Gravity (1999)

Of all of the Tess Gerritsen novels I've read, this one is the best. The Bone Garden is a close second. The story follows a couple of NASA doctors and their chase to figure out why and how a biohazard is endangering the International Space Station and the astronauts there. Intrigue, biology, and a host of interesting characters lead you on an adventure into other worlds. Fascinating details about how the space program functions, the effects of microgravity on people and science, deep sea life, outer space and medical emergencies. This book has it all. Good read. ( )

Stephen King has it right when he said you should figure in the price of electricity wen you buy your first book by Tess because you will be up all night. I first thought I dont know if I would enjoy a med suspence on space travel but it didn't take long to not want to put this book down! ( )

Gravity is the 12th stand-alone novel by Tess Gerritsen. When Dr Emma Watson ends up on the crew of the Russian-American space station, it’s a dream come true for her. But nothing runs smoothly: the payload experiments are going wrong, crew are getting sick and dying and half the module is on low power due to problems with the solar array. Gerritsen is the master of the medical thriller, and this time, the scene is out of this world. Once again, she gives us an excellent plot with a few great twists; politics and intrigue, in a unique environment and under extraordinary conditions. A Gerritsen winner ( )

Not my favorite Tess Gerritsen novel, but it was okay. I'm not a huge sci-fi person, so when I starting reading about weird things inside the characters bodies, I got a little turned off. The good part was, it was a great story line of being in space, and the inner workings of NASA and the interest that captivated. Will always love Gerritsen's novels, this just wasn't one on the top of my list. ( )

Tess Gerritsen used to be a doctor, so it comes as no great surprise that the medical aspects of her latest thriller are absolutely convincing--even if most of the action happens in a place where few doctors have ever practiced--outer space.
Dr. Emma Watson and five other hand-picked astronauts are about to take part in the trip of a lifetime--studying living creatures in space. But an alien life form, found in the deepest crevices of the ocean floor, is accidentally brought aboard the shuttle Atlantis. This mutated alien life form makes the creatures in Aliens look like backyard pets.

Soon the crew are suffering severe stomach pains, violent convulsions, and eyes so bloodshot that a gallon of Murine wouldn't help. Gerritsen brilliantly describes the difficulties of treating sick people inside a space module, and how the lack of gravity affects the process of taking blood and inserting a nasal tube. Dr. Watson does her best, but her colleagues die off one by one and the people at NASA don't want to risk bringing the platform back to earth. Only Emma's husband, a doctor/astronaut himself, refuses to give up on her. As we read along, eyes popping out of our heads, all that's missing is one of those bland NASA voices saying, "Houston, we have a problem--we're being attacked by tiny little creatures that are part human, part frog, and part mouse." ( )