Famine

by Graham Masterton

A nationwide famine has swept across America. Ed Hardesty, a wheat farmer, attempts to find out the source of the blight which has devastated the world.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Post Apocalyptic, Audiobook, Apocalyptic, Dystopia

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Graham Masterton was born in Edinburgh in 1946. His grandfather was Thomas Thorne Baker, the eminent scientist who invented DayGlo and was the first man to transmit news photographs by wireless. After training as a newspaper reporter, Graham went on to edit the new British men's magazine Mayfair, where he encouraged William Burroughs to develop a series of scientific and philosophical articles which eventually became Burroughs' novel The Wild Boys.

At the age of 24, Graham was appointed executive editor of both Penthouse and Penthouse Forum magazines. At this time he started to write a bestselling series of sex 'how-to' books including How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. His latest, Wild Sex For New Lovers is published by Penguin Putnam in January, 2001. He is a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Woman, Woman's Own and other mass-market self-improvement magazines.

Graham Masterton's debut as a horror author began with The Manitou in 1976, a chilling tale of a Native American medicine man reborn in the present day to exact his revenge on the white man. It became an instant bestseller and was filmed with Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens and Ann Sothern.

Altogether Graham has written more than a hundred novels ranging from thrillers (The Sweetman Curve, Ikon) to disaster novels (Plague, Famine) to historical sagas (Rich and Maiden Voyage - both appeared in the New York Times bestseller list). He has published four collections of short stories, Fortnight of Fear, Flights of Fear, Faces of Fear and Feelings of Fear.

He has also written horror novels for children (House of Bones, Hair-Raiser) and has just finished the fifth volume in a very popular series for young adults, Rook, based on the adventures of an idiosyncratic remedial English teacher in a Los Angeles community college who has the facility to see ghosts.

Since then Graham has published more than 35 horror novels, including Charnel House, which was awarded a Special Edgar by Mystery Writers of America; Mirror, which was awarded a Silver Medal by West Coast Review of Books; and Family Portrait, an update of Oscar Wilde's tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was the only non-French winner of the prestigious Prix Julia Verlanger in France.

He and his wife Wiescka live in a Gothic Victorian mansion high above the River Lee in Cork, Ireland.

Reviews

[Lizz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

This book was creepy, but not because of the famine. The politicians, doing their evil, that’s the stuff of nightmares. I found the government part of the story to be very prescient. They are two wings of the same bird, never forget! It is two feet marching you into a future you don’t want: left, right, left, right, march! Don’t play the game.

Anyways! Leave it to Masterton to make the rape scene surprisingly gentle. Yes, it seems all of his disaster books have a rape scene. Anal, but the guy used predigious amounts of oil. I mean, it definitely could’ve been worse. Oh and this guy says about a girl: “she used to be my fancy lady, but now she’s your fancy lady.” That made me laugh.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pre-post apocalyptic take on what America would like without fresh produce in the lead up to a famine. As always in these books the horror is in the human nature. At times this read as a action/crime book offset by some shady political back room dealings with interesting and well written characters who really made the story come to life. Personally I would’ve like to read more about the fallout from the famine. Still enjoyable nonetheless.

[MacWithBooksonMountains Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

NON-SPOILER REVIEW: Well thought out storyline of a pre-apocalyptic America that kept me read on through two parts. The first part is the more character-heavy one that includes much personal interaction often in a political environment of corruption, bribery and unjust enrichment; the second part is of a more explanatory and narration-heavy nature to show what would happen in America 🇺🇸 on a political level and to its people in case a situation of unusual hardship arises.
On a side note: There are a few rather graphic sex acts described, so some readers may take heed.

[Maciek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty interesting. I wanted to read this book for a long time, but only got to it now. And I have mixed feelings.

This is when the 3,5 star rating would be useful. Famine deals with the breakdown of the American society - when crops start failing it Kansas everyone considers it just as bad luck, but when the failings start spreading throughout the nation people start becoming aware that there might be nothing to eat, and panic ensues...I won't reveal the reason for crop failures, but I myself found the idea interesting.

The beginning moves slowly. Ed Hardesty, a Kansas farmer witnesses the failure of his crops...for 200 pages or so, as the supporting players are introduced. The pace is slow, the characters rather simple, some things are cheesy and over the top. It is not until the second part of the book that the plot picks up and looses the staleness; social observations are accurate if predictable, and from all the gore and sex (come on, it's Masterton) several scenes stand out with such depth and feeling as if they were written for someone else, for another work, much like Mickey Rourke did in The Expendables. Still, they're not enough to make this book unique; it's capable, entertaining, but unfortunately doesn't stand out from the myriads of post-apocalyptic fiction.

It's good reading for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction; if it's in your hands you might want to give it a try.

[clumsyplankton · Rating 2 out of 5]

A really slow book where it wasn’t interesting at all

[Jak · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of Famine is simple. America is plunged into crisis when crop blight wipes out all forms cereal, fruit, vegetable and grazing grass leaving the country facing food shortages. It’s later found that grain storage facilities have been poised with radioactive isotopes and canned good have been infected with botulism. This means that the country has barely enough food for a week and there is an inevitable break down in social order as it every man for himself.

In of itself this is quite an interesting concept which is padded out with characters and sub plots that are less satisfactory.

The main character is Ed Hardetsy who is a Kansas wheat farmer who struggling to hold his marriage together. He calls in a favour from a corrupt and corpulent senator Shearson Jones when his is one of the first crops to start failing. Jones offers to set up a relief fund (which he will cream money from) and wants Ed to be the face of the appeal. Jones then suppresses the extent of the blight in order to continue to receive funds. Ed however has other idea and explains the extent of the problem live on national TV leading to the first wave of riots and break down of social order.

In the meantime Jones right hand girl, Della McIntosh, seduces Ed and revels herself to be an FBI agent intent on bringing Jones to justice. Once they obtain some evidence they kidnap Jones and head to California where Ed’s wife has gone (prior to he blight’s outbreak) as Ed needs to save her.

In the end it turns out that the crop blight and food poisoning was all down to the Russians (it was written in 1981) and that Della is a Russian agent out to install Jones as a puppet president (thanks to the dirt they have on him) as the U.S. becomes the newest member of the Russian Soviet States. And everyone by Ed, his Wife and Daughter due.

I found that the first half of the book moved a bit slow in terms of getting to the irrevocable breakdown of society, which is what I considered to be the point of the book, concentrating on Jones actions and slush fund.

Another criticism was the sex. It seemed pointless and there for titillation rather than for character or plot development. The ease with which both Ed and his wife Season cheat on each other is awful as there is not guilt or condemnation. It’s not even as if they themselves got anything much out of it so it had no redeeming feature.

As for the whole Russia angle. I preferred it when you didn’t know who was behind the plot. The Russians we such a cliché and Della being a Russian agent was simply awful and clunky.

On the plus side some of the social break down was well done and the overall concept of weakening a nation through this method was well conceived.

[patrycja polczyk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ta książka jest conajmniej dziwna. Serio, zabrałam się za nią, licząc na coś naprawdę dobrego. Tymczasem dostałam dziwną historię rosyjskiej inwazji na Stany Zjednoczone. Najgorsze jest to, że czyta się całkiem ok i z jakiegoś powodu jest to nawet wciągające. Książkę można właściwie streścić w kilku słowach - wroga najlepiej wziąć głodem.
To, co najbardziej mnie drażniło w tej książce, to:
- traktowanie kobiet przedmiotowo i opisywanie ich w sposób mocno seksistowski
- rasizm, który aż bił po oczach - to co złe to czarni, albo np. opis, w którym na ulicy bawiło się „trzech czarnych/murzyńskich chłopców”. Ja się pytam co to wnosi do historii?
- scena w kuchni, w której kobiety oddają się i poniekąd zostają oddane gangowi motocyklistów, w celach seksualnych, po to by ochronić życie dziecka, tak mocno zaleciła mi tanim pornosem, że o rany
- dziwne i zbyt częste opisy seksu albo seksualności, to chyba jakiś fetysz autora
- tłumaczenie też nie powala, a do tego pod koniec robi się niechlujne

No, to chyba tyle. Ogólnie, nie polecam za bardzo, bo ani to horror, ani thriller. I zakończenie trochę z dupy

[Alexander Draganov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Famine е роман от поредица катастрофични произведения за края на света от Мастертън. В него авторът разиграва един чудовищен сценарий, при който човешката цивилизация се срива за броени дни. Пъкленият план Америка да бъде унищожена е сатанински в простотата и жестокостта си, а отсъствието на паранормален елемент прави историята още по-плашеща и достоверна, като това обаче не спестява зловещите сцени на насилие, плод не на обсебвания, а на отчаяни хора, които умират от глад. Роман, който не успокоява читателя с илюзията, че всичко ще се оправи, а напротив – показва на колко тънък косъм виси човешката цивилизация. На няколко пропуснати хранения.

Цялото ревю прочетете на линка:
https://citadelata.com/famine/

[Ninjakicalka · Rating 4 out of 5]

To nie jest horror o duchach, tylko o ludzkim zachowaniu. Co są w stanie zrobić, aby zdobyć rzeczy ze sklepowych półek? O wiele więcej niż podczas „Black Friday” lub promocji w Lidlu :D

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

When some kind of blight starts taking over Ed’s wheat field in Kansas in a matter of hours, he soon learns this is affecting many areas of the U.S. and many different types of crops. Meanwhile, Ed’s wife Season has decided that she does not like life on a farm and misses the city; she packs up and takes their daughter with her to California to be with her sister.

I could have done without the stretch of politics at the start; I kind of lost interest through part of that. The story itself of the food all going bad was good, and to what lengths will people go to get (and/or stockpile) food. Even more so, I could definitely have also done without every female character having big boobs and a ton of sex; and all the derogatory comments toward the woman characters. I almost rated it lower due to this, but decided the story itself was enough for me to rate it slightly higher, so I decided on a middle ground at 3 stars (ok).

[Ver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book really exaggerates the possibility of hunger panic. Many people have a pile of food at home that could suffice for at least a month, if not three months. I also don't think that people would start to show sexual deviation at such time. I wonder if this was an excuse to include the description of the author's weird sexual fantasies. Anyway, the idea of the book is interesting. This time I regret it was an audiobook and I couldn't skip the obscene descriptions.

[Victor Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Otra adictiva novela de catastrofes de Masterton; esta vez tenemos un virus que destruye las reservas de trigo de los Estados Unidos. Mezcla bastante bien una trama de conspiracion típica de la guerra fría con las consabidas crónicas del colapso de la civilización. Y mucho sexo.

[Thomas Devine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really shows us the fragility of our civilization.

[Agnieszka Grudzień · Rating 2 out of 5]

Większość książki to polityka i seks. Myślałam, że domniemanej apokalipsy nie będzie wcale (jest, ale dopiero tak po 60%). Mi się niestety nie podobało.
TW: brutalne gwałty i obleśne opisy stosunków płciowych i bardzo krwawe i obrazowe opisy śmierci

[fairybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bardzo mocna książka, polecam!

[Kamila · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know. Clever is ways. Stupid in parts. Really questionable depictions of SA and a lot of casual racism. It's hard not to hold a book to modern standards. The SA scenes and how they were depricted... Made it feel like the author is suggesting the woman deserved it, enjoyed it, and it reads like it is supposed to be an erotic scene rather than a serious assault. I don't know. The book wasn't bad otherwise, but I can't go beyond 2 stars as my biggest takeaway is about the SAs.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Grzegorz Skowron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ciekawa, sprawnie opowiedziana historia.
Ale autor lubuje się w dziwnych i/lub brutalnych scenach sexu i/lub gwałtu, co nie każdemu się spodoba.
Więc ostrzegam.

[Edyta D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterton buduje napięcie bardzo wolno. Najpierw dowiadujemy się, że jakiś niezidentyfikowany wirus atakuje pola pszenicy w Kansas, a następnie rozprzestrzenia się na cały kraj, atakując warzywa, owoce i wszelką możliwą żywność. Sytuacja z godziny na godzinę staje się coraz bardziej przerażająca, a media przekazują tylko częściowe informacje. W tle wrze zimna, polityczna batalia. Skorumpowany i bezwzględny polityk zwietrzył szansę aby zarobić miliony na nieszczęściu innych. Jadnak gdy głód zagląda do oczu to wyzwala w ludziach najgorsze instynkty i zachowania. Aby przeżyć ludzie zachowują się jak wściekłe zwierzęta, albo i gorzej. Nie chciałabym aby taka wizja świata spełniła się w żadnym jego zakątku.
Zakończenie bez szału, do przewidzenia, ale i tak książka mi się podobała :)

[Lachlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable speculative tale of what would happen if America's food supplies were completely annihilated; a neat mix of cold-war paranoia and the horror of botulism-inflicted death diarrhea. Level-headed everyman protagonist can sometimes be a little eye-rollingly generic, but the plot moves pretty quickly and that keeps things engaging.

Good enough that I'll probably read another book by Mr. Masterton if I ever come across one, but haven't had the pleasure

More of a high 3.5 than a 4, but, you know, numbers are arbitrary

[Henry Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping all the way through. The main character is likeable and the plot progresses at just the right pace. If you like other disaster books like Wyndham's "Day of the Triffids", or Stirling's "Dies the Fire", you'll like this one, too.
The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because of some especially lurid sex scenes around the first half of the book, which go into a bit too much detail. No complaints about the second half though! Famine is a book that gets continuously more interesting.

[Jarek "the Mistborn" Dąbrowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ok. Not too bad and not too good either. Dragged on a lot for me. Not much moreto say about it really. Ive read much better Masterton. Overall an ok read in between my usual fantasy books.

[Mene Las · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible! The sex scene at the beginning is truly disgusting and serves no purpose other than perhaps the author’s own titillation. Apparently it doesn’t end there. A firm ‘will not finish’ from me!

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is a readable but deeply flawed potboiler detailing the destruction of America's food supply by a coordinated biological and chemical attack. The premise is interesting, if decidedly far-fetched, but the execution is frankly weak, with too many trashy interludes that distract from the main plot and not enough introspection.

The novel is best when it looks at how American society and particularly the American government would react to such a disaster. In the wake of COVID, the depictions of politicians floundering to deal with the crisis or even to profit off of it are a little too convincing. However, at times Masterton is a little too sanctimonious in his attitude toward what I would consider necessary measures in the face of such a calamity, such as federal officials ensuring they have enough food to keep running the government and the need to keep the disaster quiet in the initial phases in order to prevent a descent into chaos before the government can prepare.

The novel also maintains a good pace with lots of action and thrillingly gruesome violence, especially in the second half. Particularly memorable is a scene where a religious fanatic tries to replicate the miracle of the loaves and the fishes with catastrophic results. However, all too often, the novel stalls in order to give us explicit, at times bordering on pornographic, sex scenes, perhaps most notably a rape scene where two sisters are forced to perform sex acts on each other. Also, there is a decidedly misogynistic subtext where the protagonist cheats on his wife with little to no consequences, while the wife suffers for cheating on him.

Furthermore, the plotting gets weak towards the end. The question of who carried out the attack is pushed too far into the background, only to be clumsily resolved at the end of the book. Major supporting characters, such as the protagonist's mother, just disappearing with a handwave. In the end, it's readable, but not particularly good.

[CzasoStrefa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książka Głód Grahama Mastertona po raz pierwszy wydana została w 1981 roku. Niedawno wznowiona została przez wydawnictwo Replika. To jedna z najpopularniejszych powieści katastroficznych tegoż autora.
Ed Hardesty jest właścicielem gigantycznej farmy w Kansas. Niezmierzone połacie pszenicy dotyka tajemnicza zaraza, która rozprzestrzenia się w niesamowitym tempie. Wszelkie próby jej zwalczenia kończą się fiaskiem. Dobrze prosperującej farmie grozi bankructwo.
Podobne problemy występują w całych Stanach Zjednoczonych. Zboża, warzywa, owoce zostają skażone. Najpotężniejszy naród na świecie z dnia na dzień staje przed widmem głodu. Informacyjny chaos oraz chęć przetrwania sprawie że ludzie wyzbywają się ludzkich cech, zastępując je pierwotnymi instynktami przeżycia, najmroczniejszymi żądzami i przemocą.
Bohaterowie są ciekawie wykreowani i przede wszystkim dość znacznie się od siebie różnią. Ed Hardesty to farmer, który chce uratować dziedzictwo swojej rodziny. Senator Jones to zimny, kalkulujący głównie własny zysk polityk. Della zaś przedstawiona została jako typowa famme fatale, ociekająca seksapilem i pełna tajemnic.
Podsumowując, przyznam, że jestem pozytywnie zaskoczony. Po lekkim rozczarowaniu Suszą, wróciłem do książek Mastertona i tym razem się nie zawiodłem. Głód to solidna powieść katastroficzna, z ciekawie poprowadzoną intrygą i zapadającymi w pamięć bohaterami.
Więcej na: CzasoStrefa

[Andy Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a lot of apocalyptic fiction and this came up as a recommendation somewhere. It's actually more of a thriller about why the disaster comes about, with some of the aftermath tagged on in the last third of the book. The concept is quite interesting: an unknown blight is killing all the cereal crops in the US. The situation becomes increasing worse but through corruption and bureaucracy, insufficient action is taken (obviously, or the rest of the book wouldn't be very exciting). For a change, it's not a global catastrophe and we do hear a little bit about the rest of the world.

The story itself isn't bad and I quite enjoyed it, other that a couple of slightly odd and unlikely incidents. However, do we really need to know the colour of every character's nipples? Why all the sex (some of it a bit explicit)? There's also a couple of phrases that made me wince a bit as the book was published in 1981 and attitudes have changed since then, and I'm sure they wouldn't get printed today.

So, quite a good idea that is a bit slow to get going, but gets more exciting as things move along. However, it's ruined by a few poorly written bits.

[egocentryk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biorąc pod uwagę, że pierwotnie powieść powstała i wydana została na początku lat 80. XX wieku, to wiele zawartych w niej konceptów się zwyczajnie zestarzało. Niemniej główna oś fabularna trzyma przy sobie do ostatnich stron, zaskakując przy tym barwnym i przerażającym opisem tego, jak może i z pewnością zachowałoby się społeczeństwo w obliczu głodu.

Głód to powieść momentami mocna obrazowo - obsceniczne sceny brutalnych gwałtów, morderstw i ludzkich słabości przez Mastertona przedstawiane są bez żadnych kompromisów. Wyobraźnia dodatkowo dokłada swoje, przez co z książki wylewa się obraz stopniowo degenerującego się społeczeństwa, które z każdym dniem traci resztki hamulców.

Pierwsza część książki stricte skoncentrowana na bohaterach, przez co mamy możliwość poznania ich motywacji, druga natomiast ukazuje upadek społeczeństwa. Obie te części równie satysfakcjonujące dla mnie i mimo, że być może sam miejscami życzyłbym sobie innych rozwiązań fabularnych, to jednak całość jest ze sobą spójna.

Dobre czytadło, 3.5/5 się należy.

[Better · Rating 2 out of 5]

The single worst Graham Masterton book I've ever read in my life, and I'm sorry I even picked it up. I actually didn't know it wasn't a horror novel when I bought the book (I thought all he wrote was horror!) Over the last couple decades I've read & collected a few dozen of this author's works of fiction, and have enjoyed most of them.

But there were so many unanswered questions I had when I got to the end of "Famine" and explanations for the plot-holes and leaps of logic in the storyline. Reading about all the hardships and struggles was also kind of a downer - not a pleasant experience getting through this book like I'm used to. Especially a disturbing rape-scene, which was ghoulish and cringey, even by 1981 standards (a low bar indeed). This book is probably only for die-hard Graham Masterton fans, or if you like "end of the world" dystopian novels about disaster-prepping, or political drama. Certainly not horror.

[Andrew Statham · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 An insight of the collapse of society when faced with the need for food.

The characters are well structured although some of their motives are questionable within the story. Description of places and people are well done with you never feeling out of place. The sex scenes although I felt as though some were quite unnecessary and a bit almost too volger at points and I am no prude but they sometimes felt out of place in regard to the whole novel.

It is interesting to read this in 2020 in the height of the corona virus pandemic and not see some parallels between what happens in the story and what is happening currently on the news and streets so it is fascinating how relevant and unchanged people were believed to be between the time this story was written and now.