White Plague
by Frank Herbert · first published 1982
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Science fiction set on roughly present-day Earth, centered on a bioengineered plague that kills only women. It is disturbing and scary, and it remains a touchstone in discussions of gene drives.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
What if women were an endangered species? It begins in Ireland, but soon spreads throughout the entire world: a virulent new disease expressly designed to target only women. As fully half of the human race dies off at a frightening pace and life on Earth faces extinction, panicked people and governments struggle to cope with the global crisis. Infected areas are quarantined or burned to the ground. The few surviving women are locked away in hidden reserves, while frantic doctors and scientists race to find a cure. Anarchy and violence consume the planet. The plague is the work of a solit
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2008–2026The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin
Recommended by 118 · mentioned by 184118 recommend · 184 mention118 recommend · 184118 recommend
2007–2026Dune
Frank Herbert
Recommended by 193 · mentioned by 512193 recommend · 512 mention193 recommend · 512193 recommend
2012–2026Antifragile
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Genís Sánchez Barberán, Albino Santos Mosquera
Recommended by 135 · mentioned by 281135 recommend · 281 mention135 recommend · 281135 recommend
2007–2026The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins
Recommended by 220 · mentioned by 431220 recommend · 431 mention220 recommend · 431220 recommend
2007–2026The Black Swan
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, David Chandler
Recommended by 263 · mentioned by 666263 recommend · 666 mention263 recommend · 666263 recommend
Enjoy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93448.The_White_Plague
on “I should have loved biology” ↗It's not quite a true single-gender planet, but Frank Herbert also wrote The White Plague [1], a story about a bioengineered plague that kills only women, set in more or less the present day on a copy of real Earth. One of the scarier books I've read. For most science fiction, there's a clear…
on “What’s With Sci-Fi’s Fixation on Single-Gendered Planets?” ↗Check out The White Plague by Frank Herbert. And Jerry Pournelle wrote a lot of novels about the CoDominium, an alliance between the US & USSR to suppress scientific research due to the instability it could cause.
on “A DIY Cruise Missile (2004)” ↗Everyone should read Frank Herbert’s White Plague. The transmission vector can be anything.
on “More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins” ↗…sucked out reading their works when I was forced to do it. I don't know why. Personal failing, maybe. I thought Herbert's non-_Dune_ works were very good while also being very disturbing. I read _The White Plague_ in my teens and am reminded of it whenever I read about modern gene drive technology. The ConSentiency stories and books have stayed with me to this day, and I periodically re-read them. Both _Hellstrom's…
on “A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)” ↗Read The White Plague by Frank Herbert. Scared the heck out of me as a teen. Considering how humanity still hasn't escaped tribalism even after two hundred millennia, just the thought of genealogically targeted viruses are…
on “Police Are Getting DNA Data from People Who Think They Opted Out” ↗One of the scariest science fiction stories I've ever read is "The White Plague" by Frank Herbert... yeah, the Dune guy. In this story a molecular biologist's family is murdered in a terrorist event, goes insane, and decides to create a plague that is carried by men but kills women,…
on “Watch AI materials-science and bioscience abilities closely” ↗ascribing superpowers to the bad guys Grab a copy of The White Plague. It's an entertaining read.
on “H5N1” ↗I'm currently reading "The White Plague" (1982) by Frank Herbert, which seems somehow appropriate given the current pandemic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Plague (contains spoilers)
on “Good Books for a Lousy Year” ↗Frank Herbert wrote this story 30 years ago (White Plague -- 1982). I'd be surprised if he were the first to worry about it. So we may be well along in the 50-year progression is all.
on “H5N1” ↗I'm not sure if this is the first science fiction story to tell of a lone biologist creating a plague, but Frank Herbert's "The White Plague"[1] was written in 1982 and presages a time (in 1996 no less) that a single actor, motivated by personal tragedy, could create and release such a thing. In a sense though, this notion that technology…
on “H5N1” ↗Frank Herbert's novel, The White Plague targeted women only (and had male carriers). When I read it in high school I realized targeted assassinations would eventually be possible.
on “DNA database that found Golden State Killer is potential national security leak” ↗Yeah it would suck if a freak viral accident transferred this to humans, we then get to live through Frank Herbert’s ‘The White Plague’ (where men are carriers for a disease that kills only women) Inheritable fertility manipulation and gene drives should be applied very, very carefully
on “First genetically modified mosquitoes released in the United States” ↗There's a science fiction novel waiting to be written that incorporates the ideas from The White Plague and Ribofunk and the 21st century IT world. Imagine the genetically-engineered counterpart to the CryptoLocker ransomware. Private and public antivirus research. MacAffee for your white blood cells.…
on “H5N1” ↗Because if you read a lot of 20th c sci fi, you can easily imagine using the current DNA printing technology and virus databases to design something that would kill in the billions of people (e.g. The White Plague: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/93448.The_White_Plagu... ) And they all seem to have been fans of 20th c sci fi (albeit sometimes with profoundly poor comprehension).
on “Why is this fingerprinting script creating bioweapons?” ↗