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Sick (Project Eden #1)

by Brett Battles (Goodreads Author), Blake Crouch (Introduction)

3.9 of 5 stars 3.90 · rating details · 518 ratings · 97 reviews

Daniel Ash wakes after midnight to the cry of his daughter. Just a bad dream, he thinks. She's had them before. Yet he can't help but worry when she cries out again as he pads down the hallway. Stepping through her doorway, he expects to find her sitting up in bed, frightened by a nightmare.

But the nightmare is his. It's real. And it's just beginning...

Something is burning...more

Kindle Edition, 296 pages

Published April 19th 2011

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Jan 13, 2013 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

A good story and a darn good beginning to a multi book sequel. This book is well written with no obvious holes in the plot. I plan on reading the next in the series, "Exit 9".
The plot of this book has been done before....a lot, mysterious evil group plans on wiping out humanity to start anew. If you are looking for a refreshing take or something groundbreaking, you aren't going to find it in this novel.
There is very little character development. But with more books in the story, I can't honest...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Books rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

One of the positive points of this book for me is the fact that there is zero romance in it. No-one falling in or out of love, no love triangles, and no whining damsel in distress. That doesn’t mean that this isn’t a great read. I’m saying that this book was a terrific read without the author reverting to the customary romance angle to give the story a backbone. I loved that the author created a tale starting as a parent’s worst nightmare and built it up from there to an explosive ending, instea...more One of the positive points of this book for me is the fact that there is zero romance in it. No-one falling in or out of love, no love triangles, and no whining damsel in distress. That doesn’t mean that this isn’t a great read. I’m saying that this book was a terrific read without the author reverting to the customary romance angle to give the story a backbone. I loved that the author created a tale starting as a parent’s worst nightmare and built it up from there to an explosive ending, instead of weighing a lackluster plot down with touchy-feely clichés and passing it off as a thriller, as some authors do.

What I didn’t enjoy about this book however, hence the four-star rating, is the main character. For some reason I just couldn’t connect with him. I also felt that too little attention was given to the children’s story line, but the author did an outstanding job with the secondary characters and their story lines. In many ways I enjoyed the secondary characters’ stories more than the main plot. I sometimes felt like skimming through the chapters about Ash, and just focusing my attention on the more fluffed out characters. But I didn’t want to miss out on any necessary details – and there are many in this story - so I stuck it out till the end, and am happy I did because I would’ve missed out on lots of important information essential to the development of the plot.

Overall I enjoyed and appreciated the author’s creativity, the interesting concept, and the adrenaline-pumping action. The idea of a secret organization wanting to wipe out most of the world’s population by way of a deadly virus is a horrifying concept and a theme the author pulled off with ease. Although I didn’t like the main character very much, I did enjoy the story even if it dragged along at times. I’m curious to see what happens to Ash and the other characters in the next two books in this series.

Brett Battles undeniably has a unique talent when it comes to constructing a novel of bone-chilling suspense and keeping the reader speculating while racing along to an electrifying conclusion. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of his books!
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Mar 21, 2013 Skip Crust rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like other reviews, I would say that if you're looking for some kind of new ground-breaking story line that hasn't been done before, this isn't it. But that certainly isn't to say that this is a bad story. It's actually really good. Entertaining stories don't necessarily need to be unique, only told in a way that the reader enjoys the ride and wants to continue. In that sense, Sick delivers.

In similar novels, the pitfall authors fall into is allowing the story to detract from character depth. Wh...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Anand rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this book thinking it to be a medical thriller. Well, it is not exactly so much of a medical thriller, though the central element of the plot is the spread of a killer contagion. The basic plot is nothing new; we have read enough novels both on the aspect of the spread of killer contagions, as well as about radical elements deliberately doing so to kill for their ulterior and vested interests. Despite such absence of novelty, this book reads like a riot! Very fast paced with edge of...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sick is book one in the Project Eden series, and after reading it I can’t wait to dig into book #2. Though this book is a lunching point for a series that currently features four novels, thankfully it’s a fully fleshed out and complete story in its own right. Packed with action and unending suspense, the book starts with a scare and the wild ride only continues from there.

The book centers around the character of Daniel Ash, an officer in the Army who has recently taken his family and transferred...more

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May 28, 2011 ambimb rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-on-iphone

First, "Sick" is appropriately named. I like the reviewer who says "SICK is sick," as in off the hook, crazy, amazing, cool. I don't think I'd go that far, but it definitely is a gripping page-turner and it's all about sickness, both actual, physical sickness, and mental and societal sickness. In some ways it's just your average thriller, albeit a very well-done version of the genre. What stands out to me about this book most is the way it develops the pattern of a viral outbreak and quarantine...more First, "Sick" is appropriately named. I like the reviewer who says "SICK is sick," as in off the hook, crazy, amazing, cool. I don't think I'd go that far, but it definitely is a gripping page-turner and it's all about sickness, both actual, physical sickness, and mental and societal sickness. In some ways it's just your average thriller, albeit a very well-done version of the genre. What stands out to me about this book most is the way it develops the pattern of a viral outbreak and quarantine situation. It's not giving anything away to say the book is about a deadly virus that escapes the lab and gets into the "wild" and starts killing people indiscriminately. It *would* be giving everything away to reveal how the virus came to exist and why, so I won't go there. It's enough to say that Battles does a good job of showing the spread of the virus through one tiny little accident or oversight or thoughtless gesture after another. The book is very plausible in this aspect and really captures the way human nature would almost inevitably spread something like this if it existed. What are people going to do if they are told they are inside a "quarantine zone" for a deadly virus? Some people will just sit and hope it doesn't get them, but you know some people will try to run and escape the virus. Battles shows how the human drive to survive could actually be our downfall in such a context and it's really quite fascinating. At the same time he shows how the simple little accidents of our daily lives would spread a virus and make it almost impossible to contain. This is scary stuff and that's where the suspense of the novel comes from.

Of course, the suspense also comes from page one when Ash, the protagonist, hears the cry of his daughter who is sick. That initial question — What is wrong with her and how did it happen? — drives the entire novel. Battles amps up the suspense by making his main character one of the most frustratingly dense assholes I've encountered in a long time. Seriously, if Ash was any more thick-headed and paranoid about not being a paranoid conspiracist, I might have had to just stop reading and throw the book across the room! (If I'd had an actual book instead of the kindle version, I might have done just that at times. Chalk up another drawback for e-books: It's much more costly if you decide to chuck them across the room in frustration or exasperation.) I believe you call this narrative irony — we, the readers, know that the people Ash encounters are trying to help him (exactly who they are is never really clear and why they are helping him is also vague, but gets filled in pretty well toward the end), but Ash remains suspicious of them and very reluctant to accept their help to the end. And while this does build suspense and keep you glued to the book to find out if Ash will finally come to his senses, this technique almost goes so far as to make Ash a truly loathsome character. Of course, it didn't go that far because I finished the book, right? And I have to say I enjoyed it, as well.

If you're looking for a real page-turner without any pretensions of being anything more than a pulpy thriller, look no further. Good stuff.

Full disclosure: I received a free e-copy of this book for review. I don't think that affected my review, but there you go. I never read a novel in just a couple days but I did that with this one, so when I say it's a page-turner, that's true....(less)

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May 05, 2011 Giovanni Gelati rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am going to channel my teenage son here: “Sick is just sic, it is off the hook sic, basically it can’t get any sic’r than it is.” Now to understand the teenage mind just a little bit, that means it is good in a good way even though it doesn’t sound that way. For me, being the geezer that I am, I would say that it is just rad, hip and cool, peachy keano, or something along those old man one foot in the grave type things. But seriously folks, I am a big Cleaner fan, the franchise that Brett Batt...more I am going to channel my teenage son here: “Sick is just sic, it is off the hook sic, basically it can’t get any sic’r than it is.” Now to understand the teenage mind just a little bit, that means it is good in a good way even though it doesn’t sound that way. For me, being the geezer that I am, I would say that it is just rad, hip and cool, peachy keano, or something along those old man one foot in the grave type things. But seriously folks, I am a big Cleaner fan, the franchise that Brett Battles has handled so well. So when I heard he had this new work, I was not just intrigued but jazzed and ready to read. I was fortunate enough to have interviewed him on The G-ZONE just as I finished reading the latest Cleaner novel, The Silenced, here is the link for that, it is in the archives:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gelatiss...
In the interview Brett Battles does discuss Sick, and it was fun listening to the passion in his voice as he described for me the mechanics of his writing and how much he thought this was possibly his best effort to date. The neat thing for me as a reader is that as good as Brett Battles is, he wants to get better and better with each effort. I personally don’t see how he can do that because his stuff rocks already but hey, if he Amp’s it up a bit, as a reader I am not going to bitch about it, if know what you mean. I think the guy’s style and substance rules already.
The new work, Sick, just took things in a whole new direction for me. I think Mr. Battles new found freedom of putting his work up as soon as he completes it. It is liberating and has allowed him to use his creative genius in ways he hasn’t felt before, thus the new work’s success and his heightened sense of accomplishment of mobility and purpose. In the interview he said he has plenty of ideas floating around, that he loves to write, and he can now get that to market in a timely fashion. As a reader that makes me happy. I was used to that once a year thing that really bummed me out. Basically what I am trying to say my friend, is that more of something good in my estimation just makes it better, especially in the hands of someone so skilled and driven. That just comes through when you listen to him discuss his craft, his vocation, his life’s work.
Here is a little something on today’s novel, Sick:
“Daniel Ash wakes after midnight to the cry of his daughter. Just a bad dream, he thinks. She's had them before. Yet he can't help but worry when she cries out again as he pads down the hallway. Stepping through her doorway, he expects to find her sitting up in bed, frightened by a nightmare.
But the nightmare is his. It's real. And it's just beginning...
Something is burning Ash's daughter alive. Something horrible that is spreading beyond the walls of their home, and taking no prisoners.
Thirty seconds later, Ash will discover his daughter isn't the only one in his family infected, and as his world spins, coming apart at the seams, a team of armed men in biohazard suits bursts into his house.
But these aren't the good guys.
They haven't come to save Ash's family. They've come to separate them, to finish what they started.
The problem is Ash refuses to disappear. He wants only one thing: to find those responsible.
Because humanity is on the brink of execution.
And man is pulling the trigger.”

What are you reading today? Have you checked out our new blogtalk radio show The G-ZONE? Check us out and become our friend on Shelfari, The Novel Spot &Twitter. Go to Goodreads and become our friend there and suggest books for us to read and post on. Did you know you can shop directly on Amazon by clicking the Amazon Banner on our blog? Thanks for stopping by today; We will see you tomorrow. Have a great day. http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com

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Mar 26, 2013 William Malmborg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow, it’s been quite some time since I flew through a book the way I did with Sick by Brett Battles. So many of my reads lately have been difficult to get into, so much so, that I have actually given up on three, which is very unlike me. The thrill and joy I usually receive from reading just wasn’t there with them, my mind constantly wanting to flip on the TV or go browse Facebook rather than continue with the books. It was sad. Nothing was working. I felt at a loss, my greatest pleasure in life...more Wow, it’s been quite some time since I flew through a book the way I did with Sick by Brett Battles. So many of my reads lately have been difficult to get into, so much so, that I have actually given up on three, which is very unlike me. The thrill and joy I usually receive from reading just wasn’t there with them, my mind constantly wanting to flip on the TV or go browse Facebook rather than continue with the books. It was sad. Nothing was working. I felt at a loss, my greatest pleasure in life being denied to me. But then I opened up Sick on my kindle, which I had downloaded during a free period a few days earlier, and found myself completely hooked.

It begins with a simple cry in the night, one that wakes Daniel Ash and causes him to check on his daughter, his mind thinking this is nothing more than a simple nightmare and that coaxing her back to sleep won’t take long. He is right in one respect; it is a nightmare, only this one takes place in the waking world rather than the sleeping one. His daughter is sick, something within her quickly destroying the body she occupies. And she isn’t the only one. His wife is already dead, and the people in the houses surrounding his are all plagued with symptoms and succumbing at an alarming rate. Thankfully a team of military-like personal move in quickly and secure the area preventing a widespread contamination – only how did they get there so quickly after the first signs of trouble? Also, why are they keeping Daniel Ash in a prison-like setting after it becomes pretty clear he isn’t sick and actually immune to the virus?

Something isn’t right . . .

My reading of Sick couldn’t have come at a better time, because, as I said above, I was growing more and more upset with the lack of excitement I was feeling with the books I had been reading. Sick, however, reminded me of what it is I love and why I prefer to sit down and read during my free time as opposed to turning on the TV or jumping online. It is a story that grabs you from page one and doesn’t let up until the end, one that gives a wide variety of characters, many unknown to each other, who are all circulating around a central conflict that could, if not contained, spell the end of mankind. Even better, this tale, while able to stand on its own, is the beginning of a much larger body of work, one that promises to be an exciting journey. Battle lines have been drawn in the world within Sick and the skirmish fought between the two forces within this first installment of the Project Eden series is only the beginning.
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Mar 05, 2013 Charley Girl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Blake Crouch sold me on this book. I fell hook, line and sinker while reading his introduction. The fear of terrible things happening to your children while you stand there helpless to save them has been my biggest fear since I became a parent. Daniel Ash is the unfortunate parent that wakes up to the cries of his daughter.

This book has three elements that make it a good read. First, the characters are well developed and I found myself talking to them. “Don’t do that!” Don’t trust him!” I wante...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Emily Chiaravalloti rated it 5 of 5 stars

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

Brett Battles certainly knows how to write a page-turner. I have never been someone who read science fiction or thriller books. In fact, I didn't even know if I liked them. However, after readjust g Sick, I know that thrillers are my knew favorite books! This book is about bioterrorism, also something I had never thought would be so interesting.

Daniel Ash and his family woke up one morning severely and dreadfully ill. all of their neighbors on their army base were dying from an...more

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May 30, 2011 Derek Broughton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Derek by: Brett Battles

Shelves: thriller

Do you believe in conspiracy theories? If you don't yet, you will by the time you finish this book!

Initially, I was a little put off by the technical details of the book (not the story, which is fabulous, but the editing). The editing left a little to be desired: too many adverbs, and use of Americanisms like "gotten" that, while perfectly correct in American English, and to be expected in conversation, are typically removed by editors so that it won't grate on a non-American reader's inner ear....more

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May 02, 2011 Elizabeth A. rated it 4 of 5 stars

There’s a war brewing in America, one simmering just below the surface but ready to explode. Captain Daniel Ash, his family, and the other 56 residents of Baker Flats military base find themselves at ground zero of that war one horrible night when hell descends upon their little corner of the world.

Awakened by a cry from his daughter, Ash goes to her room expecting to find her upset from a nightmare. Instead, he finds the girl burning with a dangerously high fever. As he struggles to get her int...more There’s a war brewing in America, one simmering just below the surface but ready to explode. Captain Daniel Ash, his family, and the other 56 residents of Baker Flats military base find themselves at ground zero of that war one horrible night when hell descends upon their little corner of the world.

Awakened by a cry from his daughter, Ash goes to her room expecting to find her upset from a nightmare. Instead, he finds the girl burning with a dangerously high fever. As he struggles to get her into a cold tub he calls out to his wife for assistance, but gets no response.

Leaving his daughter in the slowly filling tub he returns to his bedroom and finds his wife still in bed. Dead. Panic now flooding in, Ash races to his son’s room and finds him apparently unaffected by whatever killed his wife and has made his daughter dangerously ill.

As he huddles in the bathroom with his two children Ash makes a frantic call to 911 pleading for help, but when it finally arrives it is not what Ash had expected, and his life will never be the same again.

Instead of paramedics or police officers, a team of men in full biohazard gear bursts into the Ash house, bundling Ash and his children outside and into an isolation truck. The scene that greets him as he exists his home is something out of a Hollywood film, as Ash realizes there are similar vehicles and teams of men in biohazard gear deployed throughout the neighborhood, seemingly at every house. Before he can fully process what’s going on he is spirited off to a containment facility, where he is separated from his kids and subsequently informed they have died as a result of exposure to a highly deadly virus.

After over a week in isolation, communicating only with a disembodied voice from a speaker in the ceiling, Ash is slipped a note with his morning meal one day which contains a single cryptic word written on it: TONIGHT. What follows that evening is a daring breakout from the facility with the assistance of two mysterious men whom do not identify themselves to Ash, but hustle him to the outskirts of the facility and give him instructions on how to proceed from there. Ash eventually meets up with the people behind his escape and is informed that though the virus was intentionally released, it wasn’t done by terrorists. Not only that, but contrary to what Ash was told his children are still alive, being studied to determine what made them immune to the virus. And with that Ash is off on a mission to not only rescue his children, but to help stop the people behind the virus from unleashing it upon the world.

Author Brett Battles has outdone himself with Sick. Always a master of plot and pacing, Battles ratchets the intensity and sense of urgency in Sick up to levels so thick you could cut it with a knife. Though military, Ash is no Rambo. He’s a man driven by emotion not machismo, and it is easy to identify with his single-minded goal of rescuing his children at all costs. He’s a man on a mission, and woe be it to anyone who gets in his way. Add to that a great subplot involving a team of reporters hot on the scent of the story the public is not being told, fueled in part by a cell phone video uploaded onto YouTube which appears to show civilians being killed by military, and Battles has set the stage for a pulse-pounding thriller that rockets to a classic showdown between Ash and the man behind the virus. But as this is merely the first book in the Project Eden series, though Ash eventually brings this particular battle to an end, the war rages on.(less)

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Apr 10, 2013 Tara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I tend to be weary of some of the cheap/free Kindle books because some of them are really bad. However, every once in a while you find a gem. This is one of them. It's a pretty solid thriller that follows Daniel Ash after his neighborhood was purposefully subjected to a killer virus that claimed the life of his wife. Fortunately, Daniel is immune and so are his two kids, but now the mysterious people behind the virus want Daniel's family for testing. Daniel escapes, thanks to the help of some ev...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Lance Charnes rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of global-conspiracy thrillers

Shelves: fiction-thrillers-adventure

I don’t typically like secret-global-conspiracy thrillers (see my two-star review of The Marching Season), but Brett Battles’ Sick managed to transcend its central conceit to provide a good, fast, fun read.

“Fast” is a key word here. Battles’ completely unadorned prose and straight-line plot goes by in a blur. This isn’t a twist-and-turn story – you’ll usually be pretty certain what’s going to happen next in a general way – but following Daniel Ash, the protagonist, is entertaining enough to not...more I don’t typically like secret-global-conspiracy thrillers (see my two-star review of The Marching Season), but Brett Battles’ Sick managed to transcend its central conceit to provide a good, fast, fun read.

“Fast” is a key word here. Battles’ completely unadorned prose and straight-line plot goes by in a blur. This isn’t a twist-and-turn story – you’ll usually be pretty certain what’s going to happen next in a general way – but following Daniel Ash, the protagonist, is entertaining enough to not be too put off by that. Ash is just enough of an everyman to serve as an effective reader surrogate; he tends to think and say things a reasonably normal person might in the crazy situations he ends up in, which is a nice antidote to the he-man heroes that often infest these kinds of stories. There’s a gratifying lack of technobabble and applied phlebotinum. It’s also a nice change-of-pace that the author resists the temptation to cook up what would have been an utterly inappropriate romance with Ash’s damaged female guide/accomplice.

These anchors in the real world are necessary, because the core of the plot revolves around not one, but two secret organizations tussling over nothing less than the End of Civilization as We Know It. Both have agents all over the country, secret underground installations (where does the dirt go? doesn’t anyone notice all that digging?), and the ability to seemingly disregard governments, the law, budget restraints and the FAA at will. That’s a lot of suspension of disbelief. However, the author lampshades this looming “plot fail” by having Ash totally skeptical of the existence of either of these cabals nearly all the way through the book. He says and thinks the things you will when confronted by all this skulking around, provides the in-text eye-rolls and “Yeah, sures” you’re also committing. If it wasn’t for this device, I’d probably have given the book two stars.

Sick is what it is: a fast, non-taxing read for that cross-country flight. It doesn’t make the mistake of taking itself overly seriously (as do the recent Ludlum books), which could’ve been deadly. There are two sequels already queued up and ready to go in case you like it. So, if this is your cup of Kool-Aid, have yourself some fun.
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Apr 09, 2013 Rishika rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sick begins absolutely brilliantly - grabs you from the get go. It begins much like any thriller should - chaos, fear, confusion in the minds of characters and death.
However, it doesn't remain as gripping as it begins. It's still interesting enough to want you to keep reading, but it doesn't have the 'hooked' nature that it promises in its first few chapters. But everything said and done, you have to admit that Brett Battles knows how to tell a tale and one that will keep you interested if not a...more Sick begins absolutely brilliantly - grabs you from the get go. It begins much like any thriller should - chaos, fear, confusion in the minds of characters and death.
However, it doesn't remain as gripping as it begins. It's still interesting enough to want you to keep reading, but it doesn't have the 'hooked' nature that it promises in its first few chapters. But everything said and done, you have to admit that Brett Battles knows how to tell a tale and one that will keep you interested if not addicted.
The book moves along at a good pace, slowing down just for a bit that's not really long enough to leave you bored. All along the book, you have twists and incidents that will make you go, "Oops!", and not in a blundering sort of way. It's more of an, "Oops... here comes another mistake by you God complex people!"
Battles knows how to keep the suspense going. But sometimes, you will feel like things would have been a lot easier if people just acted normal instead of all secretive for no apparent reason. That may be the supposed charm of some of the characters and may have to do with the fact that things will probably get clearer in the sequels, but you can't help but wonder why people don't ask the most obvious questions.
The book has a lot going on at any point in time and if you keep it aside for too long, you might forget who the character you're reading about even is. But Battles manages to keep it all well connected and quite easy to follow, since you don't really want to go long periods without continuing to read anyway.
The only part that had a glaring problem, in my opinion, was the end. It was altogether a little too abrupt. You can argue that, as a first of a trilogy, the book should leave things unanswered. But that could have been done in a much better way, especially given the fact that Battles is an author with great potential. The end made me feel like he just got tired of typing and summed it all up really quickly in the hope that people would chalk it up to the 'It's part of a trilogy' idea.
All in all, Sick is a good read - fast paced, easy and enjoyable. It may not make it to the 'favorite book' list for many people; but if you're a fan of anything to do with the end of the world, suspense or crime, you will like this book.

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Aug 16, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: brett-battles

Brett Battles once again amazes me with his knack for a good story. I love his first series of books (Jonathan Quinn series) and Sick is different, but intensely engrossing. From the beginning, Battles has you hook, line, & sinker when the main character, Ash, wakes to find his wife dead, his daughter deathly sick, and his son, thankfully, alive. The story from here on out is a riveting page turner to find out why this is happening, not only to his family, but his entire neighborhood. As Ash...more

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May 13, 2013 Peggy Holloway rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love this fresh new author I've found. This last book I read by him, sick, sent chills all over me. It made me angry, it made me laugh,it made me cry, and it scared the living crap out of me. It is a chilling story about a group of military types who purposely infect people with a deadly virus to study them and develop a vaccine for the few people who will be left after they wipe out billions of the population.

This is truely the best book I've read in some time and is THE best book I've read b...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with Sick, but what I got was a thrilling read that kept me turning the pages. Battles delivers a hard to put down story with a man's race against time to save his two children. The book begins with a normal situation of a parent hearing his child cry in the middle of the night. Ash gets up to check on his daughter expecting to comfort his child from a nightmare only to enter into a real life nightmare of his own. Ash ends up with a sick daughter, a dead wife...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Jim A rated it 2 of 5 stars

I usually have to force myself to do other things instead of reading when I have a Brett Battles Cleaner series book. This book I had to force myself to continue reading. Maybe I'm just burned out on government conspiracy novels, or maybe it's something else.

I found the main character to be less than compelling. It wasn't that he was boring, he just didn't hold my attention the way I'm used to a protagonist keeping me involved in the story. I found myself waiting for the author to move back to a...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Leslee rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: apocalypse-dystopia

This one was hard to get through, and not entirely sure why - it was a book that seem tailor made for my guilty pleasures - a horrible contagious and deadly disease sweeping through north america, shady government agencies, possible oncoming apocalypse - and yet I really had to fight to get through and finish it. I just didn't care about any of the people in this book. There was no pathos. Just a bunch of people running around doing things that held no interest to me. I didn't care whether they...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Michael Sherer rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's easy to see why so many people read Brett Battles' books. He tells a great story. Here the premise is all too real given the scares we've had in the past three decades from AIDS, SARS, H1N1 swine flu, anthrax and all manner of food borne illnesses from E. coli to salmonella. It's a scary proposition, and Battles makes the most of it, setting an unrelenting pace in just this first outing in what promises to be a long and successful series.

Likable, sympathetic characters, tight plotting and e...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Bill Binkley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Well, it was better than crappy... but I couldn't help being overwrought with ambivalence about all of the characters. The story of a diabolical para-governmental entity wanting to ... well, you really don't know what they want to do until about chapter 35. There's a motorcycle/helicopter scene that goes nowhere. There's no love story, no interweaving of characters or their personalities, no catharsis... AND Sick has the worst anti-climax and ending I've ever read. Still, the story does lead you...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Shari443 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

This was a gripping book from the beginning when Ash hears his daughter crying down the hall. He finds her sick in bed and takes her to the bathroom and puts her into the tub to cool her down. He then finds his wife dead and then he calls 9-1-1. The people that show up are not there to help him or his family. This becomes a nightmare ride for him when he is separated from his children and finds it is all due to a horrible conspiracy to destroy the world. This was a fast-paced book and it kept me...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Felicia A rated it 4 of 5 stars

Could be the start of an epic series...but works quite well as a stand-alone novel. This thriller--which COULD, but does not quite--tip over into the PA genre, starts out with a bang. The action begins with the first paragraph, and rarely slows from that point.

Well written and engaging, with well developed characters that you can identify with, this story grabs you from the gate. Daniel Ash wakes in the night, hearing his daughter call out for him, and he knows that something just isn't right. N...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Hannah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent "what if" novel about a virus in the hands of the wrong people, being tested willy nilly on some good people. Very logical progression of the plot- it is clear the author kept his sense of reality when laying this one out. And of course, while the plot does wrap up satisfactorily at the end of the book, it leaves just enough hanging to make me want to head to the next one in the series right away. What's better than a juicy bio-epidemic story? A juicy bio-epidemic story with a sequel.

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Apr 24, 2011 Traci Hohenstein rated it 5 of 5 stars

Simply put...this book was the best thriller I've read all year. I got an advanced copy and devoured it within a weekend.

The writing was spectacular and keep me flipping through the pages at lightening speed. The storyline was intriguing and keep me up all night. The characters were colorful and I felt like I was right there in the story.

The only bad part...I didn't want the story to end.

If you read any thriller this year, read SICK. I promise you won't be disappointed.

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Aug 09, 2012 Dannye rated it 5 of 5 stars

I admit that because of the title I passed over this ebook in my Kindle for a while before I started reading it. "Sick" was just not calling to me, but once I started reading, I was drawn in from page one. It is one of the best thrillers I have read in a long time. The author was very adept at keeping me turning the page. I voiced words of distress aloud more than once when he left me expecting the worst.

If you are a reader of thrillers, there is NOTHING here to disappoint you.

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Jul 31, 2011 Patricia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-books-to-lend

This book had a lot of potential, I enjoyed the story very much, but the protagonist turned out to be so unlikeable, so unfeeling, so ungrateful....every un- word I can think of! He ruined an otherwise very good story about a killer flu virus being spread throughout the U.S., with very few people who were immune and could survive. I would have given this book four stars if he had been more likeable. I understand this is the first book in a series, maybe he'll become friendlier in the next book.

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Mar 06, 2013 Jennie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2013

I wanted to like this, after all it was very readable - I just couldn't get past the lack of character development. The main character wasn't very personable or likeable.

I was far more interested in the group that "rescued" him and the mysterious women, Chloe and Olivia. For this reason I would like to read the series but not if Ash is the main character again or at least make him more than an unappreciative, very non-army like, unlikeable cardboard cutout.

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Jan 26, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just finished this book. It's about a group that wants to eliminate 99% of the population of the world and start over. They have a flu virus they have developed and when released spreads very quickly. There is no cure. Another group is trying to stop them before it is too late. It is an amazing story that does not end with this book but continues in a sequel. Brett is a very good writer and keeps you hooked all the way thru wanting more.

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About Brett Battles

Brett Battles is the author of over a dozen novels and several short stories. His second novel, THE DECEIVED (part of his Jonathan Quinn series), won the Barry Award for Best Thriller. He is one of the founding members of Killer Year, and is a member of International Thriller Writers. He lives and writes in Los Angeles.

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Sick (Project Eden #1)

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