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The Fourth Horseman
Wilderness Patrol Officer Pamela Tate, scouting in the mountains of Washington, sees and touches a ground squirrel in the dusty path, blood trickling from its mouth. Forty-eight hours later she lies dead at her campsite, covered in mysterious welts and bruises.
Across the lake, a boisterous camping party falls silent as they watch each other sicken and die in agony.
A killer is loose. It has a foreign name. Yersinia pestis. Plague. An unknowing nation harbors the deadly evil in its midst.
While a few embattled survivors race to save the country, perhaps the world, the grim invader hides in a mother's sigh, a child's laugh, a lover's whisper. Nothing can stop the death ride of ...The Fourth Horseman.
Across the lake, a boisterous camping party falls silent as they watch each other sicken and die in agony.
A killer is loose. It has a foreign name. Yersinia pestis. Plague. An unknowing nation harbors the deadly evil in its midst.
While a few embattled survivors race to save the country, perhaps the world, the grim invader hides in a mother's sigh, a child's laugh, a lover's whisper. Nothing can stop the death ride of ...The Fourth Horseman.
405 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
9 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Alan E. Nourse
258 books41 followersAlan Edward Nourse was an American science fiction (SF) author and physician. He also wrote under the name Dr. X
He wrote both juvenile and adult science fiction, as well as nonfiction works about medicine and science.
Alan Nourse was born to Benjamin and Grace (Ogg) Nourse. He attended high school in Long Island, New York. He served in the U.S. Navy after World War II. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951 from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He married Ann Morton on June 11, 1952 in Lynden, New Jersey. He received a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in 1955 from the University of Pennsylvania. He served his one year internship at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Washington. He practiced medicine in North Bend, Washington from 1958 to 1963 and also pursued his writing career.
He had helped pay for his medical education by writing science fiction for magazines. After retiring from medicine, he continued writing. His regular column in Good Housekeeping magazine earned him the nickname "Family Doctor".
He was a friend of fellow author Avram Davidson. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1964 novel Farnham's Freehold to Nourse. Heinlein in part dedicated his 1982 novel Friday to Nourse's wife Ann.
His novel The Bladerunner lent its name to the Blade Runner movie, but no other aspects of its plot or characters, which were taken from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In the late 1970s an attempt to adapt The Bladerunner for the screen was made, with Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs commissioned to write a story treatment; no film was ever developed but the story treatment was later published as the novella, Blade Runner (a movie).
His novel Star Surgeon has been recorded as a public domain audio book at LibriVox
His pen names included "Al Edwards" and "Doctor X".
He died in Thorp, Washington.
He wrote both juvenile and adult science fiction, as well as nonfiction works about medicine and science.
Alan Nourse was born to Benjamin and Grace (Ogg) Nourse. He attended high school in Long Island, New York. He served in the U.S. Navy after World War II. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951 from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He married Ann Morton on June 11, 1952 in Lynden, New Jersey. He received a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in 1955 from the University of Pennsylvania. He served his one year internship at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Washington. He practiced medicine in North Bend, Washington from 1958 to 1963 and also pursued his writing career.
He had helped pay for his medical education by writing science fiction for magazines. After retiring from medicine, he continued writing. His regular column in Good Housekeeping magazine earned him the nickname "Family Doctor".
He was a friend of fellow author Avram Davidson. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1964 novel Farnham's Freehold to Nourse. Heinlein in part dedicated his 1982 novel Friday to Nourse's wife Ann.
His novel The Bladerunner lent its name to the Blade Runner movie, but no other aspects of its plot or characters, which were taken from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In the late 1970s an attempt to adapt The Bladerunner for the screen was made, with Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs commissioned to write a story treatment; no film was ever developed but the story treatment was later published as the novella, Blade Runner (a movie).
His novel Star Surgeon has been recorded as a public domain audio book at LibriVox
His pen names included "Al Edwards" and "Doctor X".
He died in Thorp, Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 8, 2022
Originally written in 1983, thus prior to the Internet, cellular phones, and plenty of other luxuries we take for granted in the 21st century, I'll say this: Nourse was nothing if not prescient when it comes to how the United States (as a whole) would behave if a world-wide pandemic suddenly crapped itself into our laps. In The Fourth Horseman, the terror is a resurgent strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for both the first recorded pandemic in history (starting in 541CE and lasting for over two centuries) as well as the Black Plague, the well-known 14th century bubonic variant which ran rampant for a mere seven years, yet wound up the single most catastrophic pandemic known to humanity.
Guess we're lucky in that we're "only" dealing with a coronavirus this time around. Maybe it's weird reading about a pandemic during a pandemic, but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Nourse's prose reads very quickly, and this is a good thing. I could see a doctor (the author was also a physician) getting bogged down in the details, and Nourse does occasionally have a character do an info dump for the reader's benefit, but the story keeps moving as Nourse follows small groups of protagonists in different spots around the country, all of whom are trying to get a handle on things locally before things get out of hand. Naturally this is all but impossible, but they have to try anyway. Not all of them make it in the end either, and by the end of the book, the fates of a number of them are up in the air. Despite this, Nourse takes pains to paint the devastation as realistically and accurately as possible, to explain what an outbreak of plague would look like in the late 20th century, and to show that with the right planning, precautions, and preparation, whether you're a pharmacologist or a down-home country doctor, it is possible (though not guaranteed) to come out of the other side.
The scenario is compelling, the writing is competent, and Nourse's prognostications about how society at large would respond to such a pandemic hit with painful accuracy, with some people pulling together and doing their best to stop it, while others shrug their shoulders on the assumption it's not that big a deal and wind up making things worse. Ideas like contact tracing, masking, and isolation are all used to try and counter the beast. But, of course, people being people manage to ruin everything, whether it's rioting and looting in the face of lockdowns, or ignoring their symptoms and exposing more people, allowing the disease to spread further and faster. Some things never change.
Anyway, all things considered, this was an enjoyable read. The ending comes on a bit too abruptly for my liking, and as mentioned, there are a number of POV characters whose plotlines are left unresolved after the last page, but I quite liked this and would happily recommend it to anyone who likes a good medical horror thriller in the same vein as films like Outbreak and Contagion.
Guess we're lucky in that we're "only" dealing with a coronavirus this time around. Maybe it's weird reading about a pandemic during a pandemic, but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Nourse's prose reads very quickly, and this is a good thing. I could see a doctor (the author was also a physician) getting bogged down in the details, and Nourse does occasionally have a character do an info dump for the reader's benefit, but the story keeps moving as Nourse follows small groups of protagonists in different spots around the country, all of whom are trying to get a handle on things locally before things get out of hand. Naturally this is all but impossible, but they have to try anyway. Not all of them make it in the end either, and by the end of the book, the fates of a number of them are up in the air. Despite this, Nourse takes pains to paint the devastation as realistically and accurately as possible, to explain what an outbreak of plague would look like in the late 20th century, and to show that with the right planning, precautions, and preparation, whether you're a pharmacologist or a down-home country doctor, it is possible (though not guaranteed) to come out of the other side.
The scenario is compelling, the writing is competent, and Nourse's prognostications about how society at large would respond to such a pandemic hit with painful accuracy, with some people pulling together and doing their best to stop it, while others shrug their shoulders on the assumption it's not that big a deal and wind up making things worse. Ideas like contact tracing, masking, and isolation are all used to try and counter the beast. But, of course, people being people manage to ruin everything, whether it's rioting and looting in the face of lockdowns, or ignoring their symptoms and exposing more people, allowing the disease to spread further and faster. Some things never change.
Anyway, all things considered, this was an enjoyable read. The ending comes on a bit too abruptly for my liking, and as mentioned, there are a number of POV characters whose plotlines are left unresolved after the last page, but I quite liked this and would happily recommend it to anyone who likes a good medical horror thriller in the same vein as films like Outbreak and Contagion.
January 10, 2022
It's set in the 80s and it's about pneumonic plague... But it's about a pandemic and the world's (well mostly the US, of course) suffering & the reaction to it... So it's definitely a topical book for the current times. I've read it before, in my youth, and came to think of it recently so I borrowed my mom's old copy... And it is still good!
I read the Swedish translation.
I read the Swedish translation.
October 27, 2019
I really enjoy a good disease story. This was also more with a nice and good thriller twist througn in. Absolute recommendation for everyone how likes stories about plague, disease and the limitations of human nature
September 4, 2017
Questo libro, letto in pochissimi giorni, affronta le problematiche che investirebbero il mondo nel caso di una pandemia tanto violenta quanto inarrestabile...Fantascienza? per ora si!
November 14, 2019
A good solid read.
August 3, 2021
Classica storia sulla diffusione di un virus, come se ne vedono tante nel genere post-apocalittico. Buon romanzo, ma niente di più.
August 10, 2021
I'm doing a lot of pandemic reading and this one I remember begin impressed with years ago especially for the science of how modern-day bubonic (it's actually mostly pneumonic) plague would progress with a bonus for the psychology of how people would respond to an existential threat. Recent headlines demonstrate that Norse nailed that last bit.
He's solid on the medical issues being an MD himself, but the characterization of the female characters was so horribly dated that it was hard to take. Written before the internet age, but the misinformation and self-serving behavior of humans is eternal.
He's solid on the medical issues being an MD himself, but the characterization of the female characters was so horribly dated that it was hard to take. Written before the internet age, but the misinformation and self-serving behavior of humans is eternal.
January 2, 2015
My husband recommended this one to me. It's written in 1983 but set in 1993, and is fun if you like adult books like The Stand, or Andromeda Strain, or The Hot Zone, or even YA books like Life As We Knew It.
Basically, a person contracts plague, it's a mutated version, it gets out. The fun of the novel is watching various groups of people scramble to figure what happened and how to stop it.
There's everything from medicine vs. CDC bureaucracy vs. Big Pharma, and helping neighbors vs. total isolation vs. cronyism and favoritism, to side-subplots of people and communities planning how to fight it on their own while the main groups of protagonists work on subplots and eventually meet up.
The author, a doctor, seems to know his stuff, and several of the characters are fleshed out wholly. others are flat where they could have been more pronounced.
Nourse throws in a lot of exposition in spots. A notable example is when one scientist basically gives The History Of The Plague From Rome To Present Day as she talks to other CDC and local government types. It's all 3rd person omniscient, but Nourse occasionally switches his focus character a few paragraphs into a chapter, and that was somewhat annoying.
I don't know if I liked the ending, especially the last line. But it was definitely worth reading once.
Basically, a person contracts plague, it's a mutated version, it gets out. The fun of the novel is watching various groups of people scramble to figure what happened and how to stop it.
There's everything from medicine vs. CDC bureaucracy vs. Big Pharma, and helping neighbors vs. total isolation vs. cronyism and favoritism, to side-subplots of people and communities planning how to fight it on their own while the main groups of protagonists work on subplots and eventually meet up.
The author, a doctor, seems to know his stuff, and several of the characters are fleshed out wholly. others are flat where they could have been more pronounced.
Nourse throws in a lot of exposition in spots. A notable example is when one scientist basically gives The History Of The Plague From Rome To Present Day as she talks to other CDC and local government types. It's all 3rd person omniscient, but Nourse occasionally switches his focus character a few paragraphs into a chapter, and that was somewhat annoying.
I don't know if I liked the ending, especially the last line. But it was definitely worth reading once.
August 15, 2020
Honestly I am not sure how much of my love for this book is nostalgia, and how much is genuinely loving this book. I was 4 when this book was written, but I have devoured books by the truckload since then. When I was about 13 my grandfather passed away and this book was in his pile of books, many of which I ended up with. I loved that tattered paperback, and after Hurricane Irene I thought I had lost it forever. I went out and bought a hardcover copy but it wasn't the same. I have re-read the story so many times that I could probably quote it word for word. It isn't the most exciting book, it's your typical end of the world story, and there are some minor spelling/formatting errors but it is a solid book. Perhaps more relevant in today's world as a pandemic sweeps the world. It helped inspire my interest in science and disease, so that is something, right? So this book is special to me for a variety of reasons, and a book that will ALWAYS stay on my bookshelf.
**and I finally found that tattered paperback version in storage last year!**
**and I finally found that tattered paperback version in storage last year!**
June 17, 2015
This story is a somewhat modern version of what could happen if the Black Death reappeared here in the United States. The grim and detail storyline has a number of interesting points of view that grabs you and pulls you into the struggles that surround the survivors. As the disease escapes the CDC's control it jumps across the country and spreads widely across economic lines and lifestyles.
I too, have written a novel called "Plaque: Death is only the beginning!" that deals with a drug resistant strain of the plaque, as Nourse did. Because we are facing that very danger today across the world. And just like I wrote about, Nourse covered how society would fail as the death rate climbs out of control.
I wish I had read this book prior to completing my own as I came up with my new ideas to improve my own work. Oh well! Solid 5 Stars!
I too, have written a novel called "Plaque: Death is only the beginning!" that deals with a drug resistant strain of the plaque, as Nourse did. Because we are facing that very danger today across the world. And just like I wrote about, Nourse covered how society would fail as the death rate climbs out of control.
I wish I had read this book prior to completing my own as I came up with my new ideas to improve my own work. Oh well! Solid 5 Stars!
February 12, 2009
Classic story of plague outbreak in mid 80s US, with lots of details of it destroying Savannah, GA.
January 16, 2011
Good for a quick read. Fairly predictable, but worth it for another view of the end of the world scenario.
May 11, 2013
Really enjoyable book about a plague outbreak in the U.S. only fault was it ended too abruptly.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews