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protoman21's review against another edition
2.0
It's weird that the most juvenile and pedestrian writing that I read these days comes from adult fiction and not juvenile or young adult books. I honestly don't know how this stuff gets published. The story was essentially a one minute news blurb dragged out to a full length novel. I never felt connected to the characters and the story was very boring with stilted dialog and very manufactured situations. I think I'm done with Robin Cook.
applegnreads's review against another edition
2.0
You know, I really used to enjoy Robin Cook. I don't know if I've become too good of a reader for him or if he's having someone else write his stuff for him now. It's sad. I knew what was going to happen from the very beginning and the coversation was horrible. Oh well. I guess I'll just stick to his old stuff and hope that he stops writing soon so the majority of his books are good.
charlie9_9's review against another edition
4.0
although to me it wasn't his best book it is still differently worth reading if you are a Robin Cook fan.once again he keeps you interested from the beginning to the end. good to see regular characters jack and laurie feature in the book but not as the main ones
tani's review against another edition
2.0
The dialogue was stiff, the characters were lacking in emotion, and for being a thriller, it was pretty boring.
dozylocal's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars
This was dull.
It's been about 25 years since I last read a book by Robin Cook and I remember really enjoying them in my teens. I also seem to remember it being more of a medical mystery - where part of the enjoyment was trying to figure out what was happening and/or who (what?) was doing it.
This one didn't follow that recipe. From the start, you, as the reader, had all the information, and the main theme was to read how the good guys figured it out. There was some drama and it was set in India, but Robin Cook is not a creative writer, and without that "unknown" element to draw me in, I found it a boring read.
This was dull.
It's been about 25 years since I last read a book by Robin Cook and I remember really enjoying them in my teens. I also seem to remember it being more of a medical mystery - where part of the enjoyment was trying to figure out what was happening and/or who (what?) was doing it.
This one didn't follow that recipe. From the start, you, as the reader, had all the information, and the main theme was to read how the good guys figured it out. There was some drama and it was set in India, but Robin Cook is not a creative writer, and without that "unknown" element to draw me in, I found it a boring read.
halcyon_rising's review against another edition
3.0
Vreemd Lichaam is het tweede boek dat ik van Robin Cook gelezen heb. Het is te lang geleden om mij nog te herinneren over wat het precies ging, maar ik weet wel dat het me opviel hoe dat de schrijver volgens een bepaald schema schrijft, en dat beide boeken eigenlijk gewoon hetzelfde zijn.
Vlak voor dit boek had ik Doodsakte gelezen, ook van Robin Cook. Dat boek viel me beter mee omdat het het eerste boek dat ik van de schrijver gelezen had, was.
Voor het eerste boek gaf ik nog 4 sterren, voor het tweede gaf ik er 3. Ik denk niet dat ik nog een boek van deze autheur ga lezen, want het ziet ernaar uit dat het hele palmares hetzelfde is.
Vlak voor dit boek had ik Doodsakte gelezen, ook van Robin Cook. Dat boek viel me beter mee omdat het het eerste boek dat ik van de schrijver gelezen had, was.
Voor het eerste boek gaf ik nog 4 sterren, voor het tweede gaf ik er 3. Ik denk niet dat ik nog een boek van deze autheur ga lezen, want het ziet ernaar uit dat het hele palmares hetzelfde is.
vaishnu17's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
weaselweader's review against another edition
2.0
Is Robin Cook jumping the shark?
Jennifer Hernandez, a fourth year medical student at UCLA, suspicious about certain details of the death of her grandmother in a New Delhi hospital, flies to India to investigate and to claim the body. Ultimately, Hernandez discovers that her grandmother has in fact been murdered by a nurse employed by "Nurses International", the subsidiary of an enormous, profit-hungry HMO that is intent on making a burgeoning Indian medical industry appear to be dangerous and incompetent. It seems that the meteoric growth of medical tourism in India has begun to make a substantial and rapidly deepening dent in the profits of the American HMO as it watches many of its patients travel to India for less expensive alternative solutions to their medical woes.
And here I thought Robin Cook was supposed to be writing medical "thrillers". Sadly, Foreign Body was anything but!
The list of what was wrong with Foreign Body is lengthy indeed - cartoonish villain stereotypes, atrociously stilted dialogue, an unconvincing sappy ending, a complete neglect of the broader political issues that should have been explored in much greater depth and an utter lack of suspense in that the means, the methods, the opportunities and the perpetrators were completely disclosed virtually from the outset of the novel.
The list of what was entertaining is all too short! At least Cook has done a reasonably interesting job of talking about the endlessly fascinating aspects of what one would be likely to encounter in a tourist trip to such an exotic destination as New Delhi. He's also taken us on a faintly amusing side trip through the hormonal nightmares that fertility treatments can wreak on a patient of the female persuasion. But this is certainly damning with faint praise as it only means the difference between an award of two stars versus the one star rating that I was toying with.
Weak gruel indeed! Not recommended and I hope not representative of Cook's efforts in the future.
Paul Weiss
Jennifer Hernandez, a fourth year medical student at UCLA, suspicious about certain details of the death of her grandmother in a New Delhi hospital, flies to India to investigate and to claim the body. Ultimately, Hernandez discovers that her grandmother has in fact been murdered by a nurse employed by "Nurses International", the subsidiary of an enormous, profit-hungry HMO that is intent on making a burgeoning Indian medical industry appear to be dangerous and incompetent. It seems that the meteoric growth of medical tourism in India has begun to make a substantial and rapidly deepening dent in the profits of the American HMO as it watches many of its patients travel to India for less expensive alternative solutions to their medical woes.
And here I thought Robin Cook was supposed to be writing medical "thrillers". Sadly, Foreign Body was anything but!
The list of what was wrong with Foreign Body is lengthy indeed - cartoonish villain stereotypes, atrociously stilted dialogue, an unconvincing sappy ending, a complete neglect of the broader political issues that should have been explored in much greater depth and an utter lack of suspense in that the means, the methods, the opportunities and the perpetrators were completely disclosed virtually from the outset of the novel.
The list of what was entertaining is all too short! At least Cook has done a reasonably interesting job of talking about the endlessly fascinating aspects of what one would be likely to encounter in a tourist trip to such an exotic destination as New Delhi. He's also taken us on a faintly amusing side trip through the hormonal nightmares that fertility treatments can wreak on a patient of the female persuasion. But this is certainly damning with faint praise as it only means the difference between an award of two stars versus the one star rating that I was toying with.
Weak gruel indeed! Not recommended and I hope not representative of Cook's efforts in the future.
Paul Weiss