Panic In Level 4

Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science by Richard Preston
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Disappointed does not even begin to explain how let down I was by this book. I was expecting interesting, slightly disgusting and disturbing stories about viruses that had ravaged people, similar to Preston's book the Hot Zone. Man did this ever fall short. While the 'stories' are actually essays which means they are written in a totally different style, which some people may consider the first point of contention, the MAJOR point of contention for me is that not all the essays are related to matters involving issues that would be considered a biosafety level 4 issue.

Ie. The Mountains of Pi - is about 2 guys trying to find the ending numbers for Pi....
A Death in the Forest - is about a bug native to China that is killing Hemlock trees in North America....
Blood Kiss- is about Ebola (which is a biosafety level 4 infectious disease so that fits the title)
The Human Kabbalah - is about reading human genomes and determining what is missing etc......
The Lost Unicorn - is about the Unicorn Tapestries from the 1800's and their preservation....
The Self-Cannibals - is about Lesch Nyhan disease while not biosafety threat quite interesting

So now that I have named what the essays are about are you wondering why, as I am, the book is titled to be more scary then it really is.

WHY RICHARD PRESTON WHY!!!

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