What if insect DNA was pre-programmed to self-destruct once every 33 million years? What would happen if it happened today...out of this strange, disturbing scenario comes this chillingly plausible and exciting thriller of an ecologically induced Armageddon...
Charles Pellegrino is a scientist-adventurer-writer who has not only invented a practical interstellar space probe but also devised a method of genetically duplicating dinosaurs using tissue found in flesh-feeding insects preserved in amber. As an underwater archaeologist, he has been extensively involved in the Titanic expeditions. The author of a number of books on a diverse range of subjects (including the bestselling Her Name, Titanic), Dr Pellegrino lives in New York.
"They're dead, I tell you! All the fungus gnats are dead!" screams a famous entomologist just before his protective suit is ripped apart and he's devoured by millions of vicious mites in this biothriller debut from self-described "scientific gadfly" Pellegrino. According to the publisher, it was Pellegrino's theory of dinosaur cloning that jump-started Jurassic Park; and his first novel does share with Crichton's novel a certain X-Files-meets-Scientific American appeal. What it doesn't have is the mighty Crichton narrative engine to carry it over the rougher patches of weird science. Pellegrino gets off to a good start: paleobiologist Richard Sinclair's Long Island neighborhood has been attacked by a deadly horde of mites‘the first indication that something has gone horribly wrong with the world's ecosystem. After the bugs kill his wife, Sinclair and his nine-year-old daughter escape to the relative safety of a nearby research facility, and Sinclair begins an investigation of the widespread insect extinctions that have brought on a host of other, world-threatening disasters. Meanwhile, a crooked former talk-show host with messianic pretensions whips up a frenzy among the hungry, frightened populace. Despite the promising ingredients, most readers will probably be so bogged down by overheated pseudo-jargon ("everything that was happening today was but the final blossoming of a stupendous explosion that had begun as a small flare‘much like... Richard's crystallization event") that they'll be rooting for the mites. (Mar).
It all starts with a massive die-off of fungus gnats. The fungus the gnats ate grows with nothing to control it. Worse, the bugs that eat the gnats have to find other food. Up the food chain the disaster moves until a horde of mites swarm ashore at a Long Island community, eating their way through every living thing. Scientist Richard Sinclair evacuates Long Beach with his daughter, Tam, leaving behind his wife, a victim of the mites' rampage. With other scientists around the world, Richard plots the course of nature out of whack as predators switch prey and entire species of insects die. As crops that depend on insect pollination perish, the commodities markets plummet, followed closely by the world's stock markets. When vampire bats start attacking humans, Richard fears the destruction of the world. Paleontologist Pellegrino has written a biological thriller that will convince readers to treat insects with more respect. His afterword discusses the events in the book and identifies which ones were based on fact. Recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/97.]‘Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., Metamora
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