Search - The Cobra Event

Ehhh... the idea behind this book was solid and interesting but poorly executed. Quite simply, the writing broke the book with its overuse of passive verbs, verb tense and overall repetition of words. From the technical aspect, this book seemed like it originated from someone who had neither read a novel nor took a writing class. Despite its gore, the book talked down to its audience in an insulting fashion (perhaps Richard Preston secretly agrees with his villain?). The characters lacked personality. Why even bother to name these "people"? That is how devoid of humanity they came across. Still, the book's premise held originality and it certainly played a role in inspiring Scott Sigler's _Infected_, so for that alone the book deserves some credit. I recommend his brother's thrillers MUCH more than this one.

Meh.
Medical to bio-war thriller, complete with highly trained defenders (nevertheless one makes a bone headed mistake that seemed mainly to add pathos to the story). And oh yeah, Iraqi bio weapons labs.

I gave it two stars and noted to avoid the author.

This book was excellent. It was edge of the seat thriller.

I literally could not put this book down, my husband kept wondering where I kept running off too every chance I got this weekend!

This book was awesome. Nonstop action. It was scary, because this could actually really happen. I love books like this.

This is the first book I've read by Richard Preston. While I was captivated by the premise (biological weapon), the read has too much exposition. Mr. Preston has done his research homework, but incorporates too much detail - I find myself skipping past the details to get to the meat. I'm almost done; the saving grace is that I'm still interested enough to want to find out what happens in the end.