Review: No letdown (or letup) in First Bird Part 2
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 5, 2013
Part 2 of Greig Beck's latest 3 part serial novel, "First Bird", starts out right where Part 1 ended, right in the middle of a "Lost World" deep in the middle of the uncharted Brazilian rain forest. Of course it does, because First Bird is a single, self-contained novel that was broken up into three parts, published on June 1, July 1 and August 1.  The breaks are not artificial, but are natural stopping points in the narrative.Part 1 tells the story of a deadly parasitic plague brought back, along with the eponymous archaeopteryx, by a now dead explorer recently returned from a remote section of the Brazilian rainforest.  Archeologist Matt Kearns and his girlfriend/student Megan are dragooned by CDC doctor Carla Nero and company in search of the source and a cure who have hitched a ride with mega-rich movie producer Max Steinberg and company who are after a living specimen of the first bird.Part 2 takes them through a deep pool and a hundred million years give or take into a Jurassic Park, where spiders as large as manhole covers and flying insects the size of  birds are the least of their worries. The entire 131 page section takes only 3 days in real time, while unbeknownst to them, the plague is spiraling wildly out of control back home. Not everyone who enters returns, and Part 2 ends with the survivors flying back out of Brazil.Still great fun, no middle of a trilogy letdown because this is all one medium sized novel to begin with, and now I only have 26 more days to wait to see what Matt and company will find back at home and how they will deal with it.Recommended.J.M. Tepper