What do you think?
Rate this book
Microbe
In 1947, the U.S. Army left behind a secret when they closed Ft. Miles, Delaware. A threat so deadly, they buried it 1000 feet down in the Atlantic Ocean. Now, sixty years later, an oil rig drilling off the coast of Delaware has hit something. Within hours, crew members are dying from a mysterious illness that kills unmercifully. On the opposite coast, Justin Flannigan, an estranged epidemiologist is visited by the director of the CDC who convinces him to come to Delaware to investigate the bizarre illness. But shortly after he begins his investigation, he gets another visit. This time from an eccentric old man who claims to know the origin of the deadly contagion, and soon, Justin begins to suspect that there is more to this sickness than what first appeared. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour. As the illness spreads to the general population, Justin realizes that this one old man may hold the key not only to his survival, but to the survival of the entire planet.
202 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2007
11 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 22, 2010
As I only paid $1.95 for this, I shouldn't grumble. To use a coffee analagy (I love coffee): Microbe is that bottle of no frills coffee you see on the supermarket shelf, the one that looks like coffee, even tastes a bit like coffee, but leaves you unsatisfied and with a sour taste in your mouth.
The editor, whoever he or she is, should be slapped. The author, whoever he is, really should take an intensive course in characterisation. As for the plot, well, I'm sure The Simpsons would do it better (I think maybe they have). Among other things it is predictable and tired.
What IS good about this book is the short, short chapters and continuous action. This would be the perfect time-filler for the doctor's waiting room, or longish train / bus / plane trip.
The editor, whoever he or she is, should be slapped. The author, whoever he is, really should take an intensive course in characterisation. As for the plot, well, I'm sure The Simpsons would do it better (I think maybe they have). Among other things it is predictable and tired.
What IS good about this book is the short, short chapters and continuous action. This would be the perfect time-filler for the doctor's waiting room, or longish train / bus / plane trip.
Read
July 18, 2012This story was interesting. However there were a few things that put me off about this book. The writing style was very jumpy. Every chapter was a new character. Every chapter talked about a different character and it was very difficult to keep the characters straight.
I would also urge Bill Clem to fire the editor that went over this book as I doubt the editor even read it. Perhaps if he had he would have noticed that there were several glaring issues with the prose that a spell checker can't catch. First off the word is Colonel, it is a military rank. However Colonel Riordan is referred to as Colonial Riordan many times through out the book. If you can't correct Colonial to Colonel maybe you should have picked a different rank for Riordan.
I would also urge Bill Clem to fire the editor that went over this book as I doubt the editor even read it. Perhaps if he had he would have noticed that there were several glaring issues with the prose that a spell checker can't catch. First off the word is Colonel, it is a military rank. However Colonel Riordan is referred to as Colonial Riordan many times through out the book. If you can't correct Colonial to Colonel maybe you should have picked a different rank for Riordan.
July 27, 2012
When I read a book on my Kobo, I sometimes wonder if the print version - assuming there is one - is as poorly written. Is it as full of grammar and spelling errors? Does the writer change from third-person to first-person and back again as freely? Did they leave out a lot of the story, like the character development, maybe because someone was tired of typing? All I can say is, that's what this book was like on my Kobo. Not recommended.
June 20, 2013
This book was poorly written right from the get-go. It is formatted with short, staccato chapters that are continuously introducing new characters, some of whom aren't even invested in the story.
I have never read anything that was so void of descriptive narrative. I have no idea what anyone looks like (except for Chang, who is described as being 2nd generation Chinese-American and for some reason, feels the need to point out that he's not a fan of saki. Whaaaa???) or how to picture Delaware landscape. Many people may be surprised to hear, but I have NEVER been to Delaware. I need the author to help me with this part of my imagination, thank you.
There were parts of this "mystery" that were never solved throughout, as well. As a matter of fact, there was a couple of murders that I'm still not sure who exactly contracted them out. Was it the American government protecting their interest in astrobiological wareheads? Or the 21st century Russian spies? Yes, those questions are stupid... now imagine the story that forced me to ask them (they're not even that stupid... I'm just angry at all the spelling/grammatical mistakes I found throughout this piece of literary toxic waste).
And finally, I'm not sure that this author has ever met a woman let alone talked to one. Apparently, women only have two basic moods... devout cynicism or outright bitchiness. Dude... time to leave your parent's basement.
I have never read anything that was so void of descriptive narrative. I have no idea what anyone looks like (except for Chang, who is described as being 2nd generation Chinese-American and for some reason, feels the need to point out that he's not a fan of saki. Whaaaa???) or how to picture Delaware landscape. Many people may be surprised to hear, but I have NEVER been to Delaware. I need the author to help me with this part of my imagination, thank you.
There were parts of this "mystery" that were never solved throughout, as well. As a matter of fact, there was a couple of murders that I'm still not sure who exactly contracted them out. Was it the American government protecting their interest in astrobiological wareheads? Or the 21st century Russian spies? Yes, those questions are stupid... now imagine the story that forced me to ask them (they're not even that stupid... I'm just angry at all the spelling/grammatical mistakes I found throughout this piece of literary toxic waste).
And finally, I'm not sure that this author has ever met a woman let alone talked to one. Apparently, women only have two basic moods... devout cynicism or outright bitchiness. Dude... time to leave your parent's basement.
December 6, 2012
This was really hard to rate for me. I went with storyline to get the 3/5 stars. I've never encountered a book with so many errors which could have easily been caught by a proof-reader with mediocre reading skills. There must have been at least a hundred! Everything from spelling mistakes (army colonel as "colonial"), to missing quotation marks, poor grammar (although there were very few of this sort), and words and phrases unnecessarily repeated within a sentence. I read it in e-book format, and I'm wondering if he would have had a different proof-reader? Or do they just copy text straight to digital format to make e-books? It made for a frustrating read, but it was kind of an interesting story - a cross between a sic-fi and a Robin Cook medical thriller.
September 5, 2009
This was one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time. The pace was fast and the action palpable. The characterization could have been a little better, but the plot was so exciting it didn't matter. I would highly recommend this to any thriller lover. Also, I have read other books by this author, and had the same enjoyment. Try his Immortal or Replica for top-notch thrillers.
August 13, 2012
I was distracted by spelling and grammar errors. It looked like the spell-checker and grammar checker were the editors of this book. For example, "colonel" is spelled correctly in some places and "colonial" in others. So many characters with similar names made it difficult to keep everyone straight. People who like to read government conspiracy stories will like this plot.
May 25, 2012
interesting idea, somewhat short, read on a Kobo,(got it free) lots of spelling and context errors in that version, specifically calling main character a Colonial instead of a Colonel while a minor character that was a Colonel was spelled correctly.
Story-wise, it moved at a good pace, 3-5 page chapter books do normally, disease, military secrets, assassins, hidden agendas, its all there.
Story-wise, it moved at a good pace, 3-5 page chapter books do normally, disease, military secrets, assassins, hidden agendas, its all there.
May 30, 2012
This was not a particularly well-written book. There's a government hush-up about a severely fatal microbe that arrives on earth via a meteorite. It gets set loose on the public again by accident during oil drilling and there is a scramble to save the world from certain death. Didn't do much for me.
October 15, 2014
I'm with Lesley. Shockingly poor narrative development and a disturbing number of chapter final sentences ending in multiple slammers (!!!).
Smells like self-publishing gone horribly wrong, but the kernel of a decent story is hiding in there. Was much better realized when it was called "The Andromeda Strain."
Smells like self-publishing gone horribly wrong, but the kernel of a decent story is hiding in there. Was much better realized when it was called "The Andromeda Strain."
March 30, 2013
Meh. This was one of my kobo freebies. Super fast read. Author uses the dan brown technique of super short chapters, but us much less successful with it. The book relies almost entirely on plot, which is fairly good. Unfortunately it lacks character development and editing.
July 21, 2009
Pretty decent book. Need more virus outbreak type books in the world. :)
August 27, 2018
What I liked: Super-short chapters and a fast-paced story.
What I didn't like: Umm, quite a bit, unfortunately.
First off, while I did like the fact that the chapters were so short, I thought the story was a bit too fast-paced in the beginning. The first ten or so chapters were only a couple of screens long each, but each one introduces a new character. These characters come at you so fast that before you've got to grips with who one is and how they fit into the story, the next one is upon you. It's quite confusing until it settles down and all the characters have been introduced, and as such, it takes a while to get into this book.
Secondly, the editing and formatting of this book are terrible. And I mean, absolutely atrocious. Nevermind an editor; it doesn't look like the author even bothered to give his story a quick read-through before hitting the Publish button.
I'm talking missing quotation marks, to the point where you're not actually sure whether it's a character or the narrator speaking, to mid-sentence POV changes from third to first and back again (exacerbating the first problem), to misspellings (it's spelt "Colonel", not "Colonial"--being from South Africa, "Colonial" has an ENTIRELY different meaning), to weird scene breaks where the next scene starts with an asterisk immediately before the first word, with no spaces in between.
It's really not cool. I've read some other reviews which say something along the lines of "Yet more evidence that self-published works are rubbish", and that saddens me. It saddens me greatly.
The story itself was decent, I suppose. Reminds me a bit of Outbreak by Robin Cook, only not as good. Perhaps a bit predictable, especially towards the end, but once I got past all the issues, it at least managed to entertain me enough to finish it.
After the main story, there's a free preview of one of the author's other works. I didn't read it.
What I didn't like: Umm, quite a bit, unfortunately.
First off, while I did like the fact that the chapters were so short, I thought the story was a bit too fast-paced in the beginning. The first ten or so chapters were only a couple of screens long each, but each one introduces a new character. These characters come at you so fast that before you've got to grips with who one is and how they fit into the story, the next one is upon you. It's quite confusing until it settles down and all the characters have been introduced, and as such, it takes a while to get into this book.
Secondly, the editing and formatting of this book are terrible. And I mean, absolutely atrocious. Nevermind an editor; it doesn't look like the author even bothered to give his story a quick read-through before hitting the Publish button.
I'm talking missing quotation marks, to the point where you're not actually sure whether it's a character or the narrator speaking, to mid-sentence POV changes from third to first and back again (exacerbating the first problem), to misspellings (it's spelt "Colonel", not "Colonial"--being from South Africa, "Colonial" has an ENTIRELY different meaning), to weird scene breaks where the next scene starts with an asterisk immediately before the first word, with no spaces in between.
It's really not cool. I've read some other reviews which say something along the lines of "Yet more evidence that self-published works are rubbish", and that saddens me. It saddens me greatly.
The story itself was decent, I suppose. Reminds me a bit of Outbreak by Robin Cook, only not as good. Perhaps a bit predictable, especially towards the end, but once I got past all the issues, it at least managed to entertain me enough to finish it.
After the main story, there's a free preview of one of the author's other works. I didn't read it.
November 11, 2014
Killer green slime that comes from the depths of the ocean, someone trying to acquire and control (or perhaps control, then acquire) it for personal gain, government cover-up, an old guy that no-one listened to, a guy, a girl; it's all there.
Often, the writing style was choppy, almost as if it were written for television. In some cases, we were left wondering just what the characters in the story were viewing that so horrified them. If it were on TV, we would SEE the effects of the slime. The basic story was reasonably good, and the characters were sometimes surprising in their action. The very poor editing of the manuscript was distracting. It was a quick and easy read, suitable for a place and a time where you expect to read in short spurts or to be interrupted. Avoid reading on the beach if the thought of glowing slime concerns you.
Often, the writing style was choppy, almost as if it were written for television. In some cases, we were left wondering just what the characters in the story were viewing that so horrified them. If it were on TV, we would SEE the effects of the slime. The basic story was reasonably good, and the characters were sometimes surprising in their action. The very poor editing of the manuscript was distracting. It was a quick and easy read, suitable for a place and a time where you expect to read in short spurts or to be interrupted. Avoid reading on the beach if the thought of glowing slime concerns you.
May 26, 2012
i am another person who got this book free from Kobo..Not bad but not something I would have picked. It had potiental to be awesome- some characters had great possiblities of development such as Justin Flannigan or Riordan and other then were kind of stock- Melanie prescot or singleton...a little bit of predictable plot too especially the end was disappointing. it was a great idea but poorly down considering the use of stock plot and character..
November 11, 2009
A truly great read. A refreshing change from the jargon-filled novels of Robin Cook. Plot driven non-stop fun.This book was outstanding. It hooked me from the start, and never let me go. Twists and turns throughout the book kept me hooked. I was turning the pages as fast as I could go to see how the story was going to end. This is a first class thriller that deserves my recommendation.
June 24, 2010
Poorly written. Characters' motivations would change for no given reason. Won't be reading anything else by this author.
May 22, 2012
This book was horrible. It was free, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I shouldn't have bothered. Seriously, this book just confirms to me that anyone can get published. Anyone.
June 20, 2012
The story was a little scary because it could be something that could happen and makes you wonder about some of the secrets that the US gov't may have.
Read
December 5, 2012This book was free in my Kobo book of the month club. I enjoyed the story, it was an alright science fiction story which kind of reminded me of dean kootz style books.
December 20, 2013
Captivating hard to put down!! Makes you think!
July 17, 2014
An enjoyable story, but must have been proof-read by someone on work experience
April 29, 2017
I liked the idea of this book, who doesn't like a strange space virus? However the writing put me off, it was far too truncated, chopping and changing scenes and POV all over the place. Lots of, "well Bob, as you know, I told Bill earlier about the blah blah", to catch characters up on a plot that just moved too fast and was disjointed. I also couldn't get on with the odd asterisks at the end of a scene to show someone's thoughts, or the italics for the last sentence, often with an exclamation mark. It seemed far too OTT and disrupted my reading. Admittedly, this book is 10 years old, so I hope the writer has improved since then. I would read a more recent book for comparison.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews