Monday Book Review: The Demon in the Freezer

Truth be told I had read this one before but I wanted to brush up a bit for my spy novel since The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston actually inspired my spy novel. I’ve read everything by Preston and he never fails to simultaneous expand my mind in a frightening manner and entertain me.

While I was googling the book to make sure I had the name right (demon/ the demon?) I saw parts of some reviews panning the book. frown. Other reviewers complain it is disjointed because he talks about both anthrax and small pox. Wow, two potential bio-threats in one book, how can I possibly understand that? snort. And moving on.

Demon covers the eradication of small pox. It also talks about the anthrax attacks post 9/11. Many thought small pox had been mixed into the anthrax for those attacks. Anthrax and Small Pox are considered the two best bio terror weapons for a number of reasons. All of which Preston covers in depth in the book, so I won’t enumerate them here. Read the book if you want to know. Not everyone likes to be scared by realistic possibilities. I do though. chuckle.

As a side note, I love that this book follows up on people I met in previous books. It’s awesome to find out the kid in one of Preston’s previous books who had just started at USAMRIID is still there 15 years later and happily married to another scientist.

I’ve read The Hot Zone, about Ebola. Frightening and thrilling. I’ve read The Cobra Event, a fiction work about a bio terror attack. Frightening and thrilling. And I’ve read Panic in Level Four. All brilliant. All made me think while keeping me on the edge of my seat metaphorically. This isn’t science fiction fantasy. This is science. This is the reality of the world we live in and how little it can take for it to go hot.

℘℘℘℘℘ + Five and a half pages. I love Preston’s style. He makes a story out of the truths of multiple people who all played a role in the reality. If you are one of those people who get freaked out when you read an article about how the big one could hit, don’t read Preston. Everyone else should give him a gander, smiles.