Rating: 
Summary: Evil as Gray
Review: I was given MOUNT DRAGON as a gift. I read it because I thought CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (another novel by Preston and Child) was such a great reading experience. Although MOUNT DRAGON lacks many of the qualities of CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, it is also an intense novel. One initial thought: I don't understand how two authors can coordinate their skills and compose such a great stories. In my experience, coauthoring is an extremely difficult task and often times the final product lacks lucidity.The most artful characteristic of MOUNT DRAGON is the lifelike manner in which the authors are able to portray good and evil. In real life, good and evil are not discrete entities, but rather they are a paradox existing within the shell of all of us. Thus, Preston and Child portray good and evil as gray - neither black nor white. Thus, we see redeeming qualities in all of the evil characters with the possible exception of one - Nye, the security director. In addition, we see flaws within the "good" characters. It is much easier to create characters who are obviously good or evil and extremely difficult to create realistic personalities that embrace both characteristics. This complex writing task makes the novel suspenseful. The reader doesn't have a clear view of the direction of at least two subplots (particularly after reading CABINET OF CURIOSITIES). For example, the Scopes character is paradoxical, complex - thus, much less predictable, more interesting. On the other hand, the actions of Nye were clear cut. Readers will immediate catch his inherent evil and will be able to accurately predict his actions. The best praise I can offer a novelist is that I will read his/her other work. I was given a copy of Preston and Child's RELIQUARY to read. However, when I read the cover, I realized it was the sequel to THE RELIC. I'm looking forward to reading these novels.
Rating:
Summary: From an average reader
Review: I am a man with few words and all I have to say about this book is that it is very good. You WILL enjoy it very much.
Rating:
Summary: Techno-kickass
Review: Short and sweet - Great book. Interesting start to finish without any slow spots. And the ending was not a letdown as so many books seem to be anymore. I will buy some of their others based on this example.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Start, Side Tracked Ending...
Review: Mount Dragon is the first book I have read by Preston & Child. And the first 2/3 of the book is excellent. It has great mystery and plot that builds to a climax. I have to admit it was hard to put down. Then in the third act the book goes on a needless chase scene that lacks the focus of the first part of the book. It started like Andromida Strain or Outbreak and ended like a boring desert adventure...
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down
Review: I just finished this book in record time, staying up until 2am to get to the end. I usually only read Sci-Fi or Fantasy, with some humor thrown in. Very well written and engrossing, although the science isn't necessarily totally accurate in light of recent information. But unless you have studied genetic engineering, you'll never know the difference, and it doesn't diminish the story.
Rating:
Summary: Electrifying biomedical thriller
Review: Mount Dragon is the moniker given to the GeneDyne Remote Testing facilty located within the unforgiving desert near the White Sand missile range in New Mexico. GeneDyne, a multi million dollar bio-genetic engineering corporation, is the brainchild of the nerdish, Bill Gates-like biological and computer genius Brent Scopes. Scopes has recruited young, talented and brilliant research biologist Guy Carson, a native New Mexican, to take over for top company researcher Dr. Franklin Burt. Burt had been in the midst of synthesizing a virus, which when introduced into the human genetic code, would give mankind a permanent immunity to influenza. The financial windfall to GeneDyne with this product would be staggering. Burt, however had been experiencing problems. He was unable to render the virus harmless. Testing in chimps had produced a 100% mortality rate. A revolutionary filtration process pioneered by Burt had apparently worked perfectly on his previous breaktrough, PurBlood, an artificial blood substitute. His success could not be duplicated with X-FLU, the influenza eliminating virus. Burt had suddenly and unexpectedly suffered a mental breakdown in the middle of his research, hence his replacement by Carson. Carson, encouraged by Scopes, adopted a new approach for X-FLU synthesis based on his own viral membrane research. Expecting successful results, he unwittingly produced an even more lethal variety of the virus. Along with his assistant Susana Cabeza de Vaca, Carson discovers flaws in Burt's filtration process. They learn that the results Burt achieved with PurBlood were tainted and fudged to meet governmental approval. They also adroitly correlate progressive bizarre and ultimately self destructive behavior patterns evidenced by Mount Dragon staff with the fact that they had been human guinea pigs for PurBlood. Concurrently, Dr. Charles Levine, Harvard professor and former friend and colleague of Scopes, has embarked on a campaign to warn the world of the dangers of genetic engineering. Levine, a brilliant research biologist on a par with Scopes, is fearful of a doomsday virus. Such a virus, created by man could destroy unchecked the entire population of the world. He tries to force GeneDyne to desist in its research. Levine, with the aid of a cyberfriend, a thalidomide deformed computer genius known as Mime, attempt to coax Carson into becoming an inside informant. Together they all fight the clock to abort the release of PurBlood to all the unsuspecting hospitalized patients in dire need of tranfusions. Preston and Child, create a meticulously researched nervewracking scientific thriller that should rank near the apex of this genre.
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, But You've Read Better
Review: Child and Preston embark on Andromeda Strain territory. And pretty well, at that. A research facility in the desert is being used under false pretenses to develop a super biological weapon. A couple of the scientists begin to figure out what's going on when some of their colleagues start dying. Taking the high road, they fight their way out of the high security facility to warn the world and put a stop to it. Unfortunately, at that point the book loses steam. Fully a third of the novel is taken up with a chase sequence that is exciting enough, but simply goes on too long. At the same time, there is a virtual reality confrontation between two old adversaries that is interesting, but a bit too sci-fi for an otherwise pretty straightforward suspenser. I'd give this one an extra half-star, if the ratings system enabled it. It's not the best for anyone just starting out on Child and Preston, but fans of the pair may well want to come back to it after they've exhausted their better titles.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Dragon Here.
Review: I was totally, glued to this book. I thought this was so much fun to read. I won't explain the book, but it involves a poor unsuspecting soul, who doesn't know the whole story, but we soon see he will learn it one way or another as the group is slowingly dying. You'll see what I mean Wonderful, and fast paced.
Thse authors are just great. But I think I mentioned that before.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting Scientifc Thriller
Review: Mount Drageon is an isolated high security GeneDyne laboratory in the middle of White Sands New Mexico. The scientists there labor over conundrums that may alter the lives (and the genes) of future human beings. When Guy Carson, a brilliant albeit grunt scientist from another GeneDyne Corp facility, is suddenly and finally singled out by GeneDyne's prodigy founder and leader, Brent Scopes, to leave immediately for White Sands, he finds himself puzzled by both the X-FLU project he is given to tackle and the cabin-fever-effected personalities of his colleagues. In time, as he plummets through the highs and lows of hopeful success and frustrated failures, he discovers that his predecessor, a world renowned geneticist went out of his mind . . .
At Harvard University, Dr. Levine, human DNA preservationist and former friend of Brent Scopes, plans both legal and illegal ways of impeding the progress of the Mount Dragon work. Of course, megalomaniac genius Brent Scopes is not about to let this happen.
Each chapter showcases either the handful of quirky scientists, the hell-bent activist or the eccentric CEO in a marvelous mix of cutting-edge science, big business, media manipulation, and computer tampering. This high-tech result is alloyed to the pulse-quickening devices of the classic thriller: the discovery of a secret diary, a chase over treacherous terrain, a game of hide and seek with a killer and even a search for an age old treasure.
This novel crams as many thrills as a 400 page volume can hold and is guaranteed to keep the reader glued to his/her seat, with each of those pages turning as rapidly as the eyes can scan.
Rating:
Summary: Good book about genetics gone awry
Review: This is a good book about genetics gone awry. Similar to how "The Terminator" scared us about robitics in the 80's. A little long, but very interesting indeed. The computer related events were way off, but the genetics seemed real (not that I know anything about genetics). Classic dual between good and evil; the scientist who works science for capital gain and the scientist who works science for science itself.
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