Not the Hottest Read, But Interesting Nonetheless

books:


	• The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story Richard Preston Anchor, 1999 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 480 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

The scariest book ever written!

Awesome Book! But you will never want to enter a public place again, the scariest thing about this book is the fact that it is true!

Still relevant, still gripping

Even though this book was written in the mid-90s, it remains as gripping and timely as ever. I just got around to reading it due to a recent interest in public health and epidemiology. It is truly an enthralling story that grabs hold of you and keeps you turning pages long after you should have gone to bed or started your chores.

In addition to telling the absorbing, true story of the discovery of the nature of the "thread" viruses (primarily Ebola and Marburg) the book offers some intriguing tidbits about the African environment where these viruses and the HIV virus first arose. For instance, Richard Preston talks about a cave on Mount Elgon in East Africa called Kitum, which may be the original site of the Marburg virus. After outlining the various ways that Marburg might live in the cave within a host creature, Preston tells readers of a fascinating theory about the creation of Kitum Cave. It seems that elephants may have carved the cave out of solid rock over the millennia in their attempts to find salts and other minerals. The elephants chip away at the cave walls with their tusks and then chew up pieces of rock to get the minerals they crave. This type of "bonus" anecdote makes reading the Hot Zone even more interesting that it would be otherwise, which is really saying something, as this is one of the most captivating books I've read in a long time.

One last point: The fact that this story is true and that it includes a good deal about the science of public health and virus hunting shows that really great writers like Preston can and do produce intelligent books that are also page-turners.

for more information click here

Not the Hottest Read, But Interesting Nonetheless

I got through this book in a day, so in terms of readability and overall interest of subject matter, this book is top-notch. Preston does a remarkable job of documenting the rise of particular strains of Ebola and Marburg and provides a great description of the way that people who encounter Level 4 Bioagents function when dealing with somehting dangerous. I learned oodles about the way new filoviruses grow and how quickly they can affect a monbkey or human population. My major problem was the 'story' itself. When Preston switches gears and moves away from a chronology of particular cases to the meat of the book, an account of the discovery of Ebola Reston, the build-up and climax is underwhelming. He attempts to create the kind of drama you find in a Stephen King novel (someone who endorses the book with a quote on the backcover), but fails because fo the restrictions of non-ficiton. The book would have been far more powerful if he had kept the same tone and pacing at the beginning of the book, chronicling and chrating the dangers of the virus instead of trying to give us the way the virus affected the people and families involved with controlling the outbreak.

for more information click here

Sub-par

I've been wanting to read this novel for several years now. Taking Virology during my undergraduate career only peaked my interest in reading about Ebola in a novel-style context. There's not much known about the Ebola virus, even to this day, and I was intrigued to see how Preston would incorporate this knowledge (or lackthereof) into his book. While the subject matter is extremely interesting and engaging, I will have to agree that his writing style is sub-par. I found myself skimming through whole paragraphs because of his mundane and repetitive diction and syntax. If it had been written by someone else, I think I could have immensely enjoyed this book (I'm a major science nerd, and I love reading science books). The only thing that kept me going to the finish was the fact that the entire novel was riding on the subject matter Ebola itself. The virus was what kept the novel going (I actually enjoyed all the factual paragraphs about Ebola...reminded me of the course I took in college! Haha, that, and I like seeing how factually correct Preston was). Overall, it seems like most of his facts are correct (there are a few things that I would contest, but that's besides the point), but honestly, the book was a bore...which is a shame, because it's written on such a fascinating subject.

In short, if you want an easy read to learn about the little bit we know about Ebola, go for it. Don't expect stellar writing from Preston, but it's readable. I do recommend that you have some sort of scientific fascination, though, because if you don't...you'll probably find the book to be really dry about half way through.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, page 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Mrs. King's Biology I Honors & Int. Sci. II Reading List
Popular Natural History - Animal Biology
Oddities and Eccentricities
Books Read 2008, Part II
MY IMPACT BOOKS!

search for books
a terrifying true, hot, story, terrifying, true, zone

Impressum / about us