13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very chilling thriller, February 14, 2001
This review is from: The Fifth Horseman: A Novel of Biological Disaster (Hardcover)
By 2003, some interesting events have occurred in the Mid East, leading to a potential environmental Armageddon. The independent International Environmental Response Team(INERT) led by Dr. Michael Zammit visits ecological hot spots in efforts to avert disasters or cleaning up after a mess.
The Mid East remains a hot spot but a new crisis requires the INERT squad to prevent a pandemic catastrophe as a terrorist has opened a genie bottle by placing an genetically altered organism into a Turkish reservoir, leaving thousands poisoned. Turkey cut off water supplies to Iraq and Syria, who with the help of a rogue Russian military officer plans to invade the democratic Muslim nation. INERT must neutralize the new weapon of mass destruction before the Mid East explodes.
THE FIFTH HORSEMAN is an action thriller that starts at a supersonic speed and never slows down for a moment even if the heroic group's name is a misnomer. The story line is very exciting even if some of the actions of the characters appear far-fetched. Richard Sherbanluk creates a combination Indian Jones-James Bond thriller that will please the action-adventure crowd, who will demand more INERT tales.
Harriet Klausner
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting., June 18, 2001
This review is from: The Fifth Horseman: A Novel of Biological Disaster (Hardcover)
Clive Cussler seems to enjoy mentoring aspiring writers. With Richard Sherbaniuk, who thanks Cussler in his acknowledgements, was obviously an apt student - and out of the box rivals Cussler. "The Fifth Horseman" acheives something few authors are capable of doing: giving life to an unbelievable hero who exists in a plot that demands a reader to suspend objective thought. In short, Sherbaniuk on his first try has created a magnificient thriller. Dr. Michael Zammit is a genius, an intrepid explorer, a master of survival, a committed environmentalist (without the looniness associated with so many who claim that title) and all-around superman. Sherbaniuk's brilliance is breathing life into Zasmmit and several other larger than life good and bad guys and gals. And he does it almost flawlessly. The action unrolls at a furious pace. Zammit bounces from one major adventure to another. He survives lack of sleep, kidnapping, unarmed combat among other things. A real man would probably have been twice dead in the first third of the novel. But through Sherbaniuk's skilled pen, Zammit saves the world from a brilliant, evil mastermind. "The Fifth Horseman is a great read. My eyes were glued to it for three evenings. Had I not had to earn a living, it would have been finished in a day - it's that good. Make sure to put it on your reading list - and then urge Sherbaniuk to write another and another and another . . .
Jerry
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Move over, Dirk Pitt! Say hello to Michael Zammit!, June 20, 2005
This review is from: The Fifth Horseman: A Novel of Biological Disaster (Hardcover)
The water in the reservoir behind the Ataturk dam has been poisoned with a virulent toxic green scum that is growing and spreading at a frightening pace. Turkey has no options but to shut down the flow from the reservoir which is the sole source of water for Turkey's arid neighbours, Iran and Syria, until they can solve the problem with the help of Dr Mike Zammit and his team of environmental detectives and experts from INERT, the International Emergency Response Team. But, that's just the beginning! Sherbaniuk tosses a hugely disparate set of plots and sub-plots, shenanigans and skulduggery into the blender - a power-hungry, sadistic, Islamic "fundamentalist" wannabe dictator who dreams of a country of his own; GMOs (genetically modified organisms) prepared in Russia's biological warfare research program hidden away in secret cities; a modern day Rasputin leading a brainwashed Russian cult who crucifies his victims and then proves his closeness to God by bringing the victims back to life; a hard fighting, hard drinking renegade Red Army General who dreams of completing Russian dreams for domination of Istanbul; and, terrorists hiding out in ancient underground temples. The plots are peopled by a cast numerous enough to populate the Orc army in The Return of the King.
Surprisingly, Sherbaniuk appears to have pulled it off - realistic geo-political scenarios of unrest, dissidence, revolution and war pulled from today's headlines; a frighteningly plausible biological terrorist threat; people, governments and military forces acting and reacting in credible ways to perceived threats, crises and opportunities; and, of course, the near super human hero needed to save civilization and pull the world back from the brink of disaster! The climax arrives and you realize with pleasure that you've just been fed a gripping, enormously satisfying dose of thriller! Sherbaniuk was able to effortlessly switch back and forth from thriller to intricately detailed explanations of the science, geography or history behind his development of the fiction without disrupting the flow of events in a story that unfolds at extreme high speeds!
(Note to the Editor: First, 90C is not 165F nor is 55C equal to 100F. The correct figures are 194F and 131F, respectively. Secondly, there is no such a race as a 400x400 metre relay. (Picture an 8 team race, if you will, where the infield is packed with 3200 competitors and the race takes about 5 hours to complete!!) Silly oversights and errors on simple things like this are prone to undermine the credibility of the much more detailed scientific expositions that were necessary in this novel. Look a little more sharp on the next entry, please!)
Sadly, the fast pace of the book left little room for such things as descriptive passages and character development but, at least, Zammit and his core team members appear to have been granted the first inklings of personalities. Despite Sherbaniuk's having received mentoring from Clive Cussler, I'm pleased to say that I find Michael Zammit a much more likeable, human character than Cussler's brainchild, Dirk Pitt. Zammit is more down to earth, quite a bit more humble and is actually aware that he's mortal. The exciting promise of more to come is certainly in the air. Cairo Jackson, I'm sure, will return as Zammit's sidekick. Francis Richards, one of INERT's crackerjack environmental detectives, has been given enormous potential for future development as her feelings for Mike begin to surface despite the fact that she is uncertain whether her husband is alive or dead. Dikka Spargo, the geeky young inventor, is a definite charmer and seems destined to fit into a more comic role reminiscent of James Bond's Q.
Move over, Pitt! Say hello to Michael Zammit! I'm definitely on the waiting list for Sherbaniuk's next effort.
Paul Weiss
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