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Title: The Eleventh Plague by John S. Marr, John Baldwin ISBN: 0-06-109763-2 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.99 (81 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Great idea, baaaadly written
Comment: I've read this book twice now and keep thinking, "what a great idea, too bad the med guy didn't farm the idea out to someone who could write!" But he thought he did; wish he'd sent it to me. Ignoring all the trivial errors (misspellings of diseases, "North Ridge earthquake," calling the valley fever org. "cocci" when that term refers to all cocci forms of bacteria, "congenital arthritic hip" of Drew (think they meant congenital dysplasia causing the arthritis, not too many babies born with arthritis!), the faults in writing are amazing: rotten character development (for ex. Byrne is described in such detail at first encounter w/his pony tail, and when he has to cut it off, but do we ever hear about his pony tail again? So much for his Samson anguish), bringing up interesting points only to drop them (Kameron's taping of Byrne's comments at Mia's lecture, mention about doctoring them -- never shows up again), and leaden writing style.
Guess there's going to be another book soon, maybe the Fifth Horseman? Hope these two get a better editor.
Rating: 4
Summary: Modern Day Nightmare
Comment: The Eleventh Plague deals with the 10 plagues of Exodus. While visiting a zoo, a young boy finds a water pistol and shoots water at a teen girl then he shoots some water into his mouth. Shortly after, both die of a disease thought to be nonexistent in the United States. In Kentucky, thoroughbreds at the Churchill Downs are dying of a virus that cannot be identified, even by the most expert veterinarians. Called in to help is famed virologist Jack Bryne. He soon discovers that the two events are not only connected, they are deliberate acts. Soon Bryne's worldwide medical computer network ProMED is hacked into by the person who is responsible for the recent outbreaks. This unknown person has very dangerous knowledge of toxins and an obsession with biblical retribution. Bryne, now a suspect, must convince the FBI of his innocence and plead with them to help him catch this madman before it's too late.
I've read a lot of books that deal with biological warfare/terrorism and this book has to be one of the best. The Cobra Event by Richard Preston was my favorite but The Eleventh Plague is 10 times better.
Don't read this book when you're eating or about to eat. Some sections of the book were so vivid and repulsive that I thought I would be sick.
Rating: 2
Summary: So many problems...
Comment: As many other reviewers of this book, I also have read "The hot zone", and a plot that mixes bio-terrorism with biblical happenings - namely the Ten plagues of Egypt - will always interest me. So I bought this book.
The first thing that turned me off is on the cover: there are two authors. This usually doesn't work. When it comes to writing I can count in my fingers how many good books written in tandem there are. But maybe this one was an exception. No.
About the plot: very interesting, if somewhat unoriginal. A madman, clearly a sociopath, is re-creating - loosely re-creating, as I shortly noticed - Exodus' Ten plagues of Egypt in the US. To prevent him doing so, Jack Bryne, eminent virologist with a "shadowy" past, needs help from the FBI and his co-workers. The plot is interesting, and one of the authors is a M.D., so I supposed the medical / bio-warfare stuff is accurate. I really can't tell, but it seems so. OK. But the writing is awful. For 4/5 of the book there's no chase, no investigation, just a description of how the madman creates new bio-things to resemble the plagues. Then, in the last 50 pages, everything is suddenly, miraculously disclosed, and the final scenes are pitiful, C- or D- movie scripts stuff. Character development is nil. Jack Bryne and the rest of the good guys are completely stereothypical. The bad guy is a poor carbon-copy of Norman Bates. In the end, I was reading one paragraph out of five and still could understand what was going on.
I shouldn't have bought this book. This is nothing like Richard Preston. There is evidence everywhere that "The eleventh plague" will not elighten or even entertain its reader. The most revealing is in the back cover; there are paragraphs describing the backgrounds on the two co-authors. The M.D., John Marr, gets an extensive paragraph, about his researches, acomplishments and works. The other author, John Baldwin, a "free-lance writer" (?) gets two lines saying he lives in New England. Oh dear. That must mean something, and after finishing the book I saw I was right.
As I've said before, an interesting premise destroyed by terrible writing. Skip it.
Grade 4.2/10
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Title: The THIRD PANDEMIC by Pierre Ouellette ISBN: 0671525360 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The First Horseman by Carolyn Hougan, Jim Hougan, John Case ISBN: 0345435796 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: FORBIDDEN RESEARCH by Howard Simon ISBN: 0671021842 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: The Cobra Event by Richard Preston ISBN: 0345409973 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: In the Blood by Don J. Donaldson ISBN: 0425178781 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 06 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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