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| | Features | ISBN13: 9780441015146Condition: NewNotes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
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| | Description | Read Jeff Carlson's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community. View our feature on Jeff Carlson's Plague Year. The nanotechnology was designed to fight cancer. Instead, it evolved into the Machine Plague, killing nearly five billion people and changing life on Earth forever.
The nanotech has one weakness: it self-destructs at altitudes above ten thousand feet. Those few who've managed to escape the plague struggle to stay alive on the highest mountains, but time is running out-there is famine and war, and the environment is crashing worldwide. Humanity's last hope lies with a top nanotech researcher aboard the International Space Station-and with a small group of survivors in California who risk a daring journey below the death line...
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Jeff Carlson | | Paperback: | 304 pages | | Publisher: | Ace | | Publication Date: | July 31, 2007 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 044101514X | | Product Length: | 6.76 inches | | Product Width: | 4.22 inches | | Product Height: | 0.82 inches | | Product Weight: | 0.32 pounds | | Package Length: | 6.69 inches | | Package Width: | 4.17 inches | | Package Height: | 0.87 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.22 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 90 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 90 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 46 found the following review helpful:
Much better than PW would have you believe Aug 21, 2007
By Craig Larson
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.
25 of 25 found the following review helpful:
Solid followthrough Aug 04, 2007
By Grumm
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.
20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 Very Intense, Near Future Thriller Aug 07, 2007
By Lou Anders
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.
16 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Plague Year Gets IN YOUR HEAD Dec 13, 2007
By emzbox
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.
16 of 16 found the following review helpful:
The End Of The World As We Know It... Oct 28, 2007
By Kevin Spoering
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.
See all 90 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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