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trixie_reads's review against another edition
1.0
What a terrible book! It was nothing but a thinly disguised lecture against alternative medicine populated by unlikeable charactes, with a pointless mini rant against religion.
mag_da's review against another edition
3.0
Rating: 3,5
Both entertaining and thought provoking read.
This book is a bit different than other books with Jack and Laurie. I was expecting more medical stuff to be in it but the archaeological parts were kinda interesting. The storyline was absorbing. Jack and Laurie are my favorite characters from all the books by Cook but the new characters were also interesting though I didn't particularly liked them.
Ending was different than I expected. Some aspects of the ending really disappointed me but others I really liked.
Even though I was kind of disappointed that there was less medical issues than in other books by Cook it was a good read.
ryneb's review against another edition
2.0
I've only read one Robin Cook book besides this one, but I was impressed by his ability to write a gripping thriller that combined the medical world as well, two ideas that sound great but, when mashed together, can end up bogged down with medical mumbo-jumbo and off-kilter pacing. Intervention is very loosely tied to the medical world, however, and I couldn't help feeling a Dan Brown influence throughout the entirety of the novel.
Intervention can be considered a quest story of sorts; this time, the quest item is not the Holy Grail but the ossuary that contains what the characters of the story believe are the bones of the Virgin Mary. Cook is definitely caught up on the religious spin in the novel, but he does tackle some other themes about the medical world as well. But this tendency to pin too many themes to one story is what generates the big problem for Intervention.
Cook's protagonist is Jack Stapleton, a recurring character from some of his older novels. Some of Jack's friends, Shawn and his wife Sana, have unearthed the ossuary of what appears to be the Virgin Mary, and, both being in two fields of study that will be directly affected by this find, proceed to uncover both the evidence to support the Virgin Mary claim and DNA that would uncover a matrilineal link to Mary in the contemporary world. But Jack's other friend, James, is an archbishop, a guy who would really suffer if word got out the Mary's bones had been found and that she had not divinely ascended into Heaven. So James and Shawn butt heads about the whole matter, and James sends a Virgin Mary fanatic into Shawn's house to influence him not to release his evidence. And somehow, Jack manages to find himself caught up in all of this, plus deal with his sick 4-month-old.
The plot sounds a bit confusing, and the references to Gnosticism and the Bible can be frustrating if one isn't up on their religious knowledge. But the plot is explained clearly enough, and often enough, to allow for the reader to get the gist of what's going on and why it's bad. Once one has been given the run-down of the Virgin Mary dilemma, the plot becomes quite intricate and interesting. It's the intervals in-between that make for a muddled read.
The first half of the book is fairly misleading. Jack begins to focus on his fieldwork about the dangers of alternative medicine, like chiropractic, which ultimately leads... no where. One can argue that towards the end of the novel, there's a frail tether between the religious aspect and faith healing, but to be honest, the two are barely connected. It feels like a waste to be given so much information on chiropractic, following Jack's informational trail and getting sucked into the topic, for it to just be dropped in the middle of the book for something more permanent. It feels as though Cook is trying to tap into some very pertinent themes, but there are just too many. They just can't be tackled all at once.
Unfortunately, the religious aspect of the plot becomes significantly less arousing after the ossuary has been dug up; the plot is reduced to a "thriller" where Shawn and Sana are wiped out by a religious fanatic with little to no emotional buildup and an even smaller emotional release from Jack. The characters are incredibly unbelievable; Jack is constantly leaving his sick baby and his taxed wife to go play a game of hoops, or skedaddling out of the house early in the morning to get in a couple more hours of work so that he doesn't have to be with the baby. Shawn and Sana bicker more than siblings, and that gets annoying all too quickly. James does not feel like an archbishop in the slightest. Their reactions are even more improbable. James and Jack are quick to get over their old friend's death; they are barely phased, moving on to more "pressing" matters! Jack blows up at people over the silliest of instances; twice he gets angry at people because they have had some sort of alternative medicine once in a while. This man needs some anger management counseling! The dialogue is off as well; everyone seems too nice, too sophisticated in speech. It seems these people don't use slang, or even contractions, when they talk.
A huge detractor is that the plot is wrapped up too quickly. Come on, I've read 350 pages of this book about the Virgin Mary; I do NOT want the conflict resolved by a quick house fire in two pages. The pacing, especially towards the end, is so inconsistent that the conclusion is probably one of the most disappointing features of the book. In the end, not much happens - everything is restored to order, a couple people died in the process, but so what? A baby is cured of cancer - maybe.
This is Robin Cook's 29th book. But it doesn't feel like he's learned a whole lot about the craft of writing in those other 28 novels. Why are the characters so unbelievable? What's with the dialogue? What happened to sticking to one point of view (Jack's)? There are just too many mistakes here to deny; the themes might be edgy, but the book can't sustain any intensity to give them any weight.
Intervention can be considered a quest story of sorts; this time, the quest item is not the Holy Grail but the ossuary that contains what the characters of the story believe are the bones of the Virgin Mary. Cook is definitely caught up on the religious spin in the novel, but he does tackle some other themes about the medical world as well. But this tendency to pin too many themes to one story is what generates the big problem for Intervention.
Cook's protagonist is Jack Stapleton, a recurring character from some of his older novels. Some of Jack's friends, Shawn and his wife Sana, have unearthed the ossuary of what appears to be the Virgin Mary, and, both being in two fields of study that will be directly affected by this find, proceed to uncover both the evidence to support the Virgin Mary claim and DNA that would uncover a matrilineal link to Mary in the contemporary world. But Jack's other friend, James, is an archbishop, a guy who would really suffer if word got out the Mary's bones had been found and that she had not divinely ascended into Heaven. So James and Shawn butt heads about the whole matter, and James sends a Virgin Mary fanatic into Shawn's house to influence him not to release his evidence. And somehow, Jack manages to find himself caught up in all of this, plus deal with his sick 4-month-old.
The plot sounds a bit confusing, and the references to Gnosticism and the Bible can be frustrating if one isn't up on their religious knowledge. But the plot is explained clearly enough, and often enough, to allow for the reader to get the gist of what's going on and why it's bad. Once one has been given the run-down of the Virgin Mary dilemma, the plot becomes quite intricate and interesting. It's the intervals in-between that make for a muddled read.
The first half of the book is fairly misleading. Jack begins to focus on his fieldwork about the dangers of alternative medicine, like chiropractic, which ultimately leads... no where. One can argue that towards the end of the novel, there's a frail tether between the religious aspect and faith healing, but to be honest, the two are barely connected. It feels like a waste to be given so much information on chiropractic, following Jack's informational trail and getting sucked into the topic, for it to just be dropped in the middle of the book for something more permanent. It feels as though Cook is trying to tap into some very pertinent themes, but there are just too many. They just can't be tackled all at once.
Unfortunately, the religious aspect of the plot becomes significantly less arousing after the ossuary has been dug up; the plot is reduced to a "thriller" where Shawn and Sana are wiped out by a religious fanatic with little to no emotional buildup and an even smaller emotional release from Jack. The characters are incredibly unbelievable; Jack is constantly leaving his sick baby and his taxed wife to go play a game of hoops, or skedaddling out of the house early in the morning to get in a couple more hours of work so that he doesn't have to be with the baby. Shawn and Sana bicker more than siblings, and that gets annoying all too quickly. James does not feel like an archbishop in the slightest. Their reactions are even more improbable. James and Jack are quick to get over their old friend's death; they are barely phased, moving on to more "pressing" matters! Jack blows up at people over the silliest of instances; twice he gets angry at people because they have had some sort of alternative medicine once in a while. This man needs some anger management counseling! The dialogue is off as well; everyone seems too nice, too sophisticated in speech. It seems these people don't use slang, or even contractions, when they talk.
A huge detractor is that the plot is wrapped up too quickly. Come on, I've read 350 pages of this book about the Virgin Mary; I do NOT want the conflict resolved by a quick house fire in two pages. The pacing, especially towards the end, is so inconsistent that the conclusion is probably one of the most disappointing features of the book. In the end, not much happens - everything is restored to order, a couple people died in the process, but so what? A baby is cured of cancer - maybe.
This is Robin Cook's 29th book. But it doesn't feel like he's learned a whole lot about the craft of writing in those other 28 novels. Why are the characters so unbelievable? What's with the dialogue? What happened to sticking to one point of view (Jack's)? There are just too many mistakes here to deny; the themes might be edgy, but the book can't sustain any intensity to give them any weight.
brettp's review against another edition
2.0
Finished "Intervention" by Robin Cook. My first experience with Robin Cook was Coma, which I read when I was in high school. I loved it. Intervention, on the other hand...
*possible spoilers ahead*
The first third of this story was a waste of time since it never really went anywhere. I get what it was trying to do - establish the main character's beliefs - but it was really done poorly, not to mention I didn't like many of the characters. The middle was good when it got rolling. The ending was a let-down, though.
*possible spoilers ahead*
The first third of this story was a waste of time since it never really went anywhere. I get what it was trying to do - establish the main character's beliefs - but it was really done poorly, not to mention I didn't like many of the characters. The middle was good when it got rolling. The ending was a let-down, though.
candeal's review
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
emslovestoread's review against another edition
2.0
Remember that one time when I was going to be done with Robin Cook? I gave him one more chance, and it was okay. I might not be done with him after all. I liked this book better than Cure, which I was really not okay with. I was glad of that, because Dr. Cook has always been one of my favorite authors.
Intervention still has some of the things that bugged me about Cure, but a lot of things that I liked a lot better. It kind of has a special place in my heart because it deals a lot with archaeology, which I have my Bachelor's Degree in. It was interesting to read this book from that perspective, because I could understand Shawn and Sana a whole lot more than I would have otherwise. I could relate to the desire to have a world-changing discovery, while wrestling with the implications for a close friend. Not that I ever had anything even close to earth-shattering, but I could see how that would affect one's rationale.
Dr. Cook still uses too much medical jargon, in my opinion, with the assumption that the layman will understand it. I'm sorry, I don't understand it. I get basic stuff like surgery, doctor's office, and DNA. When he gets into the technical lingo, I wander. It would really be like me writing a novel where I use obscure terms that only another person in my position would understand. I don't think that's the audience that he's looking for (though I could be mistaken), so I just don't get why it's necessary to make it all scientific talk and stuff. So that has to factor into a lower rating than I'd have liked.
I also felt like the epilogue was just a tack-on for convenience sake, to tie things up in a rather messy way. It didn't fit in at all with the rest of the book. I felt like it should have been introduced as an option way earlier, and then the rest might have meshed better.
I did like that the conflict didn't involve the Mafia, for once. It was nice to have just a man vs. nature, man vs. the church situation for once instead of outgunned man with gang friends vs. overgunned and very suave Mafioso and underlings. This book took us into new territory for Dr. Cook, and I liked that.
Intervention gets a 'meh' rating, because I didn't exactly like it, but I didn't hate it either. It was in the middle for me.
Intervention still has some of the things that bugged me about Cure, but a lot of things that I liked a lot better. It kind of has a special place in my heart because it deals a lot with archaeology, which I have my Bachelor's Degree in. It was interesting to read this book from that perspective, because I could understand Shawn and Sana a whole lot more than I would have otherwise. I could relate to the desire to have a world-changing discovery, while wrestling with the implications for a close friend. Not that I ever had anything even close to earth-shattering, but I could see how that would affect one's rationale.
Dr. Cook still uses too much medical jargon, in my opinion, with the assumption that the layman will understand it. I'm sorry, I don't understand it. I get basic stuff like surgery, doctor's office, and DNA. When he gets into the technical lingo, I wander. It would really be like me writing a novel where I use obscure terms that only another person in my position would understand. I don't think that's the audience that he's looking for (though I could be mistaken), so I just don't get why it's necessary to make it all scientific talk and stuff. So that has to factor into a lower rating than I'd have liked.
I also felt like the epilogue was just a tack-on for convenience sake, to tie things up in a rather messy way. It didn't fit in at all with the rest of the book. I felt like it should have been introduced as an option way earlier, and then the rest might have meshed better.
I did like that the conflict didn't involve the Mafia, for once. It was nice to have just a man vs. nature, man vs. the church situation for once instead of outgunned man with gang friends vs. overgunned and very suave Mafioso and underlings. This book took us into new territory for Dr. Cook, and I liked that.
Intervention gets a 'meh' rating, because I didn't exactly like it, but I didn't hate it either. It was in the middle for me.
thecatmomreads's review against another edition
1.0
A coworker told me she dared me to find a book worse than this one. Well, I can't. Easily the worst I've ever read. Hated every page of it, horrible characters that are totally unlikable, poorly written, and a terrible ending. Read the phone book before this one.
cjhubbs's review against another edition
1.0
Usually Robin Cook is a safe bet for a solid mystery. Which leaves me bewildered as to what happened in this book. It's as if he took two parts Dan Brown, one part anti-homeopathic medicine, and a large dose of horrible dialogue, and threw them all in a blender.
Characters don't make sense, inexplicable plot twists, unsatisfying resolutions... ick ick ick.
NOT recommended.
Characters don't make sense, inexplicable plot twists, unsatisfying resolutions... ick ick ick.
NOT recommended.
mag_da's review
3.0
Rating: 3,5
Both entertaining and thought provoking read.
This book is a bit different than other books with Jack and Laurie. I was expecting more medical stuff to be in it but the archaeological parts were kinda interesting. The storyline was absorbing. Jack and Laurie are my favorite characters from all the books by Cook but the new characters were also interesting though I didn't particularly liked them.
Ending was different than I expected. Some aspects of the ending really disappointed me but others I really liked.
Even though I was kind of disappointed that there was less medical issues than in other books by Cook it was a good read.