In the year 2055 an unprecedented series of solar storms results in a coronal mass ejection (CME) that bombards the Earth with radiation and renders many locations uninhabitable. This cataclysm motivates the governments of the world to start collaborating on a joint project to start to populate another world - Mars. New Tech Corporation (NTC) becomes responsible for getting humans to the red planet and they are hiring the best scientists in the world to make it happen. Their sense of urgency in this endeavor is off the charts and that is because they know something that most people on Earth don't - the CME of 2055 was not a random event.
Six years after the CME and this information is still unknown to Dr. Sophie Winston when she commits her team to inhabit a biosphere within Cheyenne Mountain for the next six months as a test for an upcoming flight to Mars. Soon after Sophie and her team enter the facility everything goes to hell outside as the "Organics" arrive on Earth and start sucking up all the water. NTC knew the CME event of 2055 was caused by alien influence but even they didn't expect the invasion so soon. Sophie and team quickly figure out that something is wrong outside and when they eventually emerge they discover that Earth has been invaded and humanity has fallen.
This is another apocalyptic thriller from Nicholas Sansbury Smith and the premise is entertaining as long as you look the other way when it comes to the science. Some of the science is sketchy so if you can't get beyond that then you should skip this series, but if you are willing to go along for the ride then the story itself is an entertaining one. This is the first book of the series and little is resolved by the end but it does set the stage for the rest of the series and it leaves you wanting more. The audiobook version is narrated by Bronson Pinchot who also narrates a couple of Smith's other apocalyptic series, Trackers and the Extinction Cycle, and as usual he does a great job.