Good novels about the plague?

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I've got "The Years of Rice of Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson on my TBR list (and I bought it at Fictionwise). It's alternate history based on the plague as a divergence.

I read that. It is a great book, but doesn't really deal with the plague except at the very beginning. It is much more a book about eastern philosophy and religion. A very nice mix of Science Fiction, Alternate History and Fantasy.

A book with the plague in it, but not a book about the plague.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

There's quite a lot of plague coverage in Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver (which has led to some-one on another forum calling it "plague-punk" ) - the bits that cover the plague touch on how it affected the lives of the various characters.

All of Edward Rutherfords books that I've read (Sarum, The Forest, London) seem to have a section dedicated to the plague in the area that they're set in.

[montsnmags]

It's a long stretch, but if you also like SF , Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space books contain a plague as a significant plot-point throughout series (the Melding Plague).

Cheers,
Marc

[mgrunk]

I know - it's an old topic and I'm probably way off base in what you're looking for - but I've read a number of fiction books based on some type of apoctalyptic plague / end of the world type books - all of these are from my fictionwise account:

The Road - Cormac Mccarthy - I don't know that it's a plague that wiped everything out though

Plague Year - Jeff Carlson - nanotech plague

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood - I didn't personally like it - but it got really good reviews

Cell - Stephen King - ok it's stretch of the idea of a plague :-)

The Patron Saint of Plagues - Barth Anderson

[igorsk]

From today's Webscriptions update.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Edited by by John Joseph Adams



Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence:
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,
the harbingers of Armageddon—
these are our guides through the Wastelands

From the Book of Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving eschatological tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. In doing so, these visionary authors have addressed one of the most challenging and enduring themes of imaginative fiction: the nature of life in the aftermath of total societal collapse.

Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today's most renowned authors of speculative fiction, including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King, Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon. Whether the end of the world comes through nuclear war, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm, these are tales of survivors, in some cases struggling to rebuild the society that was, in others, merely surviving, scrounging for food in depopulated ruins and defending themselves against monsters, mutants, and marauders.

Complete with introductions and an indispensable appendix of recommendations for further reading, Wastelands delves into this bleak landscape, uncovering the raw human emotion and heart-pounding thrills at the genre's core.

[FizzyWater]

This is about a flu epidemic, not exactly the plague:

The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen

[tech_au]

I recently finished reading The Digital Plague by Jeff Somers. That was a pretty good futuristic story of a plague destroying humanity.

[JSWolf]

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

Robert Neville may well be the last living man on Earth . . . but he is not alone.

An incurable plague has mutated every other man, woman, and child into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures who are determined to destroy him.

By day, he is a hunter, stalking the infected monstrosities through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn....

[MCSmarties]

Noah Gordon's "The Physician" deals with the topic of medicine in the Middle Ages.

Part of the book involves the Black Death. It's a great read!


For a more SF approach, try Norman Spinrad's "Journals of the Plague Years". A short novel, it's not about the Black Death but about AIDS (although HIV is never clearly mentioned).

[meeera]

Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks. A historical novel set in the real plague, not SF.

[Marrella]

The Plague Tales by Ann Benson and its sequel, The Burning Road. I read these years ago, and even though the German translation wasn't exactly good, I managed to enjoy them a lot, especially the first one.

[apbschmitz]

Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders. Summary from Wikipedia:

The novel is written from the point of view of Anna Frith, a housemaid who describes what she lives through when the plague hits her village. It is based on the history of the small Derbyshire village of Eyam, which, when beset upon by the plague in 1666, quarantines itself to prevent the disease from spreading further. The Plague that hit Eyam is similar to the Black Plague in Europe.

[cpegg]

Eifelheim by Michael Flynn (science fiction) isn't "about" the plague, but the Black Death is a thread running through the book -- not so much at the beginning, but the plague content builds considerably over the course of the story.

[Marrella]

Originally Posted by cpegg

Eifelheim by Michael Flynn (science fiction) isn't "about" the plague, but the Black Death is a thread running through the book -- not so much at the beginning, but the plague content builds considerably over the course of the story.

I have had this on my TBR for quite some time now - started it once, then got sidetracked by something else and haven't got any further since. But the premise is indeed very interesting. Maybe I should have another look at it soon.

[Mrraow]

Yep, my first thought was Connie Willis.

Second thought:
The Damiano trilogy by R. A. MacAvoy