When Sci-Fi Tackles the Plague
It's no secret among my fellow editors that I've got a thing for weird and sometimes grotesque medical history—see, my ongoing obsession with the listen Get Well Soon. I'll devour any nonfiction book on the topic, watch any documentary; heck, I even took a plague tour when I went to visit London for the first time. But gruesome facts aside, I think I'm even more fascinated by fiction that explores the human element of mass illness—how we may band together (and, conversely, turn against one another) in literal life or death circumstances. Sci-fi is particularly suited to tell these tales: here are seven of my listens that, in my opinion, do so particularly well. —Sam, Audible Editor-
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The Plague
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: James Jenner
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In the small coastal city of Oran, Algeria, rats begin rising up from the filth, only to die as bloody heaps in the streets....
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Translator Please!
- By Placeholder on 06-04-11
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The Plague
- Narrated by: James Jenner
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Release date: 10-25-06
- Language: English
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Blindness
- By: José Saramago
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
A city is hit by a sudden and strange epidemic of "white blindness"....
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Surrealistic
- By Richard Pesavento on 10-04-08
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Blindness
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Series: Blindness, Book 1
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Release date: 08-11-08
- Language: English
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Doomsday Book
- By: Connie Willis
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
For Oxford student Kivrin, traveling back to the 14th century is more than the culmination of her studies - it's the chance for a wonderful adventure....
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Timely, beautiful, terrible and haunting
- By mudcelt on 11-02-09
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Doomsday Book
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Series: Oxford Time Travel, Book 1
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Release date: 03-28-08
- Language: English
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American War
- A Novel
- By: Omar El Akkad
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle....
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Best listen in years
- By odin on 04-08-17
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American War
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Release date: 04-04-17
- Language: English
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Station Eleven (Television Tie-in)
- A Novel
- By: Emily St. John Mandel
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end....
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gah!
- By Stacy on 10-08-14
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Station Eleven (Television Tie-in)
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Release date: 09-09-14
- Language: English
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I Am Legend
- By: Richard Matheson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In I Am Legend, a plague has decimated the world, and those unfortunate enough to survive are transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night....
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Superb!
- By Steven Casper on 01-24-08
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I Am Legend
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Release date: 12-31-06
- Language: English
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The Stand
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 47 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death....
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My First Completed Stephen King Novel
- By Meaghan Bynum on 02-20-12
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The Stand
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 47 hrs and 47 mins
- Release date: 02-14-12
- Language: English
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