The White Plague

[charlesp]

By Frank Herbert

I finally finished rereading this book. I've long been a Frank Herbert fan, counting him as my favorite author of all time. Dune, being his seminal work, is what people most know him for. I however think that this is my favorite book by him. Unfortunately it is out of print, and you'll have to hunt used book stores or ebay for it, or buy the audio book from audible via amazon (click that tiny link at the bottom of this post to get it).

The story if of John Roe O'Neill, who's family is killed by an IRA bomb when visiting Ireland on a trip to do genetic research. O'Neill goes schizo, and creates a disease, the white plague, which is 100% fatal but only in women. The story covers his trip into insanity, and follows the efforts to find a cure, as well as his efforts to return to Ireland and sabatoge the efforts.

Herbert weaves a series of characters which may be characatures at times, but are quite compelling. In the Irish effort to determine if the man claiming to be John Garrech O'Donnel is really O'Neill they trek across the countryside, O'Neill (the "madman"), Joseph Herrity (The Fin Sadal member who secretly was the man who set off the bomb that killed O'Neill's family), Father Michael (A jesuit priest who loaths Herrity, but was saved from a mob by him), and a boy who's family was killed during the plague, and refuses to speak, which is under Father Michael's care.

This IS a Herbert book, and there is detail galore. I'm sure there are some who won't have the desire to read his theories on genetics and DNA, etc. Just as I'm sure that there are those who won't appreciate his character's philosophising endlessly. But I think that overall they aren't overdone in this book, and they make for an enjoyable read.

While this is speculative fiction, it is probably of a nature that's more easily accessible to non "sci-fi" readers. The subject matter of genetic research and such seems quite appropriate these days with renewed interest in the mapping of the Genome, and Stem Cell research (whichever side of the arguement you may fall on). This is NOT light reading, but it is highly recommended if you want a book that's an fascinating story, with interesting characters, and you don't mind your books making you think.

Hunt it down and read, if you HAVE read it I would love to discuss it more.

Charles P
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C Clarke
"Coffee is sufficiently advanced technology" - Merlin Mann
One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee." - Wally (Dilbert)

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[GabrielGadfly]

I loved this book. After reading the Dune series, I have enough faith in Herbert to pick up any of his works, so I snagged this one at the thrift store a few years ago. It's a lot more down-to-earth and realistic than Dune, and somewhat scary when one thinks of it in terms of our modern world with all of today's terrorism fears.
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Gabriel Gadfly - Poet. Novelist. Literary Rockstar.