The Meteorite

by Andrew Ross

A meteorite plummets into the earth’s atmosphere and smashes into a Russian mountain. Many more follow, bringing with them not physical death but a fate far a plague that quickly renders its victims into a state of dementia.A unique cast of survivors begin to band together to try and fight the insidious infection before it overwhelms humanity. Dr. Peter Temple, a brilliant researcher at the CDC, desperately attempts to determine why a few people don’t appear to become sick. Dr. Alicia Lovett, a local emergency physician in Savannah, Georgia, tries to save her boyfriend, Will Averill, who found the first meteorite and brought it home, before his illness is beyond the hope of a cure. Sandra Glynn, the sterling campaign manager for Congressman Martin Childress’s presidential campaign; Tom Campbell, a meteorite hunter in Texas; and Zeke Ellison, a globe-trotting engineer specializing in mine safety, all attempt to make sense of a world in which humanity is slipping into a state of quiet hopelessness.Each of these characters, linked together both knowingly and unknowingly from their pasts, begin to espy the ultimate and terrifying purpose of the plague. Can they stop the infection before it takes over humanity?

386 pages, Paperback

Published January 3, 2019

About the author

Andrew Ross was born in Toronto, Canada, but grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts, and graduated from the University of Richmond in Virginia in 2002. After completing medical school in Norfolk, Virginia, he went on to complete a residency in emergency medicine in Charleston, South Carolina. He now currently lives in Savannah with his wife, Maggie, and their daughters Josephine and Eleanor, and their son Benjamin, where he works as an emergency physician. A love of all things literary—especially history, biographies, and the classics—helped shape his interest in writing. Outside of literature, he enjoys traveling, mountaineering, skiing, scotch, and soccer.

Reviews

[Clint Walker Jr · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is good but I felt like I was wading upstream trying to finish it. The author spent too much time stating a point in long philosophical quotes and seemed to be on a mission to use as many rarely used words as possible. Just when the book started getting interesting they ended the story.

[Kashka · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can tolerate unnecessary and extensive philosophizing prose, and big words, take a chance on this book. Otherwise, no.

The story idea is very interesting, creative, and was one of the things that kept me reading. And I came to like the main characters. There were a minimum of obvious typos, which is always helpful.

However...

As other readers have said, the author uses very big words, where simpler ones would suffice. Often, the use of bigger, more complicated words meant the author had to write more, in order to make them work. Also, there were many chapters and long expository passages -- no dialogue, no characters -- where the author writes philosophically...who knows I had to skip it. These chapters and passages added nothing to the story, did not move it forward, and were not entertaining. There are novels where this kind of device works, authors who can effect it. Not this book, not this author.

A good example would be the movie "War of the Worlds", where it opened with a faceless monologue, and ended with one. Perhaps that's what this author was trying to do. He should stop that.

[C Pearmain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It is thoughtful and carefully constructed - a pleasure to read. While I anticipated the denouement, this didn't detract from the story too much though I feel that the author could have condensed it somewhat and moved the story further onwards.

I'm looking forward to reading more by Andrew Ross he shows definite promise.

[Gwenn Ellingham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, i enjoyed this book very much.