Thursday, February 9, 2012

Review: H10N1 by M. R. Cornelius

Synopsis:
A deadly influenza virus rages out of control. There is no easy-fix vaccine. No eleventh-hour containment. Only death. With no workforce, power plants have been shut down, police and fire departments have collapsed, crops lie unpicked in the fields.

When Dr. Taeya Sanchez finds herself unceremoniously dismissed from an emergency medical facility in New York, she decides to steal the hospital's armored van for a midnight escape. Unfortunately, Rick DeAngelo, a driver for the hospital, has already stocked the van for his own getaway.

Thrown into an unfriendly alliance, these two must pick their way across the dangerous wasteland of America in search of a safe haven. And as the miles roll by, they discover that the living should be feared much more than the festering corpses out there.



Review:
It was pretty much predetermined that I would like this book. It has a few key things that I really love in my books. Pandemic that kills off a huge percentage of the population? Check. A social/economical/political collapse? Yep. A fight for survival against natural and human elements? Um, yes. (That actually sounds pretty morbid that I like all that :) I am happy to say that H10N1 came through and delivered on my high hopes.

When the book starts it really feels like you are getting a glimpse into how things would look if a horrible strain of flu came through and decimated the population, mutating as it went. I had read a sample of the Prologue and was like, 'Must. Read. More.' That prologue alone will hook you in.

The book is told from the dual perspectives of Dr. Taeya Sanchez and Rick DeAngelo. They rub each other the wrong way at the beginning. When they are both making their late night getaway from the medical facility they both were working at, they have to put aside their prejudices and work alongside one another. I really loved how their relationship evolved and they each grew individually as the plot progresses.

This book was well-written and paced with a great plot and interesting characters. H10N1 really holds its own with the 'end of the world as we know it' or 'pandemic' books. If this is a genre you enjoy then I highly suggest giving this one a shot.

Publication Date: April 12, 2011
Genre: Adult Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic
Source: Thanks so much to the author M. R. Cornelius for my review copy!

Find out more about H10N1 on Goodreads, Amazon or B&N.

3 comments:

Wendy Darling said...

Ooo. I really like end-of-the-world and virus stories too, so this one sounds intriguing! Thanks for the heads up, this one wasn't on my radar.

Wendy @ at The Midnight Garden

Susan said...

I'd never heard of this one, but I'm totally going to check it out now. I don't know why I love this kind of stuff—everybody else finds it totally depressing—but I do! Glad to know I'm not the only one :)

Jackie M. said...

@Susan Yes, I adore this type of book :) I'm always on the look out for new ones to check out. I'm about to start another indie apocalyptic type book and hopefully it is a good read too.