The White Plague by Frank Herbert



Up until now the books I've only read by Frank Herbert are the Dune novels. I decided to give one of his other novels a try. The White Plague (1982) is about an American biochemist whose family is killed by an IRA bomb in Dublin, Ireland. Driven mad by grief, the scientist changes his identity and liquidates his assets, using all his money and education to design a disease germ that is transmitted through the air and is 100% fatal to women. He then releases it in the three countries he blames for his family's death -- Ireland, Britain and Libya.

The first part of the novel is pretty interesting. Herbert had obviously given some thought to the sociopolitical fallout of a plague of this type. The plague escapes the target countries easily, and communities have to become extremely isolationist to survive. Just one infected stranger can wipe out all the women in a city. But then Herbert seems to become desperate to find something to fill the rest of the book, so the scientist rather improbably travels to Ireland to see his handiwork first hand, and to sabotage any attempts to find a cure. The Irish government is vaguely aware that he's entered the country so they send the man who planted the bomb that killed the scientist's family to determine if the newcomer is actually the scientist in question. This was a bit too much of a coincidence for me, and the second half of the book is also marred by "Herbert-speak," where characters will somehow infer insanely complicated political messages from even the most innocuous statements and gestures.

Posted: Sun - February 29, 2004 at      

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