Seizure

I've been a big fan of Robin Cook for years but this is one book I could have done without. First, I didn't realize that I should have read "Shock" before I read this one so I'll just recommend that if you are going to read "Seizure", read "Shock" first.

If Robin Cook's mission is to convince us that anyone doing research into cloning or infertility issues or genetic therapies is evil, he does a good job of it with this book. There are absolutely no good guys. There is no one to root for.

A researcher working on a new "therapeutic cloning" process is blackmailed into using a senator as a guinea pig of his process in order to keep a bill making his process illegal from being introduced into the Senate. From there the story involves the Boston Mafia and the Shroud of Turin. Sound ridiculous? It is. What's missing is the action. I'm use to Robin Cook heroes working against an evil enemy to expose truth and a lot of heart-pumping action is involved. Here, the characters just go about their business and then it ends.

Quite disappointing for a fan of "Coma". ( )

My review from May 27, 2004:

Frankenstein Meets Da Vinci Meets the Sopranos! Too much!

"It's the story of two titans, in their own separate arenas, yet strangely similar in their hubris, who had achieved greatness but suffered tragic faults. Senator Butler's was a love of power, which had evolved from a means to an end and of itself. Dr. Lowell's, I'd guess, was a desire for financial recognition and celebrity status appropriate in his mind to his intellect and contribution. When these two men collided by conspiring to use each other for their own purposes, their tragic fault literally brought them down." (Epilogue, 382)

Carol Manning's final character assessment of protagonists Dr. Daniel Lowell and Senator Butler basically says it all. I guess the central idea here is, as Robin Cook says, "the regrettable collision of politics and rapidly advancing bioscience" (Author's Note, 386). ...And honestly, if the plot focused more around the Frankenstein-like theme of the irresponsibility of scientific research and innapropriate political influence in this arena, the story would have been much more effective. Dr. Cook, however, also felt the need to not only include a sub plot about a mafia-connected investor but also to capitalize on the success of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" by including controversial information about the authenticity of the Shroud of Tourin. He even mentions Leonardo Da Vinci at one point!

Unethical biotechnology, religious relics, organized crime - there were just too many different things crammed into one story! It got so ridiculous that, after establishing the plot in the first few chapters, I skimmed through most of the book. Ironically, the last chapter and the epilogue really gave me all I needed to understand Butler's and Lowell's fate. The best part of the book was Dr. Cook's "Author's Note", which provided some very interesting commentary about the unethical relationship between medical reserach and politics. Other than that, this was book was extremely disappointing. ( )

Easy holiday read ( )

(unabridged audiobook read by George Guidall): Dr. Daniel Lowell has discovered a new stem cell procedure to cure many currently terminal diseases. Senator Ashley Butler publicly opposes all such research but secretly offers to become Lowell's guinea pig to cure his Parkinson's Disease before his illness is discovered by the public. The rest of the book is a tangle of intrigue involving the mafia, the Catholic Church, the Shroud of Turin, organ harvesting, and US politics. It's a great set-up, read by a truly talented voice actor, but about halfway through I realized that horrible truth: there's no way it could end satisfyingly. And it doesn't. Most of the issues raised are never resolved, and the so-called climax is very, well, anti-climatic. I could deal with it if it was just the social, ethical, and political questions that were left open-ended, but even much of the plot just sort of fizzles out. I've enjoyed the other books I've read by Robin Cook, but this one felt like it bit off more than it could chew. ( )

It's a very interesting book but the brazilian editor ruined it all with gazillion errors and typos in this translation. Really unbelievable how they were so amateurs in such a work like this, it's like they couldn't find a revisor before publishing. That's ridiculous because it's not a book from an unknown author by the way. The story per se is very nice and Robin Cook mentioned some other materials and authors for the curious readers who may want to know a little bit more about the subject mentioned in the story. Good read. ( )