Plague Year

Book 60 of my 2015 Reading Challenge

read from September 1 - 7

Plague Year by Jeff Carlson

Book 1 of the Plague trilogy

Summary (via Goodreads)

The nanotechnology was designed to fight cancer. Instead, it evolved into the Machine Plague, killing nearly five billion people and changing life on Earth forever. 

The nanotech has one weakness: it self-destructs at altitudes above ten thousand feet. Those few who've managed to escape the plague struggle to stay alive on the highest mountains, but time is running out-there is famine and war, and the environment is crashing worldwide. Humanity's last hope lies with a top nanotech researcher aboard the International Space Station-and with a small group of survivors in California who risk a daring journey below the death line...

My Opinion

It was a little difficult to follow at first.  I could identify the main characters but was still fuzzy on what exactly the plague was.  I was still detached as of chapter 8; I wasn't invested yet and didn't care about anyone's survival.

It started to pick up after that but it was still confusing.  There were too many "sides" for me to figure out all the unspoken and half-truths being shared.  

I guess it was more affecting than I thought because I had dreams about it more than once.

Overall, I knew as soon as I picked it up that I would be in for all 3 books, both because I always finish the series I start and because I knew the first book wouldn't have a satisfactory ending and I'd need to read them all to get the full arc.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"A future existed. Cam just hadn't believed he would be part of it. Unless their group had incredible luck hunting throughout the summer and fall, he and Sawyer had calculated that they only way they'd survive another winter would be to dismantle the other hut for fuel and kill and freeze most of the others immediately after the first snow."

"She had rarely considered what it would be like on the outside. She didn't have to. She was one of the chosen. She always had been."