Not bad, but in the second half of the book there were several things that stretched believability a little too far. Best aspect of the book was the way she wove the two stories, past and future, together. ( )

So here ya go—a book that’s both a fascinating historical novel about a Jewish physician during the plague AND a futuristic medical thriller about a contemporary outbreak of the bubonic plague. You’ll love the characters, and both halves of this story are first rate. ( )

An interesting novel that kept me from focusing on other things. I couldn't wait to get to get back to it and hated putting it down. It's a time slip novel that alternates between 1348 when the plague struck England and 2005, a society that was far too modern in comparison to the real thing. In the future, antibiotics have become useless and an American researcher in England unwittingly digs up a fragment of cloth still infected with plague virus. I thought 2005 was not far enough out for the society Bensen created. It would have been better if she'd chosen 2025 or a date further out since she only wrote the book in 1997. Cited as a novel of bio-terror, I wouldn't go that far but it was exciting. Still, in the end, I was left with several questions unanswered so 3 stars.
SPOILER ALERT FROM THIS POINT ON!
I could not understand why the Marginals owed any obligation to Sarin's mother and why it was important that Caroline be saved. I expected more deaths in the modern day also but it appeared that there weren't. And did Caroline marry the biocop? How the heck did that come about? I also thought that the biocops, who were portrayed mostly as robotic reactionaries, should have been more suspicious of Ben's involvement in the lab break-in. He was clearly innocent of Ted's death since he was away at the time but I didn't understand why that made him clear of using Ted's hand to get into the lab. Since biocops seemed to think everyone is lying, the acceptance of his innocence seemed out of character.

In contrast, the medieval story was better put together and made sense all the way through, with the exception of events centering on the original Sarah. What was up with the strange wind around her house (that was still there in 2005)? How did she manage to travel so easily - did she beam herself from one place to another? And since the Physician's book was left at her house, to whom did she leave it because it never appeared that she had a daughter but in 2005, Sarin says it was always left from mother to daughter. I was, as I always am, appalled at the ignorance and attitudes towards Jews. The King's attitude when he found out was just infuriating but it was represented correctly I'm sure as Edward's own grandfather expelled all Jews from England.

I'm told I have to read the sequel and perhaps answers to these questions will come. ( )

A fast-paced, enjoyable read. Part modern-day thriller/ part historical fiction. ( )

The characters are not very realistic, particularly in the modern era part of the book where people behave in ways that just don't make sense, and/or they respond/act/react in given ways only because they are required to do so to move the story forward. Like the director has an accident in a bacteria 'safe room' and instead of dealing with it, covers it up to cover his azz... this after the world had already suffered a biomedical breakdown? Suuuurrreee...

And the huge phobia of "bodyprinting" is out of proportion to the activity itself. It is portrayed as the most HORRIBLE thing ever, and to be avoided at all costs, and almost worth getting shot to avoid, etc... but it is essentially just a digital scan of you. Granted you are naked when it happens, but seriously, is THAT the worst thing you can imagine in a post-bacterial plague world? seriously?

The book actually gets worse as it goes along - it becomes more far-fetched, and characters completely stop acting in normal ways. And I don't mean far-fetched in a science fiction kind of way, I mean far-fetched in that not only does nobody behave normally, they are not even consistent within their own "non-normal parameters". They have complete about-faces in their moral and political and social beliefs in a matter of a few hours - and for no clear "reason". I might accept an about-face if it were to save someone's life, or under extreme pressure, or because something of great magnitude happened... but not because you had a chat with someone, or because you were trying to avoid being, gasp, BODYPRINTED.

Anyway, the concept behind the story was interesting. Unfortunately, the characterizations are consistently terrible. And nobody in the entire book acts the way normal people would act in the same set of circumstances. ( )