那天在书店里想要找本刺激的小说，在Fiction地带几次三番地挑选，最后眼睛还是落在Preston和Child这哥俩的书上了。
记得第一次看他们的书是高中的时候，是Penderhast系列的第一本 -- the Relic。现在回想起来，这大概是第一次看某本恐怖小说看得废寝忘食，虽然害怕的手脚发僵，但是却停不下来。可能因为自己很喜欢逛博物馆（尤其自然博物馆），所以一个发生在阴暗陈旧的博物馆里的连续凶案的故事令我尤其感到恐怖。但这哥俩的书另外一个吸引人的地方就是，凶案总是以非常厚实的科学为背景，像the Relic的故事就涉及详实的解剖、基因、生物、植物科学等知识，读起来格外过瘾，虽然知道里面部分的科学是虚构的，但是依然有相当多的科学理论是存在的。
刚刚读完的Mount Dragon不能说是P和C俩人最成功的一本，从故事的结构上看，似乎有些生嫩，或者说跟他们其他的作品比简单了一些，但是完整性还是可以的。故事围绕著人类是否真的应该从事基因工程，是否有权利改变人类的基因，是否能够扮演上帝等一系列问题而展开。这也是一个永恒的问题。征服是人性的一部分，但是我们所生存的世界，有些东西似乎还远远不能征服，比如说生老病死。人在初生的时候是不会想到死的，在成长到一定的阶段时开始思考死这件事情，对死的概念不是那么的理解，甚至不知道怎样去接受。
尤其在春天，周围的一切被生机渲染，万物绽放的时节，思考生命的尽头这件事情，尤其有种警世感。
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Having read about five of their works (mostly from the Pendergast series), I have to say I expected more from Preston and Child. But I am guessing Mount Dragon is probably one of their earlier works, completed prior to the release of The Relic. The Relic was, and arguably still is, one of the best thrillers I have read to date. I have reread it several times, jumping into any chapter in Part 3 and just kept going toward the end, and it never fails to restore that scared-out-of-my-wits sensation I felt after I had finished the book for the first time.
The Mount Dragon story divides into two major plot lines, one is the confrontation between Levine and Scopes, the other unfolds through the protagonist - Guy Carson, at the Gene Dyne testing institute at Mount Dragon. The biggest problem I had with this book is that Guy Carson, along with his sexy assistant de Vaca, flatly failed to convince me that they are top-notch geneticists in the world. I could understand why all the other scientists were cranky all the time, I assumed it was the PurBlood doing its evil deeds inside their veins. But why the heck were de Vaca so confrontational and Carson so quick to pick a fight when the two of them were working in a Level-5 Biohazardous zone where the most casual mishap could trigger a global-scale destruction?! And they were not even fighting about science, but about their ancestry, something about Carson not getting over the fact that he is not pure white, and de Vaca quickly pointing fingers at Carson for being a "racist"?! I mean, c'mon, what are you driving at here? Is this kind of petty quarreling leading to anything substantial later on in the story? I mean, anyone could see that Carson is gonna hit on her sooner or later, and yes, yes, heated (and pointless) argument usually is the prelude to angry sex later on, but this is just plain stupid~~~~~
