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Condor
In 1944 A German plane crash-landed in Concorde, New Hampshire. It remained buried until ten year old Bernie decided to go riding. In uncovering the plane he unleashed upon the world a deadly laboratory engineered virus, powerful enough to threaten the life of every man, woman and child on mainland America.
- GenresHorror
384 pages, Paperback
First published April 19, 1984
3 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Graham Masterton
423 books1,984 followersGraham Masterton was born in Edinburgh in 1946. His grandfather was Thomas Thorne Baker, the eminent scientist who invented DayGlo and was the first man to transmit news photographs by wireless. After training as a newspaper reporter, Graham went on to edit the new British men's magazine Mayfair, where he encouraged William Burroughs to develop a series of scientific and philosophical articles which eventually became Burroughs' novel The Wild Boys.
At the age of 24, Graham was appointed executive editor of both Penthouse and Penthouse Forum magazines. At this time he started to write a bestselling series of sex 'how-to' books including How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. His latest, Wild Sex For New Lovers is published by Penguin Putnam in January, 2001. He is a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Woman, Woman's Own and other mass-market self-improvement magazines.
Graham Masterton's debut as a horror author began with The Manitou in 1976, a chilling tale of a Native American medicine man reborn in the present day to exact his revenge on the white man. It became an instant bestseller and was filmed with Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens and Ann Sothern.
Altogether Graham has written more than a hundred novels ranging from thrillers (The Sweetman Curve, Ikon) to disaster novels (Plague, Famine) to historical sagas (Rich and Maiden Voyage - both appeared in the New York Times bestseller list). He has published four collections of short stories, Fortnight of Fear, Flights of Fear, Faces of Fear and Feelings of Fear.
He has also written horror novels for children (House of Bones, Hair-Raiser) and has just finished the fifth volume in a very popular series for young adults, Rook, based on the adventures of an idiosyncratic remedial English teacher in a Los Angeles community college who has the facility to see ghosts.
Since then Graham has published more than 35 horror novels, including Charnel House, which was awarded a Special Edgar by Mystery Writers of America; Mirror, which was awarded a Silver Medal by West Coast Review of Books; and Family Portrait, an update of Oscar Wilde's tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was the only non-French winner of the prestigious Prix Julia Verlanger in France.
He and his wife Wiescka live in a Gothic Victorian mansion high above the River Lee in Cork, Ireland.
At the age of 24, Graham was appointed executive editor of both Penthouse and Penthouse Forum magazines. At this time he started to write a bestselling series of sex 'how-to' books including How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. His latest, Wild Sex For New Lovers is published by Penguin Putnam in January, 2001. He is a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Woman, Woman's Own and other mass-market self-improvement magazines.
Graham Masterton's debut as a horror author began with The Manitou in 1976, a chilling tale of a Native American medicine man reborn in the present day to exact his revenge on the white man. It became an instant bestseller and was filmed with Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens and Ann Sothern.
Altogether Graham has written more than a hundred novels ranging from thrillers (The Sweetman Curve, Ikon) to disaster novels (Plague, Famine) to historical sagas (Rich and Maiden Voyage - both appeared in the New York Times bestseller list). He has published four collections of short stories, Fortnight of Fear, Flights of Fear, Faces of Fear and Feelings of Fear.
He has also written horror novels for children (House of Bones, Hair-Raiser) and has just finished the fifth volume in a very popular series for young adults, Rook, based on the adventures of an idiosyncratic remedial English teacher in a Los Angeles community college who has the facility to see ghosts.
Since then Graham has published more than 35 horror novels, including Charnel House, which was awarded a Special Edgar by Mystery Writers of America; Mirror, which was awarded a Silver Medal by West Coast Review of Books; and Family Portrait, an update of Oscar Wilde's tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was the only non-French winner of the prestigious Prix Julia Verlanger in France.
He and his wife Wiescka live in a Gothic Victorian mansion high above the River Lee in Cork, Ireland.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 14, 2018
Graham Masterton has two speeds: batshit crazy, and thrillers. This book is set on the latter speed and yet it still manages to work in snuff films, Nazi polio, schoolyards full of dead kids, and an all-American psychopath. Too bad they didn't give out a Nobel prize for literature this year, because I know who'd have gotten my vote.
August 10, 2020
When I found out that Graham Masterton wrote a novel about a dangerous presidential candidate and a virus that threatens to wipe out the country -- well, because of current events, I was interested.
Unfortunately, this is one of Masterton's bad thrillers. He had an idea: the epidemic caused by a new virus. But then he had to come up with lots of little plots to surround it. Many of them seem unnecessary. The making of a snuff film? A few plots involving adulterous affairs?
The premise of how the virus got here is implausible. A Nazi aircraft crashed in New Hampshire, and nobody found it for 40 years? Masterton needed to find a better way to get the virus here. Maybe even no definitive explanation would have been better (like what we have now).
Worst of all, Masterton doesn't seem to be paying attention. For example, on one page a wife calls her husband, a doctor, in for supper. A few pages later, they're discussing what to eat. Another example, there's a shootout with a Nazi and his bodyguard. Afterwards, there's no explanation of what happened to the bodyguard. This is just sloppiness.
Finally, as Masterton sometimes does when he seems to have lost interest in his story, he completely rushed the ending, jumping from plot to plot to wrap everything up.
This is not Masterton's worst, but it's not one I would recommend to those new to him.
Unfortunately, this is one of Masterton's bad thrillers. He had an idea: the epidemic caused by a new virus. But then he had to come up with lots of little plots to surround it. Many of them seem unnecessary. The making of a snuff film? A few plots involving adulterous affairs?
The premise of how the virus got here is implausible. A Nazi aircraft crashed in New Hampshire, and nobody found it for 40 years? Masterton needed to find a better way to get the virus here. Maybe even no definitive explanation would have been better (like what we have now).
Worst of all, Masterton doesn't seem to be paying attention. For example, on one page a wife calls her husband, a doctor, in for supper. A few pages later, they're discussing what to eat. Another example, there's a shootout with a Nazi and his bodyguard. Afterwards, there's no explanation of what happened to the bodyguard. This is just sloppiness.
Finally, as Masterton sometimes does when he seems to have lost interest in his story, he completely rushed the ending, jumping from plot to plot to wrap everything up.
This is not Masterton's worst, but it's not one I would recommend to those new to him.
February 27, 2016
Super bouquin qui pose la question : Et si les SS, en 44, avaient pu traverser l'Atlantique grâce à leur seul avion qui le pouvait, le Condor ?? Magnifique thriller/scientique/historique à la Stephen King ou Dean Koontz !
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April 14, 2008Horror
April 13, 2017
Otro thriller de Masterton bien resuelto, con un arranque espectacular pero que luego divaga durante unos cuantos capítulos. No obstante, las tramas paralelas están muy bien llevadas y aunque parezca que no tienen nada que ver acaban encajando sin forzar el asunto argumental. Esta historia de un senador americano envuelto en un complot que el mismo inició en la 2ª Guerra Mundial trayendo muestras de un potente virus nazi para sobornar al gobierno y que es casualmente descubierto cuarenta años después es rocambolesca y da muchos giros, pero en ningún momento deja de ser interesante. Teniendo en cuenta la "bajada de tono" respecto al sexo y la violencia esto parece un intento del autor de llegar a un público más mainstream.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews