The Cobra Event

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Summary: REALLY Scared the HELL out of me! Wow, what a great read.
Review: Preston's Cobra Event will keep you up all night reading, flipping the pages faster and faster, and then long afterwards as you ponder the significance of what you have read. A timely novel about genetically engineered germ warfare, Cobra Event is a fast-paced read. Mr. Preston inserts chapters about the world history regarding biological warfare, giving the reader much needed background and enhancing the story. The main characters are excellent and I praise Mr. Preston's storytelling ability. This book is a wakeup call to the civilized world about the stand the world's governments have and are taking on biological warfare. Better than the Hot Zone! I also highly recommend Connelly's new novel Blood Work, and Steiger's new conspiracy-thriller, Alien Rapture. Read the reviews and buy all three. Excellent, most excellent books!!!

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Summary: Will Keep You Up At Night
Review: Richard Preston's "The Cobra Event" gripped me from the first chapter, which is downright gory. Little did I know that it just grew gorier and stranger and more terrifying with each page. Seriously, Preston's prose and dialogue are amateurish at best. I sometimes cringed while reading his flat phrases and forces exchanges. But when he's writing about a virus with a mean streak (which is the bulk of the book), he does it like nobody else. Plus, the book is filled with twists and turns. There were times when I actually gasped out loud, it was so shocking. As for the ending, well, I had 200 more pages to read by midnight. At six a.m. the sun was rising, I was finishing the last line and thought I'd be too frightened to ever sleep again.

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Summary: THE TRUTH BEHIND COBRA
Review: THE COBRA EVENT is a fact-based suspense novel. I spent three years researching it. My original idea was to do it as nonfiction, like THE HOT ZONE, but I found that many of my sources did not want to be quoted. So I moved the book into fiction. Alice Austen and Will Hopkins are fictional characters. The story of the bioterror event in New York City is fiction. But a lot of the background is totally real. The disease, which involves self-cannibalism, is real, though in reality it is not contagious. (I don't want to give away too much of the story.) My description of huge American tests of bioweapons in the Pacific Ocean is accurate and true, and even U.S. government officials have found those scenes a revelation to them. So are my descriptions of the biowarfare facilities in Russia and Iraq. The science is accurate, too. You can read more about it in my Amazon interview, posted here under "related articles." Watch for an upcoming Amazon interview that I'm doing with Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek, for his book, BIOHAZARD. Since the publication of THE COBRA EVENT, the issue of bioterrorism--the idea that anthrax or other bioweapons could be released in a terrorist attack--has become a huge concern in the White House and Congress. Top officials have described bioweapons as the single most dangerous problem faced by our government today. They're scrambling to prepare, but they aren't ready. When it happens--and I think it will--we will learn the hard way what kind of damage bioweapons can do and how we can respond. My other books are THE HOT ZONE, AMERICAN STEEL, and FIRST LIGHT.

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Summary: The Cobra Event is Quite Uneventful
Review: When I picked up The Cobra Event, I expected to find it as intellectually stimulating as The Hot Zone, a Richard Preston non-fiction book I had read previous. What I found in The Cobra Event, however, was not at all what I had hoped for. Preston is a contributer to The New Yorker, and has won many awards for his non-ficiton writing. In my humble opinion, I think that non-fiction is what Preston should be writing, in light of his recent attempt to produce a fiction bestseller. Conversations within the book contained forced slang, and was intermingled with staright-laced scientific fact. Needless to say, it was not a great combination. A comparison can be drawn between this book and The Silence of the Lambs, in which a young fledgling tries to solve a mystery, and does so, single-handedly. If I had The Cobra Event prior to The Hot Zone, I don't think I would have gotten around to reading The Hot Zone. I would highly recommend any of Preston's non-fiction material, especially for the scientifically oriented. But when considering The Cobra Event, I think 2 stars is a little generous.

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Summary: Interesting, scary tale...
Review: I found this book to be a frightening account of what might happen with biological weapons in ruthless hands. I do feel the author is stronger when writing non fiction, and hope that he returns to it soon.

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Summary: A terrifying gripping Titan V rocket propelled ride!!!!
Review: Brilliant. The best book I've read in a long time. It is gripping, unputdownable...I read a full half of it on a 4 hour flight, and the rest on the way back - totally engrossing, utterly believable, and very very scary. Preston's attention to detail and research are excellent (as always) ... I cannot wait for his next book.

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Summary: WOW, WOW, WOW
Review: As a night owl my best reading time is before I go to sleep. Don't do that when you read this book. It is an anxiety attack waiting to happen. A vivid portrayal of science choosing to go so very wrong, it will send chills throughout your body and as you progress you will wonder if the chills are from the content of the book or from a release of some toxic substance you inhaled while you were reading. Richard Preston has done the world a favor by writing this book, it's about time someone started talking about black biology and its possible effect. I'm looking forward to the next book. Congratulations Richard this is probably the best thriller I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it, but I have a question.
Review: The Cobra Event was a truly engaging page-turner; the book was a thrilling combination of politics, medicine, science, and intrigue. However, I was at a loss to find out what happened to Littleberry. He's described as "MIA," but what happened to him???

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Summary: Don't read this book while eating
Review: I had to shelf my lunch when I read about the autopsy(s). A pretty good read!!!

Rating:
Summary: amazing, beautifully written, captivating
Review: this book has been sitting on my shelf for quite a while... i picked it up three weeks ago and began reading... AND COULDN'T STOP!! i recommend thid book to anyone who has read the hot zone.. it is almost a sequel.. it is written beautifully mixing in true history and fiction chapter by chapter. it gives you an idea of the power of science. a must for science junkies!