Developing an AIDS vaccine is difficult enough, but politics, bureaucrats' career fears, and the fact that a vaccine would make lower profits for drug companies than successful treatments do have added to that difficulty. Thomas clearly chronicles the efforts of many scientists, biotech companies, and large drug companies, bringing to life the people in their labs, meetings, the halls of Congress, where they are called to testify, and elsewhere. She graphically depicts the National Institutes of Health, their internal and consultant groups, and their governmental relations with media and the general public. She traces the major types of vaccine—antibody, live vector, and naked DNA—from their conception to lab work on them to attempts to conduct human trials of them. She devotes considerable space to VaxGen's and Genentech's efforts to obtain nongovernmental funding and run trials in the U.S. and Thailand. Information-packed yet eminently readable and, at times, gripping. —William Beatty