By

Lolita Barrister

Pandemic by Daniel Kalla

I’m certain the world would fall off its axis should we not have yet another story about the possibility of another pandemic or bio-terrorism incident.  

Loosely based on the progress of SARS, a new flu “ARCS” begins its tour in a remote Chinese village.  The disease is of course considered to be thwarted by the World Health Organization and the Chinese fear of being blamed for not expediently informing the world of another impending medical crisis. 

Unless of course one is interested in simply reading a 50 page novella, the disease is required to sojourn to the Western world.  Expectedly, various governmental departments debate on the gravity of the situation and decide that an immediate reaction would be nothing more than emotional and would create undue pandemonium.  The novel wouldn’t be complete without a potential cure (that may or may not induce hepatitis) in the horizon or the inclusion of terrorists (and their super jihad) who decide to fight their battle using human propagation rather than modern weaponry. 

The story in of itself is well written despite its use of locales and races that appear to be entirely based on our current media’s force-fed prejudiced view of the world.   I was more than a wee bit disappointed in the lack of innovation and that there was absolutely no twist in this “thriller”.  28 Days Later this is not.

Caveat: Puts Robin William’s humourous use of anachronisms in Good Morning Vietnam to shame.

Ta,

Lolita

ISBN: 076535084