The First Horseman

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding thriller!
Review: I noticed a few people expressed disappointment at the ending. I found the ending to be particularly clever. I thought the subject matter had been well-researched, making this a plausible story. It kept me reading enthusiastically right to the end. Now I must get ahold of The Genesis Code. By the way, does anyone know the background of the author? I imagine he must be a journalist...

Rating:
Summary: fast-paced, highly forgettable
Review: This book is like a disposable razor. It works for a while, but you can casually throw it out when you're done. My main gripe is that the characters are relentlessly boneheaded. Friend gets death threats and then mysteriously disappears? OH, HE'S PROBABLY OUTTA TOWN! Why doesn't the press report this vital story? 'CAUSE THE FBI SENT ALL NEWSPAPER EDITORS A NASTY FAX! Why does the main character try to free his girlfriend from the cult compound *alone*? HEY, THE FBI SCREWED UP HOSTAGE SITUATIONS AT WACO AND RUBY RIDGE, DIDN'T THEY?! Why doesn't the main character report the whole story in the end? 'CAUSE FREE SPEECH IS OVERRIDDEN BY THIS NATIONAL EMERGENCY (according to a ficticious article of the constitution). Good book for a plane flight, maybe, but that's it.

Rating:
Summary: C'mon John, you can do better than this!
Review: After reading Case's first novel, The Genesis Code, I eagerly anticipated his next offering, The First Horseman. Unfortunately, I trusted Case would once again weave together a thought provoking plot with dynamic characters in his next novel. Although Case falters in his pure storytelling ability, in The Genesis Code, Case compensated with an excellent plot and spectacular action.

Nothing could compensate for the attrocious plot development and static characters of The First Horseman. The conclusion was predictable half way through the story. Dramatic irony does not explain Frank Daly's foolhardy behavior. He was more irritating than Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars, and Daly was the main character! Case really disappointed me with this novel, I truly hope he has an excuse. Maybe next time he should create the plot and have someone else do the writing.

Rating:
Summary: KEEPS YOU GOING(somewhat) THEN NOTHING IN THE END!!!
Review: While reading this book I found myself just reading to finish it. There are some suspencefull moments but in the end it leaves you wondering why you even finished the book!!! Case was great in the Genesis Code but lacks alot of his talent in this Novel.

Rating:
Summary: Hero Saves World From Impending Doom!
Review: I was blown away by this book...A "must read" for anyone interested in exciting thrillers with end of the world possibilities. Our heroine, Annie Adair, travels up to the Arctic circle to do research on the remains of miners who were victims of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. She arrives in the Arctic Circle only to discover that somebody's been there before her...Can she and our hero, Frank Daly, intrepid reporter for the Washington Post, prevent a cult from their attempts to bring about the end of the world? (Hint: the First Horseman in the title being a reference to Plague...) It wouldn't be fair to tell the ending of the book but it is definately the sort of book that keeps you gripping your seat and unable to put the book down until you're finished. READ THIS BOOK!!! IT'S AWESOME!!

Rating:
Summary: Weak writing makes for dull reading
Review: This books tries to hard to scare, doesn't try hard enough to involve. Mr Case may have an impressive resume, but he doesn't write well enough for readers who require to be persuaded that what they have in front of them is more than a collection of overblown nonsense.

Rating:
Summary: disappointing ending
Review: The book was good until the end.A very disappointing ending.I hate when you think you are reading a good book,then you read a one part of the book and at that point I wanted to throw the book out the window!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A let down read.
Review: I loved John's first book and gave it five stars. This one started out fine, but lost creadability as I read. He paints a picture of bad guys with great resources and intense desire to eliminate all foes, but the leave him alone to do his thing. no way. The story smaks of the Millenium Group's doomsday virus plan. I gave it three stars because John still has great visual description skills and the book had some intresting moments. But I think he got lazy, didn't plot out the thing very well...it was pretty predictable...and he forgot about plain good story structure. Sorry John. -P-

Rating:
Summary: Starts fast, but limps to the finish line.
Review: This novel begins with an intriguing plot line: the mysterious decimation of a peasant Korean village amid indications that the area had become "hot" with the sudden outbreak of a resurrected killer disease. To a lay reader, the author's scientific spadework begins to read in a convincingly chilling fashion.

When Case introduces a purported crackerjack reporter from the Washingtion-Post on leave to write a magazine article about emerging viruses, the battle lines appear to be drawn for what promises to be an engrossing thriller.

What sinister forces are behind the re-appearance of this looming contagion too horrible for anyone to easily imagine? Early on, the evidence points toward a potential terrorist threat --- and the reader awaits an engrossing confrontation between the intrepid reporter battling for truth, justice and the American way, and the forces of governmental obstructionism and countless real roadblocks that seem poised to keep the awful reality from the body politic.

But in short order, the reader comes to learn that the reporter, despite his purported talents, acts in a manner indicating he'd be better equipped to be a bloodless fact-checker rather than a newshound with any ink in his blood. The tipoff comes early on when the scientist who set up the reporter's magazine article about the planned arctic recovery of buried 80-year-old flu victims suddenly becomes strangely uncooperative for unexplained reasons. She stonewalls the reporter, but he intrepidly soldiers on, in fact starting up a not-convincing budding romance with her --- despite her failure to provide any rational answers to what actually went wrong in the arctic. Try as one might, the reader develops a growing inability to believe the reporter/protagonist has real news instincts in his make-up. When he learns enough to have what any reporter should know is a block-buster news article that should guarantee him prominent front page glory, he never reaches out to call his paper to talk to the all-knowing news editor (who should be expected to be able to nurse his story along). Instead, the reporter bizarrely prefers to continue a long-term scientific article that is likely to appear in print months and months later. Is this any way Woodward & Bernstein would have acted? No, of course not! Is it any way a frustratingly cartoon-like character might? You bet! The plot soon devolves into a wholly unrealistic denouement that stands any sense of comprehensibility entirely on its head; while keeping the ending secret, it reminds one of a jejune school book-report where the protagonist simply closes out the narrative with the classic, "And then I woke up," type of finish. If your looking for something in the realm of fantasy, buy "Alice in Wonderland" instead. Bleeh! --- [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Far more than a bio-thriller
Review: This novel transfixed me for hours of uninterrupted (if frightening) pleasure. "The First Horseman" is much more than a techno- or bio-thriller. John Case (a pseudoname...wouldn't I love to know who this REALLY is?) has masterfully blended character development and research of the next global disaster. I found it impossible to put down, even with an overfilled schedule. Losing sleep is rarely this much fun. I read Mr."Case's" prior work ("The Genesis Code") and am eagerly awaiting his next thriller. There are only a few novelists I actively search out...Mr. "Case" is at the top of my list from now on.