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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An intesting read that fails in its futurism,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Jupiter Plague (Paperback)
I read this book under the title of "Plague from Space", published by Orbit Books in 1991. The book was first published in 1966, and it shows. Harrison spins an interesting tale of a plague that arrives in a manned ship that returned from a first descent into Jupiter, and how us humans handle it. The suspense is there, but unfortunately, I kept losing my suspension of disbelief because the future described in the book feels "too old". In particular, medicine and medical research, which are so important in this book, seem a little backward (even though some of the devices used are indeed forward looking).This is not a bad read, but anyone who wants a good Harrison book to start with would do better to pick up a copy of Death World.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fast-paced plague no-brainer,
By M-I-K-E 2theD "2theD" (The Big Mango, Thailand) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Jupiter Plague (Paperback)
I only know the works of Harry Harrison through reputation, one could say, and through his fairly flat collection in Prime Number. Some say his novels are fun or youthful, which strikes me as another way of saying that he doesn't take a plot all that seriously. Jupiter Plague (also irksomely published as Plague from Space and The Jupiter Legacy.) is exactly as I thought it would be: a plot based on one man, a big problem with no regard to either the start or end of the novel. So, in this regard the novel could be said to have met my expectation and therefore give it 5-stars. And yet I was hoping for my preconceptions to be false and was met with a fairly cardboard-like novel, easily read in a few days without giving much thought to it.
Rear cover synopsis: "The space probe returned carrying a cargo of writhing death! No form of life on Earth seemed safe from the savage epidemic brought back from a distant planet. Quickly and mysteriously it spread over the earth's surface, drawing its victims into a slow and violent death. If Earth was to escape annihilation, the horrible plague had to be stopped! But there was so little left to track down the cause of the Jupiter Legacy!" The line where it says, "Quickly and mysteriously it spread over the earth's surface, drawing its victims into a slow and violent death" is as faulty as the wiring in my condo. The plague was limited to New York and the area of New England rather than the entire earth's surface and the plague killed its victim rather quickly, within the day... nothing so slow or violent about a fever and some boils. One thing Harrison has down to an art (mmm, that's a bit of a stretch) is plot flow. It starts with a bang when Sam, our intern doctor and to-be heartthrob is raced to an accident involving a dismemberment and being raced back to the hospital to be warned of a pending danger of unknown proportions at the airport... which is where the behemoth spaceship has returned to Earth while crushing one plane and burning another to a cinder. Sam observes the astronaut descend from the ship and fall. Caring for him, Sam sees blisters around his face and neck with a fever of 105. Knowing he's near death, Sam and his love-interest-to-be (of course) give the man a notepad where he write something like "sick in ship." I considered this a key in understanding WHAT was inside the ship and was especially interested when the police closed the ship off. In the end, the message played no importance and it was all fairly predictable. For some added flavor, Harrison has thrown in some medical terminology, which, as a fan of anatomy, I just love. Harrison also added some more ridiculous elements of extremely large handguns with calibers of .50 and 0.75 inches, which are ALL recoilless, the author must note. Other elements of science fiction include some ideas about traffic control, Mach 5 air transport and life on a Reef in Jupiter (?). If you're looking for a fast-paced requiring very little brain power and a few annoyance (i.e. the ending), then look no further than The Jupiter Plague . Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, while different in format, was actually a better read. This book, however, is going back to the second-hand books store.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A pageturner about a plauge from Jupiter,
By
This review is from: The Jupiter Plague (Paperback)
A spaceship, long overdue, has returned from it's mission to Jupiter. Sam, a young intern doctor is called up on his Ambulance to arrive at a scene of death and destruction at Kennedy Airport in New York City. As he tries to find someone living among the many dead, the spaceship opens and one crew member comes out, deathly ill. He maganes to write one cryptic message before slipping into unconsiousness.Soon, a plauge spreads through New York City, killing birds, and spreading from birds to humans. All attempts at treatment of the disease fail. People begin rioting, and martial law is put in place. Sam must find a cure, but to do so he has to figure out what that cryptic message really means, and must fight against the politics of those in charge who won't listen. All in all, a decent story. I did find some of the situations unrealistic. And, while there was a lot of attention paid to details of action, there wasn't as much in the way of plot development. Sam falls and another doctor fall in love, but there was very little building of the relationship other than the two of them working through some scary situations together.
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