While
the film Gravity is good to look at, probably moreso in 3D on the big screen, and
Sandra Bullock does sterling work, virtually occupying the screen throughout,
the story has very little plot and character interaction. That cannot be said
of Tess Gerritsen’s book, originally published in 1999; amazingly it’s still in
the top #50 on Amazon COM as I write. This was an unusual departure for Gerritsen, known at the time for her murder mystery medical thrillers. This is
science fiction with medical thriller overtones.
Like
the countdown to a shuttle take-off, the beginning is a slow burn, getting to
know some characters – notably Emma Watson (long before the first Harry Potter film was released!), a research physician who is scheduled
for a trip to the International Space Station (ISS). She’s going through a
divorce from her husband Jack McCallum; he was trained as an astronaut but a
medical condition grounded him.
Almost
at the last minute, Emma’s assigned an earlier slot to go to ISS. On getting
there, when some kind of ailment starts plaguing the crew, one by one. The
blurb gives it away: ‘a culture of single-celled organisms begin to regenerate
out of control.’ Emma struggles to combat the contagion. And meanwhile Jack and
NASA juggle with bureaucracy and some sinister elements in the hope of bringing
the survivors back to earth. Until it’s realised that bringing them home is no
longer an option; they must be quarantined in space, to die there.
An
immense amount of research went into this book, that’s obvious. The public has
become rather blasé about astronauts and cosmonauts et al floating above us in
the ISS – that bright star we glimpse on good cloudless nights. Yet their very
existence is constantly under threat, from ‘out there’ and even from within.
I
have no intention of inserting any spoilers – I feel that the blurb writer
spoiled some of the suspense by using that description – but let me just add
that several revelations are made towards the end. And even though it’s almost
500 pages in length, it’s a fast read, an edge-of-seat experience, with a
chilling conclusion.
There’s
a glossary at the end, thankfully, for as Gerritsen says, ‘NASA has been dubbed
the National Acronym Slinging Agency’.
Tess
Gerritsen is currently involved in a lawsuit against Warner Bros with regard to
‘breach of contract’. You can read more about it in her blog here
A
later blog will discuss a related subject – literary ideas and their fate.
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