The White Plague by Frank Herbert

Frightening premise, plodding execution

Published immediately after his immensely successful 1981 novel God Emperor of Dune, The White Plague is a deliberate departure from Frank Herbert’s usual fare. Unlike the cerebral space fantasies that made him famous, The White Plague is a medical thriller, like a Michael Crichton story but a whole lot bleaker. In Herbert’s frightening vision, the plague in question is apocalyptic in scope and threatens the future existence of humanity.

Though published in 1982, The White Plague is set in 1996. John Roe O’Neill is an American molecular biologist who is in Ireland with his family while doing research for a study of Irish genetics. When the IRA sets off a bomb in Dublin, O’Neill’s wife and two children, bystanders at the scene, are horribly killed before his eyes. Driven insane by the event, O’Neill goes into hiding while devising an act of retribution for his loss. He creates a deadly pathogen and unleashes it on Ireland, Britain, and Libya—the nations he feels are responsible for the terrorist attack. The outbreak soon spreads to other nations, however, endangering humanity worldwide. Surprisingly, the plague only kills women. Men, merely the carriers of the disease, are thus left behind to feel the grief, guilt, and helplessness that O’Neill himself felt when his family was taken from him.

The oddest thing about The White Plague is how little the titular disease is discussed. Only a few paragraphs actually describe the symptoms of the disease, which include the appearance of white patches on the skin and an overall pallor at the time of death. There are no heart-wrenching or tear-jerking death scenes. Scientists and politicians hold many meetings in which cures are discussed, but very little delving into the actual mechanics of the contagion—DNA, RNA, microphages, and the like—takes place until the very end of the book. The bulk of the story is taken up by a cross-country trip through the semi-apocalyptic Irish countryside. The plot reads more like a spy thriller than a sci-fi or horror novel. The killer, the scientists looking for a cure, the IRA, world governments, militaries, and intelligence agencies are all vying to outsmart one another in order to emerge from this global catastrophe with the upper hand. Towards the very end Herbert offers some interesting speculation about what a world without women, or very few women, would look like, but the sci-fi fan is left wishing that idea had been developed further.

In this novel, Herbert is also very preoccupied with Irishness. Since the story is set primarily in Ireland, most of the characters are Irish, and Herbert uses those characters to illustrate and discuss various characteristics of an Irish nature and identity. Herbert’s maternal grandfather was an Irish immigrant, and according to Brian Herbert’s biography Dreamer of Dune, the family placed great pride in their Irish heritage. Herbert also spent a week in Ireland doing research for The White Plague. Though it’s obvious he’s done homework on the subject, Herbert’s views on Irishness and Catholicism feel like an outsider’s perspective of a foreign culture. It’s hard to believe so many modern Irishmen in positions of authority would speak so much about faeries and banshees, even metaphorically. The material about the IRA comes across about as realistic as is typical of American-made spy movies.

The White Plague starts with a great premise but lacks excitement in its execution. By Herbert standards, even compared to his non-Dune work, it’s a fine book but not great. The beginning and the ending of the novel are quite compelling, but in between there’s way too much trudging through heath and bog.
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