Bioterror!

An Ell Donsaii Story, Book 14

By: Laurence Dahners

Narrated by: Laura Bannister

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Bioterror! is the 14th book in a series of near-future sci-fi thrillers. Its heroine, Ell Donsaii, has a nerve mutation that makes her a genius and provides her with some astonishing athletic abilities.

In Bioterror!, Ell’s son, Zage, a five-year-old prodigy, continues to follow his interests in biology and genetics, in keeping with his aim to eradicate what he perceives to be an obesity epidemic, partially driven by communicable viral diseases. His mother gets permission for him to skip ordinary primary and secondary schooling, and enrolls him in a university to study molecular genetics. He’ll be working in Dr. Reggie Barnes' research lab, where he hopes to learn how to take his ideas to the next level.

Unfortunately, a talented virologist has joined a radical Islamic splinter group, promising to help them wipe nonbelievers from the face of the earth. He gets access to a forgotten smallpox culture and sets out to modify the already horrific disease into a more lethal version, one which won’t be prevented by standard vaccinations and is resistant to antiviral treatments.

Zage has been working on a way to predict the proteins in viruses and recognize antigens in the viral shell that antibodies might be formed against. He’s hoping to immunize people against obesity viruses, but there’s no reason his new algorithm can’t also be used to stop the modified smallpox virus…if he can work with the CDC to make his vaccination available.

©2017 Laurence E. Dahners (P)2022 Laurence E. Dahners

Always fun to hear Dahners stories

Some may consider Dahners stories to be YA. But at 73 years old, I can tell you they're just plain FUN. I've got my wallet out, waiting for the next one.

Great book but ...

I loved his book as usual. My only issue was his, vaccines are great and any hesitancy is idiocy and a burden on the rest of us, was irritating. Yes they're an extremely important technology. But like almost every other drug out there: they've got their own warts. In his Hyllis Family Stories he has been good about acknowledging the risks and limitations, of their treatments, while still telling a good story.

He could have acknowledged how vaccines have had ongoing quality control issues, where they couldn't keep vaccines from spreading other diseases (such as Syphilis for the Small Pox vaccine or RSV for the Polio vaccine). He could have mentioned how another risk is that some antigens look like proteins in your body triggering autoimmunity, Such has happened with some Flu vaccines. Or how other vaccines have weakened people's defenses against other strains or diseases. Such as happened with Dengue and Pertussis.

So I really enjoyed the book: I just wish he had stayed closer to the science.

Bioterro!

I really like this book and can hardly waif for them to be Audible books! Zage never disappoints. His parents always go along for the ride. I am certain that if they were poor, Zage would figure out an income stream Rave on!!!