A book review
I just finished reading the book Plague Year. It's about a nonotech virus that is accidentally released. In a very short time it spreads all over the world and completely decimates life everywhere. Luckily, the original creator built a fail safe into it that causes it to become disabled at altitude. Basically, it can't survive above ~10,000 feet above sea level. The American government ends up centralized in a small town in Colorado where they manage to save some of the greatest minds in the nanotech field to work on a cure. Other major governments manage to survive in other parts of the world and they're all racing to do the same thing. At the same time they're implementing plans to make sure that if humanity manages to get through this then they'll be in control. Meanwhile, small holdouts manage to continue to survive in small pockets all over the globe. Most of the people are desperate and are doing whatever they can do to get by. Cannibalism is widespread. The haves see this as an opportunity to enslave the have nots. The governments are barely managing to keep their people under control. Then a ray of hope emerges and hilarity ensues.
If you're into TEOTWAKI fiction then this is a good one to check out. I wouldn't put it in the same category as Alas, Babylon or Lucifer's Hammer but it's still one of the better SHTF novels that I've read. This isn't a how to on how to survive during the apocalypse like the previously mentioned were. This is a book about human nature and how people react when forced into a world ending event. It's a book that gives an accurate insight into how people of all different types will react when all hope is lost. I don't really consider the scenario to be plausible. If it actually happened then I consider the solution to be even less plausible. Like a lot of these types of novels, though, I can see the reactions of the people, from the normal dude who barely made it by his own virtue to the powerful senator who only made it because of a little luck and how "important" he was, to be fairly accurate. I do, however, find it a bit ironic that if the average person was to read a piece of survival fiction that focused on a character who just "happened" to be well prepared and because of that "somehow managed" to end up better off than most everyone else it would be written off as unbelievable and a bit ridiculous. Good luck finding me a piece of survival fiction that actually made it to print that had a main character like that (besides Rawles book which doesn't really count since no one really reads it until after they've started to wake up).
If you're into TEOTWAKI fiction then this is a good one to check out. I wouldn't put it in the same category as Alas, Babylon or Lucifer's Hammer but it's still one of the better SHTF novels that I've read. This isn't a how to on how to survive during the apocalypse like the previously mentioned were. This is a book about human nature and how people react when forced into a world ending event. It's a book that gives an accurate insight into how people of all different types will react when all hope is lost. I don't really consider the scenario to be plausible. If it actually happened then I consider the solution to be even less plausible. Like a lot of these types of novels, though, I can see the reactions of the people, from the normal dude who barely made it by his own virtue to the powerful senator who only made it because of a little luck and how "important" he was, to be fairly accurate. I do, however, find it a bit ironic that if the average person was to read a piece of survival fiction that focused on a character who just "happened" to be well prepared and because of that "somehow managed" to end up better off than most everyone else it would be written off as unbelievable and a bit ridiculous. Good luck finding me a piece of survival fiction that actually made it to print that had a main character like that (besides Rawles book which doesn't really count since no one really reads it until after they've started to wake up).
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