Rating: 
Summary: Good Read - But not a Lucifers Hammer
Review: This is an okay disaster novel, but I didn't think the rationale for the disapearance of the bugs was plausible - or even very interesting. But he has some fun in this book and most readers will too.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't kill that bug!!
Review: Charles Pellegrino's Dust is a fascinating exploration of ecological apocalypse. As a literary scholar, I have to note that the characterization is hackneyed and overly influenced by Stephen King (to the point of including "asides" in parentheses). However, the scientific scenario, apparently based on the "Butterfly Effect," is not only stunning, but frightening. I have a renewed respect for insects, worms, frogs and other creepy crawlies. Given Pellegrino's vision in this book, we should probably declare Raid and Roach Motels the equivalent of thermonuclear weapons and start disarmament talks right away. I recommend you buy this book, and while you're waiting on it, do not, I repeat, do not step on an ant, swat a fly or squash a roach. If you do, we may all regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: Pellegrino finds yet another way to destroy Earth!
Review: Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski managed to destroy human civilization through extraterrestrial means in The Killing Star -- and now Pellegrino finds a way for Earth to "re-set" it's timeclock and eliminate humanity in a new & devastatingly complex manner. This novel is a real roller coaster of emotions, and yet filled with scientific ideas that are seriously thought provoking -- if not always convincing through the characters in the story.
Pellegrino manages to infuse a lot of ironic wit, social satire and droll humor into subject matter that could otherwise be incredibly depressing. And the book is about hope and perseverence, as much as about destruction. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's scary!
Review: The premise of the novel, that the loss of insect life causes the end of "civilization as we know it" is credibly advanced and researched: the author's case is made. And the details of the crumbling social structure are logical and readably presented. But....this book is REALLY depressing. Not because of the possiblity of this being the fate of the earth, but because the story is so relentlessly glum. We become acquainted with characters, get to know them, good and bad, and inevitably, all are wiped out in terrible ways. Sometimes the author lets his characters get this close to being saved before he lowers the axe, just to prove he can keep you turning the pages. Survivors are not allowed, even though their story would have been interesting. I can't see myself picking up another Charles Pelligrino, ever.
Rating:
Summary: Pellegrino always finds a way to scare the hell out of you
Review: In the Killing Star he used relativistic bombs to destroy the Earth and wrote a plausible story of why the universe is silent. Now in Dust he takes us down another grim but plausible path. Not your ordinary ecological disaster epic. That's Charles Pellegrino's speciality, writing fiction that in a few years you hope won't be reality. Highly recommended, but be warned don't expect happy endings....This author scares Stephen King! His works in non-fiction are really good too, insightful and thought provoking and should be read.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping and unique end-of-the-world novel
Review: _Dust_ was a gripping and unique end-of-the-world novel, unlike any that I have read before and I consider myself a fan of the genre. The book is set in the relatively near future, in the first decade or two of the 21st century.
The action begins when Richard Sinclair, a paleontologist, working at a scientific research facility near his Long Island home, narrowly escapes with his nine year old daughter Tam - purely by accident - an attack by an unknown entity on his neighborhood. Taking dozens of people by complete surprise, the entity looks like a living black carpet. Killing in minutes innocent bystanders, police officers, and later a television reporter crew (as well as Sinclair's wife), the media dubs the threat motes. As the area is quarantined, Sinclair and other scientists come to the conclusion after a harrowing trip into the infected town that the "motes" are mites, a massive horde of starving mites that attack and devour literally to the bone anyone that cannot escape them.
Sinclair and the other researchers of Brookhaven (also called the City of Dreams) discover that the threat of the motes - however bad - is merely the tip of the iceberg and not only the United States but all of humanity faces a grave threat. Looking at data from bee keepers - who were virtually of business - the astronomical rise in orange juice prices, and a host of other bits of data not previously integrated by researchers (bringing to mind for me some of the separate bits of intelligence prior to September 11th), Sinclair and the others come to a startling conclusion; the world's insect have vanished. They have all died out, disappeared completely, and this seemingly good bit of news (at least at first glance, to the uninitiated) rapidly produces vastly dire consequences. With the extinction of fungal gnats (a bit of data an entomologist died procuring), massive fungal blooms are spreading throughout the world's crops (aided by the fact that most of the world's crop plants are of extremely limited genetic diversity). With no insects to control the fungus (and farmers having gotten away from spraying their crops due the gradual decline in insect pests the last few years), the fungus spreads amok, first wiping out crops in India (precipitating an ugly war between it and Pakistan and Sri Lanka as India seeks to annex areas with uninfected croplands, dragging the U.S. into the conflict), later to other countries. Large numbers of animals die throughout the world - insect eating bats, later, fruit eating-bats (which as they die out no longer pollinate plants themselves), many omnivorous animals, freshwater fish that rely upon larval aquatic insects for food - and with no flies or other insect scavengers to remove the bodies, freshwater throughout the world is rendered toxic by the massive amounts of bacteria that now teem in it. Much of this runoff spreads into the sea, creating low or no oxygen areas, wiping out those fish species not already being depleted by frantic nations desperate to replace declining crops as a food source. Even the motes are a result of the end of insects; no longer held in check by insect predators nor having to compete with insects, reach plague proportions in some areas, once harmless mites killing hundreds of people.
Things of course in this novel get worse, much worse. The economy goes into a freefall in the United States as non-mote infected areas refuse to have anything to do with those under quarantine or even suspected of having a mote problem. Entire industries collapse, such as the trucking industry, while those reliant on trucking, such as grocery stores which need regular shipments of goods, collapse as well. As crops start to fail in the United States and as gasoline starts to become scarce thanks to a broken down transportation system, riots begin to happen. Stepping into these chaotic and turbulent times is Jerry Sigmond, a corrupt former talk-show host with unfortunately real skills in making others into fanatical followers of a new mass movement he begins to lead, one that sees scientists and engineers ("eggheads" and "Einsteins") as the real cause of all these problems. Sigmond emerges as a major villain in the book and a direct threat to Sinclair's efforts.
But wait! It gets worse! In some of the scariest parts of the book - it is a horror story after all, though one firmly grounded in science fact with an extensive non-fiction epilogue and bibliography - vampire bats emerge as a villain (yes you read right). The booming cattle industry of Central and South America unfortunately becomes infected with Mad Cow disease and the disease jumps vectors. Transmittable now by vampire bats -which won't feed on sick cattle - they move onto humans, wiping out virtually the entire population of several Caribbean islands as they move in vast numbers from the mainland in search of food. Those that do not die directly from being fed on (a harrowing chapter described one such incident where two researchers meet a very unfortunate demise), die from rapid onset of the disease, a disease that was to have major repercussions in the novel's endgame.
A very enjoyable novel, I found myself really rooting for Sinclair as he and his colleagues race to uncover the nature of the problem - the sudden demise of insects worldwide - and conclude that it is perhaps due to a genetic "timebomb," that the Earth's mass extinctions approximately every 33 million years are not due to a comet or asteroid impact but from the dormancy of the world's insect species (in a manner not unlike the massive periodic bamboo die offs in China that nearly wipe out the pandas periodically). They race to find a solution to this, working in an increasingly chaotic world, working with research stations in other parts of the world that one by one gradually drop off the face of the earth in the growing chaos. A gripping book, it had an action-packed ending.
Rating:
Summary: Ok but.....
Review: Dust makes you pick it up because of the chilling hook - insects die off and then so does everyone else. Good enough. And the 'hard' science is fun, as is the domino-like collapse of every species you ever knew (or didn't). But the man needs a co-writer - someone that can flesh out characters, set up suspense, and figure out how to actually tie different plot strands together. If Pellegrino actually had such a partner (Joe Haldeman, where are you?), Dust would be a classic. As is, it's an interesting diversion. Don't buy it - go to the library and get their copy instead.
Rating:
Summary: Only book that's ever scared me spitless!
Review: I'd have to say this is on my 'Top 5' list. I was so impressed with Pellegrino's grasp of the science involved in his theory. The concept of mass extinction is frightening enough, but throw in facts that make it not just believable but very possible, and it becomes the material of a living nightmare. My two thumbs are hoisted in salute to this mastermind of ecological breakdown!
Rating:
Summary: Run for your life here comes the dust mites
Review: I must say I expected a lot more than this book delivered. This book was very scientific to the point to where if you haven't study genetics for the past 4 years you could go completely brain dead trying to figure out what they are trying to explain. It focused on the scientific to the point to where it doesn't really develop any of the characters in the book. It is a very scary what if scenario, but it never really explains some things for example (WHERE DID ALL THE INSECTS GO). They just disappeared.
The action at the end of the book is intense but it is over before it really even develops. It had the potential to be a great science fiction novel but just didn't really deliver to me.
However I do recommend this book. It is a good novel of how humanity can be destroyed without a bomb going off. uhhhhh wait there are bombs also for you actions fans lol. All in all a good book, but only 3 stars here.
Rating:
Summary: A Superior Eco-collapse Book.
Review: A classic page turner, where the plot races towards a climax that you can foresee but not predict. If you like Michael Crichton's books, then you will like this book. Be warned that what starts as mankind surviving an fascinating eco-collapse midway through the book turns into a plot about the heroes surviving against the actions of their fellow men. The more interesting eco-collapse theme takes a backseat to the sometimes contrived and highly coincidental interactions between heroes, villains and victims. Still, Dust is worth reading for the scientific "what-if" alone.
|
