The Consciousness Plague

by Paul Levinson

Book Overview

At last we get Paul Levinson's superb forensic sleuth, Phil D'Amato, in a full-length novel. If you know Phil from his previous appearances, I need say no more. If you don't, kick back and enjoy a mystery that spans the ages, said Jack McDevitt of The Silk Code , the first Phil D'Amato novel. Now, D'Amato, hero of a number of stories published in Analog , is back. The Consciousness Plague is about memory - more particularly, how the loss of memory,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765300982
• ISBN13: 9780765300980
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A great read and a mnemonic of communications estorica

Dr. Phil D'Amato, NYPD forensic detective is a character who is easy to like. Smart, witty and well connected, he immediately becomes a person who the reader cares about. He is a worthy twenty-first century heir to my favorite, Sherlock Holmes.The story is an engrossing mystery that weaves together serial strangulation murders of young college women in Manhattan and mysterious memory gaps triggered by a new antibiotic that seems to attack unknown microorganisms that unify the bicameral human brain.The reader comes away entertained and educated in such diverse (yet related by the author's erudition) subjects as communication via the channels of the left and right brain, Marshall McLuhan, the essence of art, the successive (possible) rediscoveries of America by the Phoenicians, Irish (Celtic) monks, and Vikings, and a popular brand of perfume.Most of the action occurs in New York City but the West Coast, the Midwest and Europe are included as locales. We learn about the importance of Lindisfarne, where one of my favorite illuminated manuscripts, the Lindisfarne Gospels, originated. We are introduced to the hypothesis that the Phoenicians, on their way to North America, taught the Celts to write. Each revelation, no matter how esoteric, enriches the weave of the mystery, and draws the reader in deeper. Thus this excellent page turner also triggers awareness of many fascinating areas of communication. There is also a well developed supporting cast including police, academics and a politician or two.I came away feeling enriched and entertained. The Consciousness Plague is a good read. Buy it.

Murder, Memory and the Beach Boys - What's not to love?

Even if you're like me and you've never read the previous Phil D'Amato stories, The Consciousness Plague will draw you in. It's an engaging, intellectually thrilling novel.The basic plot is this: a new antibiotic wreaks havoc with the brain's ability to remember, thus hampering a complex murder investigation. But to summarize it like that is to do the book an injustice. It's a story torn from the headlines and balanced on the cutting edge of modern memory science. Levinson mixes disparate items into a seamless plot. Things like a police investigation into a serial strangler, copy-cat murders and the fascinating theory that a bacteria-like organism in our brains has given rise to our consciousness form a compelling, exciting yarn that stretches from the ancient Phoenicians in England (and possibly America!?) to modern-day New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.Levinson's writing is easy and thought-provoking - his character, D'Amato, speaks directly to the reader, as in the best noir tales - drawing on all aspects of Western culture, from Beach Boy songs to medieval monks, with discussions of the blood-brain barrier and northern Italian cuisine thrown in for good measure. Yet he somehow ties it all together with a satisfying conclusion that leaves you hungry for more.By the end of The Consciousness Plague, you'll want to catch up on all the Phil D'Amato you may have missed!

A triumphant return, if only the characters can recall it...

Well, Phil D'Amato and Paul Levinson have done it again. I was a big fan of Levinson's first novel, The Silk Code, which introduced NYPD investigator D'Amato - a sharp forensic detective who always seems to get involved with cases a little out of the ordinary... There Phil pursued the hidden truth about the last of the Neanderthals and about modern-day Amish who might be more than they seem, and Levinson deftly distributed his fast-paced action over rural contemporary Pennsylvania, the streets of New York, and ancient Central Asia, addressing some pretty deep issues along the way. In The Consciousness Plague we get an even more immediate and unrelenting tale, as the novel follows D'Amato through a crazy six months trying to track down a serial killer on New York's Upper West Side and simultaneously get to the bottom of a peculiar memory loss syndrome which crops up everywhere he looks. As usual Levinson balances the hardboiled, action-packed mystery side of his creation with the thought-provoking speculative science fiction part, all the while keeping his story just within the realm of plausibility and perhaps even probability; he has a rare talent for crafting an exciting potboiler that really stimulates the mind. The subject of memory loss has become something of a popular one lately, what with excellent films like Memento and novels like Jonathan Lethem's Amnesia Moon; it's a phenomenon that never fails to intrigue the imagination, and I heartily recommend The Consciousness Plague for anyone who's enjoyed those explorations as well as anyone looking for a tense, intelligent bit of suspense.

deft sf/mystery mix

Phil D'Amato returns in this sharp, enjoyable, sometimessuperb novel. Levinson weaves together the search fora serial murderer (police procedural) with a bafflingseries of memory losses that may be related to the verybasis of our consciousness (science fiction). One of theproblems I often have with novels that try this kind of mix is that the science fiction is lumpy -- it doesn't really fit wellwith the mystery part. But The Consciousness Plague handlesthat beautifully -- Levinson serves the mystery with onehand, the science fiction with another, the blend couldn'tbe more natural. I think that this novel is, in many ways,a better introduction to Phil D'Amato than The Silk Code(though parts of that novel may be more profound).

Levinson's newest is his best

The Consciousness Plague is Levinson's best novelso far. Like all of his stories featuring NewYork forensic detective Doctor Phil D'Amato, thisscience fiction novel is so close to fact thatsometimes you can't recall if you actually read a newsstory talked about in the novel or not. This time,D'Amato investigates the possibility that our brainswork the way they do because of bacteria communicatingbetween themselves in our brain -- because of this, anew kind of antibiotic begins to make people lose theirmemories. And the loss of memory messes up an ongoinginvestigation of a series of stranglings in RiversidePark in New York City. The result is a bio-thriller,police mystery, science fiction story all rolled intoone. I've been a fan of D'Amato since the beginning.In fact, I heard that a movie was made of "The ChronologyProtection Case" -- a short story -- and I can't wait tosee it. In the meantime, I've got The Consciousness Plague.