Story: 8.0 / 10
Characters: 8.5
Setting: 7.5
Prose: 7.5 ( )

This is the first book I ever deliberately abandoned. I threw it across the room. The misogyny is overwhelming. ( )

Reading about this man-made plague right now wasn't too bad as the plague in this book kills all the women, which is worse than what we are currently dealing with. John O'Neill is in Dublin with his wife and twins when they are killed in an IRA terrorist bombing. He goes back home and comes up with the worst revenge he can think of - a plague targeted at Ireland, England and Libya (who he sees as all part of the bombing) that kills only women. Of course, a plague like this can spread beyond a country's borders, and soon the world is in a race to cure the plague and prevent the end of the world. I liked it, but it wasn't quite a 4* read for me; there are only three female characters of note and there was a lot of arguing about Catholicism in Ireland which dragged a bit. I think it would be really neat to have a post-apocalyptic book describing how things continued in a world where the man to woman ratio is ~10,000 to 1. ( )

This standalone SF story depicts a scientist's reaction to an act of terrorism. The breathtaking scope of this scientist's response amps up terror to extreme levels. ( )

I read this book a few times over the years and it really is one of the first books I read about global terrorism. ( )