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Summary: Medieval History & Furturistic Medicine meets Orwell's 1984!
Review: This is both a fascinating and a very disturbing book! The author does a wonderful job of weaving the social history of the Black Death, sorcercy, epidemiology, and political theory into a frightening picture of the effects of an uncontrolable pandemic on both human life and liberty. Quite a task for an author's first novel, and well done at that! Those of us who have lived our lives cared for by modern medicine with its "wonder drugs" and have grown up in a free (i.e., non-totalitarian) country cannot begin to imagine the twin horrors of an uncontrolable epidemic and the steps that government might take to try to stop it. Over twenty years ago, when I worked in the livestock industry, I was shocked by the widespread, indiscriminant overuse of antibiotics, and I wondered what the result would be. Now, I know. This book is good entertainment, and also a clarion call for responsible science and for citizens to watch their government like a hawk! As someo! ne with an abiding interest in both social history and the social aspects of medicine, I heartily endorse Plague Tales! Now, I can't wait to read the sequel!
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Summary: Parts are good....
Review: I really enjoyed the first few chapters of this book, and went so far as to recommend it to a friend at that point. When I finished, I told my friend 'nevermind'. In the beginning, the sci-fi part is intriguing, and the historical part is entertaining. But after a little while the futuristic half of this book goes downhill pretty quick. Virtually all the major characters are medical experts, yet they ALL react to the possibility of the BLACK FREAKING DEATH PLAGUE making a comeback as if they were addle-brained children. In short, the characters are unforgivably, annoyingly stupid. The historical part of the book is much better, but still could use improvement. At times I checked the front cover to make sure there wasn't an oil painting of Fabio on it, the book read so much like a Harlequin romance. (Or what I assume one would be like). I'm especially disappointed because it seems like there's a really good book hiding inside there somewhere, tryin! g to get out.
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Summary: A Great Premise
Review: Imagine my surprise when this book I had just plucked off a shelf for easy beach reading ended up keeping me up all night! It's a wonderfully entertaining story and I found myself engrossed within the first two chapters. Interesting characterizations and a bustling plot line kept me involved. I did find it frustrating to hop back and forth between the centuries at times though and found myself reading all the faster just to get to the next chapter.
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Summary: Go elsewhere
Review: I only read a third of this novel and was compelled to put it down. Two main things bothered me: Benson's style and her content. First of all, this is her first novel and it shows. The "archaic" style of the 14th-century segment is laughable. Generally, the pacing is simply incompetent. It is a plodding recitation of events which follow one another step by step by step by step... Benson made me appreciate once again how skilled suspense writers know which events in a narrative to stress and which to put side by side to create excitement and anticipation. Secondly -- and this is going to be rude -- Benson comes across as a dull person with nothing to say: her asides are pedestrian and unimaginative. I'm not expecting Milan Kundera in such a novel, but this makes me lack the slightest desire to hold a conversation with her.In short, there are great suspense novels being written all the time. Read them INSTEAD!
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Summary: A good book with some minor flaws - I'd read the sequel
Review: Okay, it's hard to imagine a biolab tech (and a very good one according to the story) who has no idea what Y. Pestis is in the neurotically infection-phobic future. But, give that a miss and you get a pretty darn good story that is well told. The 14th century sections are particularly well done and neatly deliver a fictional take on the same horror Barbara Tuchman's 'A Distant Mirror' covered as history. The near future sections are a little weaker and the people do behave oddly once or twice but then again, they are supposed to be living in a very odd time. Overall, I have recommended the book to several people and I bet I read the sequel.
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Summary: good text but over stretched plot
Review: I read this book with trepidation, having worked in a microbiology lab for years. The characters were pretty well drawn, the science not too bad. However, in science fiction there is a rule: no more than one unbelievable thing... This book had several. The post biological disaster scenario was distracting, and it seemed to me unecessary, and the plot twists and turns pretty unbelievable in the modern scenes (and the connection pretty silly as well) I would read it however, just for the middle ages chapters, which were very well done. Skip the modern chapters, without them this is a short tragedy of some worth....
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Summary: Good ideas, but seriously flawed
Review: Ann Benson began with a fascinating concept, a post-biological-disaster near future in which freedoms have been sacrificed to protect society from potential contagion, and a parallel story of a young Jewish doctor in plague-ridden medieval Europe. Unfortunately, she rapidly lost control of both her plots and her characters. The modern story became a string of bizarre coincidences, while the medieval one brought in mystical or occult elements that never really meshed with the high-tech future. Also, the contemporary, supposedly scientifically-trained characters repeatedly behave as if they are brain-dead. I kept hoping this novel would rise to the promise of its premise, but it disappointed me to its laboriously contrived end.
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Summary: A great summer read - or any season for that matter
Review: I could not believe that this was Ann Benson's first novel - it is so rich in detail and plot. This is the book that Michael Crichton only wishes he had the talent to write.
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Summary: Pretty good, but.....
Review: I enjoyed this book, up to the Epilogue. I liked most of the characters, but would have liked to have known more history of the contemporary characters. I enjoyed the historical aspects of the story more than the near future - which didn't seem terribly futuristic to me. There just was not enough explanation as to how the Epilogue came to be. It seemed like an afterthought and not a well thought out one at that. I felt a little cheated and it took away a lot of the enjoyment from the rest of the book for me.
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Summary: Interesting story falls apart in the last quarter
Review: Science fiction in general requires the reader to suspend belief in order to enjoy the story. This novel is no exception. I was enjoying this book until about the last quarter of the book. Then the characters began acting in such an unbelievable way that I found my self actually angry with the author! I am not a critical reader. However, I can not remember when I was more disappointed with a story's ending.
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