Rating: 
Summary: Great historical overview, rather weak storytelling
Review: First, whoever designed the cover and spine of this book should be fired. While sitting on your bookshelf the neon green spine jumps out and the lettering makes it look like some cheesy sci-fi tripe. Which is unfortunate, because it's a very informative book and full of excellent research. It's odd that the great flu epidemic got relegated to an historical footnote, because it's scale was devastating and frightening. It's also likely that sometime in the future a similar outbreak will jump from animal to man in south China or somewhere similar. And the results today would dwarf the original flu epidemic and make SARS seem like a mild fever. This book makes for fascinating reading on these counts and it's very interesting to follow how the scientists went back to uncover the flu's origins.
Like many psuedo-historical books of this nature, however, the author is much less skilled as a writer than she is as a researcher. She tries too hard to inject the book with drama when the subject matter itself is sufficiently dramatic. Thus reading it becomes irritating at times because the prose and bad melodrama gets to you, but you nonetheless don't want to stop reading and not get all of the information.
Rating: 
Summary: Science Thriller
Review: From cover to cover, I found this book absolutely riveting. Reads more like a piece of investigative journalism than a typical science book. Kolata weaves together the periodic outbreaks of flu into a fascinating pattern that reveals a terrifying potential. The mixed reviews are not indicative of a mediocre book. Readers looking for a science textbook or a detailed historical account of 1918 may be disappointed. However, readers looking for a gripping, non-fictional explanation of one the most important ongoing stories affecting the planet will have a memorable experience. I read this book many years ago, but few books have stuck in my mind or affected my thinking more.
Rating:
Summary: Important History
Review: I could not put this book down. Gina Kolata does a fantastic job of telling the history of the flu. She presented stories within the story of the flu. One of the most fascinating parts of the book was about Johan Hultin who came to America from Sweden to attend Iowa University and how life's twists and turns brought him to a destiny of studying the flu virus.
The 1918 flu pandemic was of personal interest also, because our family history contains a victim of the 1918 flu. Kolata's book opens up a understanding of what it must have been like to have lived in that time. I would highly recommend to anyone in genealogy who has an ancestor that passed away at an early age due to this influenza.
Definiely a important history to think about for years past and years to come, especially in light of the SARS outbreak originating in the Guangdong provice in China. I was especially intrigued when I read the section about the 1968 Hong Kong flu. It too originated in the same province that supplies 80% of Hong Kong's chickens.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a bad high school research paper...
Review: This book actually contains some information on the flu epidemic, but it is precious hard to sort out from all the totally irrelevant stuff. If you're interested in the interior decorating skills or love affairs of the scientists looking for the DNA of the 1918 flu virus, then by all means read this book. But if you want to know about the epidemic itself, there have *got* to be better sources of information. This book reads like a bad high school research paper-- a little actual information, and a whole lot of empty filler to meet the page requirement.
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