Standard formula fare. Not bad except for the ridiculous "partial gravity" bit thrown in early on. It's not as good as the Bourne series by any means, but readable. ( )

A decent book but not up to Ludlum's usual par. Smallpox has been virtually wiped out except for a small amount in Russia and the CDC in Atlanta. A small amount is stolen from Russia and by very confusing means is smuggled into the secret lab of a pharaceutical conglomeratein Hawaii. It is chemically altered to make the smallpox more virulent but the biggest mutation can only be made in micro-gravity. This is where Ludlum brought in too many characters as the bad guys get the sample aboard the space shuttle Discovery and into orbit where the final mutations are completed by the chief biological scientist aboard. The majority of the action in the book takes place at the end of the book but then the epilogue leaves the reader hanging. As I said, a good book but if you want Ludlum at his best read The Bourne trilogy. ( )

A continuation of the Covert One series. The bad guys want to contaminate the world with smallpox and our heroes save us from that scourge-but, the space shuttle? That's a bit over the top. Our characters read/listen nicely...but a hero named John Smith? How mundane. Decent book, exciting, fast paced. ( )

This was excellent, couldnt put it down. If you like action, suspense type of books this has it all in spades. This is the first book of his I read, and I just picked up another one,at the library. It is a keeper. ( )

I'm generally a Ludlum fan. But do we really need another secret agency that will save the world on a weekly basis? Do we need more secret agents that cannot die (don't we already have Bourne)? Can we really not think of any bad guys besides Russian former KGB? The thriller publishing industrial complex missed these as rhetorical questions and answered a resounding yes! Sadly this is not classic Ludlum. This is outsourced writing at its worst.

Casting Big Pharna as bad guy was the one redeeming quality in this otherwise totally formulaic thriller. Recommended only for those looking do do research on why authors should stop writing after a finite number of novels, all others should stay home to shampoo their hair. ( )