Sunday, December 16, 2012

Book Review: The Eleventh Plague

     

1st picture found at http://www.liter     2nd picture from http://astranavigo.com 

        

         The Eleventh Plague, by Jeff Hirsch, is a realistic action novel, with romance and sabotage.

America is dead, after a savage war with China, two thirds of the population is dead from a

mutated version of influenza, released by the Chinese. Stephen Quinn was born after the war and

is salvager with his father. Stephen's grandfather had just died from illness. Stephen and his father

are distraught, because his grandfather was the leader, and kept the group surviving. Stephen's

mother died when he was younger during child birth, which was a cruel way to die, considering

what was going on around them. She died trying to bring more life into the world, when

everything around them was dying. After burying his grandfather, Stephen and his father try to

continue on like nothing had happened, but that would be impossible, because that night they get

chased by slavers, a nasty group of people that believe that if there is no one enforcing no slavery

that it is ok again, during a storm. Stephen's father gets caught by a mudslide and gets swept into

a roaring river where he is getting smashed up. Stephen recovers his unconscious father, and finds

out that the back of his scull is smashed. Stephen tries to make camp, but with all the noise from

the previous night, it attracted another group of people that were scouting for there settlement that

they had created. Stephen, who was unaware that the group weren't slavers, starts to fight them.

Stephen gets himself captured, and then explains that he assumed that they were slavers. The

group lets Stephen and his father go, but also to him that he could come to their settlement where

they could provide medical treatment to his father, who was still unconscious. Stephen, after much

debate with himself, agrees. When he arrives at the settlement, and is amazed at what he sees.

The people of this camp had taken over an abandoned and remote little community. The town

was named Settler's Landing. With people, food, shelter, and even running water, Stephen is

stunned. He himself hasn't been anywhere stable at any point of his life, always going from North

to South year round in hope of finding anything. Stephen's father is now in a coma, and not

looking good. Stephen, preparing him self for the worst, is also trying to get used to people.

Settler's Landing is also equip with a base ball field, Stephen remembers stories of the sport from

his father and finds it a release of stress that he has at the moment. Stephen also meets a girl

named Jenny, a Chinese orphan who is a complete trouble maker. The two immediately spark a

romantic relationship, and prove to be huge influences in each others lives. Not liking the corrupt

nature of Settler's Landing, the two decide to leave the town with Stephen's father, but not

without a final blow. Stephen and Jenny set fireworks off in one of the town's family's animal

pen. Thinking that got attacked from a near by town, the family convinces the people of the town

that then need counter-attack. The two towns go into a full on war. Settler's Landing also hires

some slavers to go and take down the other town. Stephen and Jenny convince a majority of

Settler's Landing to betray the slavers, and try to make peace with the other town. Fighting the

slavers was not easy, because they were ex soldiers. After defeating the slavers, they convince

the other town to stop the fighting. With both towns weak, they decide to combine groups in

order to be strong. Recovering from the fight, the now big group continues their fight for

survival. Jenny and Stephen decide to stay with the town, after Stephen's father dies from his

head injury.

          Stephen is the main character. He is very curious as to what how the collapse of society

came to be. Stephen is white and skinny. He has brown hair, and is medium height. Stephen has

adapted to being a salvenger, searching for food and supplies, and is very capable to survive.

The kids of Settler's Landing first think that he is some kind of freak, especially being so

defensive, and Stephen doesn't care what they think. Stephen finds Jenny mysterious and yet

relatable. With the war being with China, and Jenny being Chinese, Stephen often wonders how

and why she ended up in the ruins of the U.S.  Also, they both are missing parents. Jenny doesn't

care about anything, except Stephen. The only way Jenny can express herself is by drawing.
        
          The theme of this book is survival, especially what people will do to survive. In the book,

Stephen, his grandfather, and his father had been traveling North to South year round in search

of anything. With no motivation, and no hope, why would they keep fighting on. Because, just

the simple aspect of live means so much to people, even without a purpose. When Stephen

gets to Settler's Landing and things go bad, they fight off a wave well trained slavers. If that

doesn't show what people will go to to survive, than I don't know what will.

          I recommend this book! It is very well written. The eeriness of the end of the U.S. adds a

very good feel. The character interaction also spices things up. Plus, the trace of old American

culture, such as baseball, makes it feel as if it was a normal time. 

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