A tour de force of imagination that brings the hauntingly rich landscapes of Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale" together with the heart-stopping virological suspense of "The Hot Zone", Chuck Hogan's new thriller takes readers deep into the rain forests of the Congo, where a deadly virus has been set free from a centuries-old uranium cave.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
"Clean human blood was a precious commodity as the first decade of the twenty-first century drew to a close. An onslaught of viral and bacterial disease had depleted the reliable source pool, and patients around the world were dying, stuck on long lists waiting for transfusions of unpolluted blood. Lucrative black markets had sprung up in every major population center, from New York to Beijing to Cairo, where illicit blood traded at fifteen to twenty times its weight in gold. Like many medical scientists of the day, Peter and I had dedicated ourselves to the great challenge of developing a safe, synthetic, human blood substitute..."
That's the gripping premise of Chuck Hogan's The Blood Artists. Doctors Stephen Pearse and Peter Maryk, working for the Bureau of Disease Control (the much tougher, FBI-like successor to the Center for Disease Control), track a killer virus out of Africa that makes Ebola look like a slight case of indigestion. This nasty bug seems to have both intelligence and an agenda, and when it acquires a human host it might just be too much for the world to handle. As he did in his first thriller, The Standoff, Hogan humanizes complicated concepts and creates characters with lots of energy. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
In his 1995 debut novel, The Standoff, Hogan proved himself expert at the political-action thriller. One wonders why, then, he has followed up with a speculative medical thriller?much less one that takes place nearly 20 years from now, that features such improbabilities as a virus that "has taken human form" and that unfolds via a narrative that shuttles awkwardly between first-person and third. The blood artists are Centers for Disease Control virologists Peter Maryk and Stephen Pearse (the opening narrator), who, in 2010, are working to develop a blood substitute enhanced by elements from Maryk's freakishly inviolable immune system. Together, they travel to Africa to investigate an unknown virus that devastates a remote outpost until Maryk, who's as coldhearted as Pearse is warm, orders a blanket bombing of the area. The story then jumps to 2016, as the pair receive a Nobel for the blood substitute. Their triumph is short-lived, however. The virus resurfaces in South Carolina, infecting Pearse. With his colleague dying, Maryk takes center stage as the third-person narration (interrupted by Pearse's fevered reflections) traces his struggle against the virus, which, having survived Africa due to an error by Pearse, is being deliberately spread by "a man colonized by an iatrogenic mutation of an immunopathic retrovirus. A humanized virus vector posed to infect the world." That man-virus is also posed to murder a woman whose blood may prove key to saving humanity from viral extinction. There's much to admire here: full-blooded (so to speak) characters, resonant prose, a scattering of crackling action sequences and an abiding and affecting sense of melancholy. The lack of a properly sympathetic hero, though, and muddled structure and plotting, place what should have been a robust thriller into the intensive care ward. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Chuck Hogan is the New York Times bestselling author of several acclaimed novels, including THE TOWN (aka PRINCE OF THIEVES), DEVILS IN EXILE, and THE KILLING MOON. THE TOWN was awarded the Hammett Prize for excellence in crime writing, and has been made into a movie starring Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, and Blake Lively. DEVILS IN EXILE is also being developed into a feature film. He is the co-author, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, of THE STRAIN and THE FALL, parts one and two of the internationally bestselling STRAIN series.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hypochondriacs beware,
By
This review is from: The Blood Artists: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
My first time reading Hogan turned out to be a fun romp through mystery and science, a chase for the virus that spreads though blood, one commodity that is rare to keep and difficult to obtain. Blood is the river that links all the lakes in this story, all the characters have something in common, the latest epidemic of outbreaks that kill in a horrific way has to start somewhere, two brilliant scientists who are at the center of it all end up enemies, both have dome some questionable things, who is the bad good and who is really good?
This is the basis for the tale, add some sneaky backstabbing characters, a nasty virus that does some really icky things with its new favorite host; the human body, making you an expert at recognizing and diagnosing mortality rates after you learn about the blister sores and blood ratio on the victims and it makes you want to wash your hands, close the windows and not go outside, I love these types of books, they will cheer you up on the rainiest day, once you put them down of course, the moment when you feel safe after having a front row seat at a macabre show of man versus disease. This might be "Outbreak" lite but it still packs a punch, I enjoyed for what it was and had a good time reading it. Basically the story evolves around two people; Doctors Stephen Pearse and Peter Maryk. They work at the Bureau of Disease Control and have time and money to devote to doing fantastic research, they get tangled into a doomsday scenario upon truing to help victims in an isolated Congo village, where one of them though an act of mercy begins something that will haunt not only them but the world forever. They reunite as enemies two years later in America where the same virus they tried to eradicate keeps sprouting up all over the country, and it seems to have some human help, the questions that rise are great, the answers terrifying, the story begins! This was not without flaws but I enjoyed the story and I'm glad I go to read it, I have a soft spot in my heart for all sorts of science thrillers, especially the super viral ones, they seem to shake the reader harder than any monster could ever try. - Kasia S.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping and eye-opening! I loved it!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Blood Artists: A Novel (Hardcover)
As a medical technologist, this book had special meaning to me. Hogan does a great job of exploring both major personalities in the novel, while at the same time showing a decent understanding of the viral world and medical technology. It catches you up in the evolution of this killer virus which displays its own personality throughout the novel and really becomes a character in and of itself. It is interesting to imagine when those of us in medicine/science will have to leave our labs and take more militant action in defending the human race. Hogan does a great job of portraying that...it kept me up many a night!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Blood Artists: A Novel (Hardcover)
I love this book and since I live in the town that it takes place (i'll leave it up to you to find out)it makes it even more exiting. Though I doubt the town will ever reach 20,000 people. It's very interesting how a small town like ***** gets a deadly virus that kills every one exept 2. I don't want to give to much away so I'll leave it up to you.
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