Invasion - Softcover

Cook, Robin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425155404 ISBN 13: 9780425155400

Publisher: Berkley, 1997

Synopsis

A sudden outbreak defies diagnosis-because the causes are unlike anything humankind has ever seen...

"Cook fans will revel in this story." (Booklist)

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Robin Cook is the author of thirty previous books, most recently Nano, and is credited with popularizing the medical thriller with his wildly successful first novel, Coma. He divides his time between Boston and Florida. His most recent bestsellers include Death Benefit, Cure, and Intervention.

Reviews

There are certain similarities between science fiction and medical thrillers (futuristic technology, nature subverted) so it's not really surprising that a master of the medical genre like Cook (Acceptable Risk) would try to combine the two. Unfortunately, the result doesn't succeed as SF and doesn't live up to his usual standards as a medical thriller. Instead, this book reads like a script for the soon-to-be-released NBC "major television event" based on this book?you can almost hear the director yelling "Cut and print" at the end of each chapter. The story starts well enough, with a small college town and a flurry of unusual black rocks. Those who pick them up are stung and, after a short fever, come up with a curious list of aftereffects. They become extroverted, environmentally conscious, attached to dogs?and telepathically connected. As a group of those who haven't been stung rush to find some sort of cure, the leader of the changed begins to take on alien form, while directing the construction of a space ship. By this point, though, Cook doesn't seem to know how to get out of his plot, except for an esoteric cure involving the common cold. One can only hope that aided by special effects, this lame resolution plays better on the small screen than it does in the novel.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Exploding TVs are not the only problem normal people have in Cook's new pressure cooker of a thriller. At the start, the normals include ER physician Sheila Miller and college seniors Pitt Henderson, Cassy Winthrope, and Beau Stark. But Beau soon finds the first black disc, gets needled by it, has a brief flu, and becomes a literally radiant personality. Newly confident and resourceful, he goes for an interview with wealthy Randy Nite at Nite's software company and presents a gift--another black disc. Stung like Beau, Randy founds the Institute for a New Beginning. The flu spreads, but most survive it with fixed smiles, radiant eyes, and the urge to work at the institute for the betterment of the environment. Sheila, Cassy, Pitt, and others set out to find the cause of the flu, as some two-thirds of the world's population succumbs. Cook fans will revel in this story and find their enthusiasm realized in an April TV dramatization--which explains why hardcover best-seller scribe Cook is here originally published in mass-market paperback: apparently, the theory is that interest in one will feed interest in the other. William Beatty

Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0425155404
• ISBN 13: 9780425155400
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 352