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The Miracle Strain: A Genetic Thriller

The Miracle Strain: A Genetic Thriller

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: nice idea; average story-telling
Review: I read this book recently and found that while the idea behind it was intruiging, the book itself left a lot to be desired. The way the story pans out in many places is quite predictable. I'd go as far as to say that the author didn't measure up to his own idea. The ending was particularly weak and flimsy- rather anti-climactic. What kept the book alive was the sheer thought that Jesus christ was a mere mortal like you and me and that his miracles could be quantified, as it were.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It'll keep you guessing
Review: If you like a thriller that keeps you guessing what's about to happen, where what you expect sometimes happens, yet has enough surprises to keep you reading into the night, then this book is for you. In this book, the story isn't over until the very last page, if then.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A decent thriller, though not overly inspiring.
Review: Imagine the top of the world for a Genetecist. Tom Carter has reached the top - the Nobel prize for developing the "Genescope," a device that reads your genetic coding and tells you your genetic future. Then imagine a long fall. Carter's wife is hit and killed by an assassin's bullet that was meant for him, and worse, the Genescope that won him the Nobel has just discovered his daughter has about a year left to live before the onset of incurable brain cancer. Now, Carter turns to genetics and mythology and miracle, seeking to uncover the genes that would grant a miraculous ability: the healing touch. Colliding with an ancient secret order, the genetics of Jesus, and a conspiracy that crosses continents, Tom Carter is facing a countdown toward his daughter's death, and the potential possesion of the power of life over death being in the wrong hands - perhaps even his own. As far as thrillers go, this was decent - it kept me thinking, was a bit heavy on the gross-factor (torture, blood, and the like was a tad overdescribed in places). The plot of genetics leading to healing powers were very well done, and crossing into the Judeau-Christian mythology was quite a good stroke on Cordy's part. The main villain(s) of the book were sometimes cardboardish, but for just "keep awake" thrills, this was a worthy read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "There is no right answers and wrong answers"
Review: It has been quite a while since I bought any "fun fun" book that have been able to capture my attention. Can't wait for Disney to turn it into a movie ... but considerable care must be taken on the outcome of the story from the point of moral and religious issues.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Miracle Strain is a thriller
Review: It's possible that the secret of eternal life has been with us all along & that the wrong people will discover it first. Tom Carter has everything: his invention the Genescope, a Nobel Prize for it, a loving wife & darling daughter. Then comes the fall...This is really a book about the human side of our exploration in genetics. Looking at a future when our genes are as easily read as any blueprint of any given building. The implications of that for any given individual can either be heaven or hell. A thought-provoking read. END

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Miracle Strain is a thriller
Review: It's possible that the secret of eternal life has been with us all along & that the wrong people will discover it first. Tom Carter has everything: his invention the Genescope, a Nobel Prize for it, a loving wife & darling daughter. Then comes the fall...This is really a book about the human side of our exploration in genetics. Looking at a future when our genes are as easily read as any blueprint of any given building. The implications of that for any given individual can either be heaven or hell. A thought-provoking read. END

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent, highly entertaining, and enjoyable.
Review: Looking at the reviews posted here, I had to add my two cents worth. Unlike the others, I found the book exciting, enjoyable, perhaps a little light on the science, but no worse than something like Frankinstein. For what it is, fiction, I found it highly entertaining, and some what interesting.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Unconvincing science makes for unscary reading
Review: Science, medicine and even technology make great subjects for thrillers, but only when the science is believable and the plot at least passably believable. There are so many gebuinely scary developments in the world today that a writer who has the power to take you inside them, helps you to understand them, while at the same time telling a compelling story with well-drawn characters, can work wonders. The problem with this book is that it does none of these things. The scientific part relies up geniuses (ordinary folk, you know) and becomes less and less credible as it goes on; and as for the secret brotherhoods and global conspiracies, well... they belopng in the world of pure fantasy. Fantasy, of course, can be wonderful, but if it that's what it is, why not propel your story along with magic instead of all the bogus and inaccurate science. There are better reads in the science thriller genre than this by far. Pete Singletary

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nice idea, but... eh...
Review: The main character's side-kick didn''t seem to do much except hang around, and I wasn't too fond of the doctor to begin with. Cordy kept doing this annoying thing of building up to something - only for nothing to happen. After the third or fourth time I got really bored. Nice idea, average execution.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Extreme negativity
Review: The Miracle Strain has a subject that can't fail to fascinate people. However, it also has an author who enjoys writing about blood, torture and killing, as graphically described as possible. The positive idea behind the book gets completely destroyed by the explicit, extreme negativity in some scenes.

I believe authors have the responsibility to do something positive for the world. Books don't have to be about nice people who do nice things. But when books deal with negativity, they should not make the reader disgusted. The negativity should be described in such a way that it gives the reader the feeling that he wants to do something positive himself.

After reading some of the passages in The Miracle Strain, I didn't feel this. I only felt disgusted.

Michael Cordy chose a good subject for his book, but he spoiled his chance to do something positive with it.


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