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Summary: The Hot Zone
Review: The story is about a virus that takes place in Ebola, S. Africa. The virus would overtake a persons organs by liquifying their organs. The virus did alert government scientists, so they went to s. Africa to investigate the causes of deaths in the local villages. The monkeys there had sustained the disease so the scientists flew them back to the United States to do research on them. Col. Jaax of the research laboratory at Fort Detrick ran the monkey testing. The monkeys displayed unusual behavior physically. Some of the monkeys had died.
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Summary: A wonderful book filled with information
Review: OK...I had to read this book for a science requirement so I assumed it would be extremely boring...But as I soon found out the book was one of the best I have read. It gave me a better understanding of the Ebola virus and its effects. It also talked of the spawn of the virus and its sister Marburg. It gave statistics as well as had a plot behind it. This book told true stories about the people who have died from the virus and the mystery behind it...It also spoke of the fortunate ones who have survived the virus. This book was great and learned more from it then I have any textbook. And I would recomend it to anyone.
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Summary: Too Hot To Handle
Review: Being force to read this in my English class I must say was not my teacher's best choice. I base this only on the fact that there was more in-detail gore than your average horror film, but reflecting back on Hot Zone I know understand that the extreme details were there because this is the cold hard fact. People have died from these natural events and will still die in the furture. Even if the human species considers gaining control we will soon have to relize we can't gain control of the uncontrolable. I enjoyed the cold hard fact about this book, that the "Hot Zone," even outside of a book, is still too hot to handle for the human race.
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Summary: Buyer Beware......
Review: Well, it all depends on what you are looking for. "The Hot Zone" was the first book I read on this subject and like many other readers I was intriged and facinated. But then I started to branch out and read more about the subject and I realized that this book cannot be taken at face value. If you want an accurate description of these viruses I would suggest "Virus Hunters of the CDC" by Joseph B. McCormick M.D. and Susan Fisher-Hoch or "Ebola" by William T. Close. These books are written by the people have actually worked with the viruses and the victims they attack. These two books are first hand expieriences...not second or third hand information. I would compare "The Hot Zone" to the TV show Hard Copy. It does get most of the story across, but it alters it to make it more marketable. My main gripe with it is that countless times Mr. Preston mentions "liquifiying" of bodily organs. This is completely inaccurate. It paints a good picture and had good shock value, but these virus don't need it. They are shocking enough on their own, they don't need to be embelished. Once again, a good story book (although how it's passed off as non-fiction I'll never know), but if you want acuracy I would suggest you look a little further.
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Summary: Awesome book!
Review: My science teacher is reading this book to us right now in our 8th grade classroom. Now, I will tell you here, that I am only on chapter 4, but already I've heard a lot about it.At first the whole Ebola thing scared the heck out of me! It does describe in gruesome detail the symptoms of ebola (4 words -black and red vomit), so this isn't a book for people with queasy stomachs! But, it is great! A book you simply can't put down! ;-) Read it! :-)
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Summary: Cartoonish yes but cartoonish in the Dark sense
Review: If this book was pure fiction my opinion of it would be completely different. It is not great literature, it reads more like a long newspaper article, the villain is too over done, and the blood and gore too extreme. However the fact that this is telling a true tale changes things. It is hard, when faced with a virus like Ebola, not to use sensational terms. It is also hard not tell a macabre tale. This disease, though it may not ever be a world killer, is the poster child for viral violence. Preston's book is a quick, easy to read, glimpse into a world where we are just another part of the food chain; where we are no better prepared to fight this foe than a monkey or guinea pig. If you do not know what Ebola is, you may not want to read this book. When dealing with flivovirus's, at least with current medical technology, ignorance might be bliss. To get to know Ebola or Marburg is not going to make you feel better at night. Unmasking the phantom won't make it go away, it will just reveal the really nasty truth underneath. I read The Hot Zone as I was comming down with a cold...don't read this if you are coming down with a cold. If you like a good decent scare read it. Just remember that, in this case, the boogy man is real.
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Summary: "The Hot Zone"
Review: The "Hot Zone" is a bone chilling true story by Richard Preston. It tells of the events leading to the Ebola Outbreak in Reston, Virginia during the 1980's. Preston does a great job explaining in detail many cases in which people suffered from the virus. After reading this book I felt scared to touch anything around me. The Ebola virus is swift moving and can kill within days. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's up for a thrill.
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Summary: The Hot Zone
Review: Richard Preston's shockingly true story is about an outbreak of a nasty virus in the suburbs outside of Washington. Is the world ready for a deadly outbreak? Will a deadly virus burn through the streets of our capital? The Hot Zone tells the true story of how this scenario really almost happened, and how it could happen again. The book gives a good idea about what happens with a virus like Ebola, and what the deadly consequences could be. These are frightening truths that in the course of everyday people don't think about. Read The Hot Zone. Open your eyes.
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Summary: Intense!
Review: One of the most intense books I ever read. Wait... the most. This book starts getting intense around page 8 and starts getting creepy on page 1. What does this mean. You get hundreds of intense, creepy pages. This book documents the years when the Ebola virus was around. It is one of the best reads around. Buy it, read it, experience it.
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Summary: For Africa: Go Ebola, Go Aids
Review: I'd recommend this book to anyone. The author did like to spend time describing what some of the main characters cooked for breaksfast on a given day, and what they were thinking, which was totally irrelevant to the story. Aside from that, this piece of work is a quick-read true story of how a group of civilian and military individuals safely removed the deadly Ebola virus from Suburban Washington, D.C. The author presented the possible origins, background and horrifying affects of this virus. Ebola is so malicious, that one would be better off taking their own life before succumbing to this filovirus which turns organs into liquid. Blood from internal hemorrhaging emanates from every orifice of the body. The virus attacks the brain, and liquefies it into jelly like other parts of the body causing dementia and psychotic episodes. The fatality rate is usually 90%. Ebola has the ability wipe out huge amounts of human population, and in nations which don't have high-tech medical facilities and resources, Ebola's outbreak is something we may likely hear of again in the Zaire region or other parts of the world. the fact of whether or not it can be transmitted through the air was a serious question at the end of the book. There are different strains of Ebola and it has a keen ability to mutate and adapt to hosts of different species. The author's note of how nature was possibly responding, or avenging the massive human population explosion was intriguing and made me think. Is it nature's means of defense against the constant and unending onslaught of Human population and so-called growth? As of now, Ebola has retreated to the Jungle, where the strain of this filovirus is residing, waiting to amplify. And it likely will again. One serious although morbid note. Nations in Africa and other parts of the world have high birth rates, combined with higher life expectancies due to Western medical technology. Disease, hunger and poverty punish the people in many parts throughout their lives. Yet, they can't contain their population growth. Ebola, like Aids in Africa, may be looked at, as nature's way to a degree of leveling off the population explosion. If these people don't have the intelligence or common-sense to control themselves with contraception, let Ebola do it for them. Go Ebola, Go AIDS.
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