Resistance (Tom Doherty Associates Books) [Mass Market Paperback]

Daniel Kalla (Author)

Book Description

Series: Tom Doherty Associates Books | Publication Date: May 2, 2006

No treatment. No cure. No hope

Once it seemed as though penicillin and other antibiotics had won humanity a lasting victory over harmful bacteria. But now hardier bugs, resistant to most common classes of antibiotics, are emerging-with potentially catastrophic consequences.

When Dr. Catalina Lopez of the Center for Disease Control first receives a report of a lethal new "superbug" immune to all known antibiotics, she realizes that she has a major health crisis on her hands. An ultra-resistant form of group A strep is spreading like wildfire throughout hospitals and emergency rooms in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Doctors, lacking any effective way to combat the infection, can do nothing but stand by and watch their patients die, one after another.

Dr. Graham Kilburn, an infectious disease specialist in Vancouver, is one such doctor. Desperate to contain the spread of the new superbug, he joins forces with Lina Lopez as they try to find some way to halt the growing epidemic.

What they don't realize is that shadowy forces are conspiring to spread the disease on purpose-and they will stop at nothing to avoid exposure.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Daniel Kalla joins a select list of doctors who know how to keep you up all night with their writing."--Nelson DeMille, New York Times bestselling author on Pandemic

"Dan Kalla expertly weaves real science and medicine into a fast-paced nightmarish thriller-a thriller all the more frightening because it could really happen."--Tess Gerritsen on Pandemic

"Very much in the Michael Crichton school of cutting-edge scientifically rooted thrillers. Pandemic is an absorbing, compulsive thriller, the sort of book you could stay up too late reading. I'd advise against that, however. With all the bugs going around, you're going to need your immune system functioning at full strength . . . ."--The Vancouver Sun

"A totally compelling novel, one of those rare thrillers that lays out a scenario that is not only possible, but terrifyingly probable."--Douglas Preston, author of The Codex on Pandemic

"Kalla's ripped-from-the-headlines plot and confident command of both language and medicine make this sobering book a pleasure"--Publishers Weekly on Pandemic

"Pandemic starts fast and never lets up on the suspense . . . Kalla juggles the many narrative balls easily, manages to insert a little romance, puts his protagonists in plenty of danger and drives his complex plot to a rousing climax."--The Edmonton Journal

About the Author

Daniel Kalla is the internationally bestselling author of Pandemic and Rage Therapy. He is an emergency room physician in Vancouver, British Columbia.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (May 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076535439X
• ISBN-13: 978-0765354396
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #505,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Medical

More About the Author

Born, raised, and still residing in Vancouver, Kalla spends his days (and sometimes nights) working as an ER Physician in an urban teaching hospital.

The idea for his first medical thriller, PANDEMIC, sprang from his clinical experience in facing the SARS crisis of 2003. He has written five science thrillers and or medical mysteries, delving into themes and topics as diverse as superbugs, drug addiction, prions, DNA evidence, pandemics and patient abuse.

Kalla's sixth book, OF FLESH AND BLOOD, is a departure from the medical thriller genre. Featuring two multi-generational families, a major West Coast medical center and interwoven storylines, he tackles the human condition through the loves, lives and struggles of characters connected by lineage and bound by family secrets.

His books have been translated into ten languages, and Pandemic and Resistance have been optioned for feature films.

Daniel received his MD from the University of British Columbia. He is married and the proud father of two girls in a home predominated by the XX chromosome (even his beloved Labrador retriever, Lola, is female.)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Resistance is terrifying!, April 6, 2008

By 

Cheryl Tardif "bestselling suspense author" (Edmonton, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Resistance (Tom Doherty Associates Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

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

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Medical thriller, June 21, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Resistance (Tom Doherty Associates Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Predictable, August 18, 2009

By 

Woodlandtrails - See all my reviews

This review is from: Resistance (Tom Doherty Associates Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.