Preston, Richard
Entry updated 16 March 2026. Tagged: Author.
(1954- ) US journalist and author, brother of Douglas Preston, who began to publish work of borderline genre interest with The Hot Zone (1994), a sensational and influential "nonfiction thriller" about the ebola virus and related filoviruses, including the true story of an outbreak among imported monkeys in Virginia (see Pandemic; Paranoia). His novel The Cobra Event (1998) centres on terrorist release of a fictional virus in New York; the nonfiction The Demon in the Freezer (2002) discusses similar terrorist use of Weaponized biological agents such as anthrax and potentially smallpox, though concerning itself mainly with US defensive measures and the near-elimination of smallpox. The Boat of Dreams: A Christmas Story (2003) is a modern Fantasy featuring a seedy and run-down Santa Claus.
After the death of Michael Crichton, Preston completed the unfinished Crichton sf thriller Micro (2011), dealing with the Miniaturization of humans to a height of half an inch via implausible use of ultra-intense magnetic fields (see Magnetism); adventures with Ants, bats, snakes, wasps and other dangerous creatures ensue. Eventually the survivors are returned to normal size, the Villain killed by his own "micro-bots", and the "Tensor generator" shrinking Machine destroyed (though plans for making another apparently still exist). [DRL]
Richard Preston
born Cambridge, Massachusetts: 5 August 1954
works
- The Hot Zone (London: Corgi Books, 1994) [pb/]
- The Cobra Event (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998) [pb/]
- The Boat of Dreams: A Christmas Story (New York: Simon and Schuster/Touchstone, 2003) [pb/Raúl Colón]
- Micro (New York: HarperCollins, 2011) with Michael Crichton [hb/Will Staehle]
nonfiction (selected)
- The Demon in the Freezer (New York: Random House, 2002) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science (New York: Random House, 2008) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come (New York: Random House, 2019) [nonfiction: hb/]
links
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