Customer Reviews

Virus

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

 

 

I am currently reading the book and am more than half way done with it. This is by far one of the best books I have ever read. It is very descriptive in details and has very realistic characters. The book makes you think that the characters are real and the story really took place. This is a page-turner that will be so enjoyable to read that you won't be able to put down until you finish it.

A great book to read.

Indeed, Graham Watkins has braught us to the future.

With all the Y2K around us, his story is indeed a great true and original script.

So why the four stars? The rapid going book brings us to a falling end. The book ends too quickly and with no more room to be mistaken, the writer was eager to end it, so he ended it. I would have preferred the end to end alternetavilly. The human race should not always win.

A book that bases itself around a computer may at first seem geeky and boring. Not so. Watkins uses a form of language that helps you to understand all of the technical babble that is needed for the story. Along with the amazing intricacies of the computer side there is the non sentimental human side. A love story that isn't really love but more lust, and small touches of human suffering and pain which add and enhance to this original novel. I had to keep reading the book as each page left me in suspense. There were no boring parts and no slow paced bridges between stories. Truly mesmerising and amazing.

This book can certainly not be compared with anything Robin Cook wrote. It is a different dimension. Cook wrote really weak novels and this novel is anything but weak. With the millenium bug approaching the scenario in this novel seems to be very realistic, and I think it is only a matter of time until something like that happens. We have enough crooks sitting in front of computers and there are enough "intelligent" software programs being processed at the moment, we can be sure some time there will be a disaster. The novel has its small flaws though. It is only readable for people who know computers. Maybe it would be much more interesting to people who do not know computers. And the side plot Mark - Alex is simply unnecessary. The motivation is wrong and it does not in any way promote the meaning or even the speed of the novel. Sometimes less can be more! But certainly, it is a good and suspensful read, if not a page turner. Definitely not a Robin Cook!

After spending two months completely addicted to Mafia Wars, I have to laugh at the techies who reviewed this book and thought the "technical flaws" were too much to overcome. Written several years ago, the book is at the mercy of stale technology; I think we can give the author a pass on not predicting 4G technology and social networks.

The premise, though, is inventive and the larger message of the book is one that great minds are seriously pondering. What will happen when the worldwide computer intelligence exceeds the worldwide human brainpower?

While the author is probably not techno-geek enough to make the technology perfect, the suspense, the human failings, and the ultimate reality he paints raise questions that concern us all.

I read this book when it first came out, and have watched the bookshelves in vain for further writing from this author. A good read, worth your time.

This book hasn't received the attention it deserves. The plot is creative and thought-provoking, and the author's Cook-like style leads the reader through twists with ease. Anyone who has ever found herself playing Tetris when she had a term paper due will relate to the victims of Virus.

This book combines two worlds, technology and medicine, beautifully. It is first a medical mystery and thriller. A mysterious condition, Computer Addiction Syndrome is making its appearance in EDs accross the country. The victims have several things in common -- they have high IQs, have been using a computer, and are dirty and malnourished. The patients sometimes arrive dead -- a strange convulsive disorder apparently the cause. A medical doctor and a psychiatrist, along with a computer programmer and systems analyst, begin to investigate the strange influx of patients with this syndrome and find that something strange is going on over the Internet. A new caching system is taking over all computer operations and activities. It seems to make everyone stay on the computer -- forever. Games are more realistic, in fact, playing them may be very harmful to your health. The other part of the book is technical -- many complex explanations for computer programmer jargon and hardware descriptions (hardware here is a bit behind the times as far as 386 being mentioned, etc.) but even a relatively uninformed person can skip over it without losing anything too important. You'll love it! Of course you may be tempted to never turn on your computer again, but hey...

This novel is technically quite accurate and appeals to the reader on many levels. If you have a high degree of technical knowledge, there are plenty of references which will keep you satisfied. However, if gigabytes and references to old computer systems are boring, the treatment of this subject matter is brief enough not to interfere with the plot movement. The style is clear and the story moves along quickly enough to produce the classic 'I couldn't put the book down' response. I found the book to be light enough not to be bogged down with the complexities usually found in near-future stories (the classic Cyberpunk styled ones, such as William Gibson's Virtual Light) - an excellent book, but a totally different style.

This is the worst science fiction book I've read in a long time. For a book centered so totally on computers and how they work, the author's stunning display of technical ignorance and reliance on computer-as-Frankenstein-monster cliches makes wading through this potboiler a chore.

That's not to say that there isn't a wealth of technical detail. You'll find plenty of references to megabytes, viruses, hard drives, and modems. The problem is that it's all stupefyingly wrong. It reads like a Hollywood movie script, of the techno-thriller variety aimed at technically illiterate audiences who just want to look at pretty graphics and don't care if nothing makes any sense. *Science* fiction, it ain't.

I'll grant that the book is a page-turner; it certainly keeps the action moving right along, and the characterization (of the human characters, anyway) isn't so bad. But the plot is so drearily predictable at every turn -- "let's see, if I were a not-particularly-original Hollywood script writer cranking out yet another 'The Net,' what would come next? Ah, yes." -- that it's more painful than engrossing.

The presence of this book in the science fiction section, alongside *real* science fiction writers, is tantamount to flagrant false advertising. Stick it over next to the Clive Cusslers and the Dean Koontzes. At least *they* don't pretend to be something they're not.

Watkins recreates the Good Times virus, but instead of merely deleting your hard drive, it KILLS you. And you can get it just by reading a text file! Horrors!

The characters themselves were not bad, but I was unable to get past the egregious technical flaws. Specifically: the AI program can function on a 486, and the full package takes up only 50M on disk. In return for this, it can do 10:1 compression on video data, interact in real time with the user, and optimize all of the programs on the hard drive. Further, it can infect a new machine using a plain text email message.

Had the author merely had a deadly program that, when installed, caused addiction via flicker epilepsy, this would have been a forgivable technical decision. People would have noticed the effects, but we would not have been subjected to page after page of the supposed AI creating impossible technologies, all explained away with a casual "we do not know how it is doing it."

Sigh.

If you are going to write a novel where a computer virus is a major plot element, find a competent technical advisor who can tell you what the limitations are.