Rating:  Summary: A great techno-thriller! Review: It's one of those books you can't put down. The authors developed the characters well, and weaved a super plot. Although it's fiction, the authors seemed to have done their homework on this. Very little, if any of the book, seemed too far-fetched. This book would make a great movie
Rating:  Summary: It's not nice to fool mother nature... Review: Bloodshot eyes, lack of sleep, a restless itching to know what's going to happen.
Symptoms of the doomsday virus? No, just a book that you will not want to put down.
The authors of Relic have released yet another wonderful book. From the arrival of Guy Carson at the super-secret Mount Dragon research facility to the edge-of-your-seat
conclusion (I'm not going to tell) you will find yourself immersed in the story, rooting
for the heroes and fearing for mankind. This is a wonderful read that also contains
a little warning that it's not nice to fool with mother nature...
Rating:  Summary: Don't plan on puting this one down. Review: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child had done it again. An
intensely engrossing story, detailing all the things that
can go wrong with genetics. Descriptive pages make it easy for you to be there. I didn't believe you gentlemen would
be able to top Relic, but I was wrong!
Rating:  Summary: The awesome power of medical technology gone wrong. Review: Mount Dragon is a laboratory in the Southwest, funded by an extremely weathly computer whiz. They have developed some
suposed medical treatments that will revolutionize the world, or so they say. Or have they really created a horrible killer that takes
its slow time in destroying it's victims? Another gripper by this wonderful pair. Couldn't put this one down either. Intermixed with the techno-drama
are the characters that overlap, yet stand alone and interact with each other in a very authentic way. Lots of twists and turns throughout the story
that keep you flipping pages well into the wee hours of the night. Check out their other book, Relic.
Rating:  Summary: It's not nice to fool mother nature... Review: Bloodshot eyes, lack of sleep, a restless itching to know what's going to happen.Symptoms of the doomsday virus? No, just a book that you will not want to put down.The authors of Relic have released yet another wonderful book. From the arrival of Guy Carson at the super-secret Mount Dragon research facility to the edge-of-your-seat conclusion (I'm not going to tell) you will find yourself immersed in the story, rooting for the heroes and fearing for mankind. This is a wonderful read that also contains a little warning that it's not nice to fool with mother nature...
Rating:  Summary: More thsn WOW!! Review: This is a great read; better than Thunderhead; one of those books that are so good you read them slowly because you don't want to ed it. If you like The Andromeda Strain and Hot Zone you should love this one.
Rating:  Summary: another winning thriller from the Preston-Child engine Review: Just finished Mount Dragon (now into Thunderhead) and could not put it down. These guys are good, I mean really good. They know how to create fully realized characters, in a believable setting, and then let all hell break loose. Ever since I read Relic, I have been devouring their other stuff.
Rating:  Summary: Somebody's been playing in the gene pool again! Review: Oh boy, I just love it when the scientists play around with things they do not know enough about. Someone always gets hurt when this happens, not always the supposed `bad guys'. In this case, a genome outfit is playing with a `super flu' (sounds like SARS), and most of the people working on it think it is for a good cause. Of course, the boss is willing to sell it to the military and to the highest bidder. He lost his moral code a long time ago, and he's out to make as much money of off his work as he can. Actually, he isn't the person working on this, so he doesn't realize there seem to be a few problems with even working with this flu type. Isn't it obvious that anyone working in the boondocks, i.e. Nevada, is usually up to no good. It's bad enough that anyone living downwind of the atomic testing in Nevada during the 50s and 60s, have either gotten cancer or hypothyroidism. You would think by now, that anything being done so secretly would ring a bell, wave a red flag, draw some type of regulation, right? Those of us who work in bioethics know better... Internal Review Boards are just that, people internally (of the business are regulating themselves). Doesn't happen very well... In this novel which is more along the line of a Tom Clancy novel, one of the newer scientists starts to notice irrational behavior on the part of other scientists who were more or less forced into using the vaccine on themselves. They get very paranoid for one thing, and scientists are paranoid anyway, that someone is out to steal `their' idea. It's apparent that this idea of scientists working on morally-wrong projects is not new...I am seeing it more and more in the books I read for enjoyment. Unfortunately, all too often the public is willing to remain ignorant and allow the few to control the technological businesses, such as gene cloning, etc. What you don't know CAN all to often kill you. A pretty good story and plot line... Karen Sadler
Rating:  Summary: exciting technothriller from this dependable pair Review: This is the second novel by the talented team of Preston and Child, and it is quite exciting. Following the initial success of Relic, they've brought forth a new cast of characters including Guy Carson, a scientist who is transferred to GeneDyne's top-secret genetic engineering research facility, Mount Dragon, in the New Mexico desert. He's not there long when an emergency situation makes him reassess the desirability of engineering the human genome, but by then things seem to have gotten rather out of hand. As usual, this adventure is filled with research, lots of tense situations and interesting characters. The one sex scene seems aimed to get a movie made, and does not ring true, but otherwise I enjoyed this novel, as I've enjoyed a number of other books by this very talented writing team.
Rating:  Summary: Good page-turner. 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.
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