Customer Reviews

Resistance

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This shockingly realistic novel explores what could happen if a deadly new "superbug" was unleashed on an unsuspecting world and was completely resistant to all known antibiotics. And what if its release was intentional? This is the premise for Daniel Kalla's medical thriller Resistance.

The author brings together some intelligent, tough and realistic characters in a search for the truth: Dr. Graham Kilburn, an infectious disease specialist in Vancouver; Dr. Catalina Lopez, who works at the Centers for Disease Control; and Seth Cohen and Roman Leetch, two Oregon police detectives.

Kalla's writing flows through his characters and really shines when he reaches medical or scientific prose. Not only does he draw on his experience and expertise as an ER physician in a Vancouver hospital, he also gives us a terrifying message about our overuse of antibiotics.

The action moves at lightning speed, carrying readers across borders and reminding us that to deadly viruses and superbugs, there are no borders. Furthermore, Resistance delivers a surprising twist just when you think you've got it all figured out. Kudos to Kalla!

This is the perfect book to take on holiday, although you might want to hold your breath if you're flying. I probably wouldn't recommend you bring it with you if you have a hospital stay. And the one thing I have to say for sure, don't read this book if you have a cold or the flu. I made that error while suffering through a wicked flu and nearly scared myself silly as I read the description of the symptoms caused by the author's fictional superbug.

Daniel Kalla is a Canadian author whose works were unfamiliar to me, but I have to say, I'm HOOKED! I can't wait to read more! If you enjoy works by Michael Crichton, Robin Cook or Michael Palmer, I guarantee you'll enjoy Resistance (Tom Doherty Associates Book)by Daniel Kalla!

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif
Author of Divine Intervention

In Seattle Dr. Catalina "Lina" Lopez works for the Pacific Northwest Epidemiological Intelligence Service, a branch of CDC. She joined the agency dreaming that she would heroically stop an outbreak of avian flu or some other epidemic. Instead she sits in public forums fielding tedious questions from pseudo-intellects still fantasizing that her disease prevention escapade will soon come along with her hopes of getting assigned to the headquarters one day.

However, Lina will soon learn that you better watch what out for what you wish for as reports from Vancouver and Portland claim a new "superbug" that is deadly and totally immune to antibiotics has arrived. Soon hospitals throughout the region claim this superbug spreads faster than anything they ever seen and nothing seems to prevent it from moving on. Lina realizes that this is not just a health crisis; this could be a pandemic worse than 1918. People are dying in bunches including health providers. Soon many in the health fields fear going to work and stop showing up, exacerbating the crisis. In Vancouver, Dr. Graham Kilburn, who has seen the impact from the onset, joins Lina in a desperate battle to develop a RESISTANCE to this PANDEMIC disaster while some unknown adversaries want to prevent the doctors from finding the elixir.

This is a timely exhilarating medical thriller that is at its best when the story line focuses on the impacts of the superbug and the efforts to find a means of prevention. When the plot spins into an action-packed conspiracy thriller it gains excitement but also loses the essence of what makes the tale so good. Still this is a thrilling tale that will remind sub-genre readers of Dustin Hoffman's Outbreak.

Harriet Klausner

Written in 2006, Resistance involves a resistant superbug with no known antibiotic ravaging people. This is far from a unique plot. And neither is the "idea" of a big bad capitalistic company deliberately test marketing it by giving it "free" to street junkies who thought they were getting a regular high inducing drug. Dr Kalla, a Canadian author/physician living in Canada choose to nauseatingly beat the relentless theme of the villain being yet another big bad capitalistic company this time an American company. They are never Canadian because apparently Canada has only pure as the driven snow companies. In addition, Resistance had too many plots and very forgettable characters spread across too many cities in Canada and the U.S. each only peripherally connected in order to achieve a very predicable ending.

Dr Kalla is a physician employed by the Canadian universal health care industry turned author so naturally, his books have a magnanimous benevolent government as the hero to the rescue in the form of government employed World Health Organization physicians and a hodgepodge of U.S. and Canadian bureaucracies working together to act swiftly (LOL) to save the world from big bad capitalistic companies who pay the taxes that pay their salaries.

When written in 2006, no one cared but reading it in August 2009, Dr Kalla writings take on new meaning. Kalla the Canadian physician turned author injects his sanctimonious Canadian political views into Resistance. Resistance characters World Health Organization government employees Dr Lopez and Dr Warmack inject Kalla's personal views on "patient personal responsibility" by having them trash a Canadian universal health care government employee named Dr Peters by calling Peters a "judgmental prick" . Dr Peters had the audacity to feel no sympathy for the death of a an 80lb decades long drug addict with HIV who drained the Canadian "free" healthcare system with zero intention of ever stopping the drugs until the patient died of the "bacteria" given to her by an evil American capitalistic company. Now we know why Canadians come to the U.S. for health care treatment. Their system is overwhelmed in part by druggies/illegal's and they ration care to everyone. Kill grandma who worked productively all her life to treat a chronic younger druggie. Dr Peters is hardly alone in his unsympathetic feelings.

Canadian/author Dr. Kalla's theme of foreign companies bad; Canadian companies good and all big government bureaucracies good is old.

Having read Pandemic, I looked forward to Resistance. I wasn't disappointed. Kalla's clear writing and excellent plotting kept me turning pages like crazy wondering, "What next?" This is a superb medical thriller that will keep you totally engaged throughout. I recommend it to readers of both mystery and thriller genre.

I enjoyed Daniel Kalla's "Pandemic" well enough. When I saw this book on sale, I figured I'll go ahead and buy it to give it a shot. I wan't disappointed.

Daniel Kalla has taken the confusion out of the medical thriller, and turned it into a gripping storyline. There wasn't too much medical jargon to make you have to slow down to pronounce the words correctly. The character development was good enough to where you care about the more important characters. The writing is quite passionate.

Thank you, Mr. Kalla, for taking a plot we've heard before, and telling the story in a way that feels fresh. I'm looking forward to the next one.

I enjoyed Resistance and found it well written, plausible, and frightening. MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is one of those things, like HIV, that if you are in the medical community (I am a former paramedic and my wife is an RN) you know about, acknowledge that it exists, and then try very hard not to think about too much. MRSA is bad enough; the thought of a MRSA strain that is immune to all known antibiotics is something I try not to think about.

So, if I liked the book so much and found the topic so intriguing, why did I give it only three stars? One word: predictability. Maybe it's just me, but by page 40 or 50 I pretty much had it all figured out and kept reading in the hope that I was wrong (I wasn't). To be fair, there were some surprise twists, such as the unexpected death of someone who I assumed was a major character (major as in too important to knock off).

All in all, Resistance is an interesting book about a scenario plausible enough to be frightening, written by a physician who has the knowledge and skill to not make glaring factual errors. This is my first book of Daniel Kalla's, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

This was a great read! As a health care provider myself, I found the book entertaining, and frighteningly accurate. We have often discussed the probability and possible dissemination of the world's next pandemic, the events in this book could really happen!

Mr. Kalla's writing gets straight to the point, with as few muddling tangents as possible. His characters are multidementional and well put together. The city hopping and POV changes were handled in an excellent manner. The story didn't suffer from abject stupidity, like so many medical authors who try to push the scientific thriller aspect of their work.

Resistance was a believable and well paced thriller. I'll be keeping an eye out for more of Mr. Kalla's novels.

Islamic extremists trying to take over the free world by germ! What a fast-paced thriller. One of the best reads of all year.

I enjoy medical thrillers, and I thought this one had a decent plot (hence the three star rating). Kalla is a good writer and is apparently already a bestselling author in Canada.

The major downside of this book, however, is the lack of character development. There are simply too many characters in this book, and Kalla doesn't spend enough time creating a central character that the reader can relate to. I also felt that much of the dialogue in this novel was flat and only served to move the story forward (as opposed to creating flesh-and-blood characters). To me, a thriller doesn't "thrill" unless you genuinely care about the characters. That didn't happen with this book.

For a medical thriller with more of a character-driven plot, I would recommend ISOLATION WARD by Joshua Spanogle. Also, any book by Tess Gerritsen.