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This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.
That said, on to the review!
In an attempt to eradicate forever the flu, scientists at GeneDyne have been genetically altering a flu virus that will, when inserted into the human bloodstream, genetically alter in the patient and future generations the white blood cells to forever prevent the patient and his or her descendants from ever contracting the flu again. That leads to controversy enough. But the investigation into the failed experiments leads to another, more potentially devastating discovery: that PurBlood, an artificial substitute for human blood, which is soon to become available to medical practitioners everywhere, will instead cause irreparable nerve and brain damage in those that receive it. But when geneticist Guy Carson and his assistant Susana Cabeza de Vaca expand their investigation into PurBlood, they become the focus of a massive internal cover-up. Can they survive long enough to stop the distribution of PurBlood, or will the human race plunge onward to extinction?
Mount Dragon is very science-heavy, but it is all incidental to the main plot. As realistic, as plausible, as potentially possible as it sounds, all the discussions of protein coats and gene splicing fall to the wayside. What is more interesting--and more enduring over the course of the novel--are the relationships between the characters.
One thing that really stood out for me were the family histories of Carson and Cabeza de Vaca. I have absolutely no idea whether or not the family origins that the two relate are based on actual people, though given the way Preston and Child weave history and facts into their works I'm inclined to accept it as true. Anyway, the two scientists don't get along very well, always sniping at one another and continually referring back--disparagingly, of course--to the presumed truth of their respective heritages. As the book progresses, though, you see that their ancestry actually plays a major role in their survival. On the other hand, survival also depends on how well they can both recall growing up in the New Mexico desert.
Mount Dragon isn't an easy book to read, but only because there's so much scientific background discourse going on. If you're able to understand it all, then you'll have no problem. If you can't understand it all, then I'm sure that just skimming through those sections will be fine. But don't skim through too much: some of that science stuff is very important to understanding what's going on!
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