Customer Reviews

Plague Year

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed Jeff Carlson's debut, though I do recognize it's not great "literature" or anything. But it was the perfect summertime read and an engrossing blend of intriguing science fiction, fast-moving thriller, and outright horror. This could make for a great movie if the right person came along. Carlson posits a new post-apocalyptic world: the Earth after a plague of nano-machines has killed off most of the world's population. Since the machines don't work at a certain level of atmospheric pressure, the survivors are now living on mountaintops and at high elevation. The U.S. government has relocated to Leadville, Colorado, the city at one of the highest elevations in America. We follow two different stories, that of a group of astronauts at the International Space Station who are desperately trying to come up with a cure for the nano-plague, and a group of survivors in California, struggling to survive on a mountaintop near a ski area. Carlson's story slowly draws these two disparate storylines together in a very believable and intriguing way as it becomes apparent one of the California survivors may know something about the plague's origin. A grim and sometimes depressing look at a possible future. Somewhat reminiscent of Wil McCarthy's _Bloom_, which also looks at the remnants of humanity in the wake of a nano-disaster.

A nano-virus outbreak occurs in the San Francisco Bay Area and spreads to the rest of the state in a matter of days. Within a week, the continent is infected. After 2 months the entire world. The virus is simple. It devours most mammal and bird flesh and makes a copy of itself. But it self destructs at .7 atm air pressure. Thus the last remnants of the human race cling to any mountaintop over ~9600 ft elevation. New wars and old hatreds flare up as the remaining scientists attempt to solve the nanovirus in India, Colorado, and aboard the International Space Station.

What I liked the most about this book was the little scientific details the author used. Unlike most pop-sci writers today, he actually sticks with his premise and considers all the consequences, both social and environmental. For instance, insects now rule anything below 10000 feet. China had time to militarily annex Tibet. Russia is struggling against Afghanistan. Germany, France and Italy fight over the Alps... He also brings up the science of nano tech, although it is only a surface view. I would have liked more there, but the flow of the plot would probably have been interrupted.

Anyway, I highly recommend it for people who like Post-apocalyptic stuff, or "realism" sci-fi.

A grim and gritty near future in which a nanite that eats flesh has escaped from a research lab and decimated the world. The very small silver lining on this very dark cloud is that it can't function and breaks down above a certain elevation, so tiny pockets of humanity exist on mountain tops, slowly running out of resources and going through the expected horrors of surviving in isolated communities where hunger and desperation has had a devastating effect on civilized behavior. These few survivors can make quick runs down into this "invisible sea" however, scavenging as quickly as they can before they feel the burning sensation that indicates the nano-plague has found them and started feasting. At which point they have to hightail it back uphill before they loose too many pieces. After a few of these runs, you really start to show it. The novel is gruesome, dramatic, exhilarating, and, would make a great film. Highly recommended.

The first few pages of this book kind confused me because I am not used to reading a book that jumps so quickly into action. I thought perhaps it would be too "fast-pace thriller" for me to finish. However, the authors ability to make you feel emotion (whether they be good emotions or bad) about the characters when you hardly know any back-story on them really amazed me. He did get into their back stories as the novel progressed. Usually this can be a deal-breaker for me because often authors will start telling the stories of the characters and you start imagining them one way, but then on page 52 the author suddenly lets you know that the character is something else entirely. You just don't buy it. I feel the author of Plague Year knew these characters inside and out and described them in a way that there were no deal-breaking revelations later in the book. There were exciting surprises later on as far as who did what before the plague, but the explanations were all very plausible. These characters are real and once you start reading, you begin to feel like they are your buddies out on the hill. As if you are standing in the huddled masses with them.

This book has a real ability to scare the crap out of you. It could really happen! Living in Nor Cal, the news reports about what cities the plague takes over as it eats its way across the country seemed too real. The author makes you feel like you were there watching the same news reports. Maybe you were the one making a call to your mom in the hotzone. Maybe you were the one gathering supplies and heading for the hills.

During the time I was reading this book, I would suddenly start thinking about how long it would take me to pick up my family and flee. My mind would start charting ways to get to Tahoe if the roads were blocked. Then I'd realize it wasn't really happening. That is how IN YOUR HEAD this book can get.

As far as all the scientist and military stuff is concerned, I am not an expert. The author explained well enough for me to understand what the nano does without making me bored or feel inadequate.

One part I thought he did particularly well with was the portion of the book where one of the characters is in a wheelchair and unable to express himself. The anger and desperation the author creates is quite powerful.

I did believe that the end of the book (the portion in the city) could have been longer. I felt like I missed out on what they actually did while hiding. Perhaps he'll go into that more in the sequel. Also, you might find yourself taking a few more showers than usual as his descriptions of grime, bugs, sores etc... is very detailed.

Overall I was surprised how much this book pulled me in and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to read something no one's ever done before.

Well, as first novels go, this is very good. In fact, Jeff Carlson writes like a veteran who has published many novels already. It all starts off with a few survivors living a subsistence lifestyle in the upper elevations of mountain ranges in Colorado and California. A nano-plague has reduced the population of the planet to a small fraction of what it was previously. Carlson writes in a style which includes much in the way of human interest, and he is great at character development, with a captivating plot. In addition, the science depicted here seems rather sound also. The novel portrays in great detail the struggles of these survivors and how they attempt to beat the odds, with the possible help from astronauts on the ISS. It is gruesome at times. This is a great read of near term hard science fiction, I highly recommend it.

If you liked Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD, you'll love PLAGUE YEAR. It's the same kind of post-apocalyptic adventure and very well done. Carlson grabs you by the throat and never lets go. Even better, PLAGUE YEAR answers all of your questions and has a real ending, which THE ROAD does not, although it looks like there's going to be a sequel to PLAGUE YEAR now, which is seriously cool. It wasn't the best book I've ever read, but it was very entertaining, action-packed and scary as hell.

This book has one of the coolest ideas I ever heard of, the idea that the whole world gets trapped at 10,000 feet because of a microscopic nanotechnology plague. It's an experimental cure for cancer that gets loose when someone tries to steal it that disintegrates all warmblooded life except at high altitudes where it self destructs. Billions of people are dead and the survivors are barely hanging on. The book starts in California in the mountains and also takes place in Colorado and in space, in the space station, where Ruth Goldman is trying to build an ANN, which is an anti-nano nano, to destroy the machine plague. The other heros are Cam and Sawyer, two guys in California who are some of the smartest and toughest survivors, which means they had to kill and even eat some of the other people to get through two winters. Sawyer has a secret. I won't tell you what but the whole book is full of action and surprises and cool settings and everything's on the line. It would make an amazing movie.

The Hoff

A fast read... a real page turner! You can't put it down because you simply can't predict what is going to happen next.

This book is very chilling because we already live in a time where we can't really keep track of all the new technology that we're presented with. Science is propelled forward with such leaps and bounds that I have this nagging fear that somehow some experiment is going to get out of control and wreak havoc. Welcome to Plague Year.

Jeff Carlson starts you off with a close-up view of a very small group of survivors of the nano plague. Don't be put off with how gruesome the story begins - you need to be thrown right into the horror or you won't understand how terrible and desperate the survivors have become. And things can get worse, so brace yourself.
The author does not define his characters into perfect cardboard cutouts of good or bad people. Instead, the characters are defined by the actual qualities of people in crisis: sometimes they strive to do the right thing and sometimes they will do anything they can to survive. Most often, they do both good and bad. Carlson's characters are very real.
The science is also very realistic but not so heavy that you feel like you are reading someone's textbook. There is a very good balance between the science and the fiction.
I recommend this book and I am so looking forward to the next book in this series!

The premise of this story revolves around a post-plaque group of "nano" survivors who struggle with finding a cure for the plague that is literally eating them as they breathe the air around them. "Plague Year" follows the lives of the scientists who have created the "nano" program to fight disease and cure ailments that plague society today, the search for the cure. Unfortunately, the virus escapes due to a rogue scientist and kills millions of innocent literally one bite at a time. By chance those who survive discover that the "nano" plague can not survive at a high altitude. The author, Jeff Carlson, writes descriptively the daily trials and tribulations of those survivors who try to find the daily essentials needed to survive. The characters are gritty and dedicated to their vigilante justice of finding a solution to stopping the plague that continues to kill the men, women, and children in a slow-grotesque painful death.
The story itself follows the classic struggle of good versus evil and the struggle of civilization to overcome. This book has a future and will become a classic that I will keep on my shelf and I am sure that I will read once again.

Without 24 this season, I've been craving action. Plague Year delivered. For me it was a gripping story and didn't have any labored or unnecessary scenes. The writing style was neither too flowery nor too choppy. I think Cam's character was almost comforting, like Jack, strong and steady. He provided the needed weight to balance out Ruth's rockiness. She was a bit annoying in parts. I think this book proves it's possible to write a nanotech-gone-wrong themed book that doesn't end up sounding like it's preaching bio-Luddite fanaticism. I'm looking forward to the sequel.