"Plague War" by Jeff Carlson

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Plague War
Jeff Carlson
321 pp. Ace. $7.99
Pub. Date: 7/29/2008
ISBN-13: 978-0441016174

Reviewed by Paul Stotts

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A lot of survivors called it Plague Year, or Year One, but it wasn’t only human history that had crashed in the long fourteen months since the machine plague. The invisible nanotech devoured all warm-blooded life below ten thousand feet elevation. What remained of the ecosystem was badly out of whack, with only fish, frogs, and reptiles left to whittle down the exploding insect populations—and the land suffered for it.—“Plague War”

Occasionally, I’ll stumble across a novel that contains intriguing scientific ideas as its basis, yet the story will fail to interest me. For some reason, the narrative is unable to build upon the author’s killer speculative concepts. It’s a shame and the book ends up feeling like a missed opportunity. In the end, it always leaves me wondering about how the author could have utilized their ideas better. I find that I end up thinking less about what the novel is, and more about what the novel could have been. And my final answer is clearly that the novel could have been better.

Unfortunately, “Plague War” by Jeff Carlson is one of these novels. Despite an interesting starting premise of a machine plague which makes Earth inhabitable for people below 10,000 feet thereby requiring survivors to live on isolated mountain peaks, the novel flounders. During the first half of the book, the three main characters essentially wander somewhat aimlessly through the post-apocalyptic landscape below 10,000 feet. This is quite reminiscent of the “lost in the forest” trope one encounters often in the fantasy genre, and it’s just as uninspiring in this setting. This would be less of an issue if what the characters encountered below 10,000 feet was exciting and riveting; instead, it’s rather mundane.

The underlying problem is that Carlson tries to hold the speculative aspects of the novel to a high level of verisimilitude. “Plague War” comes off more as a scientific exercise of following a hypothesis to a conclusion rather than a speculative novel. While this may lead to some interesting scientific reasoning, it isn’t necessarily engaging as a narrative. Sometimes “bad stuff” just needs to happen to keep things interesting, whether it’s utterly believable or not. And “Plague War” just doesn’t have enough “bad stuff” in it to engage the reader.

Ruth Goldman, Cam Najarro and Staff Sergeant Mark Newcombe are stranded on foot in the desolate post-apocalyptic wasteland outside of Sacramento, ninety miles from elevation. Ruth, a nanotech researcher, has recently developed a first generation nano vaccine that offers the three of them protection from the machine plague. Now they’ve set off on a mission to carry the vaccine to any other survivors they can find.

To complicate matters, the American government, now based in Leadville Colorado, is hunting them. The machine plague vaccine holds a great strategic advantage for the Leadville government, since the group that controls the vaccine will control the world below 10,000 feet. Therefore, it’s imperative for Leadville to keep it out of the hands of other factions, in particular, the rebel groups that they’re currently fighting against. Not surprisingly, the rebels have also taken an interest in Ruth’s group (for the some reasons as Leadville as well as for their self-preservation), and would like nothing more than to intercept Ruth and her gang before Leadville scoops them up.

Soon a catastrophic event changes the entire political landscape, and in the aftermath a new greater threat emerges on the horizon which promises a war that could change America forever.

Slow to start, “Plague War” improves during the second half of the novel as the focus shifts to the impending war, and away from Ruth, Cam and Newcombe’s journey to find and vaccinate survivors. Though the group is being hunted by a multitude of desperate competing factions early on, the danger never feels palpable or immediate. Instead, Ruth and her friends are often able to hide from any surveillance or confrontation they encounter until the danger passes. Fleeing from confrontation may be an unquestionably intelligent act, but it doesn’t make for exciting reading.

To aggravate matters, there is an awkward romantic subplot between Cam and Ruth that receives an undue amount of attention throughout the book. They both want to seemingly become involved with each other, but they are incredibly hesitant and their inaction makes them miserable. And miserable characters are often miserable to read, especially when their problems are mostly self-inflicted (and their lovelife is mentally and emotionally beaten to death). They act more like lovestruck teenagers than adults, endlessly thinking about what could happen between them rather than doing anything about it. Carlson belabors this plot point, and the lack of forward momentum in the relationship ends up quickly becoming an annoyance and distraction to the story. This may not have been as much of a problem if other events intruded upon their frequent moments of indecision; however with action at a minimum, the reader is made to suffer along with Ruth and Cam.

Once the two of them gain more separation from each other in the second half of the book, the story improves slightly. Though the impending war between America and its invaders adds some spice to the mix, it’s unfortunately not enough to save the book. By this point, I was so annoyed by Ruth and Cam that I lacked any type of emotional attachment to them and had completely lost interest in their plight. Once lost, I was only left to speculate on what “Plague War” could have been.

Last Word:
If there was one word for me that encapsulated my experience with Jeff Carlson’s “Plague War” it would be “disappointing”. Clearly, the novel could have been so much more. With such an interesting speculative foundation, I anticipated more, but an overall lack of action and an annoying romantic subplot torpedoed my enjoyment of the novel. Even though the second half of the book is livelier, Carlson can’t overcome the damage incurred early on when Ruth’s group wanders “lost in the forest”.

Final Grade: 60 out of 100