The Patron Saint of Plagues

It's the near future. The United States has fallen and Mexico is the new power. Mexico City has been renamed Ascension and is run by President for Life Emil Orbegon and the Holy Renaissance, which has split with the Vatican. The indigenas are literally living under the feet of the rich--Ascension is built upward, the rich living higher up, in the cleaner city. People are literally jacked in to a network called the pilone--the connection is in the brain. The religious, which is just about everyone in the realm of the Holy Renaissance, can get their daily church rites through the pilone, along with any other information the Holy Renaissance sees fit to disseminate. There are some pirate broadcasts though. One of the most popular of these show more is Sister Domenica, who earlier predicted the eruption of a volcano and saved the lives of twenty-nine people (the others didn't listen). Her predictions come from the Virgin of Guadelupe, a woman in white who appears to Domenica. It is the prediction of a test for Mexico in the form of a bloody plague, that gives her the nickname of the Patron Saint of Plagues.

The nickname also belongs to a U.S. doctor, epidemiologist Henry David Stark, working for the CDC. It is unusual for Mexico to bring in an American doctor, but the virulence of this plague, which kills in a hemorrhagic fever, painful and bloody, leaves them very little choice. He and the task force he heads, consisting of one doctor he's worked with before and one he hasn't, discover that this is not a natural plague, but one created by a human. And a human he happens to know. (Granted I figured out who "the man" was quite early on but that didn't really spoil much for me--I think most intelligent readers would figure that bit out.) The disease mutates so quickly that it's virtually impossible to create a way to stop it without catching him. But he is canny and crafty and slick, adept at hiding in plain sight. And Stark is not beloved by the Holy Renaissance to say the least. They won't give him the information he needs, let alone listen to him.

I think the hardest part of this book for me was the idea of Mexico as a first-world power. And that's a failing on my part, not the author's. It is so ingrained in our society to think of Mexico as poor and downtrodden that it was hard for me to suspend my disbelief the entire time. I'd be okay for a while with it, then something would jar me out of it. That normally doesn't happen with me, so I figure there was something odd happening in my brain while I was reading it. It was otherwise excellent. show less

I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed with this book initially. There is a lot to take in, and the author jumps right into it, so I was scrambling a bit to wrap my head around everything that was going on. Mexico is a new super power, and Mexico City (now called Ascension) is the most populous city on the planet. They are a technological marvel, and all their citizens are connected through brain implantations (called wetware) that functions as a pseudo-mental wifi. There is a political power struggle between to religious faction; The Holy Renaissance who are very similar to Catholics, and a rogue religious group led by Sister Domenica, the Patron Saint of Plagues.

Oh, and then there is the disease outbreak, of course. An American show more named Stark is tasked with combating an extreme Dengue outbreak that is spreading and killing so quickly that it simply can NOT be a natural outbreak. Unfortunately for him, solving this mystery isn't easy when he's caught between 2 bickering factions in a country where he wouldn't be welcome in the first place.

The characters seemed a little inconsistent, and Stark has this way of speaking that is grating and totally obnoxious. Note to future novelists: Don't make your main character grating and obnoxious. The plot also seemed a bit too far-reaching, which kind of killed the mystery aspect of the novel for me. It just didn't quite hook me, and during the big reveal I was mostly just nodding and thinking "well, alright then..." Which pretty much sums up how I feel about the novel as a whole. show less

An excellent first novel. Some nicely plotted science mixed with enough cyberpunk/future-tech to avoid a lot of potential pit-falls.

There is a mix of this with some politics and religion that gives a plausible and fascinating future in which the USA is no longer a superpower, but Mexico is a superpower of the information age, as well as a fascist and religious police state.

The only reason this isn't getting the whole five stars? The lead character is rather mutable, or perhaps reveals too many layers on the way through to quite work for me, and he has an annoying "futurespeak" pattern where he doesn't bother with any parts of the verb "to be" but only when he's speaking English...

Plague fiction set in the year 2061, mostly in the city of Ascension, Mexico (once Mexico City.) It’s a vastly different world than we know today. Mexico and the US are at war, with Mexico being headed by a religious group, an offshoot of the Catholic church that rules with a fascist furor. And someone has unleashed a deadly plague in the city, a combination of a couple of different plagues and set to attack only those with a certain genetic background and who are connected to the pilone network—basically ‘internet in your head’ so that the government can keep track of everyone. The main character is a scientist known as ‘the Patron Saint of Plagues’ who is summoned by the Mexican government to help them get this plague show more under control, and yet they won’t give Stark the vital information he needs, so he must accumulate that knowledge by other means. Ironically, a renegade nun named Sister Domenica, who predicted the plague, is also referred to by the same title, and inevitably Stark and Domenica’s paths do eventually cross. An interesting book, with what seemed to be a plausible storyline, with one major annoyance—that the main character spoke in a shorthand type language that drove me mad! show less

Excellent thriller with very vivid imagery. Loved the play on Mexican history/religiosity that's intertwined with the science fiction. Incredible that it's a debut novel (it's that good). Looking forward to future works by the author.

Honestly, I skipped to the end of this book, something I rarely do. I liked the idea of the story, just not the execution of it. I also admit not being a huge fan of sci-fi. For some reason, I didn't realize this book fell into that genre. Oh well!