Customer Reviews

The Patron Saint of Plagues

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

An interesting (if farfetched) concept: By the 2060s Mexico is the world's superpower. Ruled by a high-tech savvy regime propped up by Mestizo racialism and a breakaway Church that has its own pope, the Holy Republic of Mexico extends from Venezuela to its recent reconquests of Arizona, New Mexico and half of Texas. The United States is beaten, fractured, and barely able to maintain much further resistance to Mexican desires for whatever remains of her western states. Into this scenario comes a plague that quickly kills those who are predominately of Indian background--in another words, the overwhelming majority of Mexico's population.

Too bad that such an intriguing backdrop like this one was ruined by flat characters in a confusing and quite boring mess of a plot from an author pathetically aping Crichton, Ludlum and (of course!) Dan Brown.

This is a debut book from a new author? You have to be kidding me. This is a powerful, literate, compelling, and fascinating story that will turn experienced writers green with envy for the talent on display here. Do they give awards for debut novels? Just give Barth Anderson three or four right now.

I didn't know what to expect when I ordered this book from Amazon last week. It popped up in my recommendations so I decided to give it a whirl and boy am I glad I did. Frankly, I don't even know how to categorize this book. It's set 60 years in the future, so you could try to label it science fiction, and while there are some elements of that, the label doesn't fit perfectly. If you like science fiction you'll like this book, but if you don't like science fiction this probably won't feel like science fiction at all. This is a character and event driven story in which the author does masterful characterization so deftly his efforts seem invisible. Good characterization is one of the more important elements in writing to me; if the characterization is poor or unbelievable it really kills a story for me. Since this could also be labeled a medical thriller I'll use this analogy: the best of all needle pricks is the one you don't feel. Anderson does characterization so well you simply don't feel it. I only noticed halfway through the novel that I hadn't even thought about the characterization.

The novel follows H.D. Stark, an experienced epidemiologist with the CDC, as he investigates an outbreak of Dengue in Mexico City in the 2060's. The world is a strange place politically...America is no longer a superpower, a mosaic virus has decimated our agricultural output and set us back several notches. Kazakhstan, an expanded China, Brazil and Europe have parity with us now. The world's new superpower is Mexico. A fascist dictatorship/theocracy has assumed power in Mexico, renamed Mexico City "Ascension", and using a new biotechnology have basically placed the internet and computing power directly into the heads of their middle and upper classes. Being wired in this fashion provides their society a competitive economic advantage that spurred the growth of Mexico's economy. There is still a vast underclass of poor in Mexico though, along with the resentment which arises when bleak poverty must exist alongside wealth and glamor. Into this changed geopolitical scene arrives a terrifying and deadly new disease. Stark, an American, goes to Mexico to aid in fighting the outbreak and we are treated to an absolutely mesmerizing tale of how viruses work, spread, and leap quarantines and how medical science fights viral outbreaks today, and a fascinating study of some truly amazing medical advances theorized by the author which are also used to combat the outbreak. I flat-out enjoyed this book. "Compelling reading" is too faint of praise for this story; I was riveted. This is a wonderful five-star book that I highly recommend and feel should win more than a few awards this year.

"The Patron Saint of Plagues" is a fantastic book. (And never mind the `for a first novel" qualifier. It's excellent regardless.) Through the first five chapters I was into it like any other very good book, intrigued by the futurist research, the medical espionage, insight about political ideology abusing/using the religiously faithful, a hero I liked being with, etc. But at the end of chapter 6 I actually grinned and said out loud as I walked down the sidewalk, "This rocks!" In that short chapter, Barth Anderson simply (but not so simply) describes the progress of a virus taking over a human body in a way that had me actually holding my breath! That's what made me grin: The realization that I had been literally holding my breath reading about the cells, DNA, nuclei, sweats and fevers and hemorrhages of a disease in a body. I know this sounds ridiculous, I wouldn't have believed it myself --until I read Barth Anderson's throat-grabbing yet poetic prose. Anderson's technical research seems at a level that belongs in a science journal yet some passages read like the best of Gothic sublime. I have nothing but praise for this book. And even IF I saw weaknesses, anyone who can write about blood cells and nuclei in a way that is as exciting as Hollywood wishes its car chases were has my rapt attention for the rest of the book, my recommendation, and my anxious wait for his next novel.

This book is a near-future science fiction thriller about a bioengineered plague that specifically kills a racial subgroup (indigenous native Mexicans). The reason? The typical villianous "doing evil to do a greater good" type of plot.

The action was decent and the descriptions of the way the bioengineered plague (masking as the Dengue virus) infected the body were quite interesting.

However, I felt the book was about 100 pages too long. Some portions felt padded for the sake of having a larger book. (Perhaps that requirement was forced on the author by the publisher -- or maybe more culling of excess material was needed during the editing process.)

Books about plagues have been around for ages, but now with bioengineering a true reality (or near future true reality, depending on your viewpoint), these types of plots seem to be more "scientifically" real, hence more believable -- more science, less fiction -- than before.

This book certainly delves alot into the inner workings of antigens, antibodies, immunoglobins (e.g., IgG, IgM, IgA, etc.), cloning, the CDC, and bioengineered diseases.

Being a science fiction work, it includes references to "wetware" (computer/hardware implants to enhance neuroprocessing and/or other bodily functions), and some interesting near future flying technology (i.e., flying motorcycles). A must-have for some types of science fiction nowadays it seems.

For those who like to read near-future science fiction that deals with an interesting plot about the decline of the U.S. and the subsequent rise of our third-world neighbor (Mexico) to the south; and bioengineered warfare; then this is the book for you.

I only wish the editor had cut out about 100 pages of fluff. Whatever happened to the concept "Less is More" in fiction writing? I felt like we were hand-held too much by the auther, and not enough was left to the imagination.

After reading this book, I doubt I'd want to read it again, in its entireity.

This book didn't quite have a nifty science fiction "big new idea" to speak of. But that's certainly not a requirement for good fiction.

Unfortunately, when you compare and contrast this "potential end of the world" book with Margaret Attwood's "end of the world" book _Oryx_and_Crake_, which is also about a bioengineered disease, then you'll know what I'm talking about: Attwood's book is better -- better characterization, better plot, and although about the same size, it didn't seem padded like this book does. Attwood's book still holds enough "mystery" to want to read again, after you've finished it. This book lacked that.

This book reads like an inflated novella.

All in all, not bad for a first novel, although I'm not sure I'd purchase this author's next book.

Maybe with more craftmanship, the author's next book will be better. The author has potential... he just has to polish his work, that's all. Hence the 3 stars out of 5.

Anderson creates a very real future, with characters that inspire concern. "Patron" is a reality check for all U.S. citizens who havn't ever considered their nation's place in the world's political food chain. This book is cohesive, allowing for the medical layman to easily understand the essential biophysics involved in the telling of the story without the author going through tedious explanations. Great book with exciting speed.

This page turner sticks with me months after I've read it; the timeliness of the topic and the depth of the characters make it a fascinatingly fun read. Anderson has successfully combined the classic sci-fi "morality play" genre with a cutting-edge it-could-happen techno thrill ride. I'm waiting for more. I'm saving my fifth star for the next things he writes!

Conceptually, this book had some potential, but the execution is atrocious. The author skips between concepts without explanation, introduces characters with no background and expects us to care about them, and telegraphs his 'surprises' so far in advance that the pretense of keeping the reader in the dark becomes downright tiresome. Furthermore, more than half the dialog is written in Spanish, with the English translation printed afterwards in italics - a useful convention for a line or two of flavor text, but absurd and distracting when entire conversations are written in this fashion.

I wish I could offer an alternative to read, because the idea of a science fiction setting for an epidemic drama is not without merit. At the time of this writing, however, I am not aware of any appropriate substitutes for this book. That being said, I would still advise giving this book a pass. Another along these lines will surely be written some day by an author with some - any - talent, and that book will surely be much more enjoyable if you have not tainted your palate with this one.

You have a doctor who can't speak correct English, another doctor who has a God complex, another doctor whom we don't know much about because the author doesn't really bother with such nonsense as character depth, a cyborg that runs a country, and a schizophrenic nun.
Mexico is a superpower, and, right in the former Mexico City, which is, like, the center of the world, obviously, dengue breaks out. Tons of people die, and a team of doctors has to figure out how to stop this outbreak.
The language is so awful, you want to get through this book as quickly as possible, so any details just get lost.

In the not so distant future on an alternate Earth, Emil Obregon is the president for life in a fascist Mexico thanks to the support of the Holy Renaissance Party. This theocracy has an alternate Pope who broke away from the Vatican and has much power over the country. Most of the population is hooked up through implants to the Pilone, an online form of the net that allows the government to keep track of its citizens.

Mexico and the United States are at war with the former annexing Arizona and New Mexico as well as part of Central and South America. When Dengue Fever threatens to kill much of Mexico's population, doctors like Henry Stark from CDC rush over there to help. The airborne virus constantly mutates; after studying it the researchers conclude that it is manmade and someone is still spreading it around the country. If Stark and his team don't find the carrier, 80% of Mexico's population will die.

This is as much a medical thriller as it is a futuristic alternate history tale. Readers will be fascinated by the theological fascist regime that has the church's blessing but the focus of much of the book is Stark, a man not interested in politics but in saving lives. Barth Anderson is a gifted storyteller whose debut novel is a roaring success. His descriptions of a futuristic Mexico are so vivid that readers can easily visualize it.

Harriet Klausner

First let me state that I very much enjoyed this book. I loved the basic storyline, and being someone interested in epidemiology, I found the plot to be fascinating. However. The book is written in the near future - around 2061. Some of the changes in the world are not plausible. Some of the technologies, political changes, etc just wouldn't be possible by then. It would have been better off if the author hadn't even mentioned a date. I also found the language frustrating. The main character speaks in a bastardized English that ignores the use of the verb "to be". And there is no reason for it, other than trying to show how the English language has evolved through the years. Never mind that none of the other characters, including some using English as a second language, don't slaughter the English in this manner. I found it distracting enough to take away from the storyline. It felt like I was tripping over my feet whilst reading the book. Through the latter half of the book, the language didn't seem to be as much of an issue. I haven't gone back to look, but I didn't notice the character skipping "to be". Until at the end of the book where he skips it again....in other words, inconsistent writing. There were some characters in the book that I never really figured out what their purpose was. The explanation of the conflict between the Holy Renaissance and Sister Domenica was never really clear to me. There were a lot of little intricacies in the storyline that were never really tied together. Connections between characters were vague. I agree with the one reviewer who just said sloppy writing.

Again, to emphasize, I did very much enjoy reading the book, but it could have been oh so much better!