Global pandemics have always made for great storylines for thrillers and science fiction, more often than not including mass death (or threats of) and some sort of hero who comes to the rescue of the human race.
The Covid era hasn't quite created the hero who saves the world, apart from the scientists who have worked tirelessly on vaccines of course, and The first shots: The epic rivalries and heroic science behind the race to the coronavirus vaccine by Brendan Borrell reads like a compulsive thriller and should be in our libraries soon.
The First Shots, soon to be the subject of an HBO limited series... draws on exclusive, high-level access to weave together the intense vaccine-race conflicts among hard-driving, heroic scientists and the epic rivalries among Washington power players that shaped 18 months of fear, resolve, and triumph. From infectious disease expert Michael Callahan, an American doctor secretly on the ground in Wuhan in January 2020 to gauge the terrifying ravages of Disease X; to Robert (Dr. Bob) Kadlec, one of Operation Warp Speed's architects, whose audacious plans for the American people run straight into the buzz saw of the Trump White House factions; to Stephane Bancel of upstart Moderna Therapeutics going toe-to-toe with pharma behemoth Pfizer, The First Shots lays bare, in a way we have not seen, the full stunning story behind the medical science "moon shot" of our lifetimes.
I am always interested, however, in how fiction covers events of our time. My first thought when I notice new books with the themes of lockdown and Covid at their core is - really? Too soon! I'm not sure if I want to read about something that is either happening, or knocking on our doors.
I have a few of these titles on for later shelf - maybe next year? Let's wait and see:
Add a comment to: Cool stuff from the selectors: Pandemic reads