Ill Wind [Hardcover]

Kevin J. Anderson (Author), Doug Beason (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995

When a supertanker crashes off the coast of San Francisco, creating the largest oil spill in history, a multinational oil company releases an untested virus designed to break up the spill and causes a biotechnological disaster.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A promising disaster scenario fizzles as Anderson and Beason (coauthors of Assemblers of Infinity and The Trinity Paradox) succumb to lightweight plotting, facile characterization and an apparent need to allude to as many pop-cultural artifacts as possible. When a panicky oil company tries to clean up a major spill in San Francisco Bay by dropping genetically engineered oil-eating microbes on it, the little organisms go berserk and start devouring most of the world's long-chain polycarbons (gasoline, plastics, etc.). Within the first 150 pages, this leads to a breakdown of communications and information-processing systems. From there until the end of the novel, however, affairs are basically limited to several displays of plucky ingenuity (during which one character compares the work of his group, unfavorably, to that of the Professor on Gilligan's Island). Meanwhile, an acting president and a general, independently, attempt to enforce martial law on an unwilling populace. The heroes are heroic, especially scientist Spencer Lockwood and pilots Billy Carron and Todd Severyn (the latter atoning for having unwittingly dropped the petrol-eating organism in the first place). Todd's girlfriend, Iris Shikozu, stages a post-apocalyptic rock concert at the Altamont Speedway. Almost all the chapter headings are titles of old pop songs, books or movies (Good Vibrations, The Stand, Urban Cowboy). It's possible that those who care, as Iris does, about Kansas's live comeback album will find this fascinating, but most readers are likely to feel that The End of the World As We Know It deserves better handling.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Two best-selling authors team up to confront a biotechnological catastrophe.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 383 pages
• Publisher: Forge; 1st edition (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312857608
• ISBN-13: 978-0312857608
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,491,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kevin J. Anderson has written 46 national bestsellers and has over 20 million books in print worldwide in thirty languages. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers' Choice Award. Find out more about Kevin Anderson at www.wordfire.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's an Ill Wind that doesn't blow some good, April 6, 2002

By 

Rebecca Drayer (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ill Wind (Mass Market Paperback)

That seems to be true of this book as well. Ill Wind is the story of the chaos that results when a tailored microorganism destroys the world's petrochemical products. I found the descriptions of the collapse of civilization to be interesting, but found the scientific basis not quite believable. The jump from an organism that just destroys octane to an organism that destroys all oil- and plastic-based products is just too great.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book. Other reviewers have mentioned that it follows the standard "disaster format" of multiple characters and plotlines, but this works for me. I found each of the characters to be engaging (with the possible exception of Connor Brooks, who was just too whiney for belief).

I admit that I initially picked up this book because I enjoy biotech thrillers, but I'm glad I did.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Did these people actually read the book?, December 7, 2007

By 

R. Mitchell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ill Wind (Mass Market Paperback)

Sometimes I suspect that reviewers simply say they like it because that's their habit. This is one of the worst things I have ever seen out of either Anderson or Beason, to the point where I literally wonder if it was to fulfill a contractual obligation. Beason's scientific background simply cannot sustain a plot with all the cardboard depth of a 1968 student rally. If you live in Marin or Boston, you'll probably love it. Those with any actual real-life experience with the sorts of people depicted, however, will more likely shudder than admire how the book develops.

But the problem is that a novel isn't simply a neat idea. Ideas are cheap. Worse than a plot so full of logic holes you could put a semi through it are the ridiculous stereotypes that stand in place of actual human characters in the book: they are simply demigods, avatars for attitudes, and the progression of the plot makes the problem worse, rather than better.

It's not *total* garbage. There are moments. But coming from authors of their caliber, the work is deeply disappointing.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, fair execution, January 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ill Wind (Mass Market Paperback)

Ill Wind is about the grounding of a supertanker and subsequently a petroleum-eating bacterium which gets out of control. A broad story with "a cast of thousands". I found it hard to keep track of all of the characters. The description of the tanker, and of the grounding are accurate. The novel is particularly effective in demonstrating the dependence of modern society on petroleum and petroleum derivatives.