Two stars at best. This story is not very well thought out. The author puts little effort into making things actually work from any logical stand point. The more I read, the more I felt like this type of story was above the author's capacity. On some level, it's a typical time travel story, but it's been done and it's been done better as far as anything concerning the time travel. The characters largely lack depth and are not particularly well developed. Lots of action, but repetitive in nature. The plot is laid out eventually but lacks substance. I cannot recommend this book for anyone other than straight up hardcore action junkies and suggest parents do not allow their children to read it without doing so themselves due to language and sexual content, definitely R-rated. It was boring at times due to long scene layouts that were probably unnecessary at times, and repetitiveness of the good parts. The book seemed particularly choppy in the beginning few chapters but then smoothed out for the most part. The middle started to get particularly boring for me, and I struggled to want to continue reading it. Then the plot seemed to diverge from the original story line for a while, not that it wasn't divergent enough already. The ending was disappointing to me as well. Parts are great which is why I would give it two stars, but overall it's choppy, tedious, disconnected, not well thought out, and unsuspenseful. Though the author seems an excellent writer of action scenes and overall prose doesn't bother me (though there are several typos/missing words), it is a little distracting that it is written for a British audience, which I am not.

Received from NetGalley for my honest review
Completed 11/13/17
400 page ebook

I did NOT like this book. I didn't give it a 1 star rating, though I was very tempted to, and probably should have given how I feel about it now. The concept was interesting the actual execution of it was not.

The characters were super flat and super boring. And OMG one of them was SUCH a pussy. Ugh! The whole thing might have been better off without that character. What bugged me the most though, was the repetition. Here are two very annoying samples, and there was MULTIPLE times of this ~

"... and I had nothing to do with what happened in Holborn...."
"Five years ago," Safa says.
"Yesterday."
"Five years ago..."
"Yesterday."
"Five years ago."
"Yesterday... my name is Ben Ryder."

That's literally word for repetitive word. And this ~

"Are they?"
"Er... they look like it" Ben says.
"I see," she replies calmly.
"Aye," Harry mutters.
"Yes," Safa says.
"Indeed," Ben says.
"Aye," Harry says.
"Fuck," Safa says.
"Indeed," Ben says.
"Aye," Harry says.
"Outside," she says, "they're..."
"Indeed," Ben says...

OMG, that is word for word at 33% of the book. I recommend this book for no one and I'm so mad remembering this, I am going to make this a 1 star review.

Setting = D
Plot = C
Conflict = D
Characters = F-
Theme = D

After reading the plot of Extracted, it really excites me because I love reading science fiction and fantasy. However, I decided to DNF this book because of the lack of connection between characters. It has so much potential but I started to hate how it was written and three characters interact with each other.

Do not go into Extracted expecting an action-packed story. In fact, it is quite the opposite. I would say this first book delves into the psychology of depression by dragging someone out of time and expecting them to just be able to cope with it (although it is not purely that).

I feel like this was very much a setup book and that it would have benefited from merging the first 2 books into one as I left this book feeling like it ended too quickly. Normally I find this the complete opposite and think that the book has dragged on and should have been cut shorter so I feel like that I a good sign for the next books in this series.

I also enjoyed that Haywood attempted to try and have the characters understand how impacting the timeline by would change events (like going back and killing yourself when you were younger) and he came up with a pretty solid theory (I will leave it to you too find out what he thought of it).

Honestly I wish that I had more to say about Extracted but it was one of those books that was neither amazing or bad. An enjoyable read if you go into it not expecting too much action to happen.

The writing style was just kind of boring and I had a really hard time getting even half way through it

Time travel with a twist. Very entertaining read and intriguing storyline. Great characters, who I have to be honest, I cried over at times. That is great writing. Loved it.

I requested this book then completely forgot about it. I started seeing the cover and other ads for it which reminded me I'd requested it. Luckily it was approved! I read it in one sitting. Incredibly engrossing storyline

I've never been much of a sci-fi fan, but this one really drew me in. It's basically a story about time travel and the apocalypse and three people are "extracted" from their place in time to save the world before it happens. I loved getting to know the characters and their backstories but the cliffhanger ending frustrated the hell out of me! I need to know what happens next!!

My opinion is eh. It just wasnt written very well. To many run on sentences that i found myself reading over and I've before i could comprehend.

Extracted is a difficult book to like. If you do like it (and I did end up doing so), it's difficult to say why. It's not particularly well-written. While the dialogue cracked me up, the writing was generally just a bit off. The book starts, stops, and sputters along, frequently finding a rhythm and then falling away from it. There are flashes of brilliance that make you want to love it, but those flashes are almost drowned in the mediocrity surrounding them.

I think one of the reasons I ended up liking the book was the characters themselves. I truly enjoyed Mad Harry, Safa, and Ben. They were all sharp contrasts to each other in so many ways. I'm aware that in some ways they were walking cliches (especially Safa), however, I just didn't care. When they interacted, I loved them. Well, mostly Harry and Safa. Ben, for obvious reasons, I just wanted to smack.

Probably the biggest problem with Extracted is that the only thing that really happens in it is a study of severe depression in one of the characters. When you start reading it, it really feels like it's going to be action-packed and awesome. And then everything grinds to a sudden, screeching halt. Yes, there's some obligatory training sequences, and it's intercut with a group of people trying to find them, but that's about it. Everything is suddenly about one single member of the team and his mental health. Now, don't get me wrong, a book focusing on mental health is not a bad thing. In fact, I think issues like mental illness need to come up more in science fiction and fantasy novels. However, the way the author went about this one, especially the resolution to try to shock Ben back into being Ben, was a bit ridiculous.

Overall, Extracted could have been a great book, but it was severely hampered by the weight around its middle and the fact it's just book one in a trilogy. It's not its own, independent, strong book. It feels like R.R. Haywood took a few chapters of introduction to the second book and thought "Hey, let me stretch this out into its own book.". And the material he chose to stretch out just isn't strong enough (or enough, period.) I did like it, but I can't recommend it, and I won't be reading more in the series.

“The first trip fifty years into the future showed a society and species advancing as it should. The second trip, to the same point and location, revealed a post-apocalyptic wasteland.”

About : A young scientist creates a time machine and discovers that the word ends in 2111. He needs a hero—quickly. In a matter of weeks, three heroes are selected and “extracted” from their own times to save the world:

Safa Patel, a police officer stationed at Downing Street to protect the prime minister; “Mad Harry” Madden, special ops in WWI—before such a thing as “special ops” even existed; and Ben Ryder, an untrained civilian who has singlehandedly stopped two separate group attacks on innocents. And the training begins. Extracted is adult science fiction authored by R. R. Haywood and published March 1st 2017 by 47North.

Thoughts : Haywood's trilogy smashes together the sub-genres of time travel and post-apocalyptic fiction. That sounded too irresistible to pass up!

The first three chapters of book I, Extracted, introduce the three heroes by taking us through each one’s final, normal day—followed by his or her extraction. Visceral details enhance these “mini episodes” in strangely addictive and slightly uncomfortable ways: we enter the story in the midst of a fight between Ben Ryder and his fiancée, who are arguing about sex. It’s a dash of cold water right off the bat when Ben discovers that his fiancée has been cheating on him.

But Safa, one of the other heroes, suffers much worse than that in her current day-to-day life, and the crude, sometimes repetitive sexual details made her first chapter very difficult to read.

This in-your-face, very present and very character-driven style of writing brings a whole new level of intensity to the emotionally charged scenes of these first chapters (and to every emotional scene throughout the book), and although I cringed a lot, I sped through them. Some humor diffuses the tension, at times, although it occasionally feels forced and becomes wearyingly repetitive. (The descriptions in this ARC as a whole do get quite repetitive—some of that has hopefully been edited out of the finished copy.) This experience basically characterizes the whole book.

As I continued to read past these first three chapters, the plot never seemed to pick up and I soon realized that although the synopsis promises a world-saving mission, this first installment focuses entirely on characterization and team-building. It might be called a “training” book. “Extracted” is a preliminary, as if the publishers ripped apart one really big book to publish it in thirds. After the extractions, the heroes spend the rest of the book adapting to their new lifestyles and training to save the world. The characters refuse to accept the concept of time travel until 46%, and even then they don’t get started training right away. The specific nature of the training centers largely around helping Ben, the only untrained civilian among the three heroes, overcome the psychological trauma of the situation.

Overall : I enjoyed the book, despite its problems. Extracted is a compelling, crude, and strongly character-driven “episode” of a new sci-fi time travel trilogy. It reads like a speed demon! Although I wouldn’t call the book “boring” (I definitely came to care about the characters), I will say I was disappointed that we didn’t get any of the promised world-saving action, yet. If the author steps up his pacing and cuts out the filler in book two, I think his style and killer premise have a lot of potential. I might wait for the reviews to come out before reading it.

Recommended To : Anyone looking for a sci-fi time travel “training” book with strong characters. I haven’t gotten the chance to read Chuck Wendig yet, but from his blog, I gather that he writes using the same kind of searing, in-your-face style as this author, R. R. Haywood; that’s what this book reminded me of, although I think Wendig’s humor succeeds more often that Haywood’s.

Plot: 2.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Worldbuilding: 3/5
Writing: 3/5

Note About Misogyny : When I was writing this review, I noticed that a couple of reviewers are using phrases like “casual misogyny” to describe certain elements of the book and complaining that it only leaves two options for women: (1) Heroine! and (2) Slut! I’m not highly attuned to what might be considered sexist, but I personally didn’t get that impression. It’s a small cast with a tight focus on Ben and Safa, so that subject didn’t seem to fall within the reference of the book; I’m personally not bothered that Haywood doesn’t spell out all of the options for women. His portrayal of Safa did feel slightly "off" to me, but I could't quite put my finger on why, so I just decided to roll with it and enjoy the story.

Blog Review: https://christyluisreviews.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/extracted-extracted-trilogy-1-by-r-r-haywood/

While the content was a bit more gritty than I prefer, that is a preference, not the fault of the author. The storyline was intense and tension well-paced. The only major challenges I had was the oft-shifting first-person POV and present tense verbs, which made it challenging to know whose head you were in at times.

A good story but too much time is spent describing the incidents just prior to the exrtraction of the participants. It really adds little to the story, for example, to go into so much detail about the commando raid on the uboats. But I'm looking forward to the sequel.

<a href="https://aramblingreviewer.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/book-review-extracted/">Original Review Here</a>

When the opening of a novel makes you laugh out loud – on a train, no less – you would hope you were going to be in for a good read. I had such high hopes for Extracted by R.R Haywood.

It let me down so badly.

If I could write this review on the beginning and the end, then I would be raving about it. The characters come across as well developed and the type of hero you want saving the world. The dialogue is realistic and fantastic. While the premise is a touch cliché and a little absurd, it is delivered in a way that you roll with it.

The middle, however, ruined this entire novel for me.

Now, learning you are not only dead to everyone you know and love, but that time travel is possible and there is a dinosaur outside of your window is a lot to take in. But Ben’s character suffers a mental break in the middle of the book.

And it drags on…

…and on.

Safa and Harry both prove themselves to be well developed characters and Safa’s patience with Ben despite her usual no-nonsense manner makes her an extremely likeable character. Harry, too, is a gentle giant that gets into your heart.

But regardless of how cool the other characters are or how much your mind is spinning over the standard time-travel dilemmas, no one wants to read for an extended period of time about a character moping around feeling worthless and sorry for themselves.

Even when Ben focuses again, you don’t empathise with his character because rather than trying to help save the world, he has been so focused on himself that you lose that initial bonding with his character.

It disconnected me from the book and I really lost my enjoyment. Admittedly, the end did rescue it slightly (but was also confusing and was definitely there as a ploy to make you want the next book), but by that point, I was so fed up that it didn’t have the impact it was supposed to.

Extracted could have been so brilliant and I was so disappointed it wasn’t.

Wow - way to take a great premise and fail to deliver...

I'm not usually that harsh in my reviews, but this one was a flop for me and there really isn't any other way to make that point... I loved the idea of taking people out of time to save the world - the notion that we may have a destiny we were born for but not born into is a cool one, with great promise. But the characters in this one - EEK. To me, books live and die by their characters - and this is an exemplar of the latter...

While there are some well-written segments (I really liked Mad Harry's backstory/origin, and Ben Ryder's was also enjoyable), there were others that I couldn't even read through (Safa's story with the Prime Minister was painful to read and I skimmed that entire section once I realized what was going on)... I realize that difficult lives are often important elements of character and plot development - but still found it exceedingly hard to believe that this particular woman would suffer that particular fate repeatedly without ANY recourse, AND THEN go on to act the way she did once she was "free" of it... (Sorry, can't give more without spoilers.) And the dialogue these characters engaged in - double eek. They sounded like middle school kids - "did NOT!" 'did TOO!" is almost a verbatim transcript of one conversation...

I wanted to like it - instead I found myself rolling my eyes and skimming pages so rapidly that I eventually gave it up for lost. I don't know if it was a failure in delivery or editing, but this one did nothing for me but disappoint...

Extracted by r r haywood.
In 2061, a young scientist invents a time machine to fix a tragedy in his past. But his good intentions turn catastrophic when an early test reveals something unexpected: the end of the world.
A desperate plan is formed. Recruit three heroes, ordinary humans capable of extraordinary things, and change the future.
An absolutely fantastic read with brilliant characters. I loved how Ben, Safa and Harry were towards each other. Made me laugh they did. Can't wait for next part. Highly recommended. 5*. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book from netgalley.

A refreshing travel through time. The characters and plot are expertly woven keeping a sense of excitement of what lies ahead but only time will tell!

This book was a tour de force of mediocrity, poor research, and casual misogyny.

Extracted tells the story of three people who were taken from their respective timelines at the point of their deaths-extracted- and are now looked to be the last hope at the world being saved. Very 'Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope'-esque.

The synopsis for this book alone was well thought out. It doesn't say much, but it gets you interested, which is precisely the point. As this is the first book in the trilogy, we don't see how the mission turns out as a lot of world and character building takes place.

We don't really get too deep into the time traveling because even though this is a time travel novel, it's really not. The fact that people could travel through time was not what the main point of this story was. Sure, it was because of the invention of a time machine that started the unfortunate end of the world, but it was the saving of the world and how that's going to be done that was more important in this book. I'm actually hoping that in books two and three we'll get to travel a bit more...you know, when we're sort of out of the immediate sight of danger.

When I first started this book I was so confused. I understood that each of the characters, Ben, Harry and Safa's- extractions were being described in detail so that we as the readers could get a better understanding of how exactly that worked and I liked that part...it was the after that bothered me. Instead of the POV's being separated by chapters, they were separated by paragraphs, it was more lines actually, and with no warning that the POV was changing. It was my only peeve about the book really. It would've probably have been more annoying though if we had to go through the same scenario three times with each character since all three of them were the main character.

Ben was a bit slow on the uptake and the one who I think got the worst end of the bargain. He was plucked out of his life and thrown into this new world where all of a sudden all these impossible things were now possible. He had no training for this and obviously didn't know how to cope with all this unfamiliarity.

Harry was a hoot. This guy, the one who goes back the furthest seemed to almost blend in seemingly. Sure, he had his set way of doing things but he was a soldier. He was taught to obey. There's no room for 'no'.

I did not like Safa. I felt like even though it wasn't intentional on her part, she was very...bossy. I don't know how else to explain it. To me it was like that because she was the only female of this group she had to overcompensate and prove that she had the guts to do what they could, that she could be strong too. I'm glad that she was a powerful character in that sense but it got to the point where whatever she said went. By the time the words 'Let him be a man. Give him his dignity.' rolled around I was like thank the Heavens! Someone finally said it.

Overall, I thought this book was amazing! The writing was perfect and I didn't want to stop reading. This story is still working it's way through all the sections of my mind. I'm really interested in getting my hands on Executed-the second book- because I need to know what happens next we were kind of left with a cliffhanger. I'm glad I decided to request this book. No regrets at all.

I find this a difficult review to write, as whilst I found this book to be immensely gripping from the very start, there was a fair portion that I found to be quite gloomy, and the plot didn’t really end in a worthwhile conclusion for me

The initial set-up of ‘extracting’ the actual crew I found to be quite riveting, with the action being somewhat reminiscent of Stephen Leather’s character ‘Spider Shepherd’ and I really felt that this was going to be a well worthwhile book.

However, I found Ben’s depression and/or nervous breakdown to be somewhat boring and demoralising – although the section detailing the thoughts and feelings of the characters who viewed Ben’s actions at Holborn Underground Station (prior to returning him to that time-line immediately before his death) - to be quite emotional, so perhaps there was a valid reason for this plot line.

My biggest bugbear however, was that this book ended with no resolution as to how the future (as it was originally played out) was going to be accomplished.

I admit to being fairly traditional, and prefer my books to comprise a beginning; a middle; and an end – preferably in that order - but this book sadly only provided a beginning, and a middle.