BioHorror. Any sort of horror or science fiction story in which the main “antagonist” is some sort of biological event/critter. There’s probably a better name for the genre, but this is what I’ve always called it.
Dust, by Pellegrino, is a good example, as is the first chapter of The Hot Zone, by Preston. Blood Music, by Bear, is another really good example. Of course, there’s always The Andromeda Strain…
Basically, I’m looking for novels that get into the nitty-gritty of the biological event. Decent science also counts- I read biology books for fun, so I can spot the really bad stuff (there was this one book where a disease rapidly devoured everyone exposed to it, leaving only the skeleton behind- uh, what happened to all the meat?)
So anyone have any recommendations? Bonus points if it leads to either the end of the world or even just the extinction of mankind.
Man, you’ve got to read Mount Dragon, by Douglas Preston (The Hot Zone’s Richard Preston’s brother) and Lincoln Child. Not only did it meet most of your criteria, it scared the living bejesus out of me.
Note to Messrs Preston & Child: I just got done recommending you guys in another book thread. Gratuities would not be out of order. I look forward to hearing from you both.
I really enjoyed Michael Crichton’s Prey. It’s not strictly biological, but close. The plot is about a horde of engineered nanobots who evolve and form a hive mind and wreak havoc. It’s a fun ride, and quite believable if you have easily-suspended disbelief mechanisms.
Of course there’s always Stephen King’s “The Stand.”
It’s been a looooong time since I’ve read it, and it’s surely not in print, but Jack Chalker’s A War of Shadows is about a series of biological terrorist attacks.
Pandora’s Clock by John Nance was interesting. Nance is an aviation expert and this deals with a (fictional) Ebola outbreak on a commercial airline. Now that I mention it, I think there was a book called Outbreak, as well.
(Checking Amazon), Indeed ther was, by Robin Cook, but I don’t remember it well.
The Fungus by Harry Adam Knight. A biological experiment causes all fungi in England to grow out of control and far larger than normal. Also they can overcome all normal, natural resistance to them ( except for a few partially or completely immune ), so they infect and consume everything. Including people, and not necessarily quickly.
Ill Wind by Kevin Anderson features a little organism designed to eat crude oil after an oil spill in San Francisco Bay. Of course, it escapes and mutates and eventually dissolves everything oil-based across the entire planet. How would the world survive without plastic, gasoline, or any petrolium-based product?
Unfortunately, that question isn’t really answered, because the book chooses to focus on a scrappy group of scientists researching alternative power sources trying to prevent a powerhungry Army general from becoming a Mad Max-style warlord.
While it might not be as in-depth as you like, Wing Commander: The Price of Freedom by William Forstchen involves a colonized planet being attacked with a genetically-engineered virus that killed anyone who didn’t fit a preset definition of the acceptable human. I don’t recall if the book went into details of the effects of the virus itself, beyond mentioning that they were pretty bad, but they do spend some time on the ensuing blockade of the the planet, with military ships being forced to shoot down all ships attempting to flee the planet, lest they spread the virus.
Also, one of the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron books involves a bio-weapon released on Coruscant that targets non-humans, and the efforts to fight it.
A book that just sprang to mind is The White Plague by Frank Herbert. It is about an engineered virus(?) that is supposed to target only women. It has the added bonus of being created to avenge the deaths of family members at the hands of terrorists.
The bio-hazard in “The Stand” only really sets the stage for the rest of the book. The majority of the book is about what happens to the survivors, and the original cause fades to the background. I wouldn’t consider it the “antagonist” in the story.
(I’d hate for Lightnin to read all 80,000 pages and realize his bio-horror part was over in the first couple hundred)