Wonderful, factual, and engaging

Excellent, detailed description of the ways in which various zoonotic pathogens afflict humans, and how scientists study them. As a scientist myself, I appreciated the details and was never bored, but at the same time I think it would be accessible to a wide audience--a difficult balance to strike, but one that David Quammen achieves again and again.

9 people found this helpful

Good story with a few slow moments

A great overview of the history of modern cross-over viruses from animals to humans w/ a smattering of bacteria. Mostly, it's a great read, but there is a section of the history of HIV that gets ridiculously long.

9 people found this helpful

Fascinating, but not Riveting

The stories are well told, the theme carries through, and even though much of it is very dry material, it's easy enough to follow. Extremely distracting is the narrator's mispromunciation of numerous scientific words. He's actually a good reader, sounding confident and articulate... then he comes to a work he doesn't know and instead of learning how to say it, just plunges ahead repeatedly saying things like "zoe-ON-a-sis" for zoonosis, and "uh-SAY" for assay - to name a couple of the more annoying examples. This isn't a case of British vs American pronunciation, either, just an actor who should have been coached better.

28 people found this helpful

fine book

excellent important book and the narrator fits the book quite well---until he comes to pronounce Chinese names----he did fine in " other parts of the world" --- why didn't his director help him pronounce Chinese city names/

it really makes one go ouch when listening/

but a fine book nevertheless/

6 people found this helpful

Problems with pronunciation ...

What did you love best about Spillover?

The work is fascinating, well researched, engagingly written and important.

Any additional comments?

As a trained zoologist and French speaker, the narrator's disastrous pronunciation of technical terms, scientific names and words in French was incredibly distracting. 'Phylogetics' instead of 'phylogenetics' was particularly grating, and the French phrases were so badly garbled as to be incomprehensible. Otherwise, I would strongly recommend this audiobook.

17 people found this helpful

Exhaustive, detailed presentation.

This is a very detailed and exhaustive description of practically every known pathogen that has made use of multiple hosts and how genetic mutations, animal behavior, human behavior and chance have created myriads of des ease patterns from clusters to epidemics throughout history involving both animals and humans. The author also chronicles the numerous doctors and other scientists who have devoted their lives chasing these viruses and other organisms around the world. It may be a lot more than you ever wanted to know about zoonotic diseases, but for a physician it is a fascinating treatise, and I highly recommend it. I listened to it at double speed and found it moved along better. JRM, MD

4 people found this helpful

Great Book

Would you listen to Spillover again? Why?

Not only would listen to Spillover again but I plan to do so within the next week. The reason I will listen again is that it contains excellent scientific information encapsulated in a very entertaining story.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Spillover?

I frequently hike and hunt and I am concerned about Lyme Disease. I have read numerous explanations and discussions about the disease but nowhere did I find a description as clear and succinct as the information in this book. In fact the book completely changed my understanding of Lyme Disease.

Which scene was your favorite?

The AIDS epidemic's beginning in the early 20th century. Especially the theory that early attempts to improve African population resistance to known diseases using hypodermic needle injection without modern sterilization may have been a key factor in accelerating the epidemic. The attempt to do something good may have had a bad outcome.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes but it a little too long for that!

Any additional comments?

I especially liked the way this book is organized. I frequently go back and listen to specific topics and this book is beautifully organized with many chapters which correspond to specific discussions making it easy to go back.

9 people found this helpful

Our Third Global Pandemic

An illustration of Mammal's poor decision making in eating horrific, infectious meats.. This is not our first rodeo in which we find ourselves. The Global Pandemic of Spanish Flu, 1918-1919, AIDS/HIV, 1980-1991; COVID-19, 2019-2020. All three happened to
be respiratory tract infections, that end in pneumonia.

The Spanish Flu aka Bird flu Virus, took 20+ million lives. AIDS/HIV Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome and fast forward to; Rhinolophus "Lesser Horseshoe Bat," the Reservior, "Spillover" if you will, (SARS-CoV-2) COVID-19.

The Hendra Virus in Australia focused on the causation, Flying Fox Bat. . . And our most recent Global Pandemic, with it's causation factor, Lesser Horseshoe Bat.

As a result, I find this book worthy of listening to again and again. "Spillover" is the most authentic, fascinating, frightening book I've read on this subject to-date. Highly recommend this Audible Experience.

3 people found this helpful

Engaging, masterful and terrific

What did you love best about Spillover?

The selection of stories, the development of context in each case and the scholarship required to produce this volume. On top of that the prose is outstanding. I have read three other of Quammen's books and I have been just as interested in all the topics of his other books, but this easy equals and possibly exceeds his other works.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Spillover?

The interlude of the imagined story of the voyager in the history of HIV. Gripping!

Which scene was your favorite?

Spelunking into the bat caves in Uganda.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"opportunity lurks in every bat"

2 people found this helpful

Didn’t expect to actually love it!

24 hours about viruses seems daunting and possibly boring, but given the current COVID-19 crisis I wanted to learn more. I didn’t just doggedly muddle through this, I actually looked forward to listening to it and totally got sucked in! I learned so much from this book and had fun doing it! It was lively and engaging and kept my attention for the full day’s worth of listening I did over the past month. I couldn’t recommend it more for someone wanting to learn more about how diseases work and how they can travel between humans and animals.

1 person found this helpful