Mount Dragon

By: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Guy Carson is a brilliant scientist at GeneDyne, one of the world's foremost biochemical companies. When he is transferred to Mount Dragon, GeneDyne's high-security genetic engineering lab, his good fortune seems too good to be true.

Carson soon finds that it is. He learns that GeneDyne geneticists are tinkering with a common virus with an eye on the enormous profit to be had from a cure for the flu. Their cure involves permanently altering DNA in humans, and Carson's job is to stabilize the virus. But Carson starts to wonder if this is justifiable, even for the most noble medical cause. Altering genes is a risky job, and the possibility of creating another killer virus is very real. What's more, Mount Dragon harbors another secret that puts the world at horrifying risk.

©2008 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (P)2008 B00FO6WK0S

OK it's them, however....

Preston and Child do it again..and this time sans Scott Brick. Frankly, I am becoming quite a fan of Colacci, and I feel he does great work here bringing this multifaceted story to life. Lots' of stuff going on here, and not the cleanest of work this team have done, but overall very compelling ( and excellend summer yard work/barbeque/beer drinking listening! my July 4th ribs were done to the sound of this book in our backyard! ) Enjoy.

A bit tiresome in the scientific language

Endless descriptions, thin on plot, characters well-drawn. I thought it was not up to their usual standard.

Like three books in one.

What a sojourn! Long but after a slow start addictive. As intense as Relic! So many plots.
The details were incredible.

Fair

I felt the lead female character was irritating and grating. Made it hard to enjoy story.

Loved the story! Did NOT love the narrator!

I enjoy all my Preston/Child books so far and have liked all the narrators...except for this one! My only complaint, albeit a strong one, is the drastic change in volume. Man voice = loud. Woman voice = difficult to hear. Rise and fall of volume had nothing to do with the action or intensity.
My relatively peaceful disposition wanted to throw the digital book across the room. It was at times painful. I kept hoping for the last chapter because I absolutely cannot NOT finish a good story.
I would encourage the narrator to work on his execution and keep in mind that the story and the listener's imagination should carry the character shifts not volume.

Technical issues

A good story, well read but the sound quality was so poor I often had to undock my Garmin and reposition it near my ear, even with the volume at 100%. Really disappointing.

Not Their Best Effort

Lincoln Child, when writing solo, tends to have difficulty bringing a story to closure. I will love the first 90% of one of his books, and then the story will go on and on for a bit, dragging out the resolution. So I went into Mount Dragon fully prepared for that. However, with this book I found that all the story of interest to me was in the first half to two-thirds of the book. The whole survival in the desert and Scopes vs Levine "battle" were like a never-ending bore. I tried listening on a fast speed. Then I tried skipping ahead 30 seconds at a time. I finally bailed with an hour left in the book. At that point, I didn't care how it ended.

Great Story, Poor Narration

What did you love best about Mount Dragon?

This was a great story - mystery, science, history.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Guy Carson was my favorite character because he wasn't perfect.

Any additional comments?

The narration was poor. The sound was not consistent throughout the book. I appreciate the narrated trying to whisper when the characters did but I had to adjust the volume constantly while listening and it took away from the story.

Lots of unexpected turns and changes throughout

I really exciting story that twists and turns to the very end.
Great read! 🙏 thanks

Great grab-you-in-plot!

Preston and Childs deliver an interesting and plausible plot. They juggle several story lines that keep you waiting for the next twist and mentally keep you wondering when we'll see this in the news. (The latter may be because I live in NM.) I kept wanting to get the book so I could speed-read to find out the ending. The narrator did a lovely job of differentiating between the various characters. I will be delighted to listen to more of his narratives. Without givng anything away, listen to the book!--it moves well and is very enjoyable.