Abduction [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Robin Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001

The world's bestselling master of the medical thriller, Robin Cook skillfully combines human drama and high-tech thrills with the latest breakthroughs and controversies of modern medicine. Now, in his most daring novel yet, a mysterious transmission from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean leads a crew of oceanographers and divers to a phenomenon beyond scientific understanding - and a discovery that will change everything we know about life on earth . . .

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Perry Berg is president of Benthic Marine and a passenger aboard The Benthic Explorer, a 450-foot research ship endeavoring to drill into, and sample for the first time, the earth's magma core. Also onboard are the lovely Dr. Suzanne Newell; ex-navy commander and present submersible skipper Donald Fuller; and navy-cum-Neanderthal divers Richard Adams and Michael Donaghue. It is this cast of characters who, with the reluctant Perry, dive to the stilled drill site in order to make repairs. En route, they are sucked (or suckered) into a defunct undersea volcano and deposited into an otherworldly wonderland. That takes about 75 pages of fairly cogent spadework. The next 375 pages sprout some of the looniest, most derivative, made-for-TV-movie science fiction imaginable. Our heroes, you see, have been abducted to Interterra, an undersea world of staggering beauty and unheard of technologies--intergalactic travel and eternal life, for starters--populated by stunningly beautiful, toga-wearing, first-generation humans.

First-generation? They were here first, see, and had been doing very nicely until their scientists realized that the earth was about to be "showered with planetesimal collisions, just as had happened in its primordial state," and that they had better start digging. While the Interterrans prospered and thrived undersea, we, the second generation, began hauling our single-celled bodies up by our ooze-straps and started all over again.

And that's about it. People with names like Arak and Sufa speak strangely, giggle at the primitive second-generationists, recoil at the very thought of violence, press their palms together to have sex, and direct "worker clones" to do the dishes while the second generation does its stereotypical best to, in turns, exemplify, define, and defile humankind.

If you've yet to read Robin Cook's innumerable (and mostly successful) medical thrillers, start now. If you want to read about an alternative world, start off right with H.G. Wells's 1895 masterpiece, The Time Machine. --Michael Hudson --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

A mountain far beneath the ocean is the setting in this latest work from bestselling author Cook (Coma; Contagion; Vector, etc.). Perry Bergman, founder and president of Benthic Marine, is conducting research in a remote region of the Atlantic. The crew has been trying to drill through an underwater mountain that appears to be filled with some liquid or gas, but they've encountered several mishaps, and Perry has flown out to the ship to assess the problem for himself. He's invited to dive to the seamount with several others in a submersible craftDthe most reliable one, the veteran commander tells Perry, he has ever piloted. Suddenly the small ship seems to lose power and is lured deeper into the water and into the underwater world of Saranta, whose stunning, sexually charged residents, the Interterreans, claim their city is much more beautiful and desirable than the fabled Atlantis. Although the Interterreans treat the humans as their special guests, Perry and his crew are desperate to escape. Cook keeps readers turning the pages with fast-paced action and intriguing details about Saranta; while the action may appeal to his teeming die-hard fans, however, this is not one of his better efforts.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 501 pages
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783893116
• ISBN-13: 978-0783893112
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (188 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,728,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Doctor and author Robin Cook is widely credited with introducing the word 'medical' to the thriller genre, and over twenty years after the publication of his breakthrough novel, Coma, he continues to dominate the category he created. Cook has successfully combined medical fact with fantasy to produce a over twenty-seven international bestsellers, including Outbreak (1987), Terminal (1993), Contagion (1996), Chromosome 6 (1997) and Foreign Body (2008).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Start, Poor Finish, November 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Abduction (Mass Market Paperback)

Having read all of Robin Cook's books, I expected another wonderful read filled with suspense and explicit character development. This book failed those tests. The storyline was original, but halfway through the book, I found myself wondering why Cook failed to expond more on the questionable behaivor of his characters. The story could have gone a long way, but I found myself anxious to finish and get it over with. I recently read both suspense books by James Rollins and found those to be fantastic

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF THE YEAR'S SILLIEST NOVELS!, November 7, 2000

By 

Nick G - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abduction (Mass Market Paperback)

When a crew of oceanographers receive a mysterious transmission, they are led to a discovery beyond all imagination...a world far beneath the ocean's surface.

Amazed with their finding, the crew is quick to make friends with the undersea people, and adapt to the customs of this civilization (including making love; which consists of hand cream and hand touching, and never having to work since each person has a work clone).

The crew believes what they learn will change what we know on earth...but at what price?

What is this, you ask? The latest thriller from bestselling MEDICAL THRILLER author, Robin Cook.

"Abduction" is a straight to paperback original novel, and easily one of the silliest book's of the year.

I am still shocked that this book is written by Robin Cook! I have been a fan of Mr. Cook's previous novels, and this book is a serious disappointment. It seems MANY authors are trying to broaden the scope of their writing, unfortunately, they are NOT succeeding. PLEASE go back to writing medical thrillers.

The book earned one star because the first couple of chapters were interesting, other than that it is totally un-readable. Avoid this book, and wait for his next hardcover!

Nick Gonnella

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy. Do not borrow. Do not read., September 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Abduction (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is appallingly bad. The plot, such as it is, is risible. The characters are cardboard. The dialogue is excruciating. The scientific accuracy is lacking. The writing is terrible.

Even worse, editing and proofing are absent. Proofing would have picked up on the use of 'base' for musical bass, or 'foolhearty' for foolhardy in my US mass paperback edition of November 2000. Or the incomplete sentences with missing words. (Despite waving the title 'Dr' around a lot, the author doesn't appear to be particularly literate.) Any editor would have rejected this from a slushpile.

Worst of all, the lazy throwaway ending to the book is a lame reference to the author having been to Harvard. It's presumably a joke - and
the joke is on the reader who has gotten that far. It is tempting to make comparisons with Michael Crichton's 'Sphere' - the worst of Crichton's books that I've yet read, also set undersea - but Sphere was, for all its faults, far better written.

Jeffrey Archer writes better than this. Heck, L. Ron Hubbard has written better stuff than this. And he was probably dead at the time.

I will never read another Robin Cook novel. I urge you to do the same.