The Flu - any more?

[Sydney's Mom]

I recently finished The Flu, by Jacqueline Druga, which I picked up as a freebie on Amazon. I loved it! Read it in two days, couldn't wait to find out what happened with the characters. Although not everyone was fleashed out as much as I would have liked, if they were, it could have been as long as The Stand.

Anyway, I am looking for more end of the world via plague books. I actually borrowed Plague through the kindle lending library, but it is about zombies. Sorry, a killer disease is plausable, but although I love the Walking Dead, I don't find zombies believable.

So, any recommendations for how the world ends?

[daffy4u]

Well, the world doesn't end but permanently changes due to a computer daemon (though there is a lot of death involved). "Daemon" and "Freedom TM" by Daniel Suarez are about a computer program set loose on the world after a Bill Gates/Steve Jobs type character dies.

I found myself freaking out about a computer program changing my world, then I rooted for it then I freaked out again. I was all over the map in how I felt about the program. I found them techy, geeky, fun, scary and thought provoking.

[fjtorres]

End of the world Sagas?
Plenty of those going back at least to Balmer and Wylie's WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE. Though I prefer the followup: AFTER WORLDS COLLIDE.
SF routinely destroys the world but there are some unusually clever ones:
S.M. Stirling's THE CHANGE series: DIES THE FIRE, PROTECTOR'S WAR, MEETING AT CORVALIS. High tech stops working. Not electricity, no guns or cannon, etc.
Poul Anderson's BRAIN WAVE posits a world where every living creature suddenly becomes way more intelligent. Civilization promptly collapses.
NIVEN and POURNELLE's LUCIFER'S HAMMER is very good bestseller fiction in SF trappings about a cometary impact.
And of course, Michael Crichton's classic ANDROMEDA STRAIN.

[DianNC]

I read The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch last year. It was a new release from my local library. Not the best of dystopian-type literature, but a fun, fast read if you're not averse to YA books.

In an America devastated by war and plague, the only way to survive is to keep moving.

In the aftermath of a war, America’s landscape has been ravaged and two-thirds of the population left dead from a vicious strain of influenza. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in search of material to trade. But when Stephen’s grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma after an accident, Stephen finds his way to Settler’s Landing, a community that seems too good to be true. Then Stephen meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny, who refuses to accept things as they are. And when they play a prank that goes horribly wrong, chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler’s Landing--and their lives--forever.

[Apache]

It is not plague but a comet. Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
Apache

[carpetmojo]

Cor .... Lucifer's Hamer .... that takes me back .......

[hard-boiled pat]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

I recently finished The Flu, by Jacqueline Druga, which I picked up as a freebie on Amazon. I loved it! Read it in two days, couldn't wait to find out what happened with the characters. Although not everyone was fleashed out as much as I would have liked, if they were, it could have been as long as The Stand.

Anyway, I am looking for more end of the world via plague books. I actually borrowed Plague through the kindle lending library, but it is about zombies. Sorry, a killer disease is plausable, but although I love the Walking Dead, I don't find zombies believable.

So, any recommendations for how the world ends?

hi try 'the passage' by justin cronin... much longer than the stand

[6charlong]

A more interesting approach to me is reality. I read The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It describes the work of virus hunters from the US Centers for Disease Control and focuses on an outbreak of Ebola in the US state of Virginia about 15 or 20 years ago and the response to the threat.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Cor .... Lucifer's Hamer .... that takes me back .......

I like FOOTFALL better but I'm not sure alien invaders qualifies for this thread.
Still get chills when the aliens get a taste of Excalibur.

[DianNC]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

A more interesting approach to me is reality. I read The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It describes the work of virus hunters from the US Centers for Disease Control and focuses on an outbreak of Ebola in the US state of Virginia about 15 or 20 years ago and the response to the threat.

I couldn't find The Hot Zone at any of my libraries, but one does have his Panic in Level 4 which also sounds like an interesting read!

Bizarre illnesses and plagues that kill people in the most unspeakable ways. Obsessive and inspired efforts by scientists to solve mysteries and save lives. From The Hot Zone to The Demon In The Freezer and beyond, Richard Preston's bestselling works have mesmerized readers everywhere by showing them strange worlds of nature they never dreamed of.

PANIC IN LEVEL 4 is a grand tour through the eerie and unforgettable universe of Richard Preston, filled with incredible characters and mysteries that refuse to leave one's mind. Here are dramatic true stories from this acclaimed and award-winning author, including:

The phenomenon of "self-cannibals," who suffer from a rare genetic condition caused by one wrong letter in their DNA that forces them to compulsively chew their own flesh—and why everyone may have a touch of this disease."

The search for the unknown host of Ebola virus, an organism hidden somewhere in African rain forests, where the disease finds its way into the human species, causing outbreaks of unparalleled horror.

The brilliant Russian brothers—"one mathematician divided between two bodies"—who built a supercomputer in their apartment from mail-order parts in an attempt to find hidden order in the number pi (p).

In fascinating, intimate, and exhilarating detail, Richard Preston portrays the frightening forces and constructive discoveries that are currently roiling and reordering our world, once again proving himself a master of the nonfiction narrative and, as noted in The Washington Post, "a science writer with an uncommon gift for turning complex biology into riveting page-turners."