Science Fiction Book Reviews:

Science Fiction Book Review By: www.readerviews.com
Kelley Anderson for Reader Views (8/06) Read PDF of this Review

An emergency room doctor with a history in infectious disease and connections
above and beyond the hospital board, has what it takes to diagnose and prevent a
U.S. smallpox pandemic.

Although very well written, Sledgehammer is thick on facts and ideas and slim
on suspense. Having been an LPN, I understood most of the medical jargon that
packs the book from cover to cover, but anyone with less medical knowledge
wouldn't understand a lot of the terminology and anyone with more, wouldn't enjoy
the book. Also, the romance was open ended. I would have liked to have seen
the doctor and nurse either have a lot more feelings for each other or
keep it strictly professional.

It seems they just teased at the possibility of feelings and never really decided one
way or another. The one bright spot is that Dr. Reyes is an excellent writer and put
the word together in an incredible way. With a solid storyline that is more
thoroughly developed, he could write a book that would easily be a best seller.
I would like to read a longer book of his to see if the quality showed through.

“Sledgehammer” is a light, quick read that leaves you wondering what would
really happen if small pox would walk through an emergency room door in
Anytown, USA. Would any of the doctors be able to detect it or would it spiral
out of control and devastate the population?

Science Fiction Book Review By:
Rambles-A Cultural Arts Magazine http://www.rambles.net

-- Sledgehammer has all the ingredients of a great read.
It is bang up to date. The topic is hot. Readers cannot get enough rollercoaster
thriller novels. The author, Paulo J. Reyes, is an expert in his field and appears to
have a genuine love of his subject.

Unfortunately, the book appears to lack a decisive editor.

A thrilling tale is lost in a sea of clichés from the very beginning.

From the opening paragraph of the preface, the author nails his colours to the mast
and we know we are in for a patriotic "tour de force." The world revolves around
the United States of America. Maybe in real life it does, but we do not need
it so obviously delineated in print. Again we are up against terrorism and, another
staple of modern thriller fiction, a widowed hero and cute kid.

I really looked forward to this book. The scenario of bio-terrorism is so real today
we can taste it, and as Alfred Hitchcock once wrote about the essence of a thriller
 -- to bring tension into the story we need to know the threat is there.

Reyes is an MD, but unfortunately he assumes his readers have similar
qualifications. The book is strewn with medical terms; sometimes they are
explained, other times not. In addition, he seems to be in the business of
coining new words, like "stomachache."

The book charges along and I believe that anyone who can avoid being distracted
by the above-mentioned faults will enjoy the story. It will make you think --
long and hard. It may even give you nightmares about possible scenarios we
might face in the future. For that content, I would give it a cautious recommendation.
I could easily see this as the basis of a TV movie in the not-too-distant future.

Science Fiction Book Review By: Bob Spear, Publisher and
Chief Reviewer, Heartland Reviews http://www.heartlandreviews.com

-Rating: -- An emergency room doctor suspects a bio-terrorism weapon
in the form of smallpox has been introduced into his hospital. He finds himself
torn between nailing down the identity of the disease with certainty and fighting
with naysayers which include the business administrator of his own hospital. This
conflict and uncertainty builds throughout the story, bringing the reader to the edge
of his chair.

The author, himself an emergency room physician, brings us inside the high
pressure, overworked environment of the ER. He also gives us a glimpse of
how unready this country is to deal with bio-terrorism.

Atlantic Book Review-Reviewed by Karen Boyce
www.atlanticbookreview.com

Paulo J. Reyes, an emergency room doctor, has produced a
well-written medical thriller. The author's extensive medical
background lends credibility to the fast-paced flow of action in this
novel. The setting is the emergency room of a small community
hospital. A terrorist plot is set in motion, a diabolical scheme to
spread a virus that is an enhanced version of smallpox. The crisp
writing style leads the reader through a fascinating journey of
difficulties that are both riveting and exciting.

Given the times, we live in and the knowledge of the author the plot is
both plausible and realistic. The main character, a physician who
has recently been widowed, is sympathetic and pragmatic. The
reader follows Dr. Kroose with fascination as he uncovers the horror of
what is happening. The author's writing style is direct and his
dialogue comes off as spontaneous and realistic. The premise of the
story is current and therefore attention grabbing. The author
shares extensive medical knowledge with the reader on the nature of
the virus and with great familiarity reveals how terrorists could spread
such a virus. He is passionate and erudite on the dangers and possibility
of bio-weapons.

My only regret is that the writer chose to reveal the climax of the story
in an informative preface that gives away the surprise. I wish he had
saved the description of smallpox for the text, or even as a supplement
at the end of the book. Even so, the novel is a great read, and a
page-turning thriller that keeps the reader on the edge of his seat.

Science Fiction Book Review by: Louise Riveiro-Mitchell author
of Autumn Sky & Dark Skies of Autumn

-Rating:-- Dr. Max Kroose, a widower with two small children, finds
himself faced with a crisis. Though it starts out as a normal day in the ER and in
the beginning the patients arriving with symptoms are supposedly diagnosed as the
flu, it soon becomes evident that there is something more to their symptoms,
something that can not only be deadly but reach epidemic proportions.

Though there had not been a case of smallpox since 1971, all the symptoms proved
that it was very much alive in these patients. The story gives us a day-by-day hour-by
-hour look at the efforts of Dr. Kroose and his staff to not only help those infected
with the virus, but them trying to convince the hospital administration as well as
the public health system that this is truly the beginning of a major epidemic.

The story that at one time I would think of as a wonderful fiction theory now after
the events of 9/11 are not only very real but completely frightening! It also makes all
of us wonder are we really safe from something like this and can we prevent it
from becoming the deadly killer that will destroy the world? An interesting
and frightening read and does make one think.

Science Fiction Book Review by: Tami Brady

-Rating:-- Over the centuries, smallpox epidemics have devastated
world populations
killing an estimated 40% of those that come in contact with the disease. In 1796,
Edward Jenner developed a vaccine that reduced the loss of life from this
catastrophic disease eventually leading to the complete eradication of the disease.
In 1980, the World Health Organization declared that no natural forms of smallpox
existed and most vaccination programs ceased to exist.

Due to recent world events and increase in the rise of terrorism, however,
concerns have been raised about the potential of bioterrorism in the form of
manmade forms of deadly diseases such as smallpox. As much of the population has
not been vaccinated against smallpox, this disease could easily restart its horrible
killing spree. Moreover, new bioengineered versions of this deadly disease could
be created to be faster, more efficient killing mechanisms.

Sledgehammer tells the chilling story of what if. The story details five days in the life
of a doctor working in the emergency ward when a man dies of what everyone thinks
is the flu. Confused by the death of the previously perfectly healthy man, this
doctor must not only fight through his own doubts about the true cause of the death
but also through mountains of bureaucracy and his own imminent mortality. The result
is such a true to live account that it is actually quite alarming.

Science Fiction Book Review by: Joe Shea- Editor's Choice 

-Rating:--'SLEDGEHAMMER' POUNDS AWAY AT SMALLPOX THREAT
American Reporter Correspondent--Bradenton, Fla.

This one can - "Sledgehammer" is a gripping, powerful portrait of an
American emergency room physician encountering the "index" case of a
national bioterrorist attack by Islamic terrorists.

I get books in the mail from a number of publishers, and it's honestly rare that I
get around to reading one. But Dr. Paulo J. Reyes' novel of an American physician
trying to deal with what presents as an ambiguous case of pox - monkey pox,
chicken pox, smallpox, who knows? - is unnerving and engaging in the extreme.
It is probably the best bio-warfare thriller of the dozen-odd I've read in the past
10 years.

The story has an almost Aristotelian ethic in its observance of time. Everything
that's important happens within a tightly-wound period of about six days, and all of
it takes place within the confines of a a hospital - in fact, except for the opening scene
at the doctor's home and some telephone calls that go in and out of the hospital,
the hospital and its emergency room, ICU and corridors are the only locales.
That helps to focus the action of this compelling novel about a weaponized form
of smallpox, called "sledgehammer" for its forceful appearance - it kills within a few
days - that is introduced into a busy emergency room somewhere in California
(we presume it's a suburb of Los Angeles, but that's never clear) and eventually
takes hundreds of thousands of lives across the United States.

The action really comes in the form of increasingly desperate attempts to save the
lives of a variety of victims, only one of whom actually has come down with
smallpox. That victim, a terrorist using the name 'Villalobos" who pretends to be
from Mexico but is a Middle Eastern terrorist trained in the rugged Pamir Mountains
of Afghanistan, is only slowly revealed as both a smallpox victim and a terrorist.
Thus, the veil is drawn back slowly, a chapter at a time, and amid the
revelations concerning "Villalobos" are half a dozen hypnotizing accounts of sick
and dying children, alcoholics, women and others in life-threatening condition as
they are treated by a highly skilled and close-knit nursing team and a
dedicated physician, Dr. Max Kroose. There is a small, sad love story woven within
the narrative, and some exemplary acts of courage that are both genuine and
entirely unexpected.

Amid the controlled chaos of the nursing room we get a telling glimpse of a
hospital administrator who is far more knowledgeable about costs than about
his responsibility to the first responders who work on his staff; at the internecine
warfare between physicians over insured vs. uninsured patients and their care; at
the prima donnas who sometimes risk the lives of their patients for points of
personal pride; at public health officials whose first concern is bureaucratic protocols
and whose last concern is public health; about the way in which Fort Detrick, Md.,
the home of American bioterror research, may have engaged in some underhanded
and dangerous - and probably necessary - experimentation with smallpox; about
the real threat of smallpox to an unprepared world; and, not least of all, a horrifying
and unforgettable glance at the ravaging course of the most dreaded disease on earth.

This a book that is chock full of a surgeon's jargon, and while many may have
trouble with that, it greatly increases the book's overwhelming realism --
Joe Shea is Editor-in-Chief of the American Reporter and edits our
Book Review. Copyright 2005 Joe Shea The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.

We welcome professional Science Fiction Book reviews and
would be glad to send you a copy of our book.
E-mail publicist Diana

 diana@virtualwordpublishing.com

Dr. Reyes is available for media interviews, radio interviews, etc. by contacting
Publisher Diana Ennen at Diana@pauloreyes.com or 954.971.4025