Cook, Robin [2]
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1940- ) US medical doctor and author of medical horror thrillers whose premises are often extracted from sf (see Medicine; Technothriller). His best-known novel remains his first, Coma (1977), a drama of Organlegging filmed as Coma (1978) by Michael Crichton, his confrere in the depiction of Near Future technologies in terms of horror. His several other titles, which are usually one word long except when – as with Chromosome 6 (1997), which is about the perils of Genetic Engineering – a single term may be insufficient to arouse fear, include Mortal Fear (1988), an anti-euthanasia tale; Mutation (1989), which warns against genetic tampering with chromosome 6, as the resulting super-babies will be Monsters; Contagion (1996), about a Pandemic spread by millennial terrorists; and Shock (2001), which dramatizes the dangers of stem cell research on the part of unscrupulous corporations. Abduction (2000), more purely sf in tone, describes an artificial world Under the Sea. [JC]
see also: Biology.
Robert Brian Cook
born New York: 4 May 1940
works
- Coma (Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 1977) [hb/Paul Bacon]
- Sphinx (New York: G P Putnam, 1979) [hb/]
- Brain (New York: G P Putnam, 1981) [hb/Gillian Hills]
- Fever (New York: G P Putnam, 1982) [hb/]
- Sphinx; and, Fever (London: Pan Macmillan, 1994) [omni of the above two: pb/]
- Godplayer (New York: G P Putnam, 1983) [hb/]
- Mindbend (New York: G P Putnam, 1985) [hb/]
- Outbreak (New York: G P Putnam, 1987) [hb/]
- Mortal Fear (New York: G P Putnam, 1988) [hb/]
- Mutation (New York: G P Putnam, 1989) [hb/]
- Harmful Intent (New York: G P Putnam, 1990) [hb/]
- Vital Signs (New York: G P Putnam, 1991) [hb/]
- Blindsight (New York: G P Putnam, 1992) [hb/]
- Harmful Intent, Vital Signs, Blindsight (New York: G P Putnam, 1992) [omni of the above three: hb/]
- Terminal (New York: G P Putnam, 1993) [hb/Don Brautigam]
- Fatal Cure (New York: G P Putnam, 1994) [hb/]
- Acceptable Risk (New York: G P Putnam, 1995) [hb/]
- Terminal; Fatal Cure; and Acceptable Risk (New York: G P Putnam, 1997) [omni of the above three: hb/]
- Contagion (New York: G P Putnam, 1996) [hb/]
- Invasion (New York: Berkley Books, 1997) [tie to the television production: pb/]
- Chromosome 6 (New York: G P Putnam, 1997) [hb/]
- Toxin (New York: G P Putnam, 1998) [hb/]
- Vector (New York: G P Putnam, 1999) [hb/]
- Abduction (New York: Berkley Books, 2000) [pb/Danilo Ducak]
- Shock (New York: G P Putnam, 2001) [hb/]
- Seizure (New York: G P Putnam, 2003) [hb/]
- Marker (New York: G P Putnam, 2005) [hb/]
- Crisis (New York: G P Putnam, 2006) [hb/]
- Critical (New York: G P Putnam, 2007) [hb/]
- Nano (New York: G P Putnam, 2012) [hb/]
- Cell (New York: G P Putnam, 2014) [hb/]
- Pandemic (New York: G P Putnam, 2018) [hb/]
- Viral (New York, G P Putnam, 2021) [hb/]
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