge the existence of the Bible and the story of Noah as possibly being true as well. At first, the story of Noah is used by the villains as a way to control the population, but then it is revealed that people living in the compound never learned the full story of Noah. It sparked an interesting discussion about dinosaurs, the flood, Noah, and exactly how all of that worked out.
This is a wild dinosaur ride that will keep you flipping pages to the end once you’re past that somewhat slow beginning. If you like Jurassic anything, you’re bound to enjoy The Ark Plan.