The White Plague

By: Frank Herbert

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 19 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

A warm day in Dublin, a crowded street corner. Suddenly, a car-bomb explodes, killing and injuring scores of innocent people. From the second-floor window of a building across the street, a visiting American watches, helpless, as his beloved wife and children are sacrificed in the heat and fire of someone else's cause.

From this shocking beginning, the author of the phenomenal Dune series has created a masterpiece. The White Plague is a marvelous and terrifyingly plausible blend of fiction and visionary theme. It tells of one man's revenge, of the man watching from the window who is pushed over the edge of sanity by the senseless murder of his family and who, reappearing several months later as the so-called Madman, unleashes a terrible vengeance upon the human race.

John Roe O'Neill is a molecular biologist who has the knowledge, and now the motivation, to devise and disseminate a genetically carried plague - a plague to which, like those that scourged mankind centuries ago, there is no antidote, but one that zeroes in, unerringly and fatally, on women.

As the world slowly recognizes the reality of peril, as its politicians and scientists strive desperately to save themselves and their society from the prospect of human extinction, so does Frank Herbert grapple with one of the great themes of contemporary life: the enormous dangers that lurk at the dark edges of science. The White Plague is a prophetic, believable, and utterly compelling novel.

©2007 Frank Herbert (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A tale of awesome revenge." ( The Cincinnati Enquirer)
"A speculative intellect with few rivals in modern SF." ( The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)

Maybe You Have to be 50 plus

to enjoy this story from 1983. It's a bit dated but that should not detract from the story.
I found it thoughtful and interesting and appreciated it's accuracy for it's time.
What people do when threatened with a worldwide plague is the subject and the characters responded much as I think they would have at the time.
Worth the time and credit.

Good book but annoying narration

I read this book many many years ago and enjoyed it so I thought I’d enjoy it again through an audio book. But the narration was just too annoying. His reading is over the top dramatic for every single sentence. Something like the animated Dudley do-right show announcer (which works for a whimsical cartoon but not a dramatic novel). I sped the reading up to 1.2 speed which helped but at about 4 hours in, I gave up. There’s a lot of unnecessary and long descriptions in the story which was probably made more tedious by the narration.

awesome

So glad to find this book on audible
Give it a listen its worth
Well done

Interesting to think about a”what if”

I found myself going to the story to see what next was going to happen. It’s a story of what could happen and the way the world might react to it. Leaning on the many prejudices of every type, the battle for power and those wanting to hang on to some morality. The reader goes from section to section, and chapter to chapter without any indication. Reader does a good job of all the voices but because of rapid section changing it always took a few minutes to realize it was someone else, some place else. I still enjoyed the book.

This story is a tight look at the prejudices and misogyny of the times; they’re not really gone today.

I disliked the narration; the way the sentences rose and fell became a bit off- putting after a bit. There was too much of a sameness

Timely and thought provoking

I have read many of Herbert's books. I found some of them good and others not so good. This book falls well within the "good" category.

Even though it was written over 20 years ago, its subject matter (systemic hatred, tribalism, terrorism, WMD, vengence, survival, redemption) addresses situations which could have been taken from today's headlines. I found it very thought provoking as well as entertaining.

Great Narration

I was impressed by the number of accents the narrator switched back and forth from seamlessly. Quite impressive. The story was engaging. Nothing like the Pandora or Dune series, but refreshing

Great first half, poor finish

Scott Brick is an excellent narrator! It's always a pleasure listening to audiobooks read by him.

And most Frank Herbert books are good or great. White Plague is the exception. It's an engaging story the final plot twist where it seems like Herbert lost interest in finishing the story. It was painful to listen to the end.

Great listen!

good story and a even better performance I'll definitely be listening for this again in the future.

The difference between sentiment and sentimental:

"The difference between sentiment and being sentimental is the following:
Sentiment is when a driver swerves out of the way to avoid hitting a
rabbit on the road. Being sentimental is when the same driver, when
swerving away from the rabbit hits a pedestrian."

Frank Herbert's The White Plague holds up remarkably well over the decades. I recently took a class in genetics and the plague the "Madman" creates seems completely plausible to me.

The story starts out with John Roe O'Neill in Ireland doing research when his wife and twins are blown up in an IRA bombing. He is a genetic engineer and in his grief he splits personalities and becomes the "Madman" John O'Donnell. He creates a disease that will kill only women but make all the men carriers. He tries to keep it in Ireland(the bombers), Great Britain(the cause of the strife),and Libya (the training ground), but it becomes impossible to contain.

The story shifts to the various scientists, governments and religious factions to see how they will all handle a world without women, or with women a scarcity, if they can find a cure in time.

The only parts of the story I disliked was the young woman in the tank and even the women left are all treated as "breeders" or conniving bitches. The best female character in the story was a scientist who dies early on.

Herbert's vision of life in a plague state is very plausible and frightening. The main theme of the book seems to be that we should fear knowledge and progress, as long as man is an imperfect beast.

Scott Brick does a wonderful job with the accents in his narration.