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Authors: Robin Cook

Invasion

“Leave it to doctor-turned-novelist Robin Cook to scare us all to death.”


Los Angeles Times

INVASION

With his finger on the pulse of the latest medical technology, Robin Cook preys on our deepest fears with uncanny skill. Now, in this most provocative thriller, he explores a sudden outbreak of strange new symptoms that defy diagnosis. The cause is unknown—and unknowable—because it is unlike anything humankind has ever seen…

“Dr. Robin Cook certainly knows how to tell a story.”


The Detroit News

Praise for

ROBIN COOK

and his bestselling novels

“Straight out of today’s headlines.”

—UPI

“Holds you page after page.”

—Larry King,
USA Today

“Shocking and thought-provoking.”

—The Associated Press

“Fast…exciting…spine-tingling.”


The Denver Post

“Stern and bracing…[a] suspenseful thriller.”


San Francisco Chronicle

“A real grabber.”


Los Angeles Times

“A riveting plot, filled with action.”


The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Gripping.”


The New York Times Book Review

“A spellbinder…unbearable tension.”


Houston Chronicle

Titles by Robin Cook

CRISIS

SEIZURE

SHOCK

ABDUCTION

FEVER

VECTOR

TOXIN

INVASION

CHROMOSOME 6

CONTAGION

ACCEPTABLE RISK

FATAL CURE

TERMINAL

BLINDSIGHT

VITAL SIGNS

HARMFUL INTENT

MUTATION

MORTAL FEAR

OUTBREAK

MINDBEND

GODPLAYER

BRAIN

SPHINX

COMA

THE YEAR OF THE INTERN

INVASION

ROBIN COOK

BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK

THE BERKELEY PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by the Penguin Group

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South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

INVASION

A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the author

PRINTING HISTORY

Berkley mass-market edition / April 1997

Berkley premium edition / November 2007

Copyright © 1997 by Robin Cook.

“Introduction” copyright © 2007 by Robin Cook.

Cover art:
Eye
background by Chad Baker/Ryan McVay;
Iris
by Joe McNally/Getty Images.

Cover design by Marc Cohen.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

ISBN: 978-1-101-20684-3

BERKLEY®

Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

The “B” design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

INTRODUCTION

Dear Reader,

Invasion
might be my most fun book, at least from the point of view of the writing process. In contrast to my more typical medical mystery/thrillers where I’m constrained by the need for medical/scientific accuracy to bolster my underlying social message, with
Invasion
I was able to enjoy the entertaining opportunity to indulge my imagination far more than my memory and just let the ideas flow. Of course with my education skewed toward science, the story is based in fact; in particular, what I have learned over the years about viruses, about theories and concepts concerning the nature of consciousness, and about the near statistical inevitability of alien life in this universe or a possible parallel universe. But all that was a mere starting point for a wild, imaginative ride that raises a few social issues like global warming a decade before it became such a hot topic, as well as a scenario that answers a few earthbound mysteries like explaining mass
extinctions, specifically that of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The story even highlights some frivolous facts like the off-road capabilities of a Range Rover automobile.

As
Invasion
is such a marked departure from my other twenty-five novels (subsequently I wrote a second science fiction novel,
Abduction
, since I had had so much fun with
Invasion
), some people might be curious where the initial impulse to write it came from. Actually I have to thank NBC. It was their movie department’s request for me to come up with a scenario for a two-night science fiction miniseries that was the stimulus. The fact that I had never written any science fiction was not a deterrent; in fact, it was a stimulus. For NBC, I believe they thought they might get something fresh; while for me, I had an inkling that it would turn out to be as much fun as it was.

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