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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
In S.D. Rhodes's Extinction Protocol, after Earth is destroyed, engineer Elias Ward lives inside a sealed Mars colony where their survival depends on strict control of air, food, and movement under Director Hart’s Security forces. As authority tightens, Elias gains access to the colony’s infrastructure and is drawn into a struggle between enforcement systems and a hidden network working to keep the critical resources independent. When irregular system activity reveals that someone in the colony is attempting to trigger a total termination protocol, Elias uses his position to trace the source while navigating increasing surveillance and changing loyalties. Each intervention forces him deeper into the colony’s operating core, where the control over life support defines power, and where every decision has consequences that reshape the fates of everyone inside.
S.D. Rhodes drops us right into a fantastically fleshed-out Mars colony. The title leans into a built-in command that can shut the whole place down if leadership decides that survival is no longer worth the cost. The author steers us into one of the most creative dystopian stories I have read in a long, long time. The world-building is first-rate, with a main habitat and multiple sectors, including agricultural. I like Elias, although it takes a moment to stop believing he is complicit. There's a “Famine Protocol” that is even more horrifying than it sounds, which he thinks is unfair but still follows orders. The shift for me happens when he sticks his neck out to stop the detention of someone he works with. I love Maribel, who is a powerhouse at keeping people together when the system starts cutting them off. Overall, Extinction Protocol is a story of subverting unjust power and survival on an inhospitable planet, and I hope that Rhodes expands this into a series. Very highly recommended.
