Dust

Rating:
Summary: Swaps premises in the middle but still quite good
Review: The book starts out as a more-or-less straight up monsters on the loose story a la "Jaws" (to which Arthur C Clarke has compared this book to favorably) -- all of a sudden, swarms of mites begin killing everyone off, including an Edward O. Wilson character. Pellegrino is a damned effective suspense writer, and this book chills when it wants to.

About midway through, however, the book switches from horror-with-science to science-with-scares, and Pellegrino outlines in his rather preachy (but nonetheless effective) manner the fact the earth is bigger than just humanity & world needs each other's organisms. I was a bit disappointed that the monster attacks (amoebas, vampire bats, mites) stop mid-way through, but it's still a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Dust~not just a protective covering for furniture.
Review: And I thought Dust was just a protective covering for furniture. Guess again! This book was intriguing, engrossing (in any sense of the word)and thought provoking. It was also, however, somewhat on the preachy side. There is nothing like a little ecological apocalyptic suspense to get us off our butts. Now where did I put that Endust?

Rating:
Summary: great idea, good realism, fair plot, poor characterization
Review: I liked most everything about the book except characterization, particularly of the story's antagonist, Jerry Sigmond. Pellegrino is more charitable to man's natural predators than he is to his own political enemies. Sigmond, a conservative talkshow host (Rush Limbaugh?) is single-mindedly anti-intellectual, predictably evil and, naturally, a sociopath. Apparently, Pellegrino sensed his caricature of conservative thought in the person of Sigmond was a bit too hard, so he introduced an even less savory character as a sidekick to make him look good: the utterly mindless Puck.

The book's heroes are all-too-aware of their status as heroes, as the beacons of hope for all mankind, as -- what else? -- *scientists*. And there are a few quirky passages where one character says almost the same thing as another as if somehow a certain mental telepathy exists between members of a dying species, which could have been effective, except that given his gross lack of generosity (or creativity) at creating believable characters, one has to wonder if it was really intentional, or, if it was intentional, whether it was really necessary.

To beat to death a theme he abused throughout the book:

(If only...)

Other than that, a good read. :)

Rating:
Summary: If only there was a rating lower than 1 star.
Review: Possibly the worst three chapters of my entire reading career. The characters were non-interesting and the plotline could not seem to stay focused.

Rating:
Summary: You though it was an asteroid!!
Review: When you listen to an audiobook you want a reader that captures the essence of the work and adds to it. Jay O. Sanders is the man!! Thought provoking storyline, terrific beginning, interesting subject spacing and jaw dropping ending. I love a good extinction yarn that goes against the prevailing theories. Hey, currently we have frogs that are malformed across the globe, birds showing up with weird beaks, abnornal glacial melting....it could add up to DUST.

Rating:
Summary: You'll Never Look at an Ant the Same Way Again!!
Review: This book kept me up reading till 2AM. Then I went in and checked my kids, to be sure "everything is all right" with our world. I found this book very scary. I'll never look at a lowly ant the same way again. The way all of nature is related is something I never really thought about before. And the chain of events in this book shows how when one species fails, it affects another and so on and so on..... Could have been edited down some but overall a very good, scary read.

Rating:
Summary: I Like It!
Review: This is a great book! I have read most of Pellegrino's works, fiction and non-fiction, and he has always shown a slice of arrogance, a bit of "I told you so" in almost everything he writes. This is what makes him great.

In response to [e-mail], or 'A reader from Gallup, NM' who said "(Hey Amazon, why can't we choose zero stars?)"

I say: Why can't we have one review, per person, per book?

Peace to you, "Gallup."

"Unfailingly, humans pity their ancestors for being so ignorant and forget that their descendants will pity them for the same reason." - Edward R. Harrison

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: I had read about this book proir to reading it. And i must say it fufiled my expectations completly. I never found myself becoming bored with this novel. Interesting charectors and a believable plot backed with viable scientific information, makes for a book upon which you can dwell after you finish. Truly scary is that, the ideas presented are not all that far fetched!

Rating:
Summary: How did this book get published?
Review: Terrible writing, stock characters, scientific paranoia - don't publishers employ editors anymore? I finally gave up about the middle of the book after reading the fourth gee whiz exposition of dinosaur die-offs before Alvarez's comet. Send this guy back to the lab! (Hey Amazon, why can't we choose zero stars?)

Rating:
Summary: Send this guy to writers' camp!
Review: How did this book get published? The plot is convoluted and jerky, the characters unreal and stereotypic, and the science exposition apocalyptic and arrogant. Even the premise is tired: humanity destroyed by ecological carelessness. Ho hum. Also repetitive. I only made it to the middle of the book - gave up after reading Pelligrino's fourth exposition of how dinosaur die-off preceded Alvarez's comet.