The White Plague

According to Amazon, I purchased this one in October of 2019, and put off reading it, as I was reading another series at the time, and forgot about it. By the time I remembered having it on my Kindle, the premise felt a bit too real given what's been going on, in regards to current events in the world of late, and once again I put it on the back burner and read other things instead. However, having recently finished the Dune Chronicles, I've been wanting to check out some of Frank Herbert's other work, outside of the Dune universe, long story short I remembered I had this one, and here I am with a review. I wasn't sure if I was going to review this one, to be honest, in the beginning I didn't think I was going to like it. But I LOVED it. Yes, it is a revenge story, and yes it is also similar to our current times, but there's more to it than that. I'm trying to write this in a way so as not to spoil the whole plot, but boy, that is proving hard to do. I think there is something for everyone here-anyone who manages to stick with it-that is. It's one of those where you go in expecting one thing and get quite another. I know I for one wasn't totally satisfied with the ending, such as it was, but I'm not sure how else it could have ended either. I can't vouch for Herbert's depiction of Ireland, having never been, despite being of Irish descent on my mother's side, nor can I vouch for his depiction of The Troubles and the event that sets the story as a whole in motion, as I know very little of the conflict or the time in which the opening chapters take place/are set in. I've done some research since, but as someone who grew up/lives in the US, my grasp on that is a bit shaky at the best of times, so I'll not put any of that here. I could not put this one down, but I didn't want it to end, at the same time. I ordered a physical copy to add to my library as well, as it is one I enjoyed immensely, and it is likely one I'll be recommending for years to come.

I enjoyed the premise and have always liked Frank Herbert's writing. My only complaint is that there was too much technical detail regarding the biochemical processes. One would have to be a scientist in a related field to enjoy that. However, the plot moved along and the characters were interesting.

I read the paperback of this book 20 years ago and I have liked this book ever since. I think it is a great book by a great author with a great speculative ending based on potential scientific outcomes! I suspect that since 9-11 books like this are too how-to explicit to make into a movie but I think that if we could go back 40 years and make the movie of the book the movie version would be as valuable a contribution to the SF genre, and society, as the original 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' (the TDTESS remake, is in my mind is too apocalyptic and no longer SF!)Boy this book on kindle if you must but, my advice, is to find a hard copy (preferably hardcover) and keep it around for your later enjoyment.

More than twenty years ago, Frank Herbert foresaw some of the possibly disastrous consequences of genetic engineering. One expert scientist could create a fatal disease that would sweep the world, if he were sufficiently motivated. In this case, the scientist sees his wife and children killed by a car bomb in Ireland. He devises an awesome means of revenge, initially focused on the countries he holds responsible. The new plague gets out of control. This should have been sufficient material for a focused novel. For reasons that seem murky, Herbert chose to limit his treatment of the basic issue to his first few chapters. Most of the book is taken up with the scientist's long journey on foot across Ireland in the company of an IRA terrorist, a Catholic priest, and a mysterious boy. Much of the dialogue is about Irish anger over the way they have been treated by the British. All this is moderately interesting, but largely irrelevant to the basic story. The scientist, by now shamed by the consequences of his actions, helps to devise a cure before going mad. Herbert offers some speculations about the social impact of the plague toward the end of the book, but they seem far too late.

I am a computer science student and I have taken an interest in molecular computing. Upon telling my professor about my interest, he gave me a book on recombinant DNA. He warned me to read The White Plauge first so I can understand that playing with DNA is not full of hope and cures. When I started to read this book, I did not read what it was about and I did not read reviews. I went at it blindly. Honestly, I enjoyed it. When people say that it slows down towards the middle/end I don’t consider that a bad thing. I loved reading the priest and Joseph bicker back and fourth. I thought that their trek through Ireland was very interesting. I didn’t really like Kate and her husband. More her than him. I thought she cried the whole time. However, she had every right to. Their story never really went where I wanted it to go. I especially enjoyed hearing the scientist work through the problems and figure out how the virus spreads. In all, this was a good read and I’m happy I was able to find time to read it while going to school.

I read the first 5 reviews before writing this. I read this book quite some time ago and thought it was great. I waded through the original "Dune" and thought that this book was much more readable. I read all the criticism written about this book and I will tell you this. I leant this book to 5 different people and each of them read it straight through and could hardly put it down (myself included). Now I ask you, does that sound like an over rated book or a good book. I thought the book was very literary with one of the main characters being a catholic priest. The story is set in Ireland and has a strong Irish flavor. I have read a number of books by this author, I thought this story was one of his best!

I needed this book for my book group read so was happy when it arrived in good condition, even if the story is a little wierd.

As a huge Frank Herbert fan I was unsure if I was going to like this but it is definately food for thought. Maybe a bit OTT, but how would the world react to a plague of these dimensions. A very good read, and ideal for a group discussion aferwards.

An interesting novel from Frank Herbert, given than at the time he wrote this he was right in the middle of continuing the Dune saga.Its an interesting novel in that it deals with the end of the world from the very personal perspective of only a few characters.Sadly the characters are not so fascinating and don't really have enough depth to sustain the novel convincingly.As a result it does drag somewhat in the middle.For an alternative take on a post-apocalyptic scenario, I'm sure you could do a lot worse. And maybe even better.