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The Plague Tales #1
The Plague Tales
“Part historical novel, part futuristic adventure . . . chock full of curious lore and considerable suspense.”— Entertainment Weekly
It is history's most feared disease. It turned neighbor against neighbor, the civilized into the savage, and the living into the dead. Now, in a spellbinding novel of adventure and science, romance and terror, two eras are joined by a single trace of microscopic bacterium—the invisible seeds of a new bubonic plague.
In the year 1348, a disgraced Spanish physician crosses a landscape of horrors to Avignon, France. There, he will be sent on an impossible mission to England, to save the royal family from the Black Death. . . .
Nearly seven hundred years later, a woman scientist digs up a clod of earth in London. In a world where medicine is tightly controlled, she will unearth a terror lying dormant for centuries.
From the primitive cures of the Middle Ages to the biological police state of our near future, The Plague Tales is a thrilling race against time and mass destruction. For in 2005, humankind's last hope for survival can come only from one out of a dark and tortured past.
Praise for The Plague Tales
“Benson reveals a formidable talent as she blends historical fiction with a near-future bio-thriller.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Harrowing . . . Will give readers both nightmares and thrills . . . A carefully woven page-turner from which . . . Robin Cook and Michael Crichton could learn.” — Library Journal
“A hard-to-put-down thriller steeped in historical fiction and bio-tech sci-fi.” — Middlesex News (Mass.)
It is history's most feared disease. It turned neighbor against neighbor, the civilized into the savage, and the living into the dead. Now, in a spellbinding novel of adventure and science, romance and terror, two eras are joined by a single trace of microscopic bacterium—the invisible seeds of a new bubonic plague.
In the year 1348, a disgraced Spanish physician crosses a landscape of horrors to Avignon, France. There, he will be sent on an impossible mission to England, to save the royal family from the Black Death. . . .
Nearly seven hundred years later, a woman scientist digs up a clod of earth in London. In a world where medicine is tightly controlled, she will unearth a terror lying dormant for centuries.
From the primitive cures of the Middle Ages to the biological police state of our near future, The Plague Tales is a thrilling race against time and mass destruction. For in 2005, humankind's last hope for survival can come only from one out of a dark and tortured past.
Praise for The Plague Tales
“Benson reveals a formidable talent as she blends historical fiction with a near-future bio-thriller.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Harrowing . . . Will give readers both nightmares and thrills . . . A carefully woven page-turner from which . . . Robin Cook and Michael Crichton could learn.” — Library Journal
“A hard-to-put-down thriller steeped in historical fiction and bio-tech sci-fi.” — Middlesex News (Mass.)
675 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
191 people are currently reading
1860 people want to read
About the author
Ann Benson
4 books15 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews
June 27, 2009
The is two interconnected stories about outbreaks of the bubonic plague in England--one set in the near future and one set in 1348. The stories were somewhat interesting with characters you might care about, but somehow I just couldn't suspend belief enough to get into this. And things just got more outrageous as the story progressed--especially the near future story. For starters, characters fell in love and changed long-held beliefs at the drop of a hat. Then they did totally unbelievable things--I'm sorry, but I don't care who you are, when you find you lover-of-the-week's boss's corpse decomposing in your missing research assistant's hotel room, are you really going to cut off his rotting hand and put it in your briefcase for a ride on the subway instead of notifying some sort of authorities? And why do none of the doctors or microbiologists who specialize in infectious disease have any inkling of what Yersinia pestis is without looking it up? Did nobody with any medical background proofread this book before it went to print? A couple of doctors talk about intubating a patient but instead insert an orogastric tube. And that's just a few of the myriad examples of the ridiculousness found in this book. Perhaps if you have as little medical background as this author does, this won't bother you as much as it did me. A little more research on the part of the author and a lot more care taken with what a real person might do would've gone a long way with this story. Overall this book was ok, but the high points weren't that high and I found lots of it to be quite aggravating.
October 13, 2022
Una historia fascinante sobre la peste bubónica narrada paralelamente entre el medioevo y el mundo moderno e intercalando en flash backs las aventuras de dos médicos unidos ambos por la misma epidemia con siglos de diferencia.
April 28, 2016
Wow. A big, reverberating WOW! Wow. Wow. Wow! I was up half the night because I couldn’t put it down, and when I put it down, I’d still be up with the creepy-crawlies. Pretty scary stuff. Pretty gross. And pretty Fan-tatty!
What really knocks me out is that this is Ann Benson’s first novel; all her other works have been about beading! Yes, I said Beading. How does a beadweaver just sit down and write this incredible medical thriller?!
Two parallel stories, two parallel characters, linked by history. It was a thrilling, exciting “doomsday” tale, something like Outbreak, but with a much more intriguing flavor because of the historical aspects. A great blend of love and loss, medicine and politics, the medieval and the futuristic.
Wow (shiver).
Beads?!
What really knocks me out is that this is Ann Benson’s first novel; all her other works have been about beading! Yes, I said Beading. How does a beadweaver just sit down and write this incredible medical thriller?!
Two parallel stories, two parallel characters, linked by history. It was a thrilling, exciting “doomsday” tale, something like Outbreak, but with a much more intriguing flavor because of the historical aspects. A great blend of love and loss, medicine and politics, the medieval and the futuristic.
Wow (shiver).
Beads?!
August 14, 2007
So here ya go—a book that’s both a fascinating historical novel about a Jewish physician during the plague AND a futuristic medical thriller about a contemporary outbreak of the bubonic plague. You’ll love the characters, and both halves of this story are first rate.
July 19, 2011
Really good book. Combined two of my favorites..dystopia with historical fiction. I kept putting it down to look up info on it and to me that really makes a book.
January 12, 2009
A very absorbing book- the two tales intertwined were well crafted, though there were times whe I would be caught up in one and hated switching to the other. The details, especially regarding the story set in 1348 were especially fascinating to this nurse and lover of history.
From the Publisher
Fourteenth-century physician Alejandro Canches, caught performing an autopsy in Spain, flees across Europe at the time of the Black Death to escape execution for his heretical deed. When he arrives in the papal city of Avignon, he is conscripted against his will to serve as a plague doctor in the court of England's Edward III. Unfolding in a dramatic counterpoint is the story of American medical archaeologist Janie Crowe, in England at the turn of the twenty-first century to recover from the tragic loss of her family. She digs up a medieval artifact as part of her research and unwittingly releases a deadly plague bacteria on an unprepared world. In a future where antibiotics are useless and a past where death is an ever-present fear, these two unwilling heroes from two different centuries are linked by history and defined by circumstance. Here are their stories - the plague tales.
From the Publisher
Fourteenth-century physician Alejandro Canches, caught performing an autopsy in Spain, flees across Europe at the time of the Black Death to escape execution for his heretical deed. When he arrives in the papal city of Avignon, he is conscripted against his will to serve as a plague doctor in the court of England's Edward III. Unfolding in a dramatic counterpoint is the story of American medical archaeologist Janie Crowe, in England at the turn of the twenty-first century to recover from the tragic loss of her family. She digs up a medieval artifact as part of her research and unwittingly releases a deadly plague bacteria on an unprepared world. In a future where antibiotics are useless and a past where death is an ever-present fear, these two unwilling heroes from two different centuries are linked by history and defined by circumstance. Here are their stories - the plague tales.
January 1, 2021
Bien, estoy a la mitad del libro y les daré mi opinión. Primero les contaré porque elegí está libro. Yo había leído El día del juicio final de Connie Willis y me divertí mucho con los viajes en el tiempo y más que nada porque la parte del viaje a la época antigua había sido a la época medieval que bueno, es un tema que me encanta. Cómo digo me gustó mucho y entonces ahora encontré La plaga que comparte con El día del juicio final la época del Medievo. Me está divirtiendo mucho hasta la parte donde voy. La historia antigua es sumamente entretenida, y podría decir que es mi favorita.La historia de siglos posteriores empezó floja pero poco a poco va poniéndose más interesante. Ya les iré contando. Hasta la mitad del libro sin ser una gran novela me mantiene interesada y solo diré que la enfermedad de la peste es el tema sobre el cual gira el libro. Por ahora le doy tres estrellas.
June 15, 2021
I really enjoyed Ann Benson's "The Plague Tales." The story is set in both near-future London and 1348 England during the reign of Edward III. In the "near future" the world is coming off a pandemic which makes COVID seem like a common cold. Biocops shoot to kill anyone who steps out of line, violates protocol, or is thought to harbor a deadly bacterium. It is in this frightening world that scientist Janie Crowe and her assistant Caroline stumble upon a piece of fabric that has potential to release an ancient plague, one for which there is no modern cure.
Juxtaposed with "near future" London is England in 1348, the year when the Bubonic Plague reared its head and decimated 90% of those in its path. Physician Alejandro Canches, a Jewish doctor forced to flee to England, is retained by the court of Edward III to protect his family from the pestilence. Aside from keeping the family safe, the physician must keep his faith a secret, as well as his passion for a lady of the court.
I really enjoyed this book. It is highly readable and, although long, it reads faster than many shorter novels. I found it particularly interesting how, although separated by hundreds of years, man's reaction to virulent, deadly diseases remains the same - quarantine, wear masks, sanitize, and sacrifice those who threaten the population (not so dissimilar as our handling of COVID). A medical mystery combined with an interesting storyline, complex character development, and solid writing made this a good read for me. Points deducted for several anachronisms which should have been caught and avoided (ex: the author uses the phrase "hair of the dog" repeatedly for her 1348 character Alejandro, but this expression was not in use until the 1800s), errors (one cannot see the city of London from the White Cliffs of Dover), and sloppy ("woke up dead." If you are dead, you don't wake up). These all are errors a good editor should have caught.
Regardless, I recommend this book for anyone in search of a good and easy romp through the future and the past. 4 stars.
Juxtaposed with "near future" London is England in 1348, the year when the Bubonic Plague reared its head and decimated 90% of those in its path. Physician Alejandro Canches, a Jewish doctor forced to flee to England, is retained by the court of Edward III to protect his family from the pestilence. Aside from keeping the family safe, the physician must keep his faith a secret, as well as his passion for a lady of the court.
I really enjoyed this book. It is highly readable and, although long, it reads faster than many shorter novels. I found it particularly interesting how, although separated by hundreds of years, man's reaction to virulent, deadly diseases remains the same - quarantine, wear masks, sanitize, and sacrifice those who threaten the population (not so dissimilar as our handling of COVID). A medical mystery combined with an interesting storyline, complex character development, and solid writing made this a good read for me. Points deducted for several anachronisms which should have been caught and avoided (ex: the author uses the phrase "hair of the dog" repeatedly for her 1348 character Alejandro, but this expression was not in use until the 1800s), errors (one cannot see the city of London from the White Cliffs of Dover), and sloppy ("woke up dead." If you are dead, you don't wake up). These all are errors a good editor should have caught.
Regardless, I recommend this book for anyone in search of a good and easy romp through the future and the past. 4 stars.
December 23, 2019
I really wish I could give this 2 1/2 stars.
The book tells two stories at once, one in the past and one in the "future," in which both characters are trying to deal with an outbreak of the bubonic plague. The author could write some gripping scenes, but I found myself intensely disappointed by the ending - both story lines had several major contrivances to get them to the end, and then the end felt like a copout. And the author couldn't decide what type of book she wanted to write - is it a drama? An end of the world thing? A romance? Oh hell, let's just sprinkle romance over everything, even though it doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
The book tells two stories at once, one in the past and one in the "future," in which both characters are trying to deal with an outbreak of the bubonic plague. The author could write some gripping scenes, but I found myself intensely disappointed by the ending - both story lines had several major contrivances to get them to the end, and then the end felt like a copout. And the author couldn't decide what type of book she wanted to write - is it a drama? An end of the world thing? A romance? Oh hell, let's just sprinkle romance over everything, even though it doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
January 2, 2014
The Plague Tales takes the reader through the distant past and the near future. It’s a future where germs and viruses have created a new way of life. Gone is the freedoms people have always known. They are replaced with a low current of fear underlying everything. Travel is difficult because each country fears receiving some new, deadly contagion.
In the future, bodyprinting, a new, somewhat-invasive, technology is rampant in countries outside the US and the heroine of this story, Janie, fears it. But if she can complete her work and can get in and out of England in time she can avoid it. But, the plot doesn’t care what her timeline is. Instead it puts her through one life-threatening situation after another. She will find herself doing things she never thought possible.
In the past, the reader meets Alejandro, a visionary surgeon who fears the troubles of his past and what his future holds in store for him considering his status as a Jew. Alejandro’s life takes turn after turn, putting him in positions of power he doesn’t want or fully understand. But he must do what he can to fight for the lives of the royalty he’s sworn to protect and learn all he can about the disease which threatens everyone.
It’s fascinating to learn the past life of the contagion while seeing what it’s resurgence does to the future. The characters are vivid and weighty. Their lives are troubled and the author makes you wish you could ease their burden. You’ll get caught up in each life you meet and cheer for their successes and cry over the cruel things life throws at them. A great read.
In the future, bodyprinting, a new, somewhat-invasive, technology is rampant in countries outside the US and the heroine of this story, Janie, fears it. But if she can complete her work and can get in and out of England in time she can avoid it. But, the plot doesn’t care what her timeline is. Instead it puts her through one life-threatening situation after another. She will find herself doing things she never thought possible.
In the past, the reader meets Alejandro, a visionary surgeon who fears the troubles of his past and what his future holds in store for him considering his status as a Jew. Alejandro’s life takes turn after turn, putting him in positions of power he doesn’t want or fully understand. But he must do what he can to fight for the lives of the royalty he’s sworn to protect and learn all he can about the disease which threatens everyone.
It’s fascinating to learn the past life of the contagion while seeing what it’s resurgence does to the future. The characters are vivid and weighty. Their lives are troubled and the author makes you wish you could ease their burden. You’ll get caught up in each life you meet and cheer for their successes and cry over the cruel things life throws at them. A great read.
March 18, 2018
Contada en dos tiempos, este libro nos relata por un lado la vida de un médico judío de la edad media que se ve en la necesidad de huir de su ciudad de origen perseguido por la Iglesia hacia Francia, durante su huida comienza la epidemia de la Peste. Confundido por un médico católico es envíado por el Papa hacia Inglaterra con la finalidad de cuidar al Rey de Inglaterra y a su familia de no caer enfermos.
Por otro lado, nos muestra una historia en un presente o futuro (no estoy muy segura) Apocalíptico, donde gracias a varias epidemias bacteriológicas, la forma de vida va en relación a estar o no enfermo. Janie Crowe era médico cirujano y ahora es obligada a estudiar otra profesión, Arqueología y haciendo pruebas sobre unas muestras de tierra desata una epidemia que resulta ser la peste, para la que no existen en ese momento medicamentos posibles, lo que los hace estar prácticamente en las mismas condiciones de la Europa de la edad media.
El libro me ha gustado mucho, realmente es una historia fantastica y contada de manera maravillosa, es por sobre todo llena de acción y suspenso.
Me han gustado mucho los personajes principales, tanto los del pasado como los del presente y las dos historias que se relatan y que no es si no casi hasta el 80% de avance que comprendemos la importancia de la historia pasada con lo que ocurre en el presente.
Muy recomendable y aunque este libro en apariencia tiene un cierre de historia también es cierto que se deja ver lo que vendrá en la continuación.
Muy recomendable.
Por otro lado, nos muestra una historia en un presente o futuro (no estoy muy segura) Apocalíptico, donde gracias a varias epidemias bacteriológicas, la forma de vida va en relación a estar o no enfermo. Janie Crowe era médico cirujano y ahora es obligada a estudiar otra profesión, Arqueología y haciendo pruebas sobre unas muestras de tierra desata una epidemia que resulta ser la peste, para la que no existen en ese momento medicamentos posibles, lo que los hace estar prácticamente en las mismas condiciones de la Europa de la edad media.
El libro me ha gustado mucho, realmente es una historia fantastica y contada de manera maravillosa, es por sobre todo llena de acción y suspenso.
Me han gustado mucho los personajes principales, tanto los del pasado como los del presente y las dos historias que se relatan y que no es si no casi hasta el 80% de avance que comprendemos la importancia de la historia pasada con lo que ocurre en el presente.
Muy recomendable y aunque este libro en apariencia tiene un cierre de historia también es cierto que se deja ver lo que vendrá en la continuación.
Muy recomendable.
October 18, 2025
Das war super spannend und ich freue mich darauf, die Fortsetzungen zu lesen.
January 18, 2016
I found this book at the librarby (hurrah for libraries!!!) and thought that maybe I had read it before, but, since it intrigued me and I couldn't really remember the storyline, decided to give it another go. About 50 pages in, I was sure that I had read it before, but was interested enough to read it through again, since I couldn't really remember the story anyway.
The plot was intriguing-- some of the other reviewers were troubled by what they viewed as "medical inaccuracies" in the current/future story. As a non-scientific person, I wasn't troubled by any such inaccuracies, since I don't have a clue anyway, and, since this is set sometime in the future (and that was vague), I think the reader is supposed to assume medical protocal changed in the Post-Outbreak World.
What did trouble me, even in my so-totally-not-scientific mind, was the idea that a germ would lie dormant for 500 years and then revive itself after it was warmed up. Since that is the central theme of the story, you have to accept that premise for the modern day story to work. It didn't both me that the modern day scientists couldn't identify the germ, since this was set sometime in the future and centuries past the Black Death, but I had a really time believing that the germ would suddenly wake up and set infecting people again, just like it was the Middle Ages all over again.
I also didn't like the mystical part of the keepers of the secret, although the old man with his dog (dog lover that I am) was appealing. For plague, epidemic, oh-my-god the world as we know it is going to end, I would recommend "The Things That Keep Us Here" over this book but this is a good, but not great, read. You could do worse, and you could be better.
The plot was intriguing-- some of the other reviewers were troubled by what they viewed as "medical inaccuracies" in the current/future story. As a non-scientific person, I wasn't troubled by any such inaccuracies, since I don't have a clue anyway, and, since this is set sometime in the future (and that was vague), I think the reader is supposed to assume medical protocal changed in the Post-Outbreak World.
What did trouble me, even in my so-totally-not-scientific mind, was the idea that a germ would lie dormant for 500 years and then revive itself after it was warmed up. Since that is the central theme of the story, you have to accept that premise for the modern day story to work. It didn't both me that the modern day scientists couldn't identify the germ, since this was set sometime in the future and centuries past the Black Death, but I had a really time believing that the germ would suddenly wake up and set infecting people again, just like it was the Middle Ages all over again.
I also didn't like the mystical part of the keepers of the secret, although the old man with his dog (dog lover that I am) was appealing. For plague, epidemic, oh-my-god the world as we know it is going to end, I would recommend "The Things That Keep Us Here" over this book but this is a good, but not great, read. You could do worse, and you could be better.
June 21, 2019
Wow, I thought I would love this one. It's everything I enjoy--stories about the plague from the past and fears of infectious diseases in the future. Seriously, I love that stuff. But this was so slow and bogged down in unimportant detail that I had to stop reading. I tried skimming but even that felt too laborious. If a person opens up a file on a computer, the author describes exactly what they're clicking on and what pops up and what they click on next. If two people part ways, we have to hear every word of an exchange in which they explain what their plans are, even if they're incredibly uninteresting and dull. Someone badly needed to edit this. And the romance--ye, gods, I thought we were past men falling in love with women because they have nice HAIR, but apparently we're supposed to be invested in a man/hair relationship. Oh, well. If you want a good plague book, Connie Willis's Doomsday Book is much better.
April 22, 2019
I really enjoyed this book of dual timelines, one in the Middle Ages and the other in present day. Both dealt with the Black Plague. The stories were connected and became more apparent as the book went on. For sure will read the second one eventually.
March 5, 2017
Had a few moments where it was hard to keep interest, especially in the beginning.
December 27, 2017
Como en tantas ocasiones tenemos una muy buena premisa y una novela mediocre, lo que viene siendo un quiero y no puedo, y claro, al final pues no puede.
La peste bubónica y la corte de Eduardo III de Inglaterra, el siglo XXI y la amenaza de un brote de la mortal peste negra, no podemos tener unos ingredientes más prometedores y sin embargo, tal parece que han cogido una coctelera y han echado todo dentro dando lugar a una historia con muchas lagunas y más errores que aciertos, así como algún que otro despropósito que nos hace hasta sonreír por lo inverosímil, ya no hablemos del final, así que, no hablemos.
La novela despega creando muchas expectativas en el lector pero enseguida comienza a perder altura hasta encontrarse sin posibilidad alguna de volver a levantar el vuelo, claro que todo esto ya se puede entrever transcurridos unos poco capítulos, con lo que tampoco se puede sentir uno demasiado decepcionado ya que no tarda en descubrir que no está más que ante una novela de aventuras sin más pretensiones, llegado a ese punto el sufrido lector puede decidir entre abandonar la lectura o tomarla por lo que es, yo he tomado la segunda opción y he logrado divertirme pero nada más.
Una pena.
La peste bubónica y la corte de Eduardo III de Inglaterra, el siglo XXI y la amenaza de un brote de la mortal peste negra, no podemos tener unos ingredientes más prometedores y sin embargo, tal parece que han cogido una coctelera y han echado todo dentro dando lugar a una historia con muchas lagunas y más errores que aciertos, así como algún que otro despropósito que nos hace hasta sonreír por lo inverosímil, ya no hablemos del final, así que, no hablemos.
La novela despega creando muchas expectativas en el lector pero enseguida comienza a perder altura hasta encontrarse sin posibilidad alguna de volver a levantar el vuelo, claro que todo esto ya se puede entrever transcurridos unos poco capítulos, con lo que tampoco se puede sentir uno demasiado decepcionado ya que no tarda en descubrir que no está más que ante una novela de aventuras sin más pretensiones, llegado a ese punto el sufrido lector puede decidir entre abandonar la lectura o tomarla por lo que es, yo he tomado la segunda opción y he logrado divertirme pero nada más.
Una pena.
July 4, 2021
3.5 stars
The book has a dual timeline following two different doctors whose circumstances are both very different and surprisingly similar. Part of the book follows a Jewish doctor from Spain who is exiled to France in the year 1348 when the Black Death is starting to spread throughout Europe. The other part is about a female doctor in 2005 also dealing with contagious diseases, some of which has a sci-fi feel to it. Even though this part of the story takes place in 2005, the setting is a dystopian vision of the future (the book was published in 1997).
The book is intriguing but long, and moves slowly in places. Parts of the middle section really seem to drag out a bit, especially in the 14th century storyline. In the "future" portions of the book, there are some definite similarities to some of the things the world has been experiencing recently, so it may not be the best timing for me to have read this book! I enjoyed the unique way of telling this story. However, even though I see there are two follow-up books coming after that one, I don't think I'll be seeking them out to read.
The book has a dual timeline following two different doctors whose circumstances are both very different and surprisingly similar. Part of the book follows a Jewish doctor from Spain who is exiled to France in the year 1348 when the Black Death is starting to spread throughout Europe. The other part is about a female doctor in 2005 also dealing with contagious diseases, some of which has a sci-fi feel to it. Even though this part of the story takes place in 2005, the setting is a dystopian vision of the future (the book was published in 1997).
The book is intriguing but long, and moves slowly in places. Parts of the middle section really seem to drag out a bit, especially in the 14th century storyline. In the "future" portions of the book, there are some definite similarities to some of the things the world has been experiencing recently, so it may not be the best timing for me to have read this book! I enjoyed the unique way of telling this story. However, even though I see there are two follow-up books coming after that one, I don't think I'll be seeking them out to read.
January 9, 2022
I really tried, but I'm over 60 yrs old now and if G-d is good I have about 20 yrs left to read.
this book just refused to get started.
It was published in 1997 and maybe writing, editing and writers have changed so much in the intervening 25 yrs that this style of story telling has become unacceptable to me. I couldn't stick it out.
Set in a post apocalypse medical police state (2005!) and alternating historical timeline 1348 southern France and England and the outbreak of bubonic plague, what's not to like?-I like plagues and medical history. I like alternative history. Plenty of interesting things could be happening, but alas! nothing. NADA and I'm on page 200 and so I flip to the backand start skimming.
That's all? BLAH. Bye, bye.
YMMV
this book just refused to get started.
It was published in 1997 and maybe writing, editing and writers have changed so much in the intervening 25 yrs that this style of story telling has become unacceptable to me. I couldn't stick it out.
Set in a post apocalypse medical police state (2005!) and alternating historical timeline 1348 southern France and England and the outbreak of bubonic plague, what's not to like?-I like plagues and medical history. I like alternative history. Plenty of interesting things could be happening, but alas! nothing. NADA and I'm on page 200 and so I flip to the backand start skimming.
That's all? BLAH. Bye, bye.
YMMV
January 18, 2022
Although I really liked this book, I had a very hard time getting into it. It started out very slow, but definitely picked up momentum. I seem to be reading books recently that reflect what is going on in the world. There were some areas in this book that I could see those same things being employed in the US to mitigate this pandemic and possible future occurrences. Overall, a very good book.
July 12, 2021
Malo, malo y el final pésimo.
June 13, 2018
Nah. I just couldn’t convince myself that this was a passable book. I want to be be thoughtful about my review, but I’m having a tough time giving it that much effort. If I manage it, I may rant, and if I rant there will likely be plot details. Beware.
I liked the idea of the juxtaposed timelines; the original appearance of the plague, and the “current” occurrence in the timeline. I was intrigued by this “current” setting, a near-future that has recently survived a major and devastating medical event.
I couldn’t figure out why I tolerated the old-timey storyline more, at first, but after a bit of thought I realize why this is. There’s not a whole lot of intriguing character arc and development present in the book at all, but the young Jewish doctor’s actually happens, somewhat convincingly, in-story. We see religious persecution first hand, and how it informs his choices. We feel his medical curiosity and see what his devotion to it justifies, in terms of his actions. It fleshes him out enough that I kind of cared about what he was doing, and I got mad when he did something stupid instead of (as with all the other characters) rolling my eyes and muttering “uuuggghh so fugging duuuuuumb!”
The intriguing “current” setting ended up frustrating me to no end because I just couldn’t see the damn point of it. The story would have made more sense in actual real life, honestly, and that just seems a huge waste of time. The gist is that our modern American doctor, Jane, is a survivor of fairly horrific epidemic that killed vast numbers of the North American population, including her husband and children. Apparently the UK fared much better because they enforced strict quarantine protocols (smart, methinks?), and now years later many of these are still maintained as a prophylactic measure. We meet Jane in full hazmat on a commercial flight of like-sterilized travellers. She must go through strict procedures at the airport, and dreads being made to undergo the invasive “body scan”, which she objects to on principle. I object to her objection, given her medical training and knowing that her entire family (like, mom and pops too!) were killed by infectious disease. It’s not even plucky “I’m an American!” resistance, just this sort of “nah, I don’t want to cause, like, privacy” sort of objection, and I can’t make it jive with what she’s been through.
AND ALSO, she’s travelling to Britain to complete a project for her new university degree. Because she’s been “reassigned” a career. Because after a catastrophic medical event, the US has decided that there are just too many damn doctors, and not enough of whatever it is that she’s supposed to become which involves her digging soil samples in another country. Uhhhhh??????? Whut?
Now, once she’s past the airport (unscanned, because apparently your medical condition isn’t worth more than a blood test unless you are staying for more than three weeks????), she’s pretty much able to move around with ease, except for needing a prescription for analgesics like Tylenol, which is really the only thing anyone cares about because it’s mentioned like, four times!
Jane’s school project ends up unearthing the plague virus, and everything that happens after that is total and complete hogwash. Her soil samples end up in a lab overseen by her old something-or-other who she eventually sexes up. This matters because romance. But not in a story-enhancing romance. The lab tech discovers the pesky disease by it’s medical name, leaves the lab (full of other microbes and whatnot) with his work percolating all around, and is out and about on the town before he realizes what the virus is. Seconds after his “oh shit” mental moment, he gets hit by a car.
I can not tell you how angry that particular plot device makes me. (I can, but I won’t. But fuming, for reals).
Every single medico in the story now proceeds to do the very wrong and very unethical thing. Hide the fact that the virus is out? Sure! Walk around in crowds of people after knowing you’ve been exposed? YUP! Not do any tests and try to self medicate? Absolutely, you’re a doctor, you Know Stuff! Try to medicate someone else who is clearly sick but not tell them why or what you are giving them so they can’t tattle on you? And also sedate them? Hello, Doctors can do that too! Cut that plague-infected dead Doctor’s hand off, so you can access his cover-up, and cover-up some more? Indeed! Don’t stop now! Uuuuuuuugh so fugging duuuuuumb.
But the worst part of the whole story is that the resolution is magical. Witchy. Incantationaltastic.
I’m not kidding.
I’m not kidding.
I liked the idea of the juxtaposed timelines; the original appearance of the plague, and the “current” occurrence in the timeline. I was intrigued by this “current” setting, a near-future that has recently survived a major and devastating medical event.
I couldn’t figure out why I tolerated the old-timey storyline more, at first, but after a bit of thought I realize why this is. There’s not a whole lot of intriguing character arc and development present in the book at all, but the young Jewish doctor’s actually happens, somewhat convincingly, in-story. We see religious persecution first hand, and how it informs his choices. We feel his medical curiosity and see what his devotion to it justifies, in terms of his actions. It fleshes him out enough that I kind of cared about what he was doing, and I got mad when he did something stupid instead of (as with all the other characters) rolling my eyes and muttering “uuuggghh so fugging duuuuuumb!”
The intriguing “current” setting ended up frustrating me to no end because I just couldn’t see the damn point of it. The story would have made more sense in actual real life, honestly, and that just seems a huge waste of time. The gist is that our modern American doctor, Jane, is a survivor of fairly horrific epidemic that killed vast numbers of the North American population, including her husband and children. Apparently the UK fared much better because they enforced strict quarantine protocols (smart, methinks?), and now years later many of these are still maintained as a prophylactic measure. We meet Jane in full hazmat on a commercial flight of like-sterilized travellers. She must go through strict procedures at the airport, and dreads being made to undergo the invasive “body scan”, which she objects to on principle. I object to her objection, given her medical training and knowing that her entire family (like, mom and pops too!) were killed by infectious disease. It’s not even plucky “I’m an American!” resistance, just this sort of “nah, I don’t want to cause, like, privacy” sort of objection, and I can’t make it jive with what she’s been through.
AND ALSO, she’s travelling to Britain to complete a project for her new university degree. Because she’s been “reassigned” a career. Because after a catastrophic medical event, the US has decided that there are just too many damn doctors, and not enough of whatever it is that she’s supposed to become which involves her digging soil samples in another country. Uhhhhh??????? Whut?
Now, once she’s past the airport (unscanned, because apparently your medical condition isn’t worth more than a blood test unless you are staying for more than three weeks????), she’s pretty much able to move around with ease, except for needing a prescription for analgesics like Tylenol, which is really the only thing anyone cares about because it’s mentioned like, four times!
Jane’s school project ends up unearthing the plague virus, and everything that happens after that is total and complete hogwash. Her soil samples end up in a lab overseen by her old something-or-other who she eventually sexes up. This matters because romance. But not in a story-enhancing romance. The lab tech discovers the pesky disease by it’s medical name, leaves the lab (full of other microbes and whatnot) with his work percolating all around, and is out and about on the town before he realizes what the virus is. Seconds after his “oh shit” mental moment, he gets hit by a car.
I can not tell you how angry that particular plot device makes me. (I can, but I won’t. But fuming, for reals).
Every single medico in the story now proceeds to do the very wrong and very unethical thing. Hide the fact that the virus is out? Sure! Walk around in crowds of people after knowing you’ve been exposed? YUP! Not do any tests and try to self medicate? Absolutely, you’re a doctor, you Know Stuff! Try to medicate someone else who is clearly sick but not tell them why or what you are giving them so they can’t tattle on you? And also sedate them? Hello, Doctors can do that too! Cut that plague-infected dead Doctor’s hand off, so you can access his cover-up, and cover-up some more? Indeed! Don’t stop now! Uuuuuuuugh so fugging duuuuuumb.
But the worst part of the whole story is that the resolution is magical. Witchy. Incantationaltastic.
I’m not kidding.
I’m not kidding.
October 20, 2008
I'm usually not a fan of books where you really have almost two separate stories told in alternating chapters that barely or never intersect but it wasn't as much of a problem for me in this book as it has sometimes been. I thought both stories were engaging and entertaining. I do have several issues though:
I've just read a few books on the black plague in the 1300s and it's clear that the author did some research, unfortunately, it also feels like she felt a need to mention all the standbys. The characters see Princess Joan on her ill fated trip to join her groom, the physician hears rumors of plague ships from Genoa, Jews are accused of poisoning the wells, etc.
As with many historical fiction novels where a central character is a physician, Alejandro is well ahead of his time. He virtually ignores the teachings of Galen (who is really only given passing mention even though his theories were the predominant theories for centuries, including the 14th), he figures out the importance of hand washing and cleaning wounds, he talks about contagion theory which wouldn't be developed until many years later, and eventually even figured out the (now somewhat disputed) connection between rats and the plague. It's more than a little annoying. If you're going to write historical fiction, fine, but don't make your character the only one to figure out things that won't be discovered until decades or centuries later.
I'm not a scholar of Judaism, but I'm pretty sure that there are some very strong laws about autopsies. Granted, I think those are mostly followed by the most orthodox branches of the religion today, but I imagine they were still pretty strong taboos among Jewish people generally in the 1300s. So I found it very distracting that Alejandro doesn't have much compunction about slicing people open (post death, of course). Sure, now we realize how important that is, but it wasn't generally accepted medical theory back then, and there was a very strong belief that doing so would be defying God's laws (whether God was the Christian or Jewish god). What qualms Alejandro has seem to be more about breaking civil law than relgious law.
As for Janie's world, I think exploring a post-antibiotic world is certainly an interesting idea, but I think Benson went way overboard. Maybe if I had a better idea of what the Outbreaks were like, the symptoms, how they spread, etc. I would disagree, but I have a hard time believing that post-antibiotics people will be shot on sight or detained indefinitely for being sick. Even before people knew what caused AIDS governments weren't going around killing anyone with symptoms (though I believe some governments did enforce lifelong isolation).
I also thought Benson sort of brushed off Janie's privacy concerns. She's afraid of the body print and afraid of how that information might be used, but when a small lesion that might, maybe, someday become cancer she seems far more willing to go along with the whole thing.
As I understand it, those who can afford it can have whole body scans done today (much less invasively than the kind that Benson portrays). The problem is that while occasionally they do pick up problems that might be missed, it's far more often that a scan will reveal several small but ultimately meaningless things that do nothing but cause huge amounts of fear and worry.
I also think Benson didn't take it far enough. She didn't really explore the ramifications of forced body scans and forced revelation of the condition of one's body. Now there are some genetic tests available to determine if someone is likely to develop certain diseases, e.g., Parkinson's. As of right now taking that test and learning the results is entirely up to the individual. What happens when it is now the decision of the state? What if you no longer have a choice to know that you carry a gene for something that will very likely ultimately lead to your slow deterioration of your mind or body?
If detail on such a level is possible, would we start seeing a new form of eugenics? Would people be pressured not to have kids if the combination of genes from the mother and father might result in the child developing a serious chronic or ultimately fatal illness? Would women be pressured to abort if the fetus is less than perfect?
I've just read a few books on the black plague in the 1300s and it's clear that the author did some research, unfortunately, it also feels like she felt a need to mention all the standbys. The characters see Princess Joan on her ill fated trip to join her groom, the physician hears rumors of plague ships from Genoa, Jews are accused of poisoning the wells, etc.
As with many historical fiction novels where a central character is a physician, Alejandro is well ahead of his time. He virtually ignores the teachings of Galen (who is really only given passing mention even though his theories were the predominant theories for centuries, including the 14th), he figures out the importance of hand washing and cleaning wounds, he talks about contagion theory which wouldn't be developed until many years later, and eventually even figured out the (now somewhat disputed) connection between rats and the plague. It's more than a little annoying. If you're going to write historical fiction, fine, but don't make your character the only one to figure out things that won't be discovered until decades or centuries later.
I'm not a scholar of Judaism, but I'm pretty sure that there are some very strong laws about autopsies. Granted, I think those are mostly followed by the most orthodox branches of the religion today, but I imagine they were still pretty strong taboos among Jewish people generally in the 1300s. So I found it very distracting that Alejandro doesn't have much compunction about slicing people open (post death, of course). Sure, now we realize how important that is, but it wasn't generally accepted medical theory back then, and there was a very strong belief that doing so would be defying God's laws (whether God was the Christian or Jewish god). What qualms Alejandro has seem to be more about breaking civil law than relgious law.
As for Janie's world, I think exploring a post-antibiotic world is certainly an interesting idea, but I think Benson went way overboard. Maybe if I had a better idea of what the Outbreaks were like, the symptoms, how they spread, etc. I would disagree, but I have a hard time believing that post-antibiotics people will be shot on sight or detained indefinitely for being sick. Even before people knew what caused AIDS governments weren't going around killing anyone with symptoms (though I believe some governments did enforce lifelong isolation).
I also thought Benson sort of brushed off Janie's privacy concerns. She's afraid of the body print and afraid of how that information might be used, but when a small lesion that might, maybe, someday become cancer she seems far more willing to go along with the whole thing.
As I understand it, those who can afford it can have whole body scans done today (much less invasively than the kind that Benson portrays). The problem is that while occasionally they do pick up problems that might be missed, it's far more often that a scan will reveal several small but ultimately meaningless things that do nothing but cause huge amounts of fear and worry.
I also think Benson didn't take it far enough. She didn't really explore the ramifications of forced body scans and forced revelation of the condition of one's body. Now there are some genetic tests available to determine if someone is likely to develop certain diseases, e.g., Parkinson's. As of right now taking that test and learning the results is entirely up to the individual. What happens when it is now the decision of the state? What if you no longer have a choice to know that you carry a gene for something that will very likely ultimately lead to your slow deterioration of your mind or body?
If detail on such a level is possible, would we start seeing a new form of eugenics? Would people be pressured not to have kids if the combination of genes from the mother and father might result in the child developing a serious chronic or ultimately fatal illness? Would women be pressured to abort if the fetus is less than perfect?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 17, 2015
COVER BLURB: It is history's most feared disease. It turned neighbor against neighbor, the civilized into the savage, and the living into the dead. Now...two eras are joined by a single trace of microscopic bacerium -- the invisible seeds of a new bubonic plague.
In the year 1348, a disgraced Spanish physician crosses a landscape of horrors to Avignon, France. There he will be sent on an impossible mission to England, to save the royal family from the Black Death.
Nearly seven hundred years later, a woman scientist digs up a clod of earth in London. In a world where medicine is tightly controlled, she will unearth a terror lying dormant for centuries.
From the primitive cures of the Middle Ages to the biological police state of our near future...is a thrilling race against time and mass destruction...Humankind's last hope for survival can come only from one place: out of a dark and tortured past.
A compelling story. Like most novels dealing with simultaneous past and present storylines, the novel's structure takes the reader, chapter by chapter, from present to past and back again.
In the near future, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have ravaged the population in recent years, resulting in an Orwellian world where access to medicine and its practitioners is strictly controlled by governmental agents known as "BioCops", and people are routinely scanned for the presence of potential infections. The widowed Dr. Janie Crowe and her assistant arrive in England on a scientific expedition: to get soil samples in support of a thesis Dr. Crowe must write to start her new career. One soil sample they obtain contains a scrap of cloth, infected with dormant Yersinia pestis, the bacterium which causes bubonic plague. Through a series of plausible and coincidental accidents, the dormant bacterium awakens and infects unsuspecting lab personnel.
Over 600 years previously, physician Alejandro Canches, a Spaniard and a Jew, commits a grave crime in his quest for medical knowledge. He flees his home to avoid execution and, again, through a series of more or less plausible coincidences, winds up being sent by Pope Clement of Avignon to the English court of King Edward as the new court physician. Alejandro is charged with seeing the royal family and its retinue safely through an outbreak of plague.
Alejandro's carefully documented notebook of medicinal herbs, potions and folk practices ties together these two distant eras, as both Dr. Crowe and Alejandro search desperately for a way to curb the horrific disease threatening their lives and the lives of those they love.
The author meticulously details the scientific and near-scientific processes involved in research and experimentation of both past and present. She deftly handles the complex social structures of the medieval world, and provides sufficient background material to support her creation of a near-future police state driven by terror of a new outbreak of disease. Unfortunately, her handling of romantic relationships is clumsy and awkward. Although the love affair Alejandro embarks upon helps drive the plot, the author would have done far better to steer clear of creating intimate moments for Dr. Crowe and her chosen swain.
That flaw aside, The Plague Tales moves quickly and makes few missteps as it hurtles to its conclusion. All loose ends are tied in the epilogue, although the epilogue itself is a bit unsatisfactory. Still, I would recommend this above-average historical fiction/medical thriller hybrid to anyone.
In the year 1348, a disgraced Spanish physician crosses a landscape of horrors to Avignon, France. There he will be sent on an impossible mission to England, to save the royal family from the Black Death.
Nearly seven hundred years later, a woman scientist digs up a clod of earth in London. In a world where medicine is tightly controlled, she will unearth a terror lying dormant for centuries.
From the primitive cures of the Middle Ages to the biological police state of our near future...is a thrilling race against time and mass destruction...Humankind's last hope for survival can come only from one place: out of a dark and tortured past.
A compelling story. Like most novels dealing with simultaneous past and present storylines, the novel's structure takes the reader, chapter by chapter, from present to past and back again.
In the near future, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have ravaged the population in recent years, resulting in an Orwellian world where access to medicine and its practitioners is strictly controlled by governmental agents known as "BioCops", and people are routinely scanned for the presence of potential infections. The widowed Dr. Janie Crowe and her assistant arrive in England on a scientific expedition: to get soil samples in support of a thesis Dr. Crowe must write to start her new career. One soil sample they obtain contains a scrap of cloth, infected with dormant Yersinia pestis, the bacterium which causes bubonic plague. Through a series of plausible and coincidental accidents, the dormant bacterium awakens and infects unsuspecting lab personnel.
Over 600 years previously, physician Alejandro Canches, a Spaniard and a Jew, commits a grave crime in his quest for medical knowledge. He flees his home to avoid execution and, again, through a series of more or less plausible coincidences, winds up being sent by Pope Clement of Avignon to the English court of King Edward as the new court physician. Alejandro is charged with seeing the royal family and its retinue safely through an outbreak of plague.
Alejandro's carefully documented notebook of medicinal herbs, potions and folk practices ties together these two distant eras, as both Dr. Crowe and Alejandro search desperately for a way to curb the horrific disease threatening their lives and the lives of those they love.
The author meticulously details the scientific and near-scientific processes involved in research and experimentation of both past and present. She deftly handles the complex social structures of the medieval world, and provides sufficient background material to support her creation of a near-future police state driven by terror of a new outbreak of disease. Unfortunately, her handling of romantic relationships is clumsy and awkward. Although the love affair Alejandro embarks upon helps drive the plot, the author would have done far better to steer clear of creating intimate moments for Dr. Crowe and her chosen swain.
That flaw aside, The Plague Tales moves quickly and makes few missteps as it hurtles to its conclusion. All loose ends are tied in the epilogue, although the epilogue itself is a bit unsatisfactory. Still, I would recommend this above-average historical fiction/medical thriller hybrid to anyone.
October 5, 2007
This book was recommended on the Seattle public library website under "if you liked the DaVinci Code", but it really isn't all that similar to The DaVinci Code, if you ask me. Actually, I think Ann Benson is a much better writer than Dan Brown. Her characters were interesting, and the premise is believable, if set in a future that is "post-outbreak" and regimented by contagion-reducing laws and patrolled by "biocops", and she threw in just the right amount of sexual tension and romance to keep things interesting without being obvious. My favorite element was the back and forth between modern/future time setting and 14th century Europe. I really liked the character of Alejandro, a Spanish Jewish physician who is carried along by a series of events leading him to become the private physician to King Edward in England, and was intrigued by the details on how medicine was practiced back then. Overall, a highly entertaining read!
June 18, 2019
This is a terrible book--sorry Ann Benson--made worse by the fact that it grows worse the more you read. Since it is cheap, page-turning suspense fiction to begin with (no hate, I knew what I was picking up and it was quite deliberate), the fact that it inevitably becomes more suspenseful as it degenerates into ridiculousness is especially annoying. Sometimes, I just want a fast, easy story with neat closure so I can lose myself, but page after page I was unable, despite my real willingness, to suspend my disbelief and enter into the story. The scene where two scientists try to get rid of a deadly and highly virulent micro-organism by putting tainted latex gloves in a hotel water glass, setting it on an open window sill, and setting the contents on fire seemed like willfully affront to the reader's intelligence. It's rare I don't finish a novel, especially once I'm more than halfway in. This was one of those books. Do yourself a favor, don't start.
September 29, 2013
PROTAGONIST: Alejandro Canches, 14th century physician
Janie Crowe, American medical archaeologist
SETTING: 1348 Europe and future United Kingdom
RATING: 3.0
WHY: The narrative alternates between 1340s Europe, in which Jewish physician Alejandro Canches is trying to fight the bubonic plague and a future setting featuring Janie Crowe, an American physician, who has come to UK and inadvertently unearths a bubonic plague microbe that ultimately threatens to reintroduce the disease. The plot is initially intriguing, but becomes increasingly farfetched as the story progresses, particularly the narrative dealing with the future group. The characters in that group behave quite implausibly. At close to 500 pages, these issues are hard to take.
Janie Crowe, American medical archaeologist
SETTING: 1348 Europe and future United Kingdom
RATING: 3.0
WHY: The narrative alternates between 1340s Europe, in which Jewish physician Alejandro Canches is trying to fight the bubonic plague and a future setting featuring Janie Crowe, an American physician, who has come to UK and inadvertently unearths a bubonic plague microbe that ultimately threatens to reintroduce the disease. The plot is initially intriguing, but becomes increasingly farfetched as the story progresses, particularly the narrative dealing with the future group. The characters in that group behave quite implausibly. At close to 500 pages, these issues are hard to take.
November 23, 2009
The Plague Tales is comprised of two distinct narratives; one set in the 1300s, about a Jewish doctor charged with keeping the English royal family safe from the Bubonic Plague and the other set in the future (2005!), as an forensic archeologist unwittingly releases the ancient bacteria.
While Alejandro, the Jewish doctor’s story is engaging, the futuristic story falls flat. Janie, the forensic archeologist, is shrewish, selfish, and shortsighted. Ann Benson would have been better served dumping her entirely and writing a full-length novel about Alejandro.
While Alejandro, the Jewish doctor’s story is engaging, the futuristic story falls flat. Janie, the forensic archeologist, is shrewish, selfish, and shortsighted. Ann Benson would have been better served dumping her entirely and writing a full-length novel about Alejandro.
April 10, 2012
Ah this book was so beautifully written and wove the time periods together well. We have two stories taking place here. One is present day and one in the 14th century during the black plague. It's a tale of mystery, romance and of course death. The characters are richly described and you can't help but get wrapped up thier story. All of this of course is not to be overshadowed by the black death that is a mystery to old in the 1300's and that is killing everyone in it's path.
March 23, 2008
Ok. I liked the medieval story but wasn't that interested in the modern day. There is a part that really bothered me. Benson uses the word "panties" when Janie is packing for her trip to leeds. Do women actually say that word?
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