The First Bird Paperback – November 26, 2013

If you like adventure novels with a little horror thrown in, you will like this. The overall plot will be somewhat familiar if you read these books. A terrible disease gets started and a team must be assembled to find an answer and get it back to the lab.Pros: the main character is not a muscle bound x-seal who is not in touch with his emotions; instead he is an academic who is a bit insecure because his girlfriend is fifteen years younger. The main woman (the girlfriend) is attractive but the author does not linger on the details about her sexuality, and she is capable. The old, fatherly doctor character is nice but could have had a larger part. The assorted scientists are ok. The rich big hunter guy is a jerk, as usual; the experienced bush hunter and security guy starts off as nothing more than a smart-alec but grows on you. You get scenes in the CDC meetings, scenes in air planes, lots of scenes in the jungle, and some scenes at the end that are somewhat like a zombie take over.This book is better than a lot of the entries in this genre. It is part Jurassic Park, part Indiana Jones, with a touch of King's The Stand at the end without the good vs bad overlay. The writing is generally good and it flows well and you never get lost. The occasional switch from guy in the lab back home to main characters in the jungle works well.Cons: The first 3/4 of the book moves along at a good pace. Lots and lots of time in the jungle facing all sorts of problems, one after another, sort of like Indiana Jones. The last quarter of the book, when they come back to the US, seems rushed. I wish it had gone more slowly but I suspect the book was getting long at that point and someone said to the author, "Dude, you gotta wrap this up, not run on for another hundred pages." I wish he had gone on more and the journey back from the airport to the CDC had been longer and had even more character development. The big bad guy at the end is not really given his due.The development at the end of different strains of the medical problem seemed a little added on, but I guess if there is going to be someone causing trouble for the scientists on their return there has to be a way those people have sort of survived the disease. This last quarter seems to go a bit fast and start but not really finish a story about the big bad guy.Now and again, some people make some really dumb mistakes I doubt they would make, like the head scientist and the little girl, though you will know why she did it from a psychological perspective.I would also maybe add in a little more gun fire into the first half. Seems like one rifle is not enough for six people in the jungle. It does not have to be a blast festival, but maybe a little more here would have worked just fine. There is more at the very end.OVERALL: If you like adventure books, I think this is definitely worth a shot. I am going on to number two in the series. This book deserves a few more readers!

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!!

Great fun like the other books I've read by Greg Beck but he continues to drive me nuts with completely inaccurate descriptions of real world products such a vehicles and firearms. As a collector of firearms these errors likely stands out more to me than the usual reader but please Beck write about what you know or bother to do some research rather than torture me with 'heat seeking' RPGs and 99cal. sniper rifles etc...completely made up technology is an other area that is so unnecessarily thrown into the mix and confusing, are we meant to be in the future or a parallel universe? Love the characters and the general plots, antagonists etc.. but what destroys a good read is Beck's lazy approach to fact checking which is a shame as ironically he's shooting himself in the foot repeatedly, lame pun intended. I'm also noticing the ending of a previous book will mostly be ignored in the following book, great for first time readers (which I guess is the point as a marketing scheme) but again confusing for readers who read the books in order.

Other reviews have said that there is not enough information in this story, such as what caused the plague and what the bird actually is. Were these people actually reading the book? It seemed perfectly clear to me and was a very good, very fast paced story to boot. I considered the characters to be well developed and believable and you cared about what happened to them, whether it be sorrow at a certain character meeting a gruesome fate or a dislikeable one getting their desserts. No more said for risk of spoilers.A mild nitpick would be that it seemed to mirror Anaconda (film) rather more than it should in places, but this is my opinion only. I am pleased that the version I read was mostly free of the more appalling editing problems that some ebooks suffer from and the ending was, shall we say, refreshing, being something of a break from the usual.

This is the third book I've read of Greig's and thoroughly enjoyed all three (Siberian Incident, Beneath the Dark Ice & First Bird). Now on my fourth (Dark Rising). First Bird is a mix of Lost World, Infected and even Walking Dead towards the end, so if that's your cup of tea I heartily recommend.One quibble - [SPOILER] - Carla rushing out the vehicle to save the little girl, despite all the warnings, was too predictable and daft. The middle-aged woman who has lost a child/not able to bear children acting completely irrationally because of a cute kid is a cliche we've seen/read a hundred times before.

For the first 3/4 of the book it was great, original and quite thought provoking. I was a little disappointed towards the end when it degenerated into mark one zombie mode (OK, not quite zombies but close) but I have to admit the ending was something I really did not see coming.It was a shame that while all the other elements of the ending were hinted at throughout the book, the reader didn't get a chance to see any evidence of the real kicker at the end coming.An interesting take on the end justifying the means, or rather the means justifying the end (or something like that). I don't want to give away the plot...

This is an enjoyable action / adventure / horror / post-apocalyptic tale with a surprise ending. It is definitely not a cosy catastrophe and the protagonist (an ancient species of the Scabies mite) is truly horrific in its effects on modern humans.The book is well-paced and the story gripping; character behaviour and dialogue is mostly believable and it was something of an emotional roller-coaster since the author, in true Walking Dead / Game of Thrones style, is not afraid to let main characters be killed off unexpectedly.