Customer Reviews

The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story

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1 star:		(15)

 

 

Richard Preston is not a horror novelist, but this will be one of the scariest stories you've ever read. The cause of all this terror is from little beasts that are only microns in size, filoviruses. "Hot Zone" discusses four of these viruses, Marburg, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Reston. I first came across Preston in his New Yorker article, "Crisis in the Hot Zone" which is basically the cliff notes to this book. It piqued my interest and eventually led to me reading this book.

Everyone knows that they should be afraid of Ebola. The Zaire strand only kills 90% of those it infects, in just a matter of day, in the worst way imaginable. Filoviruses are hemorrhagic viruses, causing those unfortunate enough to be infected to crash and bleed out. Preston goes into grisly detail about how these viruses work, and the symptoms that occur in humans. He traces the history of these viruses from their discovery. These are just set up for his main topic, the discovery of Ebola in Washington D.C. A monkey house in Reston Virginia is full of dying monkeys that apparently are infected with Ebola. Preston tracks down the mystery behind this domestic infection.

This book does bring up an all-important point; we are only an airplane ride away from the outbreak of a pandemic. It is very possible that a highly contagious disease may break out and cover the earth in a matter of days leaving a large portion of the population dead, making the premise behind Stephen King's novel "The Stand" not so far fetched after all. These filoviruses are very interesting, and Preston reveals them in such a way that you want to know more about them. The only hint I have to offer is, to avoid Intern's Disease, don't read this when you have a cold.

In THE HOT ZONE, Richard Preston has woven epidemiological fact with the terrifying true story of how a strain of the Ebola virus came to the United States. He details various outbreaks of hemorrhagic fevers, traces them to their possible origins, and provides a basic education about viral evolution and forensics, all couched in narratives that will keep you turning page after page. After you have read his graphic descriptions of what happens to people who contract the deadlier strains of Ebola, you will understand fully just how dangerous the Reston, Virginia incident could have been.

With its crisp language and pacing, THE HOT ZONE reads like an expert thriller novel, making its reality that much more horrifying. Not for the faint-hearted, this book will likely alter the way you view viruses and epidemics.

I highly recommend this book for a general adult readership. (Teenagers under 16 may not be able to handle the highly disturbing descriptions Preston provides.) If you haven't read this book before, you should, especially now in this time of bioterrorism and global travel.

This was an interesting account of a biological incident at a monkey house near Washington DC, along with plenty of background information about the Marburg and Ebola viruses. I didn't mind the redundancy about which others have complained; the repetition of some of the information about viral functions prompted retention, along with stirring the imagination as to the effects of a killer virus.

After reading the book, I performed some web searches an found several sites advertising hiking excursions to Mt. Elgon's Kitum Cave in Africa, which is believed to be he home of the Ebola/Marburg strains, though it's presently unknown which animal is the natural host. Let me tell you, if you are sufficiently insane to visit Kitum Cave after reading The Hot Zone, then you are living proof of Darwin In Action.

I liked the author's analogy about fatal viruses, such as Ebola and HIV, acting at the Earth's own antibodies, protecting the environment from encroachment by humans in places where the Earth doesn't want humans to be fiddling with things. Invasions of the deep rain forests and encounters with fatal biological agents therein are warnings for humans to stay away.

Have everyone in your family read The Hot Zone, so that next time someone gets sick you will have all sorts of terminology to throw around the dinner table -- extreme amplification, crash-and-bleed-out and other delightful descriptions about the effects of disease on humans. Enjoy.

Have you ever pondered the many kinds of microscopic particles that live on this earth? I do even more now that I've read Richard Preston's true story, The Hot Zone. This book takes an extremely graphic dive into the facts within the first three pages. It all begins in Kitum cave deep in the heart of Kenya's wild jungles, where a deadly, unknown virus thrives. Scientific testing on monkeys then brings it to America, relating it to the fast killing Ebola virus, scaring the daylights out of our military. Their suspicions grow even more when they see the flesh eating symptoms of blood coming out of every orifice of the victims bodies. Many individuals get involved throughout this book, revealing their personalities and fears.
This exciting scientific thriller will keep you on edge for the whole read. With The Hot Zone being a true story, Richard Preston puts you in the level 4 biohazard zone easily, sharing the emotions of someone about to enter.
This book is definitely for you if you thrive on the life threatening facts of Ebola, Marburg, and other deadly viruses. With the first electron microscopy photographs ever taken of the virus alone, you won't be able to put it down!

While the story itself is fascinating, the opening of Preston's "The Hot Zone" is the best opening I've ever read, and I'm a writer myself, the author of four novels. His use of language hints at a writer with superior skills and with much to say. Some other reviewers fail to recognize that the book is not as much about the Ebola virus, but that the Planet Earth, tired of the prospect of five billion inhabitants, is trying to fight back and eliminate mankind. Aids, Ebola, they might be just the forerunners of an army of viruses with the goal of keeping the human population from exploding in ever-increasing numbers. Most of the books among today's bestsellers have nothing to say; but "The Hot Zone " is an exception. If nothing else, read the end, and memorize it if you can. I liked it so much that I've written it down and now I've included it here, I hope I won't get in trouble with the publisher for unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material.

The following is a direct quote from Richard Preston's "The Hot Zone"

"In a sense, the earth is mounting an immune response against the human species. It is beginning to react to the human parasite, the flooding infection of people, the dead spots of concrete all over the planet, the cancerous rot-outs in Europe, Japan, and the United States, thick with replicating primates, the colonies enlarging and spreading and threatening to shock the biosphere with mass extinction. Perhaps the biosphere does not "like" the idea of five billion humans. Or it could also be said that the extreme amplification of the human race, which has occurred only in the past hundred years or so, has suddenly produced a very large quantity of meat, which is sitting everywhere in the biosphere and may not be able to defend itself against a life form that might want to consume it. Nature has interesting ways of balancing itself. The rain forest has its own defenses. The earth's immune system, so to speak, has recognized the! presence of the human species and is starting to kick in. The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection by the human parasite. Perhaps AIDS is the first step in a natural process of clearance." End of quote

If everything Preston claims is true in here is in fact non-fiction, then this real world nightmare of a book should scare any reader half to death. All this basically happened? The implications of what almost came to pass right under the complacency of modern human society should be a wakeup call to every government, every scientist, every person alive today. This planet is long overdue for a pandemic on the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu or even, frankly, the Black Death, and this tells the scenario by which it might come about. This is NOT a pleasant story, but then again hiding our collective heads in the sand isn't going to get us anyplace, either. The Ebola virus is a true terror and The Hot Zone is the kind of book that makes you want to wear rubber gloves just to touch its cover!

When I looked at the cover of this book it looked like it was science fiction. As I started reading it I was thinking, "Wait a minute this is all real. In this world where we all live there are microscopic monsters that can totally destroy the human race." I was just totally paranoid. Then when I read the vivid description of Ebola I was just terrified and for weeks I could't stop thinking about the poor people that died from this disease. I almost couldn't finish the book I was totally disturbed. When I did read it I found it to ve truly exceptional and I would recommend it to anyone who thinks that there life is horrible it will change your outlook on life and will make you think how lucky you are to be living in a place where you don't have to worry about dying from these infectious diseases.

In 1976, in the rain forests near Mount Elgon in Kenya, a young nurse named Mayinga N. died of a Marburg-type virus. Karl Johnson of the CDC discovered that it varied from Marburg and earned the right to name the organism: he called it Ebola. Mayinga's strain became known as Ebola Zaire.

In 1989, a shipment of wild monkeys came to Reston Virginia into a quarantine facility, from a farm outside Manila: the monkeys were found to be infected with Ebola Zaire. One of the most deadly viruses on the planet had just landed inside the USA.

Preston's account of the Virginia outbreak closely follows veterinarian Dan Dalgard, whom upon discovering something wrong with the monkeys at the facility notifies USAMRIID, a military center equipped to handle Level 4 (deadly) viruses. Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Jaax, previously experienced in handling Ebola, becomes a key player in the containment, along with her husband Colonel Jerry Jaax.

Preston has done an amazing job of bringing this story to life in a readable, fiction-style tale, breathing life into the characters and events. You'll feel you know the Jaax's personally, and will cringe at the accounts of the military's fumbling collaboration with civilian agencies, using power plays and CYA's as both facilities work against a containment timeframe. The part of the story that details the virus's amplification in Charles Monet might warrant keeping a barf bag nearby.

This true-to-life horror story will leave you scrubbing your hands and highly aware of touching your face. Keep that little hand sanitizer bottle close by while reading! I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!

I adored this book. Some reviews I've read have commented on the fact that the book is rich with description, sometimes more so than information and I do not find that a fault. I read books to entertain myself, if this book was simply a cut-and-dried medical text (and I've read my share of those) then I would've simply read it, processed it and discarded it. Because Mr. Preston gave us more than dry scientific information, this book became one of my all-time favorites. This book, to me, marries the art of masterful storytelling and conveying information. A must-read for anyone interested in the sciences or in a good thriller.

Preston knows how to write, and he does so in a style that keeps you into the story and makes you feel for the characters. With that, he's got the makings of an excellent work of fiction. But since the book is non-fiction, he ought to get some facts straight. First, Ebola causes hemorragic fever. This is to say that vessels of the bloodstream leak resulting in loss of blood and body fluids. The internal organs do NOT melt! A survivor of the infection will thus recover just as quickly as he became ill. For more info, read the tale as told by someone who has seen Ebola face to face, such as Joseph McCormick or C.J. Peters