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The Cobra Event
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Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Author: Richard Preston
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $7.99
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Author: Richard Preston
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Average Customer Rating:
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The Cobra Event Description
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345409973
ISBN: 0345409973
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 448
Publication Date: 1998-08-29
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product Release Date: 1998-08-29
Studio: Ballantine Books
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345409973
ISBN: 0345409973
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 448
Publication Date: 1998-08-29
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product Release Date: 1998-08-29
Studio: Ballantine Books
Editorial Review of The Cobra Event
"A PAGE-TURNER . . . THOROUGHLY FRIGHTENING."
--Newsweek
"ENORMOUSLY ENTERTAINING."
--The New York Times Book Review
"THIS BOOK SCARED THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME. . . . Manages to grab you with the authenticity of its scientific detective work and haunt you with its sheer plausibility."
--Entertainment Weekly
Five days ago, a homeless man on a subway platform died in agony as startled commuters looked on. Yesterday, a teenager started having violent, uncontrollable spasms in art class. Within minutes, she too was dead.
Dr. Alice Austen is a medical pathologist at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. What she knows is that the two deaths are connected. What she fears is that they are only the beginning. . . .
--Newsweek
"ENORMOUSLY ENTERTAINING."
--The New York Times Book Review
"THIS BOOK SCARED THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME. . . . Manages to grab you with the authenticity of its scientific detective work and haunt you with its sheer plausibility."
--Entertainment Weekly
Five days ago, a homeless man on a subway platform died in agony as startled commuters looked on. Yesterday, a teenager started having violent, uncontrollable spasms in art class. Within minutes, she too was dead.
Dr. Alice Austen is a medical pathologist at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. What she knows is that the two deaths are connected. What she fears is that they are only the beginning. . . .
Customer Reviews of The Cobra Event
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Not gory, not scary
Review: Despite what others will have you think, this book is neither terribly gory nor scary. The reviewers who thought so are either all terribly wussy, or are used to the tamest fiction imaginable.
I'll agree that the *idea* of a virus that could make you eat yourself is frightening. I was expecting it to be better written and much more visceral, based on the reviews. Not impressed.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Okay Book
Review: There was some good parts but it seemed to take forever to get into the story. Just when i was getting into the book then another dry spell would be in the next chapter. There is alot of medical terminology that I would get lost in at times and then become uninterested, but over all an okay book if you are willing to wait until at least 1/2 through for it to start picking up.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Outstanding! Almost Michael Crichton!
Review: I loved this book for two reasons. The first being the riveting plot. This book dares you to put it down (and then try to sleep at night). The ride, the details, the pacing. This book is a cut above.
My second reason is a bit of thumbing my nose at the publishing industry. This book revels in having NOTHING that the publishing industry demands today. Everything MUST be character driven! Aaaack, that one drives me crazy. Pages and pages of introspection while the story stands still. Preston does nothing of this! His characters are not the focus of the story, and they aren't terribly well developed. Ironically, this makes them much more believable than the standard novel character. I somehow don't think that Richard Preston has sheets and sheets of character outlines with details such as how Tom Cope likes his corn flakes! Preston does more telling than showing, and I wish to thank him for it! All these books filled with contrived ways of getting information across to the reader and past an editor who is just dying to mark something as "telling" rather than "showing." No navel gazing! Thank you Mr. Preston for delivering a book where the story doesn't have to go on pause for twenty pages of introspection every chapter! "Why am I here, does she feel the same way about me as I feel about her?" Baah!
Richard Preston puts the "thrill" in "thriller"!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Edge of My Seat!
Review: This was the first book I picked up after several years of not reading. Wow, amazing story! I couldn't put it down and I always put them down unfortunately.
I love this book, I've recommended to several people over the years.
Why isnt this a movie yet??, that question baffles me.
The characters were amazing, the story was believable and very real. Story telling at its highest point, you'll stay up all night reading!
Highly recommended!!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Refreshing and Educational
Review: Before reading this book, bioterrorism seemed like a distant threat from the past. However, Preston's novel makes a very strong story that is further rooted by scientific facts. By combining elements of horror with this story, it helps a reader understand the overlooked aspects of terrorism, and in this novel, it highlights how easily anybody can create or have access to very dangerous biological agents, and that the dispersal of such weapons can be done easily and covertly.
A quick premise: Several people living in New York City have had unusual deaths, consisting of unnatural seizures, self-cannibalism and a meltdown of the nervous system. After a brief investigation, the FBI sends in a team of experts in the field of bioweapons and other operatives to find the unknown terrorist who goes by the name Archimedes.
The entire story is delivered in a way that balances the action smoothly against several chapters that deliver raw facts and fundamentals of bioweapons development, geneology, and terrorism. While these chapters may be somewhat redundant or droll, they still enforce the story and further personify the "Cobra virus" (the bioweapon used by Archimedes), making it a living, breathing producer of fear rather then some virus procured in a madman's lab. Even though it's still a novel, it behaves more like a nonfiction book that has been given a bit of context.
The writing style employed throughout the novel gives it a much grittier edge then other thrillers similar to this. There's no suspense between chapters, just a non-stop action sequence that is periodically lulled by the few chapters devoted the the explanation of major concepts portrayed in the book (as stated before, bioweapons, genealogy, etc).
With that said, I cannot recommend this highly enough to the casual or devoted reader.
Review Summary: Not gory, not scary
Review: Despite what others will have you think, this book is neither terribly gory nor scary. The reviewers who thought so are either all terribly wussy, or are used to the tamest fiction imaginable.
I'll agree that the *idea* of a virus that could make you eat yourself is frightening. I was expecting it to be better written and much more visceral, based on the reviews. Not impressed.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Okay Book
Review: There was some good parts but it seemed to take forever to get into the story. Just when i was getting into the book then another dry spell would be in the next chapter. There is alot of medical terminology that I would get lost in at times and then become uninterested, but over all an okay book if you are willing to wait until at least 1/2 through for it to start picking up.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Outstanding! Almost Michael Crichton!
Review: I loved this book for two reasons. The first being the riveting plot. This book dares you to put it down (and then try to sleep at night). The ride, the details, the pacing. This book is a cut above.
My second reason is a bit of thumbing my nose at the publishing industry. This book revels in having NOTHING that the publishing industry demands today. Everything MUST be character driven! Aaaack, that one drives me crazy. Pages and pages of introspection while the story stands still. Preston does nothing of this! His characters are not the focus of the story, and they aren't terribly well developed. Ironically, this makes them much more believable than the standard novel character. I somehow don't think that Richard Preston has sheets and sheets of character outlines with details such as how Tom Cope likes his corn flakes! Preston does more telling than showing, and I wish to thank him for it! All these books filled with contrived ways of getting information across to the reader and past an editor who is just dying to mark something as "telling" rather than "showing." No navel gazing! Thank you Mr. Preston for delivering a book where the story doesn't have to go on pause for twenty pages of introspection every chapter! "Why am I here, does she feel the same way about me as I feel about her?" Baah!
Richard Preston puts the "thrill" in "thriller"!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Edge of My Seat!
Review: This was the first book I picked up after several years of not reading. Wow, amazing story! I couldn't put it down and I always put them down unfortunately.
I love this book, I've recommended to several people over the years.
Why isnt this a movie yet??, that question baffles me.
The characters were amazing, the story was believable and very real. Story telling at its highest point, you'll stay up all night reading!
Highly recommended!!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Refreshing and Educational
Review: Before reading this book, bioterrorism seemed like a distant threat from the past. However, Preston's novel makes a very strong story that is further rooted by scientific facts. By combining elements of horror with this story, it helps a reader understand the overlooked aspects of terrorism, and in this novel, it highlights how easily anybody can create or have access to very dangerous biological agents, and that the dispersal of such weapons can be done easily and covertly.
A quick premise: Several people living in New York City have had unusual deaths, consisting of unnatural seizures, self-cannibalism and a meltdown of the nervous system. After a brief investigation, the FBI sends in a team of experts in the field of bioweapons and other operatives to find the unknown terrorist who goes by the name Archimedes.
The entire story is delivered in a way that balances the action smoothly against several chapters that deliver raw facts and fundamentals of bioweapons development, geneology, and terrorism. While these chapters may be somewhat redundant or droll, they still enforce the story and further personify the "Cobra virus" (the bioweapon used by Archimedes), making it a living, breathing producer of fear rather then some virus procured in a madman's lab. Even though it's still a novel, it behaves more like a nonfiction book that has been given a bit of context.
The writing style employed throughout the novel gives it a much grittier edge then other thrillers similar to this. There's no suspense between chapters, just a non-stop action sequence that is periodically lulled by the few chapters devoted the the explanation of major concepts portrayed in the book (as stated before, bioweapons, genealogy, etc).
With that said, I cannot recommend this highly enough to the casual or devoted reader.