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Summary: Updated account of bioweapons
Review: Richard Preston agains succeeds in scaring the heck out of us with his probing unveiling of the status of current day bioweapons.Preston begins his book with an explanation of the symptomology of what he considers the most lethal bioweapon available today, smallpox. Contagion with the smallpox virus is manifested in a variety of terrifying symptoms which in a high percentage of cases leads to the death of the host. Scientists tirelessly working through the World Health Organization eradicated smallpox from the world in 1979. Supposedly only 2 stores of the disease remained in the freezers of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and an analogous location in Siberia. Shockingly it has become apparent that the Russian cache had been distributed to sources that advocate terrorism. Even more disturbing was the belief that genetic engineers were introducing genetic material into the smallpox to make it more lethal by making it resistant to vaccines. Preston also chronicles the high levels of governmental security that existed against bioterrorism after 9/11. He enlightens us about the anthrax attack our country suffered when pure spores of weapon grade anthrax was mailed to various locations throughout the country. One particularly famous letter was mailed to Senator Tom Daschle and was confiscated for analysis. Preston called this episode Amerithrax. What unfortunately became crystal clear is that experimentation and use of bioweapons is a tragic reality that we face in the future. We can only hope that governments are wise enough to take measures to control these threats to our very existence.
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Summary: The Good Outweighs the Bad
Review: The Demon in the Freezer is an excellent book about the eradication of smallpox, and the history of Soviet biowarfare. The information is presented in the context of the October 2001 Anthrax attacks. There are definitely more comprehensive books on those subjects, but Preston's strength has always been his ability to blend the personal and scientific sides of an issue. The only reason why I cannot give this book 5 stars is because, like The Hot Zone, Preston is alarmist and sensationalist at the end. I understand that creating a feeling of fear helps the lay reader through the material, but Preston's substitution of fear for analysis, especially at the end of the book, just slightly cheapen book as a whole. Richard Preston is an excellent author and I highly recommend this book. It is a joy to read and it is a very good introduction to smallpox and biowarfare. However, don't feel like you need to go and get vaccinated and fitted for a gas mask.
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Summary: Gripping Ideas
Review: With the ideas and Mystery Surrounding 9/11 at bay, this book would seem boring. Yet with all the mystery of what the government has hidden from us over time and the scares in our world's history the book grips for everyone. You cannot imaging a world like is explained at first, yet you come to realize the the world they are describing is your own and it will give you chills. Amazing plot, and it keeps you reading till the very end.
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Summary: Solid thriller drawn from life from The Hot Zone author
Review: Richard Preston's The Hot Zone was one among many books that dealt with the impact of globalization and the advantage it provided to disease. While Smallpox isn't as glamourous as Ebola, it's equally as deadly and more insidious. Preston traces the story of smallpox from discovery to eradication and the looming threat it poses again. He uses the recent scare over anthrax as the springboard for his tale. Despite its melodramatic title, Demon is as compelling as Hot Zone while also less melodramatic. There is a very real problem of biological warfare facing the world. It's roughly where the threat of nuclear war was 50 years ago; if the threat isn't contained it could easily consume a world designed as a highway for viral infection. Preston's book combines the best elements of journalism, science and suspense novels to carve out a tale that should keep every nation of the world awake at night. We can never turn out the light in assurance that the world is a safer place than yesterday. Tomorrow's promise looms with a lining of menace in a world where anyone can create deadly biological agents and strike terror in a nation's heart.
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Summary: You HAVE GOT to read this one!
Review: You Won't sleep until this book is done, and maybe not then! Another True and chilling book by Preston! Never mind Ebola, the hemorrhagic disease that was the main subject of Preston's 1994 #1 bestseller, The Hot Zone. What we really should be worrying about, explains Preston in this terrifying, cautionary new title, is smallpox, or variola. ...and today the variola virus only exists officially in two storage depots.. one in Russia, and the other at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta (in the freezer of the title). To believe that variola is not held elsewhere, however, is nonsense, Says Preston, who delves into the probability that several nations, including Iraq, Iran, Russia and maybe Al-Qaeda, have recently worked, or are currently working, with genetically altered smallpox as a biological weapon! Preston shows why even "normal" smallpox could (and would) sweep the globe in a matter of weeks killing millions, perhaps hundreds of millions! No one on the planet today has an immunity to this disease. A chilling account of what countries have what Bio-weapons, and what happens if they use them. The research is excellent and accurate. Preston takes you through the recent Anthrax attacks, why they were "different" and what happens if a terrorist unleashes an easily genetically modified Smallpox weapon.
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Summary: Chilling Reality
Review: If you think what you've heard on the news about smallpox is scary, you don't want to listen to this audiobook. Richard Preston provides a very detailed description of the varieties of smallpox & anthrax - its symptoms, disfigurements, and various paths to death-in highly graphic language. Preston argues that, to believe that smallbox is not held elsewhere is nonsense. A lot of time is spent on the the anthrax attacks of 2001. He believes that smallpox, which has killed more people than any other infectious disease, is the greatest biological threat facing humanity. Preston relates the history of smallpox from 1000 B.C. to the outbreaks in the 1970s. He goes into great detail about the World Health Organization's campaign to eradicate it and the lost opportunity to destroy it forever. His final chapter introduces the idea of genetically modified smallpox that might be resistant not only to vaccines, but also to acquired immunity. The author draws readers into his narrative by humanizing his facts; researchers, WHO workers, and smallpox victims relay parts of this vivid and alarming story. This isn't something that you want to listen to on a full stomach.
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Summary: Quite Simply, The Scariest Book I've Ever Read
Review: When I was a kid, I read everything that Steven King had to offer, and I thought that "It" was terrifying. Mr. Preston's book convinced me that nothing in fiction can ever be as scary as smallpox or the possibility that someone is working in a laboratory trying to weaponize it so that it can be used against a civillian population. Make no mistake, although smallpox officially exists only in two freezers (one in Russia, the other at the CDC in Atlanta), Mr. Preston details the very real probability that the virus exists in many labs ranging from Korea to the Middle East. I shudder to think that it would be possible to infect a volunteer with the virus who could then bring it to Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, or any other city in the United States. This book served as a wake-up call for me on a threat that is far greater than anything I could have imagined. It may be more frightening than the thought of a terrorist with a nuclear weapon. I hope that the CIA and FBI will do just about anything to make sure that this threat is not realized.
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Summary: Informative and Interesting
Review: This book jumps between the Anthrax events of 2001 and the history of Smallpox eradication. While enlightening, the two different topics caused some confusion. It never really got to the end of the case of the Anthrax events, but the Smallpox history was interesting and frightening. If the author had just stuck to one topic, it would have been far more concise and educated. The book takes us into some of his experiences after 9/11 and the Anthrax scare. I lstened to this on Audio CD in my car.
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Summary: Written at a low level, but fine information
Review: It seems that the vast majority of books written on this subject are at the fourth grade level. This book is slightly better, but still needs work. The information within, however, is very fine.
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Summary: A nightmare explained
Review: Richard Preston describes the nightmare of smallpox: the effects of the disease, the enormous efforts made by literally hundreds of thousands of people between 1965 and 1979 to eradicate the disease (the only human disease eradicated so far) and the potential use of the remaining virus stocks as biological weapons. And in between one gets information on anthrax as well. Reading this book raises the hairs on the back of your neck: it is so easy to make a supervirus and it was so stupid not to destroy the remaining stocks of virus when they were kept in refrigerators in only 2 laboratories (one is the USA and 1 in the USSR) in the seventies. An extremely important story told in a roller coaster fashion that grabs you and does not let go.
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