Rating: 
Summary: So many problems...
Review: 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
Rating: 
Summary: Great premise, disappointing delivery
Review: A fascinating story of a madman who recreates the biblical plagues. Frighteningly real scenario, ably delivered but falling short of truly spectacular. The scientific explanations for the biblical plagues themselves are one of the most intruiging parts of the story. Where the book falls short is in the characters and the writing itself. I found it difficult to empathize with the hero and found the characters generally two-dimensional. Discounting that, the premise was excellent, and the scientific background disturbingly plausible. I think the authors show promise and can improve with a little more practice.
Rating: 
Summary: Modern Day Nightmare
Review: 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:
Summary: A for subject matter-F for writing/editing
Review: Interesting subject matter but the many editorial/writing flaws in the book kept detracting from the story. I got worried when there was a date/time error in the first few pages of the book and the problem continued throughout. I don't mind flashbacks to earlier dates if the characters don't know on that earlier date what they had found out 2 weeks later according to the book's timeline. There was other incorrect information in there such as the young Jewish boy saying he got hooked up to the Library of Congess to search Grateful Med. Grateful Med is provided by the National Library of Medicine. It made me wonder what other errors I wasn't aware of in some of the scientific/technical aspects of the plagues. Despite my frustration with the authors/editors not catching some of the inconsistencies, I managed to finish the book because the subject matter interested me. However if you want to read books along this subject line, I'd have to recommend "The Hot Zone" or "The Cobra Event", "And the Band Played On" or several other books (some fiction & nonfiction like those mentioned above)before recommending this one. It was a struggle to stick with it even though the characters were fairly well developed and the concept was intriguing.
Rating:
Summary: PLAGUING BY THE RULES
Review: If you can avoid all the techno-[material] and long histories of some of the characters, you're in for a frightening look at how easy bioterrorism is. THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE revolves around a madman's plot to mirror the ten plagues of Moses and kill off vast amounts of people all in the name of God. Character-wise, there's no one here we haven't met before, and even the villain is rehashed from Dr. Phibes through Hannibal Lechter. However, the book has some terrifying scenes and some surprises, too. It's a little long in the tooth and is nowhere as realistically frightening as THE HOT ZONE, but it's still a scary read.
RECOMMENDED.
Rating:
Summary: Fction based on true medical science
Review: Epidemiologists study diseases and their causes and origins, and take the lead in disease investigations. Dr. Marr has a wealth of experience in this area, and he has used much of it to provide a backdrop for this novel. As a result, the science here is reliable, and this alone is refreshing in a work of fiction (compare for example with the movie "Outbreak"). The Eleventh Plague would provide a worthy basis for a popular movie, and as a novel it moves along at a reasonably good pace from one scene to the next. Don't look for Frederick Forsythe; the style is relatively shallow, and the characters are poorly developed, but it's a good commuter pocketbook, with just enough intrigue to get you to re-open it each day on the subway!
Rating:
Summary: enjoyable reading, but...
Review: I enjoyed the book, primarily because I am interested in the subject matter (cbw) and seek out books on such topics, whether fiction or not. Having said this much in favour of the book, I would like to linger on the book's weaker points. EDITING/PROSE The book is very poorly edited for language and consistency. As already suggested by some of the other reviewers, date inconsistencies, grammatical and syntactic errors, poor transliteration and translation from Hebrew, and many other slip-ups can be found in abundence. It's difficult to imagine that this book was edited by anyone other than the authors (and authors, quite naturally, become blind to the faults in their own prose). The poor editing is probably a syndrom of the word processing age: Authors generate camera-ready or near camera-ready manuscripts that are printed as-is or subjected to but the most cursory examination. TECHNICAL ACCURACY At least one of the authors is an M.D. It's therefore amazing and amusing to notice the many technical inaccuracies that exist in the book; Presumably the authors are writing about topics they have some knowledge of, and since these are technical topics one wouldn't really expect an editor to catch on to them. Perhaps books that deal with scientific issues, even if in the form of fiction, should be passed on for technical peer reviewing. The most gross technical error I found in the book was to classify prions as viruses. Prions do not contain genetic material (dna or rna) and are therefore not viruses. I found other slip-ups throughout the book, and once noticed, they do hurt the basic credibility of the authors; After all, this isn't science fiction they're writing about. Otherwise, the book was interesting and informative. I don't think it qualifies as great literature, but it was fun weekend reading, and I certainly learned a few things from it. I took some notes as I was reading, and this is a nice basis for learning more about the subject. One reference that's mentioned in the book, and that you DON'T want to miss on is ProMED. There really is such a mailing list, and you can search it online...
Rating:
Summary: This book sorely needed an editor
Review: For the first 40 pages of this book, I kept asking myself why I didn't just quit reading it. There were timeline errors, and a high school-level writing style. The authors tried hard to vary the "he said, she said" with "he pontificated, he prognosticated" and so on, which was terribly annoying and distracting. Did the copy editor and proof readers miss the first few chapters? Harpers usually does a much better job of editing. The book itself was interesting, and the idea of deciphering the Old Testament plagues was fascinating. The book was, however, very thin on character development, with rather too much plot! It was an interesting book, but not one that I would highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: a new twist on the medical thriller gnere
Review: A previous reviewer complained that the authors wrote down to the readers, using long explanations. The writers do seem to have the need to let you know that they have researched everything from condoms to all the breads of the world. And, the writing device of going back to the villain's diary and e-mail messages for plot explanations is tiring at times. But they do not appreciably detract from the story. I think this is their first fiction novel, so cut them some slack. The authors have created a truly creepy bad guy, and you don't know how creepy until the end of the book. My one complaint is that you more or less know what's going on and who is doing it, after the first couple of chapters. What you don't know is why. Some characters are not fully fleshed out and others seem to make really stupid mistakes. But again, not enough to pull you away from the story. With 10 biblical plagues, there is a lot of mystery, and the main good guy is always one step behind in figuring it out. There are some very gruesome descriptions of the medical conditions of the victims and the villain uses some unorthodox methods of acquiring and gathering his toxins. It started off a bit slow and almost stalled, but then the rock started rolling down hill and the pieces started fitting together. The end, while satisfying, strayed a bit too far into the Presto & Child style. The good doctor, our hero, seems to get a big does of testosterone at just the right time. Buy it on sale (I did, for my wife; then I read it before her) or borrow it. If you read a lot of medical thrillers, this one may not stand out, but it sure puts a good twist on a standard genre.
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat interesting, but predictable
Review: A good page-turner and another spin on a popular topic of fiction as of late. Not badly done, though. I enjoyed the tie-in with the bibilical plagues. However, the stroy was was somewhat predictable at times.
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