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Toxin / Chromosome 6
- GenresFiction
436 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
3 people are currently reading
313 people want to read
About the author
Robin Cook
190 books5,056 followersLibrarian Note: Not to be confused with British novelist Robin Cook a pseudonym of Robert William Arthur Cook.
Dr. Robin Cook (born May 4, 1940 in New York City, New York) is an American doctor / novelist who writes about medicine, biotechnology, and topics affecting public health.
He is best known for being the author who created the medical-thriller genre by combining medical writing with the thriller genre of writing. His books have been bestsellers on the "New York Times" Bestseller List with several at #1. A number of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest. Many were also featured in the Literary Guild. Many have been made into motion pictures.
Cook is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard that included general surgery and ophthalmology. He divides his time between homes in Florida, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts where he lives with his wife Jean. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He has successfully combined medical fact with fiction to produce a succession of bestselling books. Cook's medical thrillers are designed, in part, to make the public aware of both the technological possibilities of modern medicine and the ensuing ethical conundrums.
Cook got a taste of the larger world when the Cousteau Society recruited him to run its blood - gas lab in the South of France while he was in medical school. Intrigued by diving, he later called on a connection he made through Jacques Cousteau to become an aquanaut with the US Navy Sealab when he was drafted in the 60's. During his navy career he served on a nuclear submarine for a seventy-five day stay underwater where he wrote his first book! [1]
Cook was a private member of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Board of Trustees, appointed to a six-year term by the President George W. Bush.[2]
[edit] Doctor / Novelist
Dr. Cook's profession as a doctor has provided him with ideas and background for many of his novels. In each of his novels, he strives to write about the issues at the forefront of current medical practice.
To date, he has explored issues such as organ donation, genetic engineering,fertility treatment, medical research funding, managed care, medical malpractice, drug research, drug pricing, specialty hospitals, stem cells, and organ transplantation.[3]
Dr. Cook has been remarked to have an uncanny ability to anticipate national controversy. In an interview with Dr.Cook, Stephen McDonald talked to him about his novel Shock; Cook admits the timing of Shock was fortuitous. "I suppose that you could say that it's the most like Coma in that it deals with an issue that everybody seems to be concerned about," he says, "I wrote this book to address the stem cell issue, which the public really doesn't know much about. Besides entertaining readers, my main goal is to get people interested in some of these issues, because it's the public that ultimately really should decide which way we ought to go in something as that has enormous potential for treating disease and disability but touches up against the ethically problematic abortion issue."[4]
Keeping his lab coat handy helps him turn our fear of doctors into bestsellers. "I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in being a doctor. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." After 35 books,he has come up with a diagnosis to explain why his medical thrillers remain so popular. "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're n
Dr. Robin Cook (born May 4, 1940 in New York City, New York) is an American doctor / novelist who writes about medicine, biotechnology, and topics affecting public health.
He is best known for being the author who created the medical-thriller genre by combining medical writing with the thriller genre of writing. His books have been bestsellers on the "New York Times" Bestseller List with several at #1. A number of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest. Many were also featured in the Literary Guild. Many have been made into motion pictures.
Cook is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard that included general surgery and ophthalmology. He divides his time between homes in Florida, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts where he lives with his wife Jean. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He has successfully combined medical fact with fiction to produce a succession of bestselling books. Cook's medical thrillers are designed, in part, to make the public aware of both the technological possibilities of modern medicine and the ensuing ethical conundrums.
Cook got a taste of the larger world when the Cousteau Society recruited him to run its blood - gas lab in the South of France while he was in medical school. Intrigued by diving, he later called on a connection he made through Jacques Cousteau to become an aquanaut with the US Navy Sealab when he was drafted in the 60's. During his navy career he served on a nuclear submarine for a seventy-five day stay underwater where he wrote his first book! [1]
Cook was a private member of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Board of Trustees, appointed to a six-year term by the President George W. Bush.[2]
[edit] Doctor / Novelist
Dr. Cook's profession as a doctor has provided him with ideas and background for many of his novels. In each of his novels, he strives to write about the issues at the forefront of current medical practice.
To date, he has explored issues such as organ donation, genetic engineering,fertility treatment, medical research funding, managed care, medical malpractice, drug research, drug pricing, specialty hospitals, stem cells, and organ transplantation.[3]
Dr. Cook has been remarked to have an uncanny ability to anticipate national controversy. In an interview with Dr.Cook, Stephen McDonald talked to him about his novel Shock; Cook admits the timing of Shock was fortuitous. "I suppose that you could say that it's the most like Coma in that it deals with an issue that everybody seems to be concerned about," he says, "I wrote this book to address the stem cell issue, which the public really doesn't know much about. Besides entertaining readers, my main goal is to get people interested in some of these issues, because it's the public that ultimately really should decide which way we ought to go in something as that has enormous potential for treating disease and disability but touches up against the ethically problematic abortion issue."[4]
Keeping his lab coat handy helps him turn our fear of doctors into bestsellers. "I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in being a doctor. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." After 35 books,he has come up with a diagnosis to explain why his medical thrillers remain so popular. "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're n
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 1, 2019
This omnibus edition contains two stories by Robin Cook.
I liked both ones in terms of subject and plot but it's terribly annoying how both don't have a conclusive ending.
I remember reading Abduction by him, for instance, and absolutely loving the perfectly ironic end the author used for that story.
By comparison, these two (Toxin and Chromosome 6) leave too many things unsolved, too much in the air which I know could have been avoided and I don't think more closure would have detracted anything from the point the author clearly wanted to make. In fact, it would have made the thriller part of the plot much more rewarding.
I liked both ones in terms of subject and plot but it's terribly annoying how both don't have a conclusive ending.
I remember reading Abduction by him, for instance, and absolutely loving the perfectly ironic end the author used for that story.
By comparison, these two (Toxin and Chromosome 6) leave too many things unsolved, too much in the air which I know could have been avoided and I don't think more closure would have detracted anything from the point the author clearly wanted to make. In fact, it would have made the thriller part of the plot much more rewarding.
February 9, 2017
Ok, the Toxin was just complete waste of time. By the back cover text we already knew that the daughter of Kim Reggis will die and that had to be waited for the first 200 pages. The whole story was so slow and predictable that I still wonder how I managed to read it till the end. I guess the whole thing was supposed to be a lesson for us about the dangers of industrialized food handling but it just failed - big time. Boring.
Chromosome 6 then... That was far more interesting and it had a nice idea of "what if...?". I just wish it would've been taken further with more thinking and trimming the facts and details to make it more believable. Now the writer went where it was easiest to go. So, the plot itself was not too intelligent or clever and all the recombinant DNA techniques presented were just so very basics. This is always the problem of very technical books - they get old. (This has probably been far more "scary" and thought provoking at the time of the first publishing.) Also the ethical problems we've seen so often in several and several movies that it was nothing new either. But still... despite all the flaws of the plot and impossibilities when it comes to evolution, I kind a liked this. This was pure entertainment after I got myself stop picking on the DNA stuff and reading it only as a fun story. (Areas of recombinant DNA technology and biotechnology are my special knowledge so it is not always easy for me to read these types of books.)
Chromosome 6 then... That was far more interesting and it had a nice idea of "what if...?". I just wish it would've been taken further with more thinking and trimming the facts and details to make it more believable. Now the writer went where it was easiest to go. So, the plot itself was not too intelligent or clever and all the recombinant DNA techniques presented were just so very basics. This is always the problem of very technical books - they get old. (This has probably been far more "scary" and thought provoking at the time of the first publishing.) Also the ethical problems we've seen so often in several and several movies that it was nothing new either. But still... despite all the flaws of the plot and impossibilities when it comes to evolution, I kind a liked this. This was pure entertainment after I got myself stop picking on the DNA stuff and reading it only as a fun story. (Areas of recombinant DNA technology and biotechnology are my special knowledge so it is not always easy for me to read these types of books.)
May 10, 2010
Awsome story. The ending was missing. They left two many open issues with the bonobos, Kevin and his group, the crime families, etc.
Read
December 13, 2012Chromosome 6
Read
March 29, 2014Excellent books. Chromosome is a thought provoking book
July 14, 2014
book starts with promising thrilling incidents but too many characters makes it louse the plot.
February 11, 2015
Account of genetic chimera (a bonobo grown with human genetic material) - organ sources for rich clients; bonobos start exhibiting human traits
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews