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The White Plague

3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 · rating details · 2,959 ratings · 142 reviews

The White Plague, a marvelous and terrifyingly plausible blend of fiction and visionary theme, tells of one man who is pushed over the edge of sanity by the senseless murder of his family and who, reappearing several months later as the so-called Madman, unleashes a terrible plague upon the human race---one that zeros in, unerringly and fatally, on women.

Paperback, 502 pages

Published December 1983 by Berkley (first published September 1982)

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Jan 23, 2008 Noiresque rated it 3 of 5 stars

Frustrating. Herbert is great at big ideas and thoroughly thinking them through, showing how each and every aspect of life and society might be impact (see Dune).

This novel has another great idea, that of a man-made pandemic. It delves even deeper than a typical end-of-the-world story, though, by setting the villian and a few other characters on a long, quiet walk through what's left of Ireland, showing how the plague has warped life. He also manages to show how Ireland is so immersed in its ow...more

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Aug 05, 2007 William F. DeVault rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the general public

I actually prefer this book to Herbert's legendary "Dune". Why? Because it speaks in and of a world I live in.

Not cience fiction in the bastardized form we see today, but a true "speculative fiction" page-turner. A well-written story of bio-terrorism that gets out of hand that not only deals with the detective story of how to stop the plague, but what effects will society and politics see out of it as the targeted disease breaks out of the Middle East and ravages all corners of the world?

I am g...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Ketan Shah added it · review of another edition

A man who's family is killed by an IRA bomb,unleashes a virus designed to kill all human females. He wanders incognito through a world descending into chaos.Frank Herbert makes this a very personal,character driven novel,with some keen insights into the Irish psyche.He also manages to paint a picture of quiet desperation as research teams around the world struggle to find a cure.If you only know of him through this Dune series ,do yourself a favour and pick up this other novels,like this one.The...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Peter rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Frank Herbert fans

I dug this one out for a change of pace. I'd looked it over before, but hadn't read it. But I'm usually desperate for new reading material, so I decided to give it a try.

The basic plot is that a crazed scientist develops a plague designed to infect and kill women. It gets worldwide distribution, and so all of womankind faces the possibility of extinction - soon to be followed by all men, of course.

It's set in the modern day, or possibly in the near future - but so near that there's nothing to di...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Ana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: brainy-psychological, fallen-characters, science-fiction, me-likey-a-lot

I absolutely loved this book. I already knew Herbert was a master of the genre, a man that has achieved in writing few have achieved, and I knew he wrote the "Dune" series, but when I took The White Plague off the shelve, I really didn't make the connection between Frank Herbert the author of this book, and THE Frank Herbert.

Good thing I realised it at the middle of the book, when I took another look to see who wrote this amazing story, and I was like : "oh. now it makes sense. now you tell me....more I absolutely loved this book. I already knew Herbert was a master of the genre, a man that has achieved in writing few have achieved, and I knew he wrote the "Dune" series, but when I took The White Plague off the shelve, I really didn't make the connection between Frank Herbert the author of this book, and THE Frank Herbert.

Good thing I realised it at the middle of the book, when I took another look to see who wrote this amazing story, and I was like : "oh. now it makes sense. now you tell me."

Of course, the plot is really good.

This guy's wife and children, O'Neill's, are blown up by an IRA bomb, on May 20, 1996. He immediatelly goes insane, and his mind shatters into different personalities, from which one is a mad man that is decided to make the world pay for what has been done to him. Because he was a molecular biologist, he is an apt scientist and he creates a plague that only affects women, the men being the carriers. He releases this plague into three countries - Ireland, England and Libya. He asks the governements to bring every emigrant back in the country and to let the virus take its course, so they feel the way he felt when his family was killed.

Because they are on a search to find him, he goes to Ireland to hide. He decides to get hired as a scientist in the project that is developed for counterattacking the virus he created, so he can sabbotage the results. Unfortunatelly for him, he is already suspected to being the terrorist, and he is sent to Ireland in the company of a priest, a boy and an IRA bomber, the same one that detonated the bomb that killed his wife and children.

In the end, it's not just about how a man's mind goes mad because his family was taken away from him, it's also about how countries react to such a threat - a plague that was created by man and released in the world without remorse. What do they go then? Do they exterminate every human being that is infected? Do they wipe those countries off of the face of the world? Or do they stay and do nothing? Is this a casus belli? Or is it not?

Of course, the book was written with Herbert's usual flawless techinique, making the reader enter a world of his own, but not his own entirely. What if this could be true?

xoxo(less)

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Jun 27, 2012 Bria rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Maybe I would have liked this a little better if it hadn't been Frank Herbert. I know better than to expect his every book to be a masterpiece, but I still have pretty high expectations, and this book seemed pretty standard. It seemed the perfect opportunity to contemplate certain issues and concepts about gender relations, but that all seemed to take a backseat to whatever pet little psychological interest Frank took a liking to. Sure, there's sort of some vague mention here and there about som...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Noah W rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

The White Plague depicts a doomsday scenario of a worldwide plague that targets female DNA structure while leaving men unscathed. This results in a rapidly decrease in the world's female population.

This book contains some great points for conversation:

- The importance of bio-medical ethics, namely the importance of Christians actively engaging in the medical profession.
- How epidemics have the potential to massively redraw cultural lines, sociological structures, and morality.
- How Machiavellia...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Ken rated it 3 of 5 stars

THE WHITE PLAGUE is a novel of meticulously calculated revenge. While in Ireland with his family, a man loses his wife and two children to a terrorist's bomb. He is a molecular biologist, and in his grief and ensuing madness, develops and unleashes a deadly pandemic which only targets women.

This is a very long novel, but the best section features John O'Neil, the biologist, and the terrorist who planted the bomb, playing an endless game of psychological 'cat and mouse' while on a trek across Ire...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Jenn rated it 2 of 5 stars

I've always enjoyed Frank Herbert - until now. I hadn't heard of this title so when it came across my hands at work, I was excited to try it out and the story sounds good! Women are virtually extinct, wiped out by a plague that affects only them - societies crumble and fragment into smaller ones, governments topple, whole countries get "cleansed" by fire (the only sure way to obliterate the carriers - who are males) - it sounds like an interesting apocalytpic tale. But it didn't live up to that...more

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Jan 03, 2011 Erika rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This reminded me of early Le Carrie . . . and it had all the right ingredients for a good winter read, some apocalyptic bioterror-ish fantasy, psychological manipulation and dueling, political intrigue and machinations, cloak-and-dagger, and Ireland, lots of Ireland. It gets three stars only, not because the science is dated (which after all is not his fault), but because he gets a bit heavy handed on the IRA and on the Church in the last 100 pages, because Father Flannery could have been drawn...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is from the same author as "Dune".

A brilliant geneticist travels to the UK with his family where an IRA attack kills them. Insane from grief the scientist decides that if he can't have his wife then nobody else will have their wives either. He concocts a disease to target and kill women.

Aside from a few stragglers it works.

In the aftermath of the devastation, the lead character ends up in Ireland unknowingly making the acquaintance of the IRA terrorist responsible for his wife's death....more

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May 27, 2011 Stephanie W rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction-fantasy

I really dug the premise of this book and the realism of the probleem. A crazed man with powerful motivations creates a plague that quickly wipes out all women and very slowly all men. Eventually, the modern world turns into a very savage place and finally a matriarchal society for the single woman left to every then thousand living men.

Even though I liked the plot, it occurred to me after reading this that I do not like Frank Herbert's style. I didn't mind the constant jumping of scenes, but I...more

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Feb 23, 2010 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Once again, Frank Herbert kills it. A great read!

He is so good at projecting the consequences of things far into the future, I am always surprised but also very convinced by his logic and where it leads. He will often chastise humanity for not being very long term thinkers. I just think that he's smarter than most.

He has a reoccurring them in his books based on revenge, and how it is always very short-sighted. This has to do I am sure with comments coming from his wife who passed away. 'Revenge...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Nightwishel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Там, където някога е кипял живот, сега е бездушна пустош, лишена от чувства. Бродят мъже с безизразни лица, отнетата възможност за бъдеще ги докарва твърде близо до лудостта.

След като политическа лудост, водеща до безумен тероризъм, отнема най-близките същества на микробиолога Джон Роу О'Нийл, той в знак на отмъщение разработва опасно биологично оръжие, наречено „бялата чума“, покосяваща само жени.
Основно действието представлява един дълъг и мрачен преход, осветяван от размисли и разговори, ко...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Oana rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was torture. The only character that was somewhat likeable and had a more developed personality died soon after her introduction; the other characters were wholly unlikeable. The story was long and tedious, like what I would expect a sci-fi fan in a writing class to try and pass off as epic merely because they scribbled over a thousand pages. I stuck with it because I try to complete most books and I wanted to see if it got better.

Here's where the spoilers are.

Now the worst part is y...more This book was torture. The only character that was somewhat likeable and had a more developed personality died soon after her introduction; the other characters were wholly unlikeable. The story was long and tedious, like what I would expect a sci-fi fan in a writing class to try and pass off as epic merely because they scribbled over a thousand pages. I stuck with it because I try to complete most books and I wanted to see if it got better.

Here's where the spoilers are.

Now the worst part is yet to come. This story about the near extinction of women has a few women, yet only two women in the story manage to get in with their perspectives on how the plague affects them.

Yes, we hear about the rapes of the surviving pockets of women, the sexual abuse of about 30 teens by one rich pedophiliac goat, and how certain countries at the end lend, say, one thousand of their "breeding women" to one another (America was not so generous with its ~~cattle~~ female stock).

Most of the book follows a bunch of angry men who, despite all they claim to the contrary, don't even care about women, never mind their women. When we do hear about deceased wives, it's always about how much they miss their knitting or some such old-fashioned domestic crap. The religious Father Michael will piss you off with his lack of feeling for the raped teenagers; he cares mostly for their sinful souls and their entry into heaven, while I was grossed out that the army protected the old jerk raping them.

The one woman who does figure most prominently is a silly nursing student who becomes some sort of Madonna-Venus of Willendorf fertility fetish at the end. Despite her nursing education, she takes zero interest in the plague. (What did they teach her at school?) All she does is bemoan her fate until the end when she begins to revel in her feminine power. I recall that 1982 (when The White Plague was written) was still a sexist time, but I don't remember it being quite this 1950s.

Apparently Finch and The Left Hand of Darkness handle gender issues a great deal more thoughtfully.(less)

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Nov 12, 2012 Delicious Strawberry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: frank-herbert, science-fiction

Don't get me wrong, this is a very good book, especially so for being written about 30 years ago, when DNA was still fairly new. However, what makes me drop my rating to a 3 star was that the part with Herrity and the Madman was just plodding, it went on for page after page. If Mr. Herbert had balanced out this with some female POV's, or the POV's of the men as their females die or their attempts to hide them, that would have added a great deal to this book. If you're a Herbert fan, definitely c...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a big fane of the Dune books, I found this bio-thriller an exciting story set on our own planet. Set mainly in Ireland, it is a book of terrorism, revenge, faith and regret. Although written in the 80s, many of the same problems exist today, making it seem much more contemporary. Some reviewers pick apart the microbiology, but to my untrained mind, it seemed as plausibly written as any of Crichton's science elements. The psychology was a bit harder for me, but as a story it holds up over the...more

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Mar 26, 2012 Russellbarabe rated it 2 of 5 stars

The only other books I have read by Frank Herbert was the first three books of Dune. The style in this book was very different, but the author was still very good at creating characters and weaving them into a great story. I found the time jumps in the beginning of the book a bit confusing, but after a while they were gone and the story flowed well. I did not like the back story that involved politics very much. At times it seemed to distract from the other characters. Overall, a good book. I wo...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Sunny Fugate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction

Barely passable as a science fiction book due to a lack of both details and discussion of impact. I think that the story and characters would probably make a better film. There are some very interesting characters and situations to explore, particularly the schism in the protagonists personality. Overall, the book lacked the philosophical and scientific depths which I have come to expect from my favorite science fiction authors. As far as Frank Herbert is concerned, the is the worst novel of his...more

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May 02, 2012 Ivana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Introduction to the novel would be something like this: A brilliant American Irish scientists is driven mad when his wife dies as a result of IRA bomb attack. So, he creates a virus that will kill all women on Ireland...Will the virus spread?

There are a lot of fascinating themes in this novel and it functions great as a thriller as well. The way that the history of the Irish is presented is just brilliant. It is not a stereotypical view of the Irish. He really goes into the dept, exploring frust...more Introduction to the novel would be something like this: A brilliant American Irish scientists is driven mad when his wife dies as a result of IRA bomb attack. So, he creates a virus that will kill all women on Ireland...Will the virus spread?

There are a lot of fascinating themes in this novel and it functions great as a thriller as well. The way that the history of the Irish is presented is just brilliant. It is not a stereotypical view of the Irish. He really goes into the dept, exploring frustrations that are born in a nation that has been tortured or colonized, that has known treason...(not an excuse for the colonized but most of the nations that have had problems with achieving independence are no strangers to treason from its own man, unity being a very important factor in preserving a nation) Anyway, violence has a way of feeding on violence and I think that Herbert really captured this.

This quote from the man himself seems to go well with this theme of repeated violence:
"The oppressed always learned from and copied the oppressor. When the tables were turned, the stage was set for another round of revenge and violence -- roles reversed. And reversed and reversed ad nauseam."
FRANK HERBERT, Chapterhouse: Dune

The way the author makes bio terrorism look plausible is extremely upsetting. Especially as I think it is true- I mean that it is possible for one man to develop a virus that could end mankind. The characterization of the man that does it in The White Plague is great, his descend into madness being so well described. It is scary though, the fact that it is not impossible to create a virus that could be potentially devastating to human race. Nature creates such viruses and man has recently come a long way in regards to imitating natural catastrophes…actually, man has out staged natural catastrophes.

On another note, novel presents an interesting questions in terms of what would the reduction of female population mean to mankind. It seems to me that some SF writers entertain this idea that fewer women would mean that women would be better treated. Heinlein and his novel Luna is a Harsh Mistress come to my mind as an example of this philosophy.

I actually disagree with this concept. If you look at only countries where man outnumber women, you’ll see that those are the countries where women have no access to medical care and where basically women have no rights. In fact, in these countries women are considered to be the property of the man to the point that it is hard to even get a remote picture about their position. Since it is a biological law that women should outnumber man, when they do not, you know there is something seriously wrong.

In this novel, this question about the relationship between female population and their position in society is not really answered though I have a feeling that the author thinks it could improve the power of women. In this case I think Herbert attributes his feeling about women to entire mankind- and that’s not a very good way to make prognosis. Seriously, if all man would be so eager to protect women, we’d live in a different world. It could even be said, if all women would be so eager to protect women, we’d live in a different world, but I’m getting distracted from the book. I don't really know what else to say except that the novel is more deeper then you could expect. The action and the plot does not stop the writer from searching human soul and identity.

The novel is quite long yet it never gets boring or tiring. That's Frank Herbert for you...

(less)

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Sep 24, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Disclaimer: Any review of a Frank Herbert novel will inevitably draw comparisons to Dune. I apologize in advance, but I'm not immune to this effect.

The White Plague. Summed up: a likable novel with enough intrigue, depth, intricacy, plot turns, and the pacing to keep anyone interested, and little enough of them to be memorable. An amusing albeit disposable work. The premise: a man's family is killed as innocent bystanders in an IRA bombing; he goes mad and develops an infectious plague that kill...more Disclaimer: Any review of a Frank Herbert novel will inevitably draw comparisons to Dune. I apologize in advance, but I'm not immune to this effect.

The White Plague. Summed up: a likable novel with enough intrigue, depth, intricacy, plot turns, and the pacing to keep anyone interested, and little enough of them to be memorable. An amusing albeit disposable work. The premise: a man's family is killed as innocent bystanders in an IRA bombing; he goes mad and develops an infectious plague that kills only women; pandemonium ensues.

The book reads quickly enough, the pacing is quick but not such that it eschews detail. It's like any of your favorite summer blockbuster global disaster movies - exciting, engrossing, forgettable, and burdened with a severe case of attention deficit disorder. Its strength is also its weakness - in working hard to keep the story moving and keep the scope global, it lacks a central focus. It never truly settles on a main character. There are several characters and groups that receive the kind of attention normally reserved for a main character/group for several chapters but are never heard from again, or if they are, sparingly. It could be argued to be a story of the Madman's loss and insanity, or a priest's loss of faith, or the tragedy of a surviving couple, or the unfolding of the global crisis; instead we get patches of each but none is played to its fullest. In this regard, it leaves the reader feeling a bit hollow, or perhaps indifferent. Herbert writes like he has another Dune on his hands with all the political and interpersonal trappings, but it lacks the minerals at the end of the day.

I'd also like to register a personal gripe. Herbert may be a master of many things, but technical science fiction isn't one of them. Dune works so well because it's all about the players, who have largely shunned technology, and what technology remains in a supporting role. In White Plauge, the "science" of the plague comes to the forefront on many occasions. I may not know much about molecular biology, but I know made-up technobabble when I hear it, and boy is this book full of it. It also suffers from a regrettable case of being OBE, what with no more soviet union and the advance of medical technology.

This probably sounds like a negative review at this point, but really I'd recommend this book for anyone looking for a lighter but still serious and mature science fiction read. You won't be bored, nor will you be ensconced in the layers of intrigue you might expect from Herbert after reading Dune. Herbert shines at efficient storytelling, sparing us what would likely be frustrating passages describing epic rioting, battles and global catastrophe, and instead telling us about it by showing the results. (There is, of course, one exception to this: an ill-advised trial scene towards the end just fails on every level) I just wish we had one central character focus with whom we could empathize and whose eyes we could see this fairly interesting premise unfold.(less)

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Oct 13, 2012 Kelsey rated it 3 of 5 stars

It took me a long time to finish this book, and I had a like-hate relationship with it the entire time. However, I think a huge part of the problem was a mismatch between what I wanted (and expected) the book to be and what Herbert actually wrote. I don't mean that he failed to make good on his promises to the reader. I mean that I had preconceived notions about how I thought the plot would be handled, based on reading a summary of the book elsewhere.

The story is about a man who is in Ireland fo...more It took me a long time to finish this book, and I had a like-hate relationship with it the entire time. However, I think a huge part of the problem was a mismatch between what I wanted (and expected) the book to be and what Herbert actually wrote. I don't mean that he failed to make good on his promises to the reader. I mean that I had preconceived notions about how I thought the plot would be handled, based on reading a summary of the book elsewhere.

The story is about a man who is in Ireland for research purposes (he's a biologist/scientist of some sort). One day, his wife and children die in a terrorist attack that somehow involves the Irish, Great Britain and Libya. The scientist, driven mad by this loss, designs a plague that kills only women and then distributes it to punish the people that took his woman from him.

Now, here's what I expected, largely because I attended a women's college. I wanted to see how women would be treated. Would they be hidden away by resourceful men? ("Don't worry, honey, I'll save you.") Would they be kept isolated, or sent away? Would they have any agency at all? In addition to that, I was just expecting an entirely different protagonist. Perhaps the main characters would be a family that struggles through this time, when women are dropping like flies.

Imagine my surprise to find that the main character of the novel is the scientist, the Madman. Huh! It's clear that Herbert is interested in psychology, because he spends a lot of time talking about the Madman's mind and portraying the Madman's own journey through Ireland after the plague has begun. (Ireland is hit the hardest.) See, I don't think that's a terrible idea. It just isn't the story that I wanted to read... So I spent the first half of the novel wishing for less of the scientist and more of... anything else.

(If you were curious, there are very few women in the novel at all. Two researchers and "The One that Survived" are the only ones I can remember. The one who survived was preserved because her then-boyfriend put her in a tank right when the plague broke out, in which they lived together for months. We don't see much of this. The little that Herbert writes about them portrays the woman as very petty, whiny, needy and testy. Maybe I would feel that way if I were living in a tank, but the semi-feminist side of me was banging its head reading this.)

Another problem (in my opinion) was that the story was too distant from its circumstances. (It was certainly close to the Madman--and that was good writing. You really get into his head, and it's fascinating.) Now, the story starts with the terrorist attack that kills the wife and children. Then it follows the Madman making the plague. And then, once he's FINALLY perfected his virus, he distributes it.

Cut to politicians in Washington DC. The next 100 pages are about politicians and committees talking about the plague. Talking about it. Mentioning how women are dying left and right, mobs are breaking out everywhere, countries are racing to find cures first to gain more power, etc. Herbert goes to great lengths to impress upon the reader how BIG this thing is... but the reader never SEES any of it. It's all hear-say through politicians, until Herbert turns his focus back to the Madman walking through Ireland. Still, he's on the outskirts of most of the action.

So, there are good and bad things about this book. I was irked by the bad things so much that I almost didn't finish it. However, I would still recommend the book to others, as long as they didn't have the same expectations I had.

In summary, I thought it was too distant as it wrote around the action. The unexpected focus on the Madman didn't match my expectations of some kind of feminist treatment. (I should've known this wouldn't be feminist-ish, after reading Under Pressure by Frank Herbert.) However, Herbert does a great job following the Madman and getting the reader to KNOW him. There are two other characters who associate with the madmen who are interesting characters, too. I wish one of them had gotten more treatment, but I guess you can't write everything.

Last note: all pros and cons aside, I definitely think the book is about twice as long as it needs to be.(less)

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Dec 16, 2011 Danielle added it · review of another edition

This was not done in the way I thought it would be. And that's fine too! I don't know how fully I understood the scientific explinations of things(in other words, it gets kinda science-y), but it wasn't detrimental to the overall story. And it was a compelling story. It could be a fairly good movie if it was done right. I was even able to think about some things that weren't even brought up that would probably end up happening in that new world in regards to the very few women left. I would not...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, read-2013

An IRA bomb kills the wife and children of an American microbiologist. He goes crazy and engineers a disease that only kills women and releases it in Ireland (for revenge), England (for oppressing the Irish and giving them a cause), and Libya (for training and supplying the IRA terrorists). Of course diseases don't respect political boundaries and soon nearly the entire world is infected.

A fascinating "what if?" character-driven story. Much of the novel takes place in Ireland, and Herbert does a...more

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Oct 12, 2009 Clackamas rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: apocalyptic-fiction-dystopias, 2009

I expected better from Herbert.

What I liked: The disease. I liked that the invention and distribution of the disease was described as the investigators figured it out rather than as the Madman was doing it. I liked the idea of the targeted disease. The politics. The way the different countries failed to come together in the face of a world-wide catastrophe was plausible. The turn against science... while only briefly touched on, the way the angry masses turned on scientists was believable.

What...more

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Jan 01, 2011 Petter Häggholm rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dune is a very good book, but I have long felt that Frank Herbert deserves more accolades for The White Plague. I haven’t read it in a while, and memory is of course very fallible, but I retain an impression of a book that manages to be both suspenseful and intelligent. And, of course, a true thriller in that the thrill is real—the threat of this sort of thing is increasingly real (though I doubt the technology is within practical reach for decades yet, fortunately!).

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Oct 25, 2010 Tammy ~NovelOpinion rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, favorites

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 16, 2011 Sarena rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: plague

The book has its merits, however, tends to weigh on the political vs religiousness quite a bit. Lots of history about the Irish, and how they have been wronged and the steps they need to take to achieve forgiveness as a peoples. If you can muddle through all of that, there is definitely lots of good content, I personally waffled between boredom and interested the last half of the book, nut since I had already dedicated enough time to read the first half, I felt obligated to finish, hoping that t...more

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Feb 26, 2009 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An interesting "end of the world" sci-fi novel, that deals with human caused disaster. Since it was one person that caused the disaster - sort of on purpose - we would probably call it a terrorist novel these days. But the novel delves into what happens when one person who tries to strike back at terrorists (the IRA in this case) goes tragically wrong.

I was not a big fan of Frank Herbet's Dune (I know blasphemy). But I loved this book.

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Aug 06, 2009 Tabatha rated it 3 of 5 stars

It took me a remarkably long time to read this book. Usually I love post-apocalyptic stories of almost any kind and this book did have it's selling points. But it is dated and focuses on just a few characters without a lot of world building. And even those characters don't have a lot of depth or empathy. The scariest part remains true though, that yes, this can happen. One man with the right know-how can bring our world to it's knees.

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About Frank Herbert

Critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author.

He is best known for the novel Dune and its five sequels. The Dune saga, set in the distant future and taking place over millennia, dealt with themes such as human survival and evolution, ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics, and power, and is widely considered to be among the classics in the field of...more

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Books by Frank Herbert

God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles, #4)

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Quotes from The White Plague

“In 1054, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other.
That was the end of holiness for both churches.” — 5 people liked it

“One of the key characteristics of an elite corps is its susceptibility to those more powerful than itself. Elite power is naturally attracted to a power hierarchy and fits itself neatly, obediently into the one that promises the most personal benefits. Here is the Achilles’ heel of armies, police and bureaucracies.” — 1 person liked it

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The White Plague

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