The Blood Artists

Rating:
Summary: Scary
Review: A great book that I couldn't put down. It makes you feel if you were there watching all those people with the virus die. It is a page turner, making you want more, but at the same time, it is terrifying.

Rating:
Summary: Probably the best bug book
Review: A nasty plot twist (the virus, Plainville, possesses a human host, resulting in a virus with intelligence). It is the ultimate expression of what viruses "set out" to do--turn hosts into virus. Who cares whether it's even remotely probable? (Retroviruses usually cause chronic diseases like AIDS and lymphoma, not acute, annihilating plagues as in this book.) The characters aren't the most profound, but who's looking for Shakespeare here? I certainly wasn't, and the book gave me several sleepless nights. If you want a technically competent book, read the Coming Plague. The Blood Artists is strictly for fun.

Rating:
Summary: A Breathtaking Thriller
Review: Blood Artists isn't the most realistic story ever written and the author tends to over describe at times but all that aside, it is one of the most engaging books that I have ever read. Peter Mayrk is what makes this novel a great success. His physicality and personality make you love him and sometimes despise him at the same time. If you enjoy a good medical sci-fi thriller then you will love Blood Artists. By all means pick up a copy and read it today.

Rating:
Summary: This book delivers the goods!
Review: I cannot say enough (good) about this book! Not only does it "deliver the goods" in terms of adrenaline and suspense, but it has poetic language and uncommonly lovable characters. There's plenty of scientific, thought-provoking discussion, too. The book makes no bones about the fact that humanity is really straining its leash in terms of invading the environment. Also: I LOVE Dr. Peter Maryk! He does for the needle what Jimi Hendrix did for the guitar.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: I love this book and since I live in the town that it takes place (i'll leave it up to you to find out)it makes it even more exiting. Though I doubt the town will ever reach 20,000 people. It's very interesting how a small town like ***** gets a deadly virus that kills every one exept 2. I don't want to give to much away so I'll leave it up to you.

Rating:
Summary: I want to make Chuck Hogan bleed...
Review: I read this book a couple years ago. Since then, it has disturbed me to the point that I can't sleep, eat, think, or anything else.

"Because it is that good... that scary... that captivating?" you ask... NO! I can't sleep because I can't stop thinking about how I want to exact some measure of revenge on Hogan for putting me through such a terrible book. Everytime I think of good ol' Chuck, I get this cramping feeling in my stomach and have to run to the bathroom to take a 'Chuck' and wipe my 'Hogan.' I swear I could feel my IQ dropping the more I read the book. The only reason I finished it was that I kept HOPING that Hogan would somehow manage to turn the book around with a really gripping ending. Well... it didn't happen.

Somebody please stop this man before he attempts to publish again!

Ok. Enough bashing. Now to try to help you.

Needless to say, DON'T buy this book. If you like the premise of this book, then 'Hotzone' by Richard Preston IS a good book. It is nonfiction but reads like a novel. I have not read Robin Cook's 'Outbreak' but it HAS to be better than this one. The movie was great and Cook knows what he is talking about when it comes to medical issues since he is an M.D.

Well... I quess that is what I get for buying an unknown book at Walmart on a whim....

Rating:
Summary: Hogan Strikes Again
Review: In Hogan's future world, overuse have rendered anti-biotics completely ineffective and blood becomes sacred. Could never happen? Don't bet on it. The pace is fast, the characters are very well drawn and you are hooked from word one. The future Hogan describes is completely believable. Don't start this one at bedtime unless you are prepared to see the sun come up!

Rating:
Summary: EEK!! TERRIFYING, TOTALLY GROSS, CAN'T-PUT-IT-DOWN STORY!!
Review: Well, I wasn't sure at first I was going to like this novel. Hogan's use of first person during the first few chapters is not my favorite writing style but I stuck with it and VOILA!!! What a TERRIFYING, TOTALLY GROSS, CAN'T-PUT-IT-DOWN story this turned out to be. This makes you cringe at Humankind's defenselessness!

First there are Drs. Stephen Pearse and Peter Maryk, "The Blood Artists." Together, they are a whole person, acting with both commitment and conscience. When they separate and go their own way for a few years, neither can act as complete and dedicated (and honorable) scientists, one possessing the charm and goodness (Pearse), the other (Maryk), possessing the determination and devotion to the "virus".

Then there are the survivors of the devastagin "Plainville" virus that wiped out the entire town, except MILKMAID, LANCET and BLOSSOM. Though they survived, their lives are hopelessly and completely changed forever.

Finally, we meet Oren Ridgeway a.k.a. "Patient Zero". But really he is never Ridgeway in the story, only "Zero", as is totally and evily fitting.

In spite of the complicated story and the plethora of "Main Characters", author Hogan does a fine job of weaving the plot and the lives of the characters into a story that you can actually care about. In the end, I actually hoped for a sequel!!! Perhaps Hogan will grant us that someday for after all, "Plainville" isn't really dead....

Rating:
Summary: EEK!! TERRIFYING, TOTALLY GROSS, CAN'T-PUT-IT-DOWN STORY!!
Review: Well, I wasn't sure at first I was going to like this novel. Hogan's use of first person during the first few chapters is not my favorite writing style but I stuck with it and VOILA!!! What a TERRIFYING, TOTALLY GROSS, CAN'T-PUT-IT-DOWN story this turned out to be. This makes you cringe at Humankind's defenselessness!

First there are Drs. Stephen Pearse and Peter Maryk, "The Blood Artists." Together, they are a whole person, acting with both commitment and conscience. When they separate and go their own way for a few years, neither can act as complete and dedicated (and honorable) scientists, one possessing the charm and goodness (Pearse), the other (Maryk), possessing the determination and devotion to the "virus".

Then there are the survivors of the devastagin "Plainville" virus that wiped out the entire town, except MILKMAID, LANCET and BLOSSOM. Though they survived, their lives are hopelessly and completely changed forever.

Finally, we meet Oren Ridgeway a.k.a. "Patient Zero". But really he is never Ridgeway in the story, only "Zero", as is totally and evily fitting.

In spite of the complicated story and the plethora of "Main Characters", author Hogan does a fine job of weaving the plot and the lives of the characters into a story that you can actually care about. In the end, I actually hoped for a sequel!!! Perhaps Hogan will grant us that someday for after all, "Plainville" isn't really dead....

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the worst book... total waste of time.
Review: What a waste of time; I am glad I checked this out at the library rather thasn buying it. The characters are cardboard...never feel that you know about them or care what happens to them. I like good science fiction and good medical suspense thrillers, but this wasn't one of them. A "human virus"....please!!