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Disposable People
Disposable People is about a killer disease called Consolvo’s Ulceration that has mysteriously appeared in New Mexico and is spreading like wildfire amongst the population. It gives victims a nasty& painful death and resists all attempts made to treat it. The President is facing a catastrophe on a national scale so he gets a medical team together with far-ranging powers in order to try to get the epidemic under control. The disease is killing roughly 20% of the population in the areas it has hit and is obviously making life very difficult for those who live with starvation and other diseases becoming a very real risk. The President selects a go-getting doctor called Noah Blanchard to be his epidemic czar and gives him the task of trying to defeat the disease by all means necessary. After battling to get out of plague stricken New Mexico Dr Blanchard must press ahead and try to find a cure or vaccination against this virulent plague before the President has to take increasingly desperate measures to keep the disease from consuming the entire United States.
- GenresScience Fiction
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 21, 2022
This book is what has been happening since 2020 with the pandemic. Great read
October 28, 2023
It's been a long time since I read this but I want to read it again.
Update:
3 stars to 4. I just finished rereading it and it was a lovely page-turner. Hands down better than either of the Robin Cook books I've read!
Update:
3 stars to 4. I just finished rereading it and it was a lovely page-turner. Hands down better than either of the Robin Cook books I've read!
March 2, 2018
I kept reading the book to myself in my head using a 50s radio drama voice. it has agreed reasonably well, medically speaking, but the author definitely had some views on race and women.
April 8, 2026
The story of the disease, how it originated and how was ok. Nothing very original, but then this is quite an old book now (1980). I did have a lot of issues with the rest though:
* There was a lot of virtue signaling about race. That got very tiring, but I do give the author credit for not making the death row inmates the heroes in the end, but showing them in a more realistic light: mad as a hatter.
* With a 20% mortality rate, the disease was bad, but it wasn't nearly bad enough to consider using nukes to contain it. It wouldn't work anyway and even be counterproductive. The danger didn't come from the cities that were already rampant with the disease, but from the handful of infected refugees entering uninfected cities. And if nukes were used, a lot more people would start fleeing.
* So, people were too afraid to go out, they just hid in their homes. And the politicians think that's a disaster, because instead of this voluntary social distancing, they should be getting the vaccine that has a 10% mortality rate instead. I'm surprised the writers didn't just have the politicians and scientists massaging those numbers into ones more acceptable to their cause. But then, this book is set in 1980, not 2020.
* There was a lot of virtue signaling about race. That got very tiring, but I do give the author credit for not making the death row inmates the heroes in the end, but showing them in a more realistic light: mad as a hatter.
* With a 20% mortality rate, the disease was bad, but it wasn't nearly bad enough to consider using nukes to contain it. It wouldn't work anyway and even be counterproductive. The danger didn't come from the cities that were already rampant with the disease, but from the handful of infected refugees entering uninfected cities. And if nukes were used, a lot more people would start fleeing.
* So, people were too afraid to go out, they just hid in their homes. And the politicians think that's a disaster, because instead of this voluntary social distancing, they should be getting the vaccine that has a 10% mortality rate instead. I'm surprised the writers didn't just have the politicians and scientists massaging those numbers into ones more acceptable to their cause. But then, this book is set in 1980, not 2020.
August 27, 2025
One of the most racist and sexist books I have ever had the displeasure of reading.
I had trouble getting past the obvious self-insert character of Blanchard's age gap relationship with Kate, but could just about cope with it but the way the book dealt with the race of certain characters is, quite frankly, disgusting.
I know the book was written in 1980 but the same outcome could have been written with much less overt racism which I'm sure would have been problematic even back then.
No small wonder this took me 5 years to finally finish which is a shame because the epidemic and medical portions were actually really well written.
I had trouble getting past the obvious self-insert character of Blanchard's age gap relationship with Kate, but could just about cope with it but the way the book dealt with the race of certain characters is, quite frankly, disgusting.
I know the book was written in 1980 but the same outcome could have been written with much less overt racism which I'm sure would have been problematic even back then.
No small wonder this took me 5 years to finally finish which is a shame because the epidemic and medical portions were actually really well written.
December 30, 2023
I enjoyed reading it, a very horrible disease, realistic imo, the thought of it and the name fills me with dread. Very concept-based book, the one relationship in it seems kinda of unrealistic but I wasn't too opposed to it; the female love interest is presented as a strong character at the beginning but sort of fizzled out towards the end. However the concept was cool, basically the trolley problem but on a national scale, (spoilers ahead sorta) however they find a way around it rather than committing to the choice they made. But it is a good thought exercise.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2024
It's a massive, steaming pile of nonsense, but it's an entertaining massive, steaming pile of nonsense. :)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews