The Cobra Event by Richard Preston

“The Cobra Event”, by Richard Preston was incredibly intimidating book that left me in awe till the very last page. It starts off with what appears to be a part of biological experiment in secluded area which hints of immense power of biological weapon. Then we get a piece of history, in which President Richard Nixon confirms the power/danger of these weapons and ends the manufacturing of biological weapons. Then the main story folds out.

For Alice Austen worked for Center for Diseases Control, every day was filled with answering to caller’s symptom until she was pushed to investigate a rare case., more specifically autopsy a dead body which suffered from what would be known as Cobra Virus. Her first patience was a little girl who resembled her very much who had a violent seizure and started to gnaw herself. However, she wasn’t the only patience, after her, series of people with same diseases had shown up. By the end of countless autopsies and grueling investigation with small force, they had found out that it is a virus that triggered the brain to eat its own-self, and was very similar to Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus which can only exist in moth. By this point we know that the already spread virus is simply a tiny sample of vast amount of virus which a guy name of Archimedes plan to release to the city to kill numerous people, his reason simply being, there are too many people. By researching DNA of Cobra Virus, it is discovered that the virus is actually a part small pox which dramatically increases the chance of being spread. By the end of full investigation, they finds out that Cobra Virus is Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus genetically engineered to fit human by Archimedes, real name Tom Cope. In the end, Tom Cope gets arrested inside of subway tunnel right before the big explosion could happen; only resulting in 14 cases of Cobra Event. However, at the very last moment, they reveal new carrier of Cobra Virus: Rats.

“The Cobra Event” was masterly written by Richard Preston. Unlike most other books which has equal share of emphasis on character’s quality, storyline, and background, this book focused heavily on the storyline. By contributing so much emotional, physical and scientific details to the storyline and its level of danger, the book was able to bring us into believing and imagining everything that is written on these pages like good TV show would except with just words. One great example would be autopsies that had been done throughout the book, it has been filled with emotional details which gave us an idea of what the scientists are going through, while physical details gave us a picture, and last scientific details gave us explanation to what is happening.