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Pandemic Fiction

Read novels about epidemics to distract or help cope with today's reality.

Medusa : a novel from the NUMA files by Clive Cussler

Kurt Austin puts the NUMA team on a case involving a hideous series of medical experiments, an extraordinarily ambitious Chinese criminal organization, and a secret new virus that threatens to set off a worldwide pandemic. In this eighth NUMA File novel, Kurt Austin and his National Underwater and Marine Agency Special Projects team return, squaring off with the elusive and dangerous Pyramid Triad organization of China in a race to acquire the antidote for a bizarre pandemic viral disease. The Triad wants the virus and the cure in order to hold the world hostage; only NUMA stands in the way of its apocalyptic machination

A beginning at the end by Mike Chen

Four survivors try to rebuild their personal lives six years after a global pandemic brings about a literal apocalypse

The end of October : a novel by Lawrence Wright

"In this propulsive medical thriller--from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author--Dr. Henry Parsons, an unlikely but appealing hero, races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees. At an internment camp in Indonesia, within one week, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When the microbiologist and epidemiologist Henry Parsons travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi doctor and prince in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city. Matilda Nachinsky, deputy director of U. S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic. Henry's wife Jill and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta and the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the riveting history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller"--

Lethal agent : a Mitch Rapp novel by Vince Flynn

An unprecedented and terrifying bioterrorism plot threatens to kill millions in the midst of a divisive presidential election. A toxic presidential election is underway in an America already badly weakened by internal divisions. While politicians focus entirely on maintaining their own power and privilege, ISIS kidnaps a brilliant French microbiologist and forces him to begin manufacturing anthrax. Slickly produced videos chronicling his progress and threatening an imminent attack are posted to the Internet, intensifying the hysteria gripping the US. ISIS recruits a Mexican drug cartel to smuggle the bioweapon across the border, but it's just a diversion. The terrorist organization needs to keep Mitch Rapp, and Irene Kennedy distracted long enough to weaponize a deadly virus that they stumbled upon in Yemen. If they succeed, they'll trigger a pandemic that could rewrite the world order

As bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner

"From the darkest hours rises life in all its glory...From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and A Bridge Across the Ocean comes a new novel set in Philadelphia during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which tells the story of a family reborn through loss and love. In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters--Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa--a chance at a better life. Their dreams are short-lived. Just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges that surround them, they learn what they cannot live without--and what they are willing to do about it. Under the Canopy of Heaven is the compelling story of a mother and her daughters who find themselves in a harsh world not of their making, which will either crush their resolve to survive or purify it"--

Pandemic by Robin Cook

After a young, seemingly healthy woman collapses suddenly on the NYC subway and dies by the time she reaches the hospital, her case is initially chalked up to a virulent strain of influenza. That is, until she ends up on Dr. Jack Stapleton's autopsy table, where Jack discovers something eerily fishy: First, that the young woman has had a heart transplant, and second, that her DNA matches that of the transplanted heart. Strangely, two more incidences of young people with this same sudden and rapid illness follow, and Jack fears that this could be the start of an unprecedented pandemic. But the facts aren't adding up. Something is off about these cases, something creepy, and only Jack can figure it out before it's too late. Thus begins a race against time, during which Jack unveils the dark underbelly of the organ-transplant market.

Clade by James Bradley

On a beach in Antarctica, scientists Adam Leith marks the passage of the summer solstice. Back in Sydney his partner Ellie waits for the results of her latest round of IVF treatment. That result, when it comes, will change both their lives and propel them into a future neither could have predicted. In a collapsing England Adam will battle to survive an apocalyptic storm. Against a backdrop of growing civil unrest at home, Ellie will discover a strange affinity with beekeeping. In the aftermath of a pandemic, a young man finds solace in building virtual recreations of the dead. And new connections will be formed from the most unlikely beginnings

The fireman : a novel by Joe Hill

A worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion threatens to reduce civilization to ashes, but a band of improbable heroes battle to save the planet, led by one powerful and enigmatic man known as the Fireman

The dog stars : a novel by Peter Heller

Surviving a pandemic disease that has killed everyone he knows, a pilot establishes a shelter in an abandoned airport hangar before hearing a random radio transmission that compels him to risk his life to seek out other survivors

Zone one : a novel by Colson Whitehead

A pandemic has devastated the planet, and has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuild℗Ưing civilization under orders from the provisional government. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety. Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams working in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz's fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world. And then things start to go wrong

The scarlet plague by Jack London

Outside the ruins of San Francisco, a former UC Berkeley professor of literature recounts the chilling sequence of events which led to his current lowly state - a gruesome pandemic which killed nearly every living soul on the planet, in a matter of days. Modern civilization tottered and fell, and a new race of barbarians - the western world's brutalized workers - assumed power everywhere. Over the space of a few decades, all learning has been lost. Unlike the professor on Gilligan's Island, the narrator is the least useful member of a thriving tribe, whose younger generation (who boast names like Hoo-Hoo and Har-Lip) are mostly descended from the tribe's brutish founder. He was known only by the title of his former occupation, so the tribe's name is: Chauffeur

The Romanov cross by Robert Masello

Army epidemiologist Frank Slater is facing a court-martial, but after his punishment is mysteriously lifted, he is offered a job no one else wants-to travel to a small island off the coast of Alaska and investigate a potentially lethal phenomenon. The permafrost has begun to melt, exposing bodies from a colony that was wiped out by the dreaded Spanish flu of 1918. Frank must determine if the thawed remains still carry the deadly virus in their frozen flesh and, if so, ensure that it doesn't come back to life. Frank and his handpicked team arrive by helicopter, prepared to exhume history. The colony, it transpires, was once settled by a sect devoted to the mad Russian monk Rasputin, but there is even more hiding in the past than Frank's team is aware of. Any hope of success hinges on their willingness to accept the fact that even their cutting-edge science has its limits, and that the ancient wisdom of the Inuit people who once inhabited this eerie land is as essential as any serum. Frank soon finds himself in a brutal race against time. With a young, strong-willed Inuit woman by his side, he must put a deadly genie back in the bottle before all of humanity pays the price

Knaves over queens : a wild cards novel

"Developed by aliens and field-tested on Earth, the virus known as Xenovirus Takis-A was released in New York in 1946, changing the course of human history forever. Most of those infected die--and a tiny percentage become deformed beings known as jokers. A lucky few survivors become aces: superhumans gifted with amazing powers. Now the virus has reached Britain. There, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, gifted with extraordinary longevity, together with the Enigma ace Alan Turing, set up a special organization named the Order of the Silver Helix. They will need all of the wild cards they can find if they are to deal with the terrifying mutations spawned by the virus."--

The Andromeda evolution: a novel by Michael Crichton

"Fifty years after The Andromeda Strain made Michael Crichton a household name, the threat returns, in a gripping sequel that is as terrifyingly realistic and resonant as the original"--

Fever : a novel by Deon Meyer

"Nico Storm and his father Willem drive a truck filled with essential supplies through a desolate land. They are among the few in South Africa -- and the world, as far as they know -- to have survived a devastating virus which has swept through the country. Their world turned upside down, Nico realizes that his superb marksmanship and cool head mean he is destined to be his father's protector, even though he is still only a boy. But Willem Storm, though not a fighter, is both a thinker and a leader, a wise and compassionate man with a vision for a new community that survivors will rebuild from the ruins. And so Amanzi is founded, drawing Storm's "homeless and tempest-tost" -- starting with Melinda Swanevelder, whom they rescued from brutal thugs; Hennie Flaai, with his vital Cessna plane; Beryl Fortuin, with her ragtag group of orphans; and Domingo, the man with the tattooed hand, whom Nico knows immediately is someone you want on your side. And then there is Sofia Bergman, the most beautiful girl that Nico has ever seen, who changes everything. So the community grows -- and with each step forward, as resources increase, so do the challenges they must face -- not just from the attacks of biker brigands, but also from within. As Nico undergoes an extraordinary rite of passage in this new world, he experiences hardship and heartbreak and has his loyalty tested to its limits. Looking back later in life, he recounts the events that led to the greatest rupture of all -- the hunt for the murderer of the personhe loves most. An exhilarating new standalone from the author of the internationally bestselling Benny Griessel thriller series, Fever is a gripping epic like nothing else Meyer has written before --

Blue plague: the fall by Thomas A Watson

The Preppers were right. And the time is now. The Blue Plague came roaring out of the Congo and into the United States-and it can't be stopped. The Infected become violently insane and impossibly strong. They're not zombies - that would be too easy. They're something much worse. The Infected are violent and unstoppable, but they can think. They can heal from most wounds. And worst of all-they can reproduce. Bruce, Debbie, Mike and Nancy have been preparing for the worst for years. There's nothing to do but bug out-and they know exactly where to go. In the struggle to reach the sanctuary of their farm, they confront thousands of The Infected-but they also make invaluable new friends along the way. And they kick the hell out of the Infected and the equally dangerous marauders who are willing to murder anyone in their way. Join Bruce, Mike, and their newfound friends as they battle their way across Infected Louisiana, doing what needs to be done to reach the sanctuary of their farm. Blue Plague: The Fallis a survivalist adventure filled with courage and betrayal, tragedy and hope

Recipient of the National Medal, the nation's highest honor for libraries.