Rating: 
Summary: Frightening!
Review: One of the comments on the cover was from Stephen King -- he said it was the scariest book he ever read! And, wow, this book is really frightening. And actually, I am not sure which is scarier: the prospect of a new wave of smallpox (or, even worse, bioengineered smallpox that is even more virulent) or the image of hubris present in the people who believe that this disease should not be utterly destroyed. I just couldn't imagine how people could justify infecting monkeys with a disease that previously was eradicatable only because it did not exist in any animal other than humans! Staggering!! This book should be read by everyone!
Rating: 
Summary: Sobering Non-fiction
Review: Preston does a remarkable job of assembling all of the facts and letting you draw your own conclusions (& scaring the hell out of yourself in the process). He's one of the best.
Rating: 
Summary: May be a true story, but not well told
Review: The first problem: the title. "Demon in the Freezer" would imply a singular demon, but the author keeps jumping back and forth between anthrax and smallpox; which one is the demon? It would seem to be smallpox, but the author spends an inordinate amount of time on the anthrax letters following 9/11, for no seeming purpose other than to re-hash the events in dramatic form. The book also jumps too much from topic to topic, seems to implicate one person in particular for the anthrax mailings, and doesn't really have any conclusions. The book is a narrative of on-going events - the anthrax case is open and smallpox is still around in freezers around the world. There is no closure at the end of this book - it leads the reader nowhere.
Rating:
Summary: Biowarfare: Incalculably Worse than the Nuclear Genie
Review: People said of the first A-tests toward the close of the second world war that the "nuclear genie" had been let out of its bottle, words proved prophetic as in coming years the world raced toward nuclear armageddon. Yet today the nuclear genie is largely bottled thanks to the end of the Cold War, only to be supplanted by the wilder and unfortunately more accessible "poor man's" weapons of biowarfare.Richard Preston, the author of the book that introduced western society at large to the threat of Ebola (The Hot Zone), presents a tale many times more chilling than his previous work as he delves into the threat lurking ostensibly in only two locations on earth: smallpox. Preston's nonfiction reads better than many novels, and the reader will be hard-pressed to put down this page turner. The content will frighten all but fools--particularly the descriptions as to the ease of militarizing the world's greatest scourge into a vaccine resistant pandora's box demon. Though most of the tale is set between the anthrax attacks of 2001 and the present, he explores the days of the Eradication to describe the methodology (and set up its limitations) that rid the world of smallpox and to describe in chilling detail the effects of the disease. If you thought Ebola was scary, smallpox will send you to cower in the corner as Preston details the ease of spread of the disease, where every infected person likely infects at least ten others--at times simply by being in the same building. Unlike the anthrax scare where only those exposed to the letters became ill, a smallpox attack could kill millions in mere weeks--and to believe that only the US and Russia maintain smallpox stores under strict security is a hope utterly dashed by Preston's account when he describes such recent finds as an amputated arm of a smallpox victim preserved in a dark University storeroom, or the forgotten personal stores of retired researchers at labs around the country--not to mention the bankrupt (financially and morally) Russian weapons program that to this day continues weapons work with smallpox. His description of the ease of making vaccine-resistant smallpox reinforces the belief that we must work with the demon in the freezer to develop treatments and newer vaccines--the one in use today is the same as was used over 200 years ago. Read this book--just not alone at night; the smallpox demon makes Ebola look like a child's stuffed animal in comparison.
Rating:
Summary: One hot freezer
Review: THE DEMON IN THE FREEZER is a fitting follow up to Richard Preston's, THE HOT ZONE, the genre spawning suspense-novel like true story of ebola. Like THE HOT ZONE, DEMON is about a hideous, disgusting disease (this time smallpox), written like fast-paced suspense fiction. Though THE HOT ZONE inspired many similar books about killer diseases threatening the world, Preston alone seems to have a solid grasp on this type of book. Yet, perhaps because DEMON so invites comparison to THE HOT ZONE, its small but significant deficiencies stand out by comparison. THE HOT ZONE was structured like Michael Crichton's ANDROMEDA STRAIN. The application of a novel's structure to a true story helped hold that story together. Preston relied on Crichton to set the pace, suggest where and how to insert suspense elements, and how to make the most of a story about disease. Crichton is not credited (the relationship between the two books is probably closer to plagiarism), but if you read the two books back to back the influence is clear. DEMON, though, is missing this type of cohesion. DEMON tries to make two main points: smallpox is really, really nasty, and it could destroy civilization as we know it if used as a biological weapon. To make the first point, Preston describes the effects of smallpox through the re-telling of historical stories. This is where Preston is most suspenseful and scary. To make the second point, Preston jumps around stories about scientists and the scientific community, biological weapons programs, and the story, such as it is, of the anthrax attacks of 2001. The anthrax case is relayed to make the point that a similar attack using smallpox would have been much, much worse. The problem with this is that Preston goes too far down too many hallways that lead to blank walls. Enough of the anthrax case is laid out that its lack of closure is a distraction from the main smallpox story. Side dramas about researchers possibly being sick, possible infecting themselves with ebola, and possibly working on bio-weapons are unsatisfying red herrings. Fortunately, as often as Preston goes off on a tangent, he really can't go too far within the limited space of this short book. The sheer visceral reaction I had to the book far outweighed its structural deficiencies. The smallpox of DEMON makes ebola seem insignificant by comparison (ebola is more fatal, at least than natural smallpox, but smallpox is far more contagious and thus more dangerous to the species). If there's something worse than smallpox, Richard Preston will find it and doubtlessly turn it into a horror story. That prospect is almost enough for me to wish there is such a disease out there'somewhere.
Rating:
Summary: To be forewarned should be to forearmed...
Review: Preston did us all a huge favor years ago when he wrote The Hot Zone. Not because it became a bestseller, but because he brought to the forefront of mainstream America the fact that we are walking a very narrow, slim line in our efforts to dominate the world. In the Hot Zone he discussed the impact of continued intrusion into the dark forests of Africa, both from the natives of that vasst land and by our 'corporations' and even our universities, who recklessly send for monkeys, chimps, and apes (and ruin their habitats) in the name of science and progress. In doing so we expose ourselves to viral invaders, who were latent and quiet, merely waiting for a host species to do something stupid, which we so obviously did. In that book, it was Ebola in Reston, Virginia... In this book, it is smallpox on an international basis. Preston threw me into confusion with his initial opening chapter on the anthrax fiasco after 9/11. I thought in picking up this book it was sure to be on the supposedly two remain 'stocks' of small pox, known to exist...one at the CDC in ATlanta, and the other in Russia. Yet, the story of the murderous use of anthrax (by whomever), has a tie-in with the small pox story of the last thirty years. AS is so obvious the case by now as we enter into yet another war with Iraq, the mere signing of a treaty does not guarantee that those who sign the treaty will obey the rules of that said treaty. Russia most assuredly did not keep her hands off the smallpox entrusted to her, but proceeded to develop bioweapons, at the same time she was supplying the rest of the world with smallpox vaccine. I suppose that was their way of not only throwing us 'off the scent' but perhaps to condone their behavior in scientifically creating weapons of mass destruction. The United States is not blameless either. What Preston so horrifyingly makes clear in this short concise book, is that the 'cat is out of the bag'. Those of us who worked in science have known that for a while, yet much of the information in Preston's articulate book was new to me. What is more important is that Preston is a writer who makes complex science exceedingly clear, even to a layperson with no background or no interest in science. It is his writings and those of Garrett, that have alerted U.S. society, that it is no longer to our benefit to remain ignorant of the scientific age in which we live. We must become involved, we must make decisions that impact the decisions made in Washington, DC. That means exercising our democratic rights to vote those out who would continue to play 'with the demons in the freezers' whatever those demons are. If it had been left up to me, I would have fried those vials of smallpox in the 70's. No possible good can ever come from evil...how often must that be stated before people will understand it. Preston is a more concise writer than he was when he wrote The Hot Zone. This is an incredibly short book on a large topic, but he gets the necessary information across. As a mother and a grandmother, my hackles raise when I hear scientists saying we must keep those viral stocks of smallpox to be able to obtain scientific information from them. The only information that will come from the use of those stocks, may lead to the demise of the human race...and we are currently facing that possibility and teeter on the edge of oblivion because of the scientific curiosity and pride of a few arrogant scientists. Preston raises one significant point that needs to be answered. Why has there yet to be a Nobel Prize awarded to the many men and women still alive who worked so hard (and at personal cost) to eradicate the one disease we have managed to completely control? I see Nobel's given for less important reasons, and certainly for less compassionate service. Perhaps that is a new Nobel to be created, for those who go above and beyond in compassionate service of mankind. These are those who stand in direct contradiction to those who practice 'man's inhumanity to man' which continues to ravish our world. Let their light so shine, that their light may diminish the darkness our world is plunging into... A courageous story done by courageous people, told by a courageous man. Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh
Rating:
Summary: A terrifying read
Review: Preston has done it again with his latest true story, The Demon in the Freezer. In these unsettled times this story provokes thought and an awareness of how vulnerable we truly are should the smallpox virus be introduced in the United States. As a college professor who teaches terrorism I used this book in class to drive home a number of points designed to make the student think of how fragile life truly is, and how vigilance is the order of the day. One great read!
Rating:
Summary: A must read, especially in these times!
Review: I am old enough to have a smallpox scar but young enough to have never witnessed the destruction caused by the disease. In his always readable, never condescending tone, Richard Preston tells it like it is. He provides a riveting history of the smallpox eradication effort, reviews bioweapons inspections in Russia and Iraq, includes interviews with the top virologists in the world, and comments on the horrific possibilities should smallpox be released as a weapon. The descriptions of the disease alone can terrify you, not to mention its 30 percent fatality rate and the ease at which the disease can be reengineered. And it does not take a biological bomb being dropped on New York to make it happen. All it takes is one person with smallpox in a crowd, and the disease can quickly spread across the globe.
For all the terrifying and true sceanrios in this book, it can make you scared. But, in a way, it's a "good kind of scared." I feel much more in control just knowing the possibilities.
Rating:
Summary: Frightening
Review: I purchased this book for myself in e-book format to see how they work; quite well much to my surprise, at least in the RocketBook format. Preston, author of the virus-based thriller Hot Zone examines the factual biological threat of smallpox, otherwise known as variola. There are poxviruses that exist in almost all animal species, and one apparently crossed the species barrier several thousand years ago to become the most devastating killer of humans, superseding the plague by far. It's also one of the first diseases to have been officially completely eliminated from the world, except for two known storage points: one in the United States, the other in Russia. Preston suggests that several rogue nations could be working on it as a biological weapon. The vaccinations most of us older folks received years ago are no longer immunizing, lasting only about five years. The genome, i.e. letters of the genetic code, of variola is one of the longest of any virus and it has about two hundred genes. This complexity is used by the virus to defeat the immune system of the human host. The AIDS virus, in contrast, has only ten genes. "HIV is a bicycle, while smallpox is a Cadillac loaded with tailfins and every option in the book." Preston is certain that smallpox will again be unleashed upon an unsuspecting world by terrorists. The virus floats through the air, traveling like lightning from victim to victim, a biological chain reaction. Studies done in a hospital in Meschede, Germany where a smallpox victim - he had arrived with the disease from outside the country - had been taken in 1970 showed that people could be infected even when they were outside the quarantine zone; it traveled much as smoke would throughout a building, even traveling into windows from the outside. The only way to stop it was massive vaccinations, which prevented the virus from moving outside the area. The current vaccine produces serious adverse effects in a small number of those who receive it. It also might not be potent against a reengineered smallpox. Researchers have shown how easily the mousepox strain can be changed to become lethal to mice that normally are immune to it, - so easy, that an expert said a bright high school student could do it using publicly available information. Conventional wisdom was that smallpox could not be transmitted into other non-human animals. It would be useful to induce the disease into other primates to be able to test newer forms of a vaccine. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that barrier was crossed May 31, 2001 when four monkeys were infected with one billion particles of smallpox virus. Two died. For the first time in history, a non-human animal had been infected with smallpox. Smallpox had been declared completely eradicated in 1980, thanks to a heroic effort by the World Health Organization. Quite a controversy has surrounded the maintenance of the smallpox virus that has been kept potent in two storage facility freezers: one at the CDC in Atlanta, the other at a former germ-warfare facility in Siberia. The Russians had loaded tons of the virus into warheads during the eighties - thanks, guys - but these were to have been destroyed. Preston thinks that small amounts have been secreted out of the country into the hands of terrorist groups.
Preston interviewed Russian and American bioweapon experts who sit around and blithely discuss how easy it would be to create Armageddon, perhaps just by using a garden sprayer to deliver the disease particles. Air travel and constant movement around the planet would do the rest. Perhaps Bush should think about shutting down airports. Time to resurrect train travel, anyway. Preston mixes anecdotes with science and detail to create a frightening view of a possible future, one much more lethal than nuclear war. Just forget about sleeping if you read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling to the bone.
Review: After reading this book you wonder how we humans have survived this long. Preston's research shows how easy it has become to manufacture a biological weapon for mass destruction. Any crazed person or persons now has the capbility to unleash a bug which we have no defense, no plan or no way to track down the individual(s) responsible. Scary, real scary.
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