Rating: 
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: The Cobra Event is a fantastic book. It is the best book i have ever read and i've read Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy and Stephen King. If you like sci-fi thrillers this is a must-read. It is a little bit horror too. It also has good historical facts and Preston did his research more than thoroughly. If you can't read books with graphic scenes this book will be tough to finish. I gave it 5 stars because that is the highest level but i think it far exceeds a five-star book.
Rating: 
Summary: A fast-paced hooking thriller!
Review: The Cobra Event was an awesome book! It is also a very fast-paced and quick (VERY QUICK) read. The story hooks you instantly and finally spits you out after that last page is turned. Preston's is good, but not complex or hard to read by any means. The reading level is quite low and very easy, but I wouldn't let children read this. Preston's work isn't what I'd call complex either. It's straight through and simple!Overall, this book is a very good quick read. A lot of thrills and mystery and haunting discriptions. Though it didn't exactly captivate me, I can easily see how it would be that way to others, don't pass it up...check it out! Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: LITERARY GENIUS!
Review: After hearing many opinions on Richard Preston's "The Hot Zone" from friends, I soon found myself reading a copy. Having a slight interest in biological warfare myself, I was so amazed by the way the book depicted the events surrounding the Ebola Reston incident. I was so entranced that I found myself reading it until the early hours of the morning. So when I first heard about another book by Preston I immediately jumped at the chance to read it. The Cobra Event blew me away, it was outstanding! It was far beyond my expectations of any book! But keeping a strong sense of reality at the same time, which is normally lost when trying to keep the reader reading. It too hypnotized me, as soon as I picked it up I couldn't put it down... What can I say it's such a compelling read... I recommend you go out and buy a copy because if you loved it as much as I do you'll find yourself reading it over and over again.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable but lightweight.
Review: I read this novel after being thrilled by 'The Hot Zone'. Good as parts of the novel are, I think 'The Cobra Event' demonstrates that Preston's talents are best employed in non-fiction. 'The Cobra Event'ultimately failed to engross this reader because the characters were to obviously constructed as engines to drive Preston's point about biological weapons and bioterrorism. Preston never convinced me that these people could exist outside his story (the dialogue, as one other reviewer pointed out, is pretty ordinary). Cliches abound. The last fifty pages, in particular, are almost embarrasing: this is a writer calling out to all Hollywood producers, 'option this book, please'. Since the publication of this novel, Preston has continued to write fascinating articles in the 'New Yorker', some of them on bioterrorism. I hope they form another non-fiction classic soon.
Rating:
Summary: Frightening!
Review: A chilling, suspense-filled story of a biological terrorist doing human trials in the subway and streets of New York. Preston makes clear in his introduction that there is only a little speculation in his novel. Most of the story is based on known facts and technology. Riveting.
Rating:
Summary: Electric.
Review: Go on vacation, lock the door, pull the shades and take the phone off the hook. This is an absolutely riveting book. Having read The Hot Zone, I couldn't wait for this one to arrive from Amazon. And I wasn't disappointed. Aside from a brilliant plot and fully drawn characters, Preston serves up a bucketful of science that is easy to stay with and infectious. I'm now reading The Coming Plague because Cobra Event has so interested me in the threat of bioweapons and calamitous outbreaks. He also does a masterly job of capturing the atmospherics of vast chunks of New York. In short, this book is like a live wire, you can't let go of it.
Rating:
Summary: Scariest Book I've Read
Review: This is the scariest book I've ever read. It kept me awake at night and haunted me for days after I finshed it. Mr. Preston is a great storyteller. Very easy to understand, not a over your head book at all. Everything seemed to be so real and could happen. I hope Mr. Preston will grace us with another book very soon!
Rating:
Summary: Scientifically weak, but an excellent suspense novel
Review: Richard Preston has been taken to task for his prior, pseudo-scientific work THE HOT ZONE. Fortunately, he has turned his efforts toward his true talent, suspense writing. THE COBRA EVENT is indeed a thriller, and mixes the author's knowledge of biological agents with a good, old-fashioned action novel. Although the writing can seem comical at times, when the author drags out his layman's knowledge of biological warfare to digress into ramblings and contextual information, the book generally moves well. The dialog is awful, but this is something I have come to expect from this genre, and it detracts little from the book. Pick this up at your library, or as a cheap paperback for some summer reading (the hardback is also common on remainders). You will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: An almost epidemic with a mystery plot
Review: What can I say, I like medical mysteries and this one is well done. There is just enough real facts about biology for you to get that creepy feeling as you read along to not mind so much when there are the usual unbelievable plot jumps. It's entertaining and not mushy, even though there is a definite sexual tension going on between the two main characters. Enjoy the ride because even towards the end it will surprise you.
Rating:
Summary: Read the book. Don't bother with the abridged audio version
Review: I read this book almost a year ago and really enjoyed the scary story. A crazy Russian scientist is out to destroy us with a horrible genetically engineered killer disease. Human trials one and two have taken place as the story opens and the villain scientist is ecstatic. Through a chance encounter, our demented fiend pairs up with a couple of other crazies and together they plot an evil plan, which seems guaranteed to succeed. In a race against time the heroes must thwart the dastardly master-plan. The pace was swift and the story that unfolded was believable and terrifying. I enjoyed the book. Recently, I listened to the abridged audio version of the book read by Blair Underwood. I was extremely disappointed. Mr. Underwood read with enthusiasm and energy but the rendering of the female voices were all ludicrous. His falsetto attempt to differentiate characters by vocal quality failed miserably, in my opinion. It would have been better had he not even attempted the tonal variation as by doing so he turned the entire story into a sort of comic jest. If you want a laugh, listen to the abridged tape, otherwise don't waste your time or money on it!
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