Pandemic

by J.F. Bone, Muthia Esfand (Penerjemah), Chandra Kamila (Editor)

Alan Thurston was an immunologist at Midwestern University Medical School. Like most men in the teaching trade, he also had a research project. If it worked out, he'd be one of the great names in medicine; like Jenner, Pasteur, and Salk.

But it didn't work. Quite the opposite . . . he created a disease the ravaged the human race.

This special expanded edition now includes a long essay by A.M. Dumar on this history of pandemics, bringing added depth to Jesse F. Bone's story.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Medical, Audiobook

90 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1962

About the author

Jesse Franklin Bone was an American author and veterinarian whose writing gained prominence during the 'Golden Age of Science-Fiction' in the 1950's. His short-story Triggerman was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1959.

Following his college graduation, Jesse served in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel and retiring in 1976. After the war, he returned to Washington State College and earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.

In addition to his science fiction books and short stories, he also authored the textbook "Animal Anatomy and Physiology," which was used widely in universities throughout the United States and internationally.

Jesse Franklin Bone published under the pseudonyms Jesse F. Bone, J.F. Bone and Jesse Bone.

Reviews

[Hestia Istiviani · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Cerita pendek ini sudah tersedia dalam bahasa Indonesia, namun belum tersedia di laman Goodreads).

Ketika pandemi COVID-19 membuat manusia terbatas ruang geraknya, yang ada di kepalaku adalah mode distopia sebagaimana buku-buku yang aku baca: The Hunger Games, The 5th Wave. Namun rupanya, ada sebuah cerita yang jauh dari tulisan distopia modern itu. Judulnya Pandemic. Terbit pertama kali pada tahun 1962.

Ceritanya menggunakan latar di mana dunia ini dipenuhi oleh pandemi. Dua orang yang bekerja di lab berusaha untuk menemukan vaksinnya. Meskipun itu artinya mereka harus berjuang dengan segala macam risiko terpapar virus itu sendiri. Keduanya sudah pernah kehilangan orang tersayang, membuat mereka memiliki tekad kuat untuk menemukan vaksin itu.

Cerita pendek ini bisa dibilang sebuah kisah roman sederhana. Bisa habis dalam sekali duduk saja. Edisi bahasa Indonesia juga mudah untuk dinikmati.

[Ithmam Hami · Rating 2 out of 5]

A boring read with no real development. Apart from the articulation, the fiction is not fiction-ing at all.

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interestingly relevant, but also depressing, dated and pretty rushed (especially the ending as other reviewers have pointed out) but it does have some cool scientific points. Wouldn't recommend to those with covid anxiety or any kind of medical anxiety (obviously) but would recommend to people studying or interested in medicine, and/or science. It is a really short story though so honestly, if you're interested check it out!

[Giava Zahrannisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Coming with an interesting dialogue in the beginning, this book hooked me so much that I could finish it shortly. Both Kramer and Barton have unique motives that lead them to work on the Thurston disease together. This book gives detailed scientific dialogues and narratives. Thus, I looked up on internet whether this disease was really true, but of course, it's just a work of a fiction.

Regardless of my respect for those amazing scientific scenario, "Pandemic" has an appalling storyline. The opening part is superb, but there's no clear distinction between rising action, climax, and falling action. The storyline is flat and the ending part is so rushed: Barton had the Thurston disease; Kramer suddenly came with the cure of this virus and then he proposed to her out of nowhere. Here's my alternative for the storyline:
1. Barton doesn't have a will to live because she was already widowed and the rest of her family died because of the Thurston disease. When she works with Kramer in laboratory, I'd make her fall in love with Kramer's intelligence and straightforwardness.
2. Because she's so fond of him, she wants to spend more time with him. She doesn't want to die because of this disease anymore. Thus, making her push him to find the cure. She wants to make him the best pathologist. Unfortunately, Kramer used to work alone that Barton's effort becomes a buzz to him. He wants to relax, accepting the fact that there's no cure for the disease and human race will surely extinct. Let Kramer mad at her and fire her.
3. After a few weeks, I'd make Kramer feel lonely. I'd make him realize how important Barton's role was and he took him for granted. At this point, Kramer meets Barton at the elevator, with her already caught the disease and have estimately one more month before she dies.
4. Make him realize that he fell for her. Make the reminiscence of him and Barton smoking and having deep conversation together hanging in his head. Make him back-breaking to find the cure. And when Barton's death is near, make him find the cure—which is surprisingly, a tobacco smoke.
5. Let Kramer save her with the cure. Finally, let him confess to her. This way, the emotional bond will become stronger than the original story.

If the author took more time to deepen the romantic side of the story, it would've come out magnificently.

[Truly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meski muncul pertama kali pada tahun 1962, seperti yang disebutkan di atas, beberapa bagian dalam kisah ini bisa dikatakan begitu mirip dengan situasi pandemi saat ini. Dikatakan bahwa penyakit ini menyerang semua orang dari segala ras dan usia. Ciri penyakit ini antara lain bantuk-batuk, serta suhu yang agak naik. Virus menyerang saluran udara, kemudian masuk ke jaringan yang lebih dalam di paru-paru.

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Penerbit Sunset Road sungguh memilih waktu yang tepat untuk meluncurkan buku ini. Disaat sedang terjadi pandemi akibat Covid-19, buku ini memberikan secercah harapan akan ditemukannya cara guna mencegah meluasnya penyebaran virus tersebut. Pembaca bisa menjadi lebih optimis dalam menghadapi situasi saat ini.Tak ada yang tak mungkin. Informasi lebih lanjut terkait buku ini bisa dilihat di IG @penerbit_sunsetroad

https://trulyrudiono.blogspot.com/202...

[Laraib Zahra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book while being in the era of a Pandemic is another experience.
Well we all are witnessing the very first time in the history of human being when all the mankind is working together and yes according to Kramer Communists are working with not so communist people too because what's an ideology if there are no more people to follow it 😅
Loved the ending, the way Kramer proposed Mary and their discussion at the end..
It is a good book but anyone who is phobic to COVID-19 shouldn't read it..

[Curt Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Oddly Almost Satisfying Read

Fascinating to read during the Covid-19 pandemic. But I don't think I could have read it before the vaccines began having an impact. 1962 Science Fiction so accurate in its depiction of the real world of 2020. Good storytelling. Good two-handed dialogue. A bit more character development and more development of the all-is-lost sequence would have supported the ending better and perhaps even facilitated a better ending. All in all, definitely worth the read.

[Karimbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would not recommend this to everyone with Covid anxiety!

The non-expanded one was pretty short, and it was quite gripping. The ending was pretty rushed, though.

What I didn't think would happen was the blossoming romance that occurs to the two main characters. I guess it's a way to bring lightness into the story, but for me personally, it just came across as forced. Maybe because of the rushed ending? But it would be so much better if the build-up was more natural.

Overall, it was a decent read to kill time

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining listening 🎶🔰

Another will written fantasy Sci-Fi planet earth 🌎 adventure thriller short story by Jesse F. Bone about a pandemic that is circling the earth 🌎 and could mean the end of mankind. At the clinic the nurse gets sick but a cure is found. I would recommend this novella to readers of fantasy Sci-Fi novels 👍. Enjoy the adventure of novels 👍🔰 and books 📚. 2022 👒💼😊

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of LibriVox Short Science Fiction Collection 013. Thurston’s disease appears to be the perfect virus with no cure that threatens to wipe humanity from the face of the earth. Can the love of the pipe smoking profs new assistant save the day or is she doomed to die first ? Not bad due to unexpectedly humourous ending. Read by Hollis Hanover 44:33

[Aseel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the date this book was published, Thurston's disease is terrifyingly parallel to the current pandemic. It might have been intended as science fiction, but a contemporary reading will surely view the events more realistically and feasibly.

Still, the general plot is ordinary and the ending quite cheesy.

[Charles M Acklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth it

Scientific research plus serendipity often opens a level of creativity that delivers that which otherwise would have remained lost in the propensity to maintain the status-quo.

[John McCuen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Fable to Read While Waiting for the Wuhan Virus

"Pandemic" is a quick read with an interesting twist. If you're still in a "shelter-in-place" area, you've got time to read this short story. If you're free to move around, read it anyway! You won't be disappointed.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting, it reflects what is happening in the world today in 2020. The difference is it is attacking babies in the short story, but in today's times, it is attacking mostly the sickly and the elderly. Remarkable.

[Jane Roxanne Beamon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a good medical thriller. Dated by the heavy usage of tobacco which was so prevalent when the story was written.

[Oni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well...novela ini related, tapi ya karna novela jadinya buru buru ya...

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

259 - 2021

[Katrina McCollough · Rating 3 out of 5]

So random, did Marlboro commission this? Fun short story, nothing special.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe not the best read in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic.

[Beatrice Drury · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read for 2020. The Story is dated and there will not be a similar resolution. I did enjoy this.

[Bila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kisah yang singkat, tapi bikin aku mengernyitkan dahi. Kalau aja buku ini ga mengandung insta-love (yang sebenernya gara-gara kurangnya proses pendekatan antara Mary dan Kramer, maklum ini novela) dan penyelesaiannya ga aneh, cerita ini lumayan oke. Huf.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

J.F. Bone
Pandemic
The Floating Press
31 pages
2.5

[Norm Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pandemic, Jesse Franklin Bone, Originally Published Feb1962 {http://tinyurl.com/lbkjzc7}

Difficult to review stories when they simply aren't very good. I was surprised because JF Bone stories I've read have always been pretty good.

There's 2 characters. They are looking for a cure to a world wide pandemic. I don't mind the old fiction where smoking serves as filler. I don't have any prejudices about smoking other than knowing it is not a healthy addiction. This story however, you couldn't see the characters in the haze of smoke filled laboratories. I say that tongue in cheek... but the characters were pretty much boring regardless of their smoking.

You would think that many thousands dying by the day would cause more of a sense of urgency somehow no conveyed in the story. Pretty much everything is a miss in this story except Bone's signature twist at the end of the story. He's good at that, but while the ending has an unexpected twist, it doesn't save the story.

In ISFDB I was generous giving it a “slightly below average” 5 rating. Here 2 stars, it's ok, are about the best I can do.

While I almost always read along while listening to the Librovox reader, I recognize that isn't always a good idea. My low rating for this title might have been on the reader to some degree. Sometimes the voice you hear, or how they read the story doesn't set well with a person. If you're going to read this story, I suggest you skip any current Librovox reading on this one, (there are two) and just read it from the e-book that you acquired (free, I hope). Maybe that would be a better experience than what I had.

Librovox volunteer reading by Bellona Times, or Hollis Hanover, thank you. http://tinyurl.com/muokmbb FREE
Feedbooks edited copy of Aug 2008, J. F. Bone, publ. Project Gutenberg, #26206 FREE
ISFDB Title 55456 http://tinyurl.com/d4mx9zn FREE Membership

[LindaJ^ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally read this short story in 2014. It made its way back onto my unread Audible books for some reason when I had to delete and reinstall the Audible app on my phone. I had no recollection of it when I re-read it and found it somewhat better this time! Perhaps that was because of living through 2020 and 2021? My review from 2014 remains adequate but the impact was certainly different.


This is the audio of a short story written in 1962. By accident, a scientist looking for a way to decrease the number of infections resulting from a stay in the hospital mutates a virus and creates a pandemic. Everyone who catches the virus dies but not everyone gets it. This short story is about the discovery of what makes some immune. The love story part seems added at the last minute, as there are zero hints that the two characters are falling in love until each blurts it out. The possibility of such a pandemic is realistic, but the story itself, not so much.

[Ralph McEwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about efforts to contain a pandemic ravaging the earth.

Audio Book MP3 downloaded from http://librivox.org/short-science-fic...
Public Domain stories from Project Gutenberg, that are read by volunteers.
I listen to these short stories while walking to and from work.

Play Duration: 00:44:33
Read by: Hollis Hanover

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though pretty old fashioned in the men/women work world inevitably falling in love, a technically interesting story. The ending cure is hilarious- was the magazine this was written for, Astounding Stories, sponsored by Phillip Morris?

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can a virus be somehow contained, can a cure be found, can lives be saved, can thoughts and mentalities be changed.....

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this short story. It was silly, but I enjoyed reading it.

[Rhona Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woao ... Another unexpected short story. Oh, well - cute, but forgettable.

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good pandemic tale but this short story was too dated to be very enjoyable.