Customer Reviews

Mount Dragon

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a big Preston/Child fan. When I saw the cover of this book, I hesitated and thought "Man, I hope this isn't a 90's version of King's "The Stand". After all that book was an epic tale but it took me like a year to read and I wasn't "up" for another run at the same thing. I'm happy to say that the only real similarity Mount Dragon has to The Stand is "the superflu", "Cap'n Tripps", "X-FLU", whatever you want to call it; a doomsday virus capable of wiping out the human race.

I'm not one to tell anyone any secrets so I'll just say this: This was a very well written book, It's an adventure that takes place in the New Mexico desert in a Genetic engineering lab. Yes, the main plot is working with a doomsday virus but there is much more to this story than that! It has high tech computer hacking, industrial espionage, history and legend, cat and mouse chases, and more plot twists than you can shake a test monkey at.

Honestly, I was very entertained by this book. It wasn't what I expected but that was a pleasant suprise. I constantly found myself hitting a major crisis and saying "how can this be happening? I still have XXX amount of pages left here." Not just once, but several times. The book always kept my interest and every time I thought I had the whole thing figured out, the authors threw in another twist.

If you like adventure, you'll enjoy this book. Solid writing and character development throughout, a good branching plot, excellent technical and scientific explanations, and the ending was well conceived and not rushed. Thumbs up on this one, not a 5 star (which I seldom give) but a strong 4.

Of all the works published by the Preston and Child team, "Mount Dragon" is my least favorite. The premise of the novel is very similar to The Andromeda Strain, as mentioned by another reviewer. The novel would pick up steam at points, then drag for a while, get exciting again, drag again, etc.

The story revolves around a top secret facility which is believed to be devloping a secret weapon. Two scientists discover the truth behind what is being developed and tested at the facility and soon are on the run. All along, they are aided by persons outside the facility, one of which knows the mastermind personally.

The book starts like most Preston and Child books -- at a rapid pace. However, until the mystery starts to unravel, the pace becomes too slow. The book then picks up again when the truth behind Mount Dragon is discovered. Then, the last third of the book involves the heroes on the run which is too long and drawn out. The confrontation between the mastermind and his adversary in a virtual world is highly entertaining, even though it does seem to be a bit out of place.

Overall, if you like the other works by Preston and Child, you will probably enjoy this one. If you're a fan of science thrillers and haven't read any of their works, read "Riptide" or "The Ice Limit" as they are better works with little to no slow points in the storyline.

I will freely admit that my review of this novel is colored in large part by my opinion of Relic. This novel is by no means bad, but after having read "Relic", and therefore knowing what Preston and Child are capable of, I feel it could have been better.

The characters are drawn in rather broad strokes, and I never felt particularly drawn to any of them. Furthermore, the story, while intriguing, is not exactly edge of your seat stuff.

That said, the writing is excellent. In particular, Preston and Child exhibit excellent descriptive writing ability, and a knack for setting the mood.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I wouldn't make it the first Preston/Child novel you read.

I have read a number of books by these tag-team writers and have enjoyed all of them. This is another that I can recommend to anyone who is a fan of the medical thriller.

The plot is straightforward: discover a cure for influenza which involves altering our DNA. Of course, you have your ego-maniac who wants to profit from the discovery and your hero who wants to help humanity.

All in all, a great read and one I can thoroughly recommend.

Preston and Child really know how to take the reader on a roller coaster ride. I finished this book in a couple of days...mainly because I found it extremely difficult to put down. At the end of each chapter, I wanted to keep reading so I could find out what happened next. These two are becoming a couple of my favorite authors.

The biohazard novel is nothing new. However, these two authors have managed to transform it into a gripping, realistic story. They are similar to Michael Crichton in that they take actual science, stretch the bounds of reality a little, and come up with something so believable that it's scary. The story they've crafted around the science is a wonder to read. The characters are believable, the story is gripping, and the climax is fulfilling. I would recommend this book to anybody who's into science thrillers or action movies.

It's going to take me a little time to put my feelings on this book into words, because it's a more complex book than it seems at first. On a surface level it's an entertaining read, packed with mysteries, discoveries, action, and even a sex scene (note: the book isn't for kids). It also, as is perhaps unavoidable and even obligatory for biotech thrillers, allows you to explore the ideas of what we can and can't, should and shouldn't do with the knowledge we're gaining. It takes these themes far deeper than I'm accustomed to, however, allowing them to permeate the characters and plots in ways that I'm still unraveling, even though I've been done with the book for more than a day.

GeneDyne has an ambitious goal, but one it believes it's all-too-close to solving: eradicate the flu. Permanently. Unfortunately, the stress of trying to make the new gene therapy work (before the patent that's currently funding the company expires) seems to have sent the current lead scientist over the edge. Scopes, the brilliant young CEO of GeneDyne, brings in Guy Carson to finish the job. He sends Carson off to Mount Dragon, the company's highly-secure facility in New Mexico. For some reason no matter what the scientists try, their gene therapy is far more lethal and horrifying than the flu itself, even though there's simply no reason why it should be. The stress is really getting to the good folks at Mount Dragon, stirring up all sorts of resentments and irritations. And one Charles Levine, Carson's old instructor at Harvard and Scopes' old college friend, will do anything to convince the world that GeneDyne isn't going to save the human race--it's going to doom it.

The plot swept me along as I read "Mount Dragon". The authors effortlessly blend together a whirl of elements: Levine and the Harvard community; genetics and policy-making; Scopes and corporate pressures; Carson and his Ute ancestry; a hacker called Mime and his own unique circumstances; the legend of the Mount Dragon gold; and much more.

The book obviously focuses on genetics, public policy, and the potential dangers in messing with things such as human genes and viruses, but it allows the plot and characters to take center stage. I think it fairly clearly comes down on the side of certain things being dangerous, but it doesn't lecture and it doesn't present a one-sided view of things. You get to see the pros and cons of so many issues as the story unfolds. Of more interest, however, is something I didn't notice until afterward. Each character brings his or her own element of inheritance to the plot--through genetics, history, teaching, lore, personality, or some other factor. And each of these elements affects the plot in its own unique way, adding layer upon layer of depth to the whole notion of genetics, inheritance, what we might stand to gain or lose upon messing with our own genetic code, and more.

I'm no geneticist, so I can't tell you how advanced any of the science is or whether it makes sense. What I can tell you is that the authors do an awesome job of weaving that science into the story and making it interesting and understandable. Even if you don't understand terminology, I think if you enjoy scientific thrillers at all then you'll find the explanations entirely accessible. Only in the very beginning do we see any clumsy moments where characters explain things they shouldn't need to explain, just for the reader's benefit--after that it becomes quite smooth and absorbing.

I must state up-front that this is the first novel by this duo that I have read. I like Crichton, and was led to this book by a friend who said "If you only read one by these guys, make it Mount Dragon". So I am basing my review on the book alone, not comparing it to anything else by them, and on that basis I found this to be a terrific story. I enjoyed the genetics angle, struggled a bit with the computer science but learned many new things, and liked the history lessons. Contrary to some other reviewers, I also liked the subplot of the relationship between Carson and de Vaca. I appreciate that they didn't fall instantly in love, and have no trouble accepting what happened in the desert as a reaction to the fear and stress they were experiencing. Call me a stereotypical female, but I think the romance made it a more well-rounded story. It sounds like P&C don't do this in their other novels, and that disappoints me somewhat. Still, I think I will check out Relic at least, based on the rave reviews here.

It's not there best work, but even so, it's better than probably 95% of what's out in the genre and in general. Preston and Child do a great job with plot and character. I thought the "bad guy" was great, and I thought the climax was very, very good.

These guys write damn good novels.

Mount Dragon is the moniker given to the GeneDyne Remote Testing facilty located within the unforgiving desert near the White Sand missile range in New Mexico. GeneDyne, a multi million dollar bio-genetic engineering corporation, is the brainchild of the nerdish, Bill Gates-like biological and computer genius Brent Scopes. Scopes has recruited young, talented and brilliant research biologist Guy Carson, a native New Mexican, to take over for top company researcher Dr. Franklin Burt.

Burt had been in the midst of synthesizing a virus, which when introduced into the human genetic code, would give mankind a permanent immunity to influenza. The financial windfall to GeneDyne with this product would be staggering. Burt, however had been experiencing problems. He was unable to render the virus harmless. Testing in chimps had produced a 100% mortality rate. A revolutionary filtration process pioneered by Burt had apparently worked perfectly on his previous breaktrough, PurBlood, an artificial blood substitute. His success could not be duplicated with X-FLU, the influenza eliminating virus. Burt had suddenly and unexpectedly suffered a mental breakdown in the middle of his research, hence his replacement by Carson.

Carson, encouraged by Scopes, adopted a new approach for X-FLU synthesis based on his own viral membrane research. Expecting successful results, he unwittingly produced an even more lethal variety of the virus. Along with his assistant Susana Cabeza de Vaca, Carson discovers flaws in Burt's filtration process. They learn that the results Burt achieved with PurBlood were tainted and fudged to meet governmental approval. They also adroitly correlate progressive bizarre and ultimately self destructive behavior patterns evidenced by Mount Dragon staff with the fact that they had been human guinea pigs for PurBlood.

Concurrently, Dr. Charles Levine, Harvard professor and former friend and colleague of Scopes, has embarked on a campaign to warn the world of the dangers of genetic engineering. Levine, a brilliant research biologist on a par with Scopes, is fearful of a doomsday virus. Such a virus, created by man could destroy unchecked the entire population of the world. He tries to force GeneDyne to desist in its research. Levine, with the aid of a cyberfriend, a thalidomide deformed computer genius known as Mime, attempt to coax Carson into becoming an inside informant. Together they all fight the clock to abort the release of PurBlood to all the unsuspecting hospitalized patients in dire need of tranfusions.

Preston and Child, create a meticulously researched nervewracking scientific thriller that should rank near the apex of this genre.

This is a great read; better than Thunderhead; one of those books that are so good you read them slowly because you don't want to ed it. If you like The Andromeda Strain and Hot Zone you should love this one.