Eric L. HarryPandora: Outbreak (A Pandora Thriller)

Eric Harry, you have no idea how much I've missed you. I was introduced to Arc Light which I found in, of all places, one of those airport book exchange racks as I was running to catch a connecting flight. Its depiction of nuclear conflict, the errors and miscalculations that make a bad situation unspeakably worse and the conflict from the perspective of the leaders all the way down to the grunts on the front lines is simply without equal. All these years later, it remains one of my favorite novels. Protect and Defend and Invasion were also excellent, with sustained action sequences as good as anything put to print.And then for 15 years.......nothing. I'd check every 4-6 months to see if anything new had been released, but my effort was not rewarded until I found Pandora: Outbreak. It was well worth the wait. The zombie genre has become so ingrained in our culture that at times, it almost seems like a parody of itself. And while there are lots of good stories out there, much of the literature seems to revolve around increasingly imaginative ways of depicting death and destruction.Harry avoids the charge that he is piggy-backing on an already established trend by approaching it from a different angle. Readers of his previous books are familiar with the ethical and philosophical arguments that infuse the actions of protagonists. This genre seems tailor-made for Harry's approach. What if a highly contagious brain-altering organism (in this case Pandoravirus horribilus) removes every vestige of what we consider 'self' from the 50% who survive the initial infection? While concepts such as emotion, love and pain are gone, more basic instincts such as food, sex and above all, self-preservation are not. And while some abilities are lost, other more abstract reasoning concepts are hypertrophied, which make the infected even more of a threat. The ease of infection and the seemingly indiscriminate violence of the afflicted leads to progressive escalation from increasingly alarmed governments. Will civilization essentially destroy itself to save itself, consigning millions/billons to death in the process? Do the infected retain the rights they had before their brains were rewired or should they simply be slaughtered? What is self? Is it mutable? What is personality? Harry tackles these issues in necessary detail that does not become pedantic. This foundation should streamline future installments.The plague is presented through the eyes of the Miller family, who are put in well conceived roles to allow the progression of events to proceed through their thoughts and experiences. Epidemiologist Emma Miller is infected in the initial Russian outbreak and brought back to America. Her identical twin sister, Isabelle, a neurobiologist, becomes involved in her evaluation. The perspective of how the public would react (given enough time) is largely the story of brother Noah, whose experiences (and those of his wife and two children) are essentially a preppers how-to program as they try to carve out a safe, isolated enclave from which to ride out the approaching storm. Noah, a lawyer by trade, is also depicted as using the legal system to protect infected sister Emma. I'll confess this was the part I was most skeptical about. Given the extreme measures the government was using at the time to keep a lid on the story, I found it hard to believe that any motion or lawsuit wouldn't be immediately swept up in the maw of 'national security.' However I confess ignorance on the feasibility of this. I'm in the medical profession. Harry has a J.D. amongst his many accomplishments. I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt.Those looking for Walking Dead type gore and destruction will be disappointed with installment one. There IS violence, but surprisingly little for the genre in the first person (most of it is described from newsreel footage) and it seems judiciously doled out to advance the story line. Devotees of carnage should be directed to Michael Stephen Fuchs' astonishingly good Arisen series. But the pace will undoubtedly pick up as the infection comes stateside (and the teaser chapter at the end of the story promises exactly that). Consider this first installment a slow burn, a depiction of how a civilization-crushing pandemic would unfold. I can see such an event occuring in just this fashion: an initial event in a remote part of the world, gradual awareness as increasingly alarming reports come in as the plague spreads, the competition of factions with completely different approaches to containment/eradication and a government that shreds every bit of its credibility as it tries to suppress the story to stave off the inevitable panic. Mr. Harry, you have me hooked. I'm on board for the duration. Just please, please, please, please don't take another 15 year break.....

I was happy to see that Eric Harry has elected to return to the writing world (after quite a hiatus) before I have to LEAVE the world. Why his novels are not billion sellers is beyond my comprehension, as they are much more interesting than writings by the likes of Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, Robin Cook, Stephen King, and other better known authors than Eric Harry, even though the aforementioned authors are certainly excellent. Perhaps he needs to hire a publicist. His novels have never disappointed, and this one is no exception. It was interesting to read a tome by this author that was not mainly about military conflict, even though his other books about such are most assuredly top drawer material. Instead, he has written about a ‘zombie apocalypse’ that actually has some feasibility of occurring, and thoroughly explains throughout the story how such an event could actually be realized. I was happy to NOT see dead humans clawing their way out of their graves and heading out to eat as many healthy humans as possible. Such an apocalypse is surely beyond the realm of any reasonable possibility. But THIS one isn’t, and that is what makes it so interesting, as well as the authors detailed descriptions of exactly how an apocalypse such as this is well within the realm of possibility. Even though the story itself is fiction, the details of how the events could occur are definitely nonfiction. Being more of a connoisseur of nonfiction, it is always refreshing for me to read a work of fiction that actually COULD BECOME TRUE!

I have been waiting for Eric’s next book for years! I loved Arc Light and Invasion, and Pandora: Outbreak doesn’t disappoint!Instead of a military thriller, this is of an unstoppable virus, realistically accidentally unleashed on an unready world. The progression of the disease is really plausible, and terrifying!Harry is a remarkable writer, blending the well researched medical stuff with politics and compelling characterizations.Fascinating explanations of viruses, (their natures and vectors of transmission),of political and military response to any attack, whether the agent is a nation or a virus,the psychology of human response to the unthinkable,an interesting examination of social psychology, and the way crowds respond, which is different from an individual,and a fascinating/ enlightening examination of the nature of consciousness, and what makes us human.There is so much sheer knowledge in the work, it is amazing how very readable it is, how entertaining the characters are, and how all too plausible the plot’s accidental end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it could be.Harry is just a great writer! And while I am definitely going to pull out Arc Light. And Invasion again, I am really looking forward to the next one in the Pandora series!!!! Eric Harry is back!

Like some of the previous reviews, I am a huge Eric Harry fan. Arc Light in particular but also protect and Defend and Invasion rank as some of the best techno thrillers of all time. Arc Light even if somewhat dated today must be read by anyone interested in the genre.You can imagine my surprise when after a long sabbatical Harry returns with Pandora. I must admit before I read the book I thought it would be some bio-terrorism thriller, in keeping with his past works. What it is instead is so much more than that and as other have highlighted a contemporary take on the firm fan favourite of zombie apocalypse but very cleverly done. All the things you would expect from Harry are there - the research, the strong characters, the attention to detail. It all adds up to a great read. Will I read the rest of the series, yes. But this is not my usual genre and this is where this is a 4* rather than 5*. I want another techno thriller from Harry desperately. Selfish I know, but this is to me where he excels.I also can't help but think that at the time of writing this review, we are awash with this genre of book - not walking dead nor invasion of the body snatchers, but somewhere in between and very well written but all the same, give me a new Arc Light.....please.......

Really interesting, now waiting for part 2.

Loved it - Mr Harry is a great page turning author and apparently very overlooked. Hopefully his agent will sort that! Looking forward to the next installment.

I bought Arc Light in 1995 or 1996, and it became one of my all-time favorite books. In my view, all of Eric L. Harry's three war books, Arc Light, Protect and Defend, and Invasion, are of the same quality as the best books of Tom Clancy: The Bear and the Dragon, and Red Storm Rising.I am still hoping that there will be Audiobooks of Eric L. Harry's war books some day!!!!!I enjoyed the first book of Pandora a lots. Within the many zombie books that I know, I would put Pandora in the category "Max Brooks, done by Tom Clancy". I have the Audiobook on Pandora, and I am looking forward to the 2nd part in a few weeks.Dear Eric L. Harry: I am glad you are back!! Please give us more war books - or any books!

I could not get into this book. I found it too full of boring jargon, and too little about the results of the virus taking hold. Perhaps it got better, but I struggled along a fair few chapters before giving up. Not my kind of book sorry.