Overview
A supertanker has crashed off the shores of San Francisco, producing the largest oil spill in history. Desperate to avert an ecological - and public relations - disaster, a multinational oil company releases an untested virus designed to break up the spill. A virus that spreads like wildfire on the wind, destroying anything made of petroleum - destroying gasoline in automobile tanks, plastic, nylon, the very fabric of modern civilization itself. Dr. Spencer Lockwood, one of the few scientists to recognize the danger, tries to alert government and industry to the impending danger. But his warnings go unheeded and the devastation mounts. As America descends into savagery, Lockwood forges a courageous band of scientists to carry out a daring plan to restore order. But humanity's last hope may be snuffed out by a ruthless general driven by an insatiable desire for power.An "oil-eating" microbe has been released by a multinational oil company in order to avert a disaster in the San Francisco Bay. But the microbe propogates through the air. And when every car un the Bay area turns up with an empty gas tank, people begin to suspect something is wrong. When, a few days later, every piece of plastic worldwide begins dissolving, it's too late.
Synopsis
A supertanker has crashed off the shores of San Francisco, producing the largest oil spill in history. Desperate to avert an ecological—and public relations—disaster, a multinational oil company releases an untested virus designed to break up the spill. A virus that spreads like wildfire on the wind, destroying anything made of petroleum-destroying gasoline in automobile tanks, plastic, nylon, the very fabric of modern civilization itself.
Publishers Weekly
A promising disaster scenario fizzles as Anderson and Beason (coauthors of Assemblers of Infinity and The Trinity Paradox) succumb to lightweight plotting, facile characterization and an apparent need to allude to as many pop-cultural artifacts as possible. When a panicky oil company tries to clean up a major spill in San Francisco Bay by dropping genetically engineered oil-eating microbes on it, the little organisms go berserk and start devouring most of the world's long-chain polycarbons (gasoline, plastics, etc.). Within the first 150 pages, this leads to a breakdown of communications and information-processing systems. From there until the end of the novel, however, affairs are basically limited to several displays of plucky ingenuity (during which one character compares the work of his group, unfavorably, to that of the Professor on Gilligan's Island). Meanwhile, an acting president and a general, independently, attempt to enforce martial law on an unwilling populace. The heroes are heroic, especially scientist Spencer Lockwood and pilots Billy Carron and Todd Severyn (the latter atoning for having unwittingly dropped the petrol-eating organism in the first place). Todd's girlfriend, Iris Shikozu, stages a post-apocalyptic rock concert at the Altamont Speedway. Almost all the chapter headings are titles of old pop songs, books or movies (Good Vibrations, The Stand, Urban Cowboy). It's possible that those who care, as Iris does, about Kansas's live comeback album will find this fascinating, but most readers are likely to feel that The End of the World As We Know It deserves better handling. (June)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
A promising disaster scenario fizzles as Anderson and Beason coauthors of Assemblers of Infinity and The Trinity Paradox succumb to lightweight plotting, facile characterization and an apparent need to allude to as many pop-cultural artifacts as possible. When a panicky oil company tries to clean up a major spill in San Francisco Bay by dropping genetically engineered oil-eating microbes on it, the little organisms go berserk and start devouring most of the world's long-chain polycarbons gasoline, plastics, etc.. Within the first 150 pages, this leads to a breakdown of communications and information-processing systems. From there until the end of the novel, however, affairs are basically limited to several displays of plucky ingenuity during which one character compares the work of his group, unfavorably, to that of the Professor on Gilligan's Island. Meanwhile, an acting president and a general, independently, attempt to enforce martial law on an unwilling populace. The heroes are heroic, especially scientist Spencer Lockwood and pilots Billy Carron and Todd Severyn the latter atoning for having unwittingly dropped the petrol-eating organism in the first place. Todd's girlfriend, Iris Shikozu, stages a post-apocalyptic rock concert at the Altamont Speedway. Almost all the chapter headings are titles of old pop songs, books or movies Good Vibrations, The Stand, Urban Cowboy. It's possible that those who care, as Iris does, about Kansas's live comeback album will find this fascinating, but most readers are likely to feel that The End of the World As We Know It deserves better handling. JuneLibrary Journal
Two best-selling authors team up to confront a biotechnological catastrophe.Carl Hays
Coauthors of the Nebula nominee "Assemblers of Infinity" (1993), Anderson and Beason return with a high-action, best-seller-caliber disaster novel grounded in unsettlingly accurate science. When an oil-carrying supertanker collides with the Golden Gate Bridge, dumping its million-barrel cargo into San Francisco Bay, the offending oil company releases an experimental microbe designed to clean up the spill. Yet no one anticipates the private vendetta against big oil harbored by the microbes' suicidal inventor, who substitutes a more lethal airborne strain that consumes not only oil but all petrochemicals everywhere, including gasoline and plastic. As all ground and air traffic grind to a halt and wire-based communications collapse, government control also begins to crumble, and the nation slowly descends into lawlessness. Using the standard disaster novel format of multiple characters and plot lines, Beason and Anderson maintain a suspenseful, breakneck pace that carries us to a thrilling finish.From the Publisher
"Compulsively readable. The best disaster novel in many years. The problems of a United States falling apart at the seams as petroleum products vanish are shown at the national and local level, always through the effects on individuals. The basic idea is terribly plausible, the science spot-on, the politics totally persuasive. Ill Wind is a book you will read when you should be doing other things. Once you start, there is never a thought you might not continue to the last page." —Charles Sheffield, senior scientist, Earth Satellite Corporation, and award-winning author of Cold as Ice, on Ill Wind"A real winner. This book has potential to become a classic. Your grasp of the science, the technology, and the potential scene-and your ability to weave a truly engrossing fabric involving all of theme in authoritative fashion-are unique. My only worry is that you may have done to biotechnology what The China Syndrome did to nuclear energy-scared the hell out of the public." —Dr. D. Alan Bromley, former assistant to the President for Science and Technology, on Ill Wind
"Ill Wind is a believable and fast read. It goes George Stewart's classic Earth Abides one better, illustrating the perils of overreacting to environmental problems and misusing technology." —Dr. Wilson K. Talley, president of the Hertz Foundation and former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
"Ill Wind is compelling reading. A clever, believable, and adventurous epic." — Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for Rush
"I enjoyed Ill Wind thoroughly. Anderson and Beason have managed to take a plausible premise and turn it into a very entertaining (and also plausible) 'civilization in the aftermath' story." — Walter S. Scott, president, Worldview Imaging Corporation