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44th out of 90 books
—
135 voters
Plague Year (Plague Year #1)
by
Jeff Carlson (Goodreads Author)
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...more
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...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
July 31st 2007
by Ace
(first published 2007)
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Apr 03, 2009
Nick
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
apocalpyse,
fiction,
science-fiction,
silicon-valley,
thriller,
authors_jeff_carlson,
read-2009
Nice first novel. The narrative flow and prose in the first part of the novel was a bit clunky, otherwise this would be four-star. Carlson clearly researches his topics, and managed to transport the reader into a high altitude survival event. I'd encourage a more realistic 'tramatic stress' orientation on the part of the individuals. Good nanotech overview.
Hope he does well as I think he will be a rising author in the genre.
Hope he does well as I think he will be a rising author in the genre.
This was a hit and miss post-apocalyptic tale set in the near future. A nano-tech virus has swept the earth, killing anything below 10,000 feet. To survive you have to move up in the mountains and have to do unspeakable things. I liked the survival elements of the book but there are two stories--one of the survivors and one of scientists trying to find the cure for the nano virus. I didn't like the science element at all. It was clunky and just eroded any tension and suspense from the survival p...more
1 like · like · see review
Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve been so engrossed in a book. Plague Year started with a bang, capturing my attention like a roller coaster. That’s why it was so disappointing that the latter half of the book seemed to derail. The book revolves around a nanotech contagion that has killed most of the world’s population, forcing the survivors to take refuge up in the mountains. Lacking resources, the survivors have devolved into warring groups of cannibals. I’m always a sucker for these post-apoc...more
I can dig emotionally dark stories. I don't want to wallow in them all the time, but there's plenty of good material in the abyss. As tour guides go, Carlson is one of the better I've had. He gives his readers a flashlight and a sandwich and an apple in a paper bag before he sends them into the darkness.
At first, I was worried that the whole book was going to be an unrelenting tale of gloom in desolation. But Carlson had the inventiveness and sense to bring exciting and unexpected elements into...more
At first, I was worried that the whole book was going to be an unrelenting tale of gloom in desolation. But Carlson had the inventiveness and sense to bring exciting and unexpected elements into...more
Interesting take on end-of-world genre using man-made nano-technology.
Our story begins in the after-math one year after the world as we know it has died off. People, animals, etc leaving only insects and reptiles to populate the earth. We learn about the world's end during our story in flashbacks to find that a man-made nano-technology had been accidentally released onto the world. It was being created to cure cancer and was not yet perfected, obviously. The only survivor's are the those who ran...more
Our story begins in the after-math one year after the world as we know it has died off. People, animals, etc leaving only insects and reptiles to populate the earth. We learn about the world's end during our story in flashbacks to find that a man-made nano-technology had been accidentally released onto the world. It was being created to cure cancer and was not yet perfected, obviously. The only survivor's are the those who ran...more
1 like · like · see review
May 10, 2013
Jules
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Michael Chrichton fans and fans of the techno-thriller genre.
A nano plague, invented to help cure cancer, escapes from the lab before it has been fully developed and decimates the population of the world within days. The only survivors are the people who made it above 10,000 feet in time. Since then they have been living off what little remains of the fauna, what they can scrounge on their short trips below the limit and each other. Scientists are working to create a vaccine but not everyone has the same agenda...
I can't compare this edition to the origin...more
I can't compare this edition to the origin...more
I certainly enjoyed this book, but it has it's flaws. I noticed on Amazon that the Publisher's Weekly review criticized Plague Year for having an interesting plot that gets bogged down (by character development). My complaint is the obvious. The wonderful character exploration at the beginning of the story (what happens to personalities and relationships in the face of a plague that has not only wiped out most of life, but forces what remains to live on isolated mountaintops), gives way in the f...more
Very good, light read for the plane. An excellent apocalyptic setting, that held together well throughout the book.
In Plague Year, a "nanotech" virus got loose and reduces all warm-blooded creatures to mush. The catch? There is a governor that says it can't survive if at the standard air pressure at 10,000 feet. So everyone made a run for the mountains and small pockets of humanity survive, barely, with the occasional foray below the magic line, at a terrible physical cost. Cam and Sawyer lead o...more
In Plague Year, a "nanotech" virus got loose and reduces all warm-blooded creatures to mush. The catch? There is a governor that says it can't survive if at the standard air pressure at 10,000 feet. So everyone made a run for the mountains and small pockets of humanity survive, barely, with the occasional foray below the magic line, at a terrible physical cost. Cam and Sawyer lead o...more
Summary:
Cam and his small community of fellow survivors live on a small mountain peak just over 10,000 feet above sea level. Below this altitude is an invisible ocean of fatal nanotechnology. Cam’s community struggles to survive until a stranger arrives to help them, setting off an unforeseen series of events.
Nanotech specialist Ruth works in the International Space Station, far above the machine plague below. But in order to craft a cure, she must go back to Earth and find the origin of the pl...more
Cam and his small community of fellow survivors live on a small mountain peak just over 10,000 feet above sea level. Below this altitude is an invisible ocean of fatal nanotechnology. Cam’s community struggles to survive until a stranger arrives to help them, setting off an unforeseen series of events.
Nanotech specialist Ruth works in the International Space Station, far above the machine plague below. But in order to craft a cure, she must go back to Earth and find the origin of the pl...more
I finished this earlier today. It's a cool new take on the post-apocalyptic world scenerio, with humans destroying the world. And in true SF form, it's the cool way that we do it that draws you to the book. Essentially, in our attempt to cure cancer using nanotechnology, an "accident" releases a prototype of the nanotech . . . which subsequently destroys living tissue, not just cancer. Everyone would have died, except that the prototype had a built in failsafe, a circuit that self-destructs when...more
Where to start - ok the first thing to say is this certainly was a different read - the idea of a bio-engineered plague to end all of life or at least human civilisation is not the first and i am sure not the last (think white plague by Frank Herbert or Blood Music by Greg Bear) but this was an interesting addition to the genre all the same. One thing i would say though is that this is the first of a trilogy - and it certainly felt it - some characters took long descriptive paths to get to a cer...more
I finished this at close to midnight last night, and had to sleep on it, There were so many characters and there was so much action that I had to sleep on it! I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and am glad that it continues as a trilogy. I love Ruth, and the fact that Mr. Carlson enjoys creating strong, intelligent female protagonists. My only reservation in giving the story five stars was the number of characters and amount of action in one book - this could have easily been two. I also felt that...more
Man, what a ride! This is one of the best techno-thriller I've read in years. A chilling cautionary tale about the dangers of nanotechnology, PLAGUE YEAR hooked me early on and kept me hooked. From the awesome opening line ("They ate Jorgensen first.") to the hopeful but open-ended conclusion, author Jeff Carlson really kept me guessing. Carlson's command of the science involved makes it fascinating and believable and his understanding of human nature makes the relationships in this apocalyptic...more
I liked the fact that the setting of one of the plot threads was set in an area I knew well, the Sierra Nevada. That's about all I enjoyed of this book.
None of the characters were remotely likable, the details were spare (except in the death scenes which were detailed and gruesome to the extreme), and there wasn't a hint of hope to be found in the first half of the book (all I could stomach). I like my post-apocalyptic stories to be a little grim, but this was simply depressing.
It should be one...more
None of the characters were remotely likable, the details were spare (except in the death scenes which were detailed and gruesome to the extreme), and there wasn't a hint of hope to be found in the first half of the book (all I could stomach). I like my post-apocalyptic stories to be a little grim, but this was simply depressing.
It should be one...more
Ebook/Sci-Fi Thriller: This book has its pros and cons. The plot is really good. We're in post-apocalyptic America because nano technology has taken over in all parts of the earth that is under 5000 feet. One of the smartest scientist is on the space shuttle and has "scientist block" on finding a cure. Survivors are in the Sierras practicing cannibalism to survive. Home base is in Colorado. Rumors are that other countries are fighting over high ground.
Problems come with the writing. I don't wri...more
Problems come with the writing. I don't wri...more
The science as described in this book is amazing. It is very well thought out and it really makes sense. In that way it is very frightening. You really believe this scenario, from a scientific stand point, could actually happen.
So the premise is great.
I just never found the rest of this novel very interesting. For me it was clichéd, with obvious character types. This really brought this novel down for me and results in my low rating.
I do not think I will be reading the other two books in this se...more
So the premise is great.
I just never found the rest of this novel very interesting. For me it was clichéd, with obvious character types. This really brought this novel down for me and results in my low rating.
I do not think I will be reading the other two books in this se...more
Good first novel. I listened to the audio version and enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of post-apocalyptic fiction and his story was a good one. Carlson gives the reader micro (a band of mountain-top survivors) and macro (the new US government in Colorado) views of life after a nano-tech plague, and does a good job of getting the reader to care about his characters. Overall it was a little uneven, the climactic scene at the end seemed to drag on a bit long for me, but as a whole Plague Year was enjoyab...more
I'm a big fan of "end of the world" type stories, and this book caught my eye... actually it's sequel (Plague War) caught my eye first at the library and I waited until I found this book to read them both.
Very interesting stuff in this set of books - a nano technology "plague" (originally meant to attack cancer cells) is accidentally released in a Northern California lab, and this book deals with the consequences of about 95+ % of the world's population being wiped out within weeks.
Some scary th...more
Very interesting stuff in this set of books - a nano technology "plague" (originally meant to attack cancer cells) is accidentally released in a Northern California lab, and this book deals with the consequences of about 95+ % of the world's population being wiped out within weeks.
Some scary th...more
I don't know why what attracts me to apocalyptic fiction – in this case it might have been the fact, that it available for naught on Amazon I shamefully admit. Plague Year is a good read, but far from great. Since this is Jeff Carlson's first book, the weaknesses (his handling of characters and tension) are understandable, and I really liked his handling of nanotechnology. I will read the sequel.
In Jeff Carlson’s debut techno-thriller – the first in a trilogy – he pulls out all the stops to hook new readers with a nanotech virus that has wiped out most of the population. Everyone essentially has the virus, but the key to survival is to be at an elevation of at least ten thousand feet, where the nanobots are inoperative.
High up in the California sierras there are some people eking out their survival, struggling to get by day by day. In the past they have scrambled below the critical elev...more
High up in the California sierras there are some people eking out their survival, struggling to get by day by day. In the past they have scrambled below the critical elev...more
With a first sentence about cannibalism you would think this would be an interesting, fascinating read. It has so much potential with a nanotech virus, a destroyed world, and a reduced population struggling to survive. Instead this work focuses primarily on the egos involved in the story rather than the actual people. These people are faulted to a fault. It seems that anyone who does not have an extreme selfish streak are the ones who die regardless of their value in curing the disease or their...more
2 likes · like · see review
A pretty good science-gone-bad thriller with a mean pulse running through it. Sometime in the near future some nanotech escapes from the lab and starts killing people by basically eating them from the inside out. The nanites have a built in fuse, at 70% of standard atmosphere they self destruct. You have to go up to approximately 10,000 feet altitude to hit that percentage. All the survivors on earth are above that altitude, huddled on the tops of the worlds tallest mountains. Everything warm bl...more
Plague Year is not only a story of post-apocalyptic survival, but one of loyalty, guilt, and ego or perhaps hubris. It is the story of good, but not necessarily nice, people who do bad things and heroic things. It's about the necessity of secrets. It's about the desire for power and glory. But most of all, it's about human beings who, in the middle of the worst disaster of not only their lives but also human history, can be petty, altruist, vicious, and caring, sometimes all at the same time.
Pla...more
Pla...more
This was a well-executed, entertaining story. The pace was great, the characters were complicated, interesting, and believable, and the overall idea was original. As I was reading I saw the scenes as clearly drawn as great video drama like Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, or Stargate Universe. With its pacing and string of cliffhangers, it could easily be made into a season of 22 episodes. Some producer ought to be reading this review and saying to him/herself, "hmmmm"
It's a dystopic story where na...more
It's a dystopic story where na...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it kept me gripped from the very beginning. I would have given it 5 stars except for the fact that there were a couple of parts that began to drift slightly - but not for long. Carson depicts his post-apocalyptic world with a stark realism,; it is brutal. Half-starved survivors of a dreadful technological plague live high up over a drifting sea of invisible death. The world depicted holds no hope, only pain, hunger and brutish survival. Highly recommended.
Good solid dystopian entry of a trilogy. Shows depravity to which men sink and the need for redemption. it's about stopping a man-made plague of nanos that were supposed to cure cancer and instead eat every living thing below 10,000 feet - can't stand the lower air pressure? It shows the internecine conflicts between scientists as they race to find a cure. It's about human weakness, goodness,and what can drive a man to the brink of death.
Sep 24, 2007
Nate
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Sci-fi fans or fans of post-apocalyptic struggle
A brief review as I am only 75% done--I'll finish tonight. I saw this book at Borders, read the jacket, then read the hook on the first page. Done deal and to the register I went. It is actuallty better reading it. It builds and builds and is never slow or dull from the beginning. Read the first page and you'll know what I mean.
The story is takes place not too long after a plague (human created nanotech--not virus) is wiping or has wiped all mammalian life from the planet below 9,000 feet MSL. T...more
The story is takes place not too long after a plague (human created nanotech--not virus) is wiping or has wiped all mammalian life from the planet below 9,000 feet MSL. T...more
It's not great literature and the second half settles for easy solutions, but the opening of the book is brutal. A bunch of survivors of a nanotech plague cling to the top of a mountain, 10,000 feet being the cut-off elevation for the slow disintegration of the plague. The characters are falling apart, socially and physically and the situation is almost unbearably tense. A great set-up that tapers off later.
Der Einstieg ist für meinen Geschmack etwas abrupt geraten. Man wird unmittelbar mit der Post-Apokalypse in Form von Kannibalismus und Gruppenkonflikten unter den Überlebenden konfrontiert. Nach einigen Seiten hat man sich jedoch in das Szenario eingefunden und in Rückblenden wird nach und nach der Verlauf bzw. die Ursache der Katastrophe erklärt.
Die Figuren erscheinen recht realistisch beschrieben, mit menschlichen Schwächen, die sie wohltuend von Reißbrett-Heldentypen unterscheiden.
Die Spannun...more
Die Figuren erscheinen recht realistisch beschrieben, mit menschlichen Schwächen, die sie wohltuend von Reißbrett-Heldentypen unterscheiden.
Die Spannun...more
Beware nano techology! The technical jargon was way over my head but all sounded plausible. If it gets out of control, it can wreak untold havoc. This book was quite brutal in spots and I really liked the characters. It rushes you right along to the ending which was abrupt. I felt like it ended too quickly and neatly and left me with too many questions. It was a good read all in all.
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Jeff Carlson is the international bestselling author of "Plague Year" and "The Frozen Sky." His next novel is apocalyptic thriller "Interrupt," coming July 2013 from 47North. To date, his work has been translated into fifteen languages worldwide.
Readers can find free fiction, contests, videos, and more on his web site at http://www.jverse.com
More about Jeff Carlson...
Readers can find free fiction, contests, videos, and more on his web site at http://www.jverse.com
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Sep 19, 2008 07:49pm