Invasion by Robin cook – book review

I thought I had finished reading all of Robin cook’s old novels when I stumbled on this one. Usually it will take me a couple of chapters at least to figure out if I’ve read that book previously or not. But for this one, I even went to the extent of searching the blog for any review posts and was surprised to find none!! The story was very interesting and more than the Dean koontz novel, that was wildly quoted to foretell the present pandemic I felt this book would be a strong contender as well. As much as every novel based on a pandemic is giving similar feelings, the side effects of the coronavirus pandemic are yet to be assessed in full detail and that is where I feel this novel could provide a line of thought amongst the many already. One such effect that is not fully assessed I feel is the impact to sleep – be it for those affected and not as well. Personally, my sleep cycle has gone a 360 degree changeover. My typical day which usually started around 7 to 730 is now pushed by almost 2 hours south. Nothing surprising there as I was anyway not an early bird. But I am unable to sleep before 3AM in the night as well. Usually the pattern breaks over the weekend, but this has been progressively becoming delayed since the last year. Possibly the reason being stuck in the same room with nowhere else to go, the time taken to get ready or travel are all factored in mind I guess and consciously or otherwise, mind has made up that you have nowhere else to go, so do what you want!! Blame it on corona or simply being lazy, I see this with many people whose sleeping cycle has been disturbed may be due to stress, anxiety, inability to stick to a routine or for any other psychological reason. With all the negativity and issues abound, this novel gave a different perspective about the virus. 

An alien being crash lands into earth. It activates a virus inbuilt on the human gene, that has survived evolutions and several millenniums, having been ported across living being from dinosaur to primates to present day humans. From there on, the story does the mirror reverse of every sci-fi alien attack story we would’ve ever come across. The aliens actually want to help the humans by saving earth. They want us to do way with polluting things and there is a selfish motive to this as well, wherein they want to open a gateway and bring their species inside earth. The infection spreads like flu and after a gestation period it makes really strong and virtuous. It also enables a collective consciousness where in the lead player, the first infectant, guides the collective consciousness of rest of all those people who get infected. There is the mandatory heroine, who is the girl friend of the first infectant, an awkward teenage kid who suddenly doubles up as comp whiz, an ERT doctor who scales up as topnotch virologist, an out in the cold (or heat rather considering it was on a desert) nuclear war bunker becomes quick fix lab and what takes months and millennia for the superior alien beings to infect and infiltrate, the rag tag team of uninfected people defeat with their street smart approach of “mulla mullaala than edukkanum” type. They re-infect the infected population with an even more severe form of common cold and solve the problem. Even more than that, they drive their car onto the gateway portal being built by thousands of those infected people and just by cutting some wires, they close the portal from opening!! 

In essence, the alien virus wanted to do good and in fact it changed the personality of those impacted to being pleasant, smiling and cheerfully strong. Could corona be one such thing? Wherein it has released people from the yoke of routine, that had taken several decades and centuries in making, forcing them to think different. Made people realize what is more important for life and how the non-usage of their credit cards  didn’t actually end the world. For me personally, every time my kid calls me to play with him, he will say can you take a kutty break and play with me for 10 minutes. To me it is a whole new experience where-in I can spend time with my kid in between my work hours!!! In fact wifey this last year was a true blessing for me where I can spend more and more time with him as I please and also be his playmate, considering that there are no kids around. It is the only off time for me other than watching movies or reading and I enjoy it to the core. In that novel, the virus actually kills people who have inherent diseases like diabetes or not generally healthy. Likewise, the pandemic for sure has turned the lives of many upside down and changed their course forever. In my case as well the stress levels of my official work had increased several folds and many a day I wasn’t even able to catch a wink thinking of those issues. But if I take a step back and see, the view is slightly different. The perspectives differ and I can actually see some positives as well. WHO may not know a thing about this virus, but who knows. This could already be the biggest disruptor of human lives ever known!!! Coming decades may or may not having cars flying on helium or hydrogen. But possibly closer families, hopefully.

For the book, Cook started with a fantastic knot. But closing it well, he could not.