BOOK REVIEW by Sumati Mattoo

BOOK: INVASION


AUTHOR: ROBIN COOK

YEAR OF PUBLICATION:

GENRE: SCIENCE FICTION

Invasion is a suspenseful book about a time when human beings and creatures succumb to a virus and start to behave bizarrely and symbiotically as if controlled by some ‘outside influence’. These mutated creatures together worked together on the building of the GATEWAY.

The gateway was a connection, or more correctly put, a transportation medium between the species from other planet and the virus infected people on earth in the time to come. They believed that the Earth henceforth will be linked to the other worlds and its isolation will be over. ‘It shall truly become a part of the galaxy’.

For this purpose, the leader of the ‘infested’ people, Beau, opens “The Institute for a New Beginning” in the town, Santa Fe. Spread across four point six acre of land, amidst the lawns, the estate was magnificent. From the description we come to know that it was built in the early nineteen hundred in a French chateau style. The stone used was local granite. The reflecting pool described in the foreground was a sight through the French windows through which the sunlight cascaded the interiors. *The distant saw-toothed purple mountains looked like amethyst crystals bathed in golden light.

Beau occupied the master suite at the chateau. The room has been described as French doors over a balcony that looked down on the terrace. The library room nearby, was equipped with TV monitors from where Beau could keep himself updated on the happenings around the globe. The heavy velvet drapes were drawn across the arched window in such a way that viewing was easier. And from the wrought iron balcony off the library could be seen a long stretch of driveway before it disappeared into the trees.

But the area used for the making of the gateway was the ballroom. It was a huge hall decorated with enormous chandeliers as well as massive decorative cornices and large spanned arched windows. In the center of the room were various electronics concerns from all pirated parts of the observatory and the nearby university physics department. It was completely in contrast with the tranquility of the bedroom, filled with people working as machines, paying no heed to others around. All the walls and the floor were covered with wiring and in the center of the space was a huge metal structure. At its core lay an enormous cylindrical tank with steel girders aligned in any possible angle. This superstructure was basically built for the storage and transmission of high voltage electricity. Surrounding it was the command control center with numerous monitors, dials and switches.

I chose to write about this scene because the author has very beautifully described the inside world from the outside.

While the work being done inside has is all technical and mechanic like, the outside description has a flow to it. I assume that the contrast was made on purpose by the author so as to mark the difference clearly. Had the outside been as technical as the inside, the gateway might not have had the effect that it imposes now.

Even though the book isn’t as interesting, but I believe that the selection of words by the author to describe scenes it quite effective.

* page 189