I wanna have all my body hair removed by a huge xenon strobe lamp.
A scary, true book about a lethal virus is The Hot Zone by Richard Preston.
The book was published in 1969 and the movie came out a couple of years after that, so I wouldn’t call either “new” 
critter42
While Andromeda Strain is a work of complete fiction, I would recommend a book called Hot Zone by Richard Preston. The book is a true (I checked it out) account of an Ebola Virus outbreak in Reston, VA, a stones throw from the nation’s capitol. Ebola is a very, very contagous and deadly (6-9 people out of every ten infected do not survive) diseases known to man. To add, there is no cure. The very fortunate thing about the Ebola Reston virus was that it mutated from a human killing virus to only killing monkeys and giving humans a bout with flu like symptoms. The book is well written and complelely true (its in the nonfiction and I have seen the main character interviewed on national television about the incident)
I found The Hot Zone to be far scarier than The Andromeda Strain. Ebola haemorrhagic fever is one of those diseases that, if an author had written it in a piece of fiction, would strain credulity. The virus basically works by dissolving the connective tissue. This takes place over the course of a few days, so you have people walking around while their organs turn into goo. It spreads by direct contact with bodily fluids. So the virus’s final act is to ooze blood out of the body’s orifices - mouth, ears, nose, eyes, pores. One particularly graphic scene in the book described how - well, I’ll let you find out for yourself.
The Demon in the Freezer is Preston’s book about Smallpox and bioterrorism. It’s a fun read, too.
When I read Hot Zone, I happened to be about a third the way into it, and took a business trip to Reston, VA. I sat in bed in the hotel, picked up the book, turned the next page, and noticed that the next chapter was titled “Reston.” After reading a few more paragraphs, I felt I needed to go clean off the toilet seat or something.
Yep. Crichton is the more-respectable and somewhat-more-competent literary answer to Ed Wood and Bert I. Gordon. “He meddled in God’s domain.” :rolleyes:
If y’all want to read a really scary true book about disease, check out The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett. It’s a few years out of date, but the principles still hold. Helps put stuff like SARS into perspective.
CurtC, if you were in the Reston Sheraton, you were perhaps a mile from the Hot Zone as the crow flies. As a teenager (20-something years ago), I used to go dumpster-diving at the high-tech offices near that place, looking for cool stuff to take apart and re-build into cooler stuff. The only time I looked in their dumpster, however, it was full of empty bags of Purina Monkey Chow (no kidding). Last time I drove through that office complex (perhaps a year ago), the building had been leveled, if I remember correctly. Maybe I’ll take a trip over there tonight or this weekend to verify.
Well, there is a building there, but it is so different from what I recall of the place, that I’m pretty sure the old building was torn down, and this one built in its place. Too many windows, for one thing. There are four businesses in there now, instead of just the one: a day-care center, a Christian fellowship, a design shop, and something else which I don’t remember.
Geez, I’m not sure I could overcome the revulsion, and send my kid to a day care which had been built on a spot once overrun with ebola. Even if the earth there had been salted or what-not. I mean, I’m sure it’s perfectly safe, but…
What? No mention of Westworld? Criton’s first killer amusement park story! (Lovingly parodied, along with Jurassic Park on an episode of The Simpsons when they went to “Itchy & Scratchy Land.”)
Oh, and DaveW, I have no doubt that they tore down the building and replaced it with an entirely different one. They couldn’t seem to find anyone willing to rent the old one after the outbreak.
Crichton’s books are all fiction. Though he does weave truth into them.
Note the Master’s and PhD’s he has earned (not honorary). In addition, each book is well documented as to where he gets the source material for the stories.
Even ‘Eaters of the Dead’ later made into The 13th Warrior, is based on actual documents (though as he admits, many liberties were taken.)
read ‘Airframe’, then talk to someone involved in aircraft maintenance/design and tell me he doesn’t do his homework
I get tired of people badmouthing Crichton. No, his work may not be Shakespeare, but you know what? I can put down Shakespeare on a whim. A Chrichton book keeps me glued to the my seat. Yes, some of the dialog is stilted. Yes, the ending of Prey sucked ass. The characters aren’t always so deep. But, somehow, despite all these shortcomings, Crichton makes addictive books, and he does it quite consistently.
And while it does seem like way too many Chrichton books are, as astorian so aptly phrased it, "“We’re creating advanced technologies that will turn around and destroy us! Booga booga,” there are actually several great books he’s written that don’t have anything to do with that subject, including Congo, Rising Sun, The Great Train Robbery, A Case of Need, Disclosure, and Airframe, not to mention his three non-fiction works, of which I highly recommend Travels, an autobiographical journey.
Yes, I was just going to mention “Travels,” which I thought was good. Each chapter is about a different trip he’s taken somewhere in the world. I was in the Peace Corps in Jamaica when I read it, and I laughed till I cried at his story about Jamaica (probably only funny if you live there). As an epidemiologist who happens to find horrible diseases entertaining, I also really liked his earlier books. I only stopped liking his writing when, like Robin Cook, he seemed to start writing with “screenplay” in mind.
Eaters of the Dead included exerpts from the writings of the real Ibn Fadlan, who did indeed meet Norsemen and witness a funeral. The rest is made up. (A clue to this is that the story is obviously a version of the Beowulf legend, but would have to take place when the epic poem “Beowulf” was already centuries old.)
If The Andromeda Strain were true, then the discovery of extraterrestrial life probably would have made the papers. I read the book about thirty years ago, and although it’s early work on Crichton’s part, it contains the essential elements that he’s repeated over and over in his various crappy books.
Damn. You guys are tough. Mr. Crichton wrote the pilot of “E.R.” after his time…as a medical resident in Boston. A real medical resident. Not a made-up fantasy career that he never started. His education and background are not fiction. What’s the problem here?
He writes STORIES. Who gets angry for being given a tale that pushes the envelope of verisimilatude a bit? It’s sauce for the goose, I say.
Jeeeez.
Cartooniverse