Rating: 
Summary: Fast, fantastic read
Review: Tess Gerritsen has been one of my favorite authors for some time, but this book has her sitting next to Koontz and Rice, vying for the #1 spot on my bookshelf. I usually take my time reading, but I blew through this book in a day and a half.In Gravity, Emma Watson must overcome her fear of failure and her pride as she dukes it out with a mysterious infection that has killed one shuttle crew and is working its way through her space station crew. Watson is a strong character, paired beautifully with an equally strong husband who takes every chance on earth to make sure Emma comes home. If you've never read Gerritsen before, start with other novels and work your way to this one, her best to date. If you've read Gerritsen and aren't sure whether this space station setting will appeal, put away your biases for one paragraph, and you won't be disappointed. Intensity, excitement, horror, and love. Reading doesn't get any better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: strange virus killing astronauts in Gerritsen med-thriller
Review: After seeing Tess Gerritsen's name continue to pop up on the "best medical thriller" lists of just about everybody, including traditional Robin Cook and Michael Palmer fans, we decided to give her a spin. In turn, we got taken on quite a spin ourselves, from Houston Mission Control, alternately solving problems on the shuttle and the Int'l Space Station, to a little firm trying to make good on an untried launch device. When the astronauts start getting sick, with strange blood-red eyes and convulsions, then dying, some difficult decisions on the ground do little to help save the remaining crew. Detecting the source of the disease, watching its progress, and agonizing through attempts {or not} to rescue the survivors, created suspense from the early going straight to the end. We can see why Gerritsen is building quite a little reputation. Her medical-thriller book list now stands at six, with all enjoying fine reader reviews. But Tess is no "Jill-come-lately" - not as well known is that she previously authored some nine romance novels as well as a screenplay for a CBS movie. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford, then later med school, she started writing while doctoring in Honolulu. Her ability to create a compelling story, make the science (including a premise or two that stretches belief) interesting and digestible, and giving us characters we care about, is what first class novels are all about. Were it not for the special setting of this fun read, earth orbit aboard spacecraft, not the most appealing to us, we would probably go the full five stars on "Gravity", providing ample incentive to try her other five thrillers soon!
Rating:
Summary: A Virus from Space Threatens to Kill Us All
Review: Dr. Jack McCallum washed out of astronaut training because of kidney stones. However, his wife Emma stayed with the program. Though not divorced, they are not together. They keep finding excuses to put the divorce off. Emma is training for a mission to the ISS, the International Space Station, in the near future. Then because the wife of one of the astronauts up on the Station is in an accident, he has to come home, so Emma is tapped to replace him. All of a sudden she's going into space now. Meanwhile the ne'er-do-well brother of the director of the Houston Space Center is working on his own space plane, one that's much cheaper than the shuttle, however his first attempt ended in disaster and he needs a pilot for his second attempt. After Emma gets up on the station things start turning terrible. The lab mice start dying. Green blobs are floating around. Than the astronauts themselves start dying horrible deaths, worse than Ebola, and it appears to be highly contagious. Jack frantically tries to track down a cure before the disease attacks Emma, but even after he believes he's solved the riddle of what's killing our spacemen, no one will let him go up. Better to let them all die, the authorities say, rather than to risk the disease getting back to earth. So where was that cheapo space plane again?" This is a futuristic thriller that is pretty straightforward. You just know what's going to happen before it does, but that doesn't take away form this story one bit. There are plenty of thrills here, lots of suspense and some plain old grisly horror. Also this story is very different from anything Tess Gerritsen has done to date, but don't let that put you off, because this is one very good book. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read for Medical Thriller Fans!!!
Review: Despite the fact I love Tess Gerrittsen's medical thrillers, I postponed buying this because the Astronaut/Space Mission theme did not appeal to me. I thought the NASA stuff would either bore me or get so technical I'd have trouble following the story.
I'm thankful I bought it -- I loved it even more than Gerrittsen's books "Harvest" and "Bloodstream"! (Which is saying a lot because those books are both 5* in my opinion). She does such a commendable job explaining the tech. aspects (without going into too much detail) that you get a good feel for the shuttle layout & the tasks astronauts perform. Even if you are easily bored by tech. stuff or not mechanically inclined, you'll find "Gravity" captivating AND easy to follow!
Gerrittsen paints such a vivid picture you feel you're there with the astronauts. Setting a medical thriller in deep space rachets up the suspense, increasing the tension several notches! Since the main character is a million miles from earth and surrounded by astronauts dying from an especially virulent and mysterious plague -- she has only herself to rely on.
Once again, Gerritsen has created well-developed characters you care about. When the ending reveals the cause of the plague, you will marvel at Gerrittsen's ingenious plot and how easily everything falls into place! This is one of those books that once it's finished, you wish you could turn back time in order to relive the thrill of reading it the first time.
A side note: The vast majority of Gerrittsen's books are romance novels (which I've never read) -- DO NOT let that dissuade you from reading her medical thrillers. If you're of the opinion most romance writers are lightweights who crank out formulaic feel-good fluff, don't be mistaken. Gerrittsen (who is an M.D.) possesses remarkable skill in the med. suspense genre. For years I've been a fan of Robin Cook's med. thrillers and I'd rank Gerrittsen above Cook. Her characters have greater depth than Cook's. You get to know the characters so well, you'll feel as those you live in the same house.
Rating: 
Summary: A fast-paced, exciting read
Review: Gravity is a very fast, exciting read that combines science fiction, biology, NASA and some problems for the characters.
In the story, a biological sample begins to infect the crew onboard the International Space Station. The victims have bloodshot eyes, muscle cramps, and then violently die, spreading the organism around to infect others.
On the ground, a space shuttle crashes, and NASA is forced out of the picture by the military, who want to cover up the infection and protect the people on the ground. The surviving crew members are quarintined on the station, while infection eats them away, one by one.
I found this to be a very dramatic read, with nice mixes of the Hot Zone, Cobra Event, Apollo 13 and Aliens. There is also quite a bit of science, which well supports what is going on in the story. Gerritsen's characters are really well written, with all of their problems and weaknesses. I also enjoyed the research parts, reminisent of the Hot Zone.
However, this book did have some problems. The first people to die were the ones that weren't that interesting. Its as if they are just there to hold a place.
Also in the book, everyone seemed to worry way too much about routine shuttle lift offs. This might go wrong, that might go wrong. The space shuttle is one of the most efficient machines around.
Emma and her husband's relationship was pretty dry. Apart, they hated each other on the ground, while together, they seemed to be okay with each other, even though their relationship was shot and they hate each other. When Emma is up in space, her husband can't stop worrying about her.
Lastly, I would have liked to see more of the Alien organism, after the first stage.
Overall, not a bad read. Its hard to put down, but hardly above the avarage, or extraordinary.
Rating:
Summary: A Medical Thriller at it's BEST
Review: I am an avid reader of Tess Gerritsen and absolutely love her writing style. My favorite book was, (up until now) Harvest. This book was an exciting change from her others as it takes place in space. Gravity gives you an inside look at Johnson Space Center in Houston, along with all of her great medical insight. I would recommed this title to anyone in search of a great medical thriller -- this one blew me away!
Rating:
Summary: Be prepared to stay up all night!
Review: Tess Gerritsen has become my favorite medical suspense writer. I agree with Stephen King that she is better than Michael Palmer, Robin Cook, and Michael Crichton. A retired internist, she brings a medical authenticity to her novels that I appreciate as a surgeon. After reading her first novel, Harvest, and then the more recent two, The Surgeon and The Apprentice, I backtracked to Gravity. It's placed a bit out of her usual setting in that it's set at NASA and in outer space on the International Space Station (ISS) and aboard the shuttle. Astronauts are getting infected with a novel organism and dying. Nefarious forces are at work to undermine NASA's control over the situation. Earth is at risk should the disease make it back down. There are heroes and villains (or at least people trying to do their jobs who make mistakes). Along the way, you learn a bit about what makes NASA, the astronauts, the ISS, and the shuttle tick. I cannot do justice to the suspense of the book. Suffice it to say that I bothered my wife a bit by my immersion in the book until I completed reading it. If you liked Crichton's Andromeda Strain and Cook's Outbreak, you'll really like Gerritsen's Gravity. I'm running, not walking, to get another novel of hers.
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Summary: His Love is so Far Away, Can He Get to Her in Time?
Review: This is a story that takes place in the not far off future. NASA has a space station in orbit and a deadly virus, the result of a secret Army experiment, gets loose aboard. One of the crew dies and Dr. Emma Watson, who is going through a divorce from Doctor Jack McCallum, a man she still loves, goes up on the shuttle to replace him. The returning shuttle crew gets infected as they bring the body back and they all die. Then one by one the crew aboard the station dies too, till only Emma is left. Back on Earth, Jack, who still loves Emma too, works frantically to find a cure. But even if he does, he's afraid the Army will not let them take it up to his wife. He believes they're going to leave her to die. However, there's a struggling company that has designed a small shuttle like vehicle and they've bought a Russian rocket. So now all Jack has to do is find the cure, get himself aboard that tiny shuttle and ride that Russian rocket, but even if all that is possible, can he get to Emma in time? Gravity is a thrilling story that had me burning the midnight oil and as a bonus, I learned an awful about our astronaut corps and what makes the men who go to space tick. This is a super read that I can't recommend highly enough. Reviewed by Leeann Douglass
Rating:
Summary: A Possible Glimpse into a Frightening Future
Review: When an astronauts wife is in an auto accident and dies, NASA feels they have to bring her husband back from the space station and all of a sudden doctor/astronaut Emma Watson, who hadn't been scheduled to go up for months, is tapped to take his place. Unknown to the astronauts on the station, one of the experiments they're working on is being keenly watched by the Army. Knowing NASA would never knowingly experiment on a virus that could perhaps kill them all, the Army disguised their experiment as a civilian undertaking. As Emma's getting ready to head for the stars that Armu experiment aboard the space station is getting ready to reek havoc. By the time she gets there on the shuttle there is already one dead astronaut. They take the body aboard the shuttle, the body bag rips as the crew loads it in the bay and the crew die on the return trip. More of the crew aboard the station die. On Earth Doctor Jack McCallum, Emma's estranged husand who had flunked out of the astronaut corps due to kidney stones, works frantically to solve the problem, because if he doesn't, Emma can never come home. Then she gets infected. This book takes place in the not to distant future and let me tell you, it was a nail-biter from start to finish. Tension, tension and still more tension, but it's a romance as well. There is a lot of NASA speak throughout the story, but Ms. Gerritsen gives us a handy glossary in the back of the book so that we can keep all the initials straight. I loved the story, even though I must admit, it frightened me a little. Ms. Gerritsen knows her medicine and she has written a book that seems all to real, a possible portent of things to come. Still it gets my highest rating because it's a terrific thriller. Reviewed by Lenore Douglass
Rating:
Summary: fantastic!
Review: I was tired when I first started to read this book and didn't get all hot and bothered by it, so I set it aside for a day or two and picked it and started to read it again. Boy, was I ever glad! As I got into the story I couldn't put the book down. I hadn't thought much about space stories before, so didn't know what to expect. Emma Watson gets to go into space to study living beings in space. While there, an experiment goes wrong and the space crew begin to die from it. The organisms that are infecting the astronauts come from outerspace only they don't know at first what is causing the deaths. It is as interesting to learn about what is involved with NASA, etc. as the storyline, especially, after hearing on the news years ago that there is life on Mars and the current interest of our government in going there. I highly recommend the book.
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