Customer Reviews

Microbe

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

(Having read this in a Kindle I want to thank the author or whomever made it happen: the book has a table of contents)

The Andromeda Strain is one of my favorite stories and, sometimes, when something comes close to one of your favorites, you set too high an expectation for it. Nonetheless, I gave Microbe a try and I'm pleased I did.

Much to my surprise, before I had read 10 pages the book had gotten my interest. Before I managed to shut off my Kindle for the evening, I realized the clock was mocking me and, no, it just couldn't be that late -- but it was. Bill Clem is now on my list of dangerous authors (joining the ranks of Brent Weeks, Jack Campbell, John Scalzi, and Jeffry S. Hepple) who will keep you up at night repeating 'just...one...more...page' to yourself.

The author took a risk in his character portrayal that I found, frankly, refreshing. Too many authors these days give you so much about each and every damn character that you know more about them than you do about your parents, siblings, wife/husband, and conjoined-twin -combined- and this is a route Bill Clem didn't take, thankfully. It reminded me of some of the great early sci-fi in style where the story took the stage and you learned of the characters from their actions and could let your mind infer things about them, rather than being force-fed.

Every book has it's flaws, and some books are good enough that you just don't care because you enjoyed them so much. For me, this is one of those books and the bottom line in reading any book is it's absolute perfection but how much you enjoyed it. This book, I really enjoyed.

I found Microbe by Bill Clem to be a good, easy to read, science fiction /suspense /thriller. This story has all the right elements. The characters are well thought out and are very believable. You have an Andromeda Strain type microbe arriving from space. This is followed by a government cover-up. Next you find an accidental uncovering of the past. There are people fighting to deal with the problem while unraveling the mystery. Twists and turns are all over the place. The whole book wraps up with a War of the Worlds ending. The story has you racing along with the people in the book trying to find out what happens next. It has you wondering if and how disaster is going to be averted. This is a good book for a quiet evening at home.

Microbe: "a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); usually too small to see with the naked eye."

One national online review calls "Microbe"--"the best astrobiological thriller since 'The Andromeda Strain.'" Perhaps that is because it is the first written since then. (Please refer to my addendum in the first comment.)

On the other hand, The Andromeda Strain is the pace-setter because it is the first of its kind--a thriller about extraterrestial, microscopic life--and is not only well-researched, but also well-written. Pacing is excellent.

"Microbe" is a thriller, yes--but Bill Clem plays fast and loose with his plot, his pacing, his characters, and the resolution. I've read many other novels with multiple threads that the writer uses for cliff-hangers, always returning and carrying that thread forward. At least once, maybe twice, Clem stops at a heart-pounding point and does NOT return to it--ever.

And the characters? Who are these people? Why didn't I care about them? Clem uses them more as plot devices rather than participants. That's a bad thing in novel with a such a terrifying premise. And the resolution? Here's what I said: What??!! I reread the previous couple of pages and still said: What??!! It doesn't make sense, not in the context as written and as meant. OK, I'm willing to concede I didn't understand it, although I normally grasp the rudiments of scientific content.

Bottom line: Bill Clem wrote a pot-boiler, for the book is exciting, but in doing so, he gives us a bare-bones story. Why, background on the female character alone would have added dynamics. And the old retired military man with a deadly secret? His story would have been fascinating. Either Clem was in a hurry to finish this thin novel or he had a terrible burden that weighed on and robbed his mind of needed focus and dedication as he wrote.

I give "Microbe" four stars because the book IS a thriller and I am a forgiving reader. Clem's premise is outstanding, his plot elements are a wonderful blend of outer space life deadly to earth's peoples, government conspiracy, lack of loyalty and honor, wholesale deception, and consuming greed.

For a book in which the writer uses all these elements that work together with clarity and cohesion, try Deception Point by Dan Brown. As for "Microbe" I don't mean to be hard on the book, but I expected more from Bill Clem, a very fine writer of medical and scientific thrillers. Try his Presidential Donor or Medicine Cup for first-rate thrillers!

Actually started pretty interesting with story holding attention. Then the really inconsistent stuff in the premise of the book started to appear - a drill hitting a big "rock" sitting on the seafloor? Then Colonial for Colonel - must have been a search and replace. Then a microbe that dies at 35 F? The technical stretches were just too great.

I read a bit over a third of this book before abandoning it. I really enjoy medical thrillers and the concept was interesting, but the execution was just too sloppy to devote any more of my time to. It's very rare that I don't finish a book :(.

Underdeveloped characters and lack of any medical or scientific detail I might have been able to live with for the sake of a good story, but sloppy writing and editing I can't. Honestly, the papers I've proofread for our high school students demonstrate a better command of English grammar and a more robust vocabulary.

Words are misused, words are misspelled and one character's first name somehow changed over the course of a couple of chapters. Annoyance overcame any curiosity I had to see how the story turned out.

I liked the story. I liked the characters. But the writing style left a lot to be desired. The style is very sparse; just action, not much descriptive detail. Chapters are short, following one character for short time, then jumping to a different character in the next chapter. This made the story a bit hard to follow. And the author tended to end chapters with a "hook" line ... leaving the reader hanging in suspense. Like: "Just then, Flannigan remembered something Singleton had told him." There are so many of these, and the action jumps around so much, that I was never sure if all the teasers had actually been resolved in the story. The author is also very fond of italics. Lots of italics, on almost every page.

The worst part of the book is the editing. Misplaced punctuation, including quotation marks, made it very hard to read in places. Spelling errors. And incorrect word usage. A spell checker will tell you if a word is spelled correctly, but no if it's the correct word to use in the current context. Sometimes Riordan is a "colonel", sometimes he's a "colonial". Maybe the author menat he was wearing a Revolutionary War uniform? No, probably not.

I had to ask myself when I finished the book, why did I keep reading? The book was very annoying in a lot of ways, but there was something about it that I liked. Something in the style that didn't seem right for a comtemporary action thriller, but that still pulled me along. It wasn't until I was writing this review that it came to me. The style reminds me of the pulp action stories of the 1920's - 1940's. And I like those stories. I love The Shadow, Doc Savage, and other stories of that type. Sometimes I like to suspend my disbelief, sit in a comfy chair, and breeze through a story in an evening or two. And "Microbe" is that kind of book.

If Bill Clem can tighen up his writing a bit, and find someone to proofread and edit his books for him, I think he could be a great pulp writer. And there's nothing wrong with that. A lot of the popular series that we read today would have been considered "pulp fiction" in the 1930's.

And a suggestion to Mr. Clem: do a web search on "Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot". This is the outline Dent used to write over 6,000 stories, including most of the Doc Savage stories.

I'll be reading Clem's other books soon. I hope the editing improves, but most of all I hope they're good action stories.

Microbe by Bill Clem is a book that asks the question "Can we once again save the world from total destruction?" In this book the world is once again in peril.

This time it comes in the form of a microscopic invader from outer space. It comes to earth on a meteor and successfully found, its deadly powers are uncovered, the threat is contained and the entire existence of the invader is covered up by the government. Then, years later the whole thing is accidently uncovered and released on the world again. Now again people are dying from unknown causes.

We have a race against time to find out what is causing these deaths. The characters in the book have to find out what it is, where it is, how to contain and how to destroy it. All the while they are being thwarted by the government conspiracy that started the original cover-up over 40 years ago. There are plenty of plots and counter plots and convoluted happenings to keep you guessing throughout the book.

First off, I don't know if it's a problem with the Kindle version, but the editing in this book is terrible. Words miss spelled every couple pages, grammar problems everywhere and an even worse editing job.
After that, the character development is weak at best, the plot would be covered ten pages of a similar title (see Andromeda Strain) and the whole book only takes about two hours to read.
All in all, even from someone who likes a cheap read, this book is not even worth the $3.99 amazon charges for it.

Microbe, By Bill Clem. This book is about a bacterial virus that is brought back to earth from a space expedition on Mars. Taking on a life of its own it soon begins to annihilate the human race. With a team of scientist trying to find every way imaginable to destroy it, the deadly virus continually evades their tactics by mutating in eerily intelligent ways. In a race against time, three people decide to do the unthinkable and go to the one place where it all began. Find out what happens next in this scary, fast paced, scientific thrill ride.

In "Microbe", a meteor crashes to earth and brings with it a deadly micro-organism that threatens life as we know it. This medical thriller, along the same lines as a Robin Cook novel, keeps the reader entertained from beginning to end. As the body count mounts the government becomes more determined to gain complete control of the situation. However, there is no way to stop this invader without sacrificing many lives.

This book is an interesting and quick read. There is enough truth to keep you interested and enough fiction to make it fun.