Carriers

Rating:
Summary: A time passer, but if you like accuracy, don't bother.
Review: I love medical thrillers and am in the medical field myself. I did not find as much fault with scientific accuracy (within the scope of a fictitious work), but when I hit page 94 of my paperback edition, and found that to get from Aspen Hill, MD to Frederick it is necessary to drive over the Appalachians, I was horrified. To magnify my horror, Carmen drove over the "Monocary "River to get there, when the very historic river from Civil War era is "Monocacy". I know these are pitiful details, but it is very easy to check this stuff out (there also is no "turnpike" anywhere in the area). Having been in USAMRIID hundreds of times, I also find the description of it rather inaccurate, but I can forgive this, since the author may never have had access.

Basically, for a good, fast read, I see nothing terribly wrong with it, but if you live in Maryland and like proper details, you may want to pass.

Rating:
Summary: This book was one word....... "AWESOME!"
Review: I read this book for school in place of The Hot Zone because I had already read it. I thought that Richard Preston had done a fine job on The Hot Zone, but once I finished Carriers, I changed my mind completely. The amount of detail that Patrick Lynch added made this book so life-like that it got scary. This book was amazingly well written, and is better, I think, than even Hot Zone itself. Read this if you want a non-stop read that'll have you gasping for air at the end!

Rating:
Summary: Compelling stuff
Review: I read this book in what for me was record time, and couldn't believe when I was done that it was more than 400 pages long. The author drew me into the terrifying world of the 'BL4' virus quite expertly and kept me there until the last page. Part of his skill was to make me care about the characters, and keep up the surprises all the way through. A great read.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!!
Review: I think that this book is excellent it is a science fiction thriller. The book has many side stories all the way through it as others are clamed by this disease but yet the characters never meet. This really adds to the idea of how the disease is spreading. I was very surprised in how the author made each situation realistic.

"Ahmad was still covered with vomit and blood but he was not dead. His face looked like a wooden mask in the candle light. His blood-filled eyes stared at the opposite wall as he struggled to breath. He was dying inside, focal necrosis spotting liver and kidneys like pins marking the out post of death's empire..." as you can see the realistic situations of the book add to the tragedy of a disease.

I recommend this book for any reader who enjoys a science fiction book. If you enjoyed Hot Zone or any other book on the spread of a disease I think you will enjoy this book as well. I really think that this book keeps you on your toes as it requires thinking and an open and adventurous mind.

Rating:
Summary: Carriers thrillingly carries you from one chapter to another
Review: In this book there are many points of rising action and mini-climaxes. This book has many suspensful parts. Carriers also contains many scientifical references which you can learn from as you read. This book also shows the way diseases travel, infect, and kill people and the way scientists search for answers. The few things I disliked about this book were that there were some long and boring parts which could have been cut out to make a more lively and gripping book. Carriers could have been a little bit shorter and still be as or more effective. I would reccomend this book because it is a very suspenful book to a person who doesn't mind hearing about people dying gruesom deaths and also about disease raveging people's bodies. I would also recommend it because it shows a look into a scientist's life who has to deal with the destruction of her family's life throught the contagious disease.

Rating:
Summary: Best of Genre
Review: Maybe a bit flawed in some places but overall a great read. Much more solid then Crighton's stuff which starts off glorious and ends up as a cat and mouse chase with one word dialogs. Lynch takes a subject, an ebola-like outbreak, which in itself seems so boring and trite, but instead of pumping out the same old gel, he gives us a solid detective story, working with the bioligists in hopes of finding its source. Not classic literature. Not a classic novel. But in its genre, a very fine piece of work.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down....great suspense...
Review: Once i started this book, I couldn't put it down. An excellent techno-thriller about a mustant killer filo-virus. Wait until you discover where the virus really originated !!! I thought the ending was rushed and all the loose ends being tied up was a little contrived, but the first 80% of the book is most excellent, whith realiistic characters, great settings and a credible story line.. Brrrrrrrrr...scary!

Rating:
Summary: A COMPELLING TALE SKILFULLY TOLD
Review: Patrick Lynch is a genuine rarety in the thriller world. His stories are original, clever and brilliantly told. I've read many thrillers and the bulk of them fall down in one major department: their characters aren't believable. They don't live and breathe. Lynch is a writer in the true sense of the word, yet his intricate and throught-provoking stories are never less than utterly compelling. CARRIES is a gem. More please!

Rating:
Summary: Terrifying in its implications
Review: Patrick Lynch makes a stunning debut with 'Carriers'.

Carriers sports a very complicated storyline (you will find it hard to summarize in under five pages) and huge cast of characters (one of the largest I've seen in a thriller) rather well.

The plot, at its root, simply involves an epidemic disease spreading across the Indonesian island of Sumetra, as well as outbreaks in both Deleware and London.

However, Carriers is really a character-driven story, especially for the first two-thirds or so. Fortunately, Lynch seems to have a knack for making very realistic, likeable (or unlikable) characters. Even the secondary characters, and there are a lot of them, are fully developed. You become attached to them, and if one happens to die or become injured, you'll probably experience a strong emotional response (sadness, unless you're a sadist), which is a sure sign of excellent characterization.

The first third of Carriers is really a very long introduction. It was, however, my favorite part of the book, especially the Deleware outbreak. The suspense in Carriers sneaks up on you; the introduction may seem at first long and drawn out, but trust me, if you can read it for half an hour you'll realize that, no matter how hard you may try, you just can't put the book down. Another hour and your knuckles will be turning white, but still you will be unable to let go.

The only real problem here is the huge cast of characters. There's a lot going on in the first hundred pages, and dozens of characters to remember. I often found myself flipping back twenty or thirty pages to find out who someone was. There's also a complicated storyline; this is handled well, but if you some how summon the ability to put the book for the night, you may find yourself lost in the morning when you try to pick up where you left off. Unless you have an excellent memory, unlike myself.

It's a lot to deal with early in the book, but things soon calm down. ABout a third of the way into the novel, the second of the two major protagonists, Carmen Travis, is introduced (the other is Holly Becker). Things calm down quite a bit, character-wise, and the plot-line begins to take over.

Over the course of the rest of the novel, an overly engrossing (and surprising) storyline is developed. There are dozens of sub-plots in Carriers, almost as many as there are characters. It is truly epic. But over the course of the last third of the novel, one of those seemingly rather unimportant subplots comes to the forefront. The plot becomes much deeper and more complex then one would ever guess it would be while reading the first part of Carriers. It is very well done; the introduction of the sub-plot is done subtley and without great fanfare, but it slowly evolves util it becomes dominating and completely engrosing. Just like the characters, the plotline of Carriers ends up in an entirely different location from the one it originally intended to go.

The climax, which is unexpectedly violent, is quite well-done, though perhaps a little over-the-top. It certainly comes as a surprise, but seems strangely fitting.

However, the conclusion is a let down. There's no follow-up, no time to catch your breath before the novel ends. One moment you're in a fast-paced, thrilling, adreneline-pumping scene, and then all of a sudden you're putting the book away and shutting off the lamp. Carriers leaves a sort of aftertaste, you won't be able to stop thinking about it. It will leave you wanting more, but not in a good way. Most of your thoughts will regard trying to figure out what happened to make it end so damned quickly.

Also, Carriers is a very graphic and sometimes disturbing novel. It is certainly not for the faint of heart (or, for that matter, the weak of stomach).

More terrifying is it's implications. It will certainly make you think for a long while after reading, and as one reviewer put it, you will never look at a sneeze in the same way again. Not reccomended for hypocondriacs.

Just one last thing I'd like to mention is Mr. Lynch's knack for making dramatic scenes, almost to the point of being overwhelming. He often does this through subtlety. One scene that comes to mind involves an Indonesian official marking black skull and crossbones on a map to indicate where the disease has struck -- his own city.

In conclusion, Carriers is a great read. Though confusing at first, it will engross the reader through its plot twists and turns. The climax is unexpected and very well-crafted. It is dramatic and thrilling, and offers a huge cast of well-rounded characters. Despite a disappointing ending, it will keep you talking for weeks afterwards.

Highly reccomended.

Rating:
Summary: The plot came together extremely well.
Review: Patrick Lynch tied in the introduction with the mysterious document and the children who infected the greater portion of Indonesia brilliantly. The plot kept twisting and turning with surprises, such as the Indonesian commando squad attacking the team and one of the team getting bitten by the monkey, keeping my interest throughout the whole book.