Invasion
Authors: Robin Cook
“Leave it to doctor-turned-novelist Robin Cook to scare us all to death.”
—
Los Angeles Times
With his finger on the pulse of the latest medical technology, Robin Cook preys on our deepest fears with uncanny skill. Now, in this most provocative thriller, he explores a sudden outbreak of strange new symptoms that defy diagnosis. The cause is unknown—and unknowable—because it is unlike anything humankind has ever seen…
“Dr. Robin Cook certainly knows how to tell a story.”
—
The Detroit News
Praise for
ROBIN COOK
and his bestselling novels
“Straight out of today’s headlines.”
—UPI
“Holds you page after page.”
—Larry King,
USA Today
“Shocking and thought-provoking.”
—The Associated Press
“Fast…exciting…spine-tingling.”
—
The Denver Post
“Stern and bracing…[a] suspenseful thriller.”
—
San Francisco Chronicle
“A real grabber.”
—
Los Angeles Times
“A riveting plot, filled with action.”
—
The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Gripping.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“A spellbinder…unbearable tension.”
—
Houston Chronicle
Titles by Robin Cook
CRISIS
SEIZURE
SHOCK
ABDUCTION
FEVER
VECTOR
TOXIN
INVASION
CHROMOSOME 6
CONTAGION
ACCEPTABLE RISK
FATAL CURE
TERMINAL
BLINDSIGHT
VITAL SIGNS
HARMFUL INTENT
MUTATION
MORTAL FEAR
OUTBREAK
MINDBEND
GODPLAYER
BRAIN
SPHINX
COMA
THE YEAR OF THE INTERN
INVASION
ROBIN COOK
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
INVASION
A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley mass-market edition / April 1997
Berkley premium edition / November 2007
Copyright © 1997 by Robin Cook.
“Introduction” copyright © 2007 by Robin Cook.
Cover art:
Eye
background by Chad Baker/Ryan McVay;
Iris
by Joe McNally/Getty Images.
Cover design by Marc Cohen.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-20684-3
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Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
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The “B” design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Dear Reader,
Invasion
might be my most fun book, at least from the point of view of the writing process. In contrast to my more typical medical mystery/thrillers where I’m constrained by the need for medical/scientific accuracy to bolster my underlying social message, with
Invasion
I was able to enjoy the entertaining opportunity to indulge my imagination far more than my memory and just let the ideas flow. Of course with my education skewed toward science, the story is based in fact; in particular, what I have learned over the years about viruses, about theories and concepts concerning the nature of consciousness, and about the near statistical inevitability of alien life in this universe or a possible parallel universe. But all that was a mere starting point for a wild, imaginative ride that raises a few social issues like global warming a decade before it became such a hot topic, as well as a scenario that answers a few earthbound mysteries like explaining mass
extinctions, specifically that of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The story even highlights some frivolous facts like the off-road capabilities of a Range Rover automobile.
As
Invasion
is such a marked departure from my other twenty-five novels (subsequently I wrote a second science fiction novel,
Abduction
, since I had had so much fun with
Invasion
), some people might be curious where the initial impulse to write it came from. Actually I have to thank NBC. It was their movie department’s request for me to come up with a scenario for a two-night science fiction miniseries that was the stimulus. The fact that I had never written any science fiction was not a deterrent; in fact, it was a stimulus. For NBC, I believe they thought they might get something fresh; while for me, I had an inkling that it would turn out to be as much fun as it was.