I’ve been fascinated by epidemiology since I was a little kid first reading about the Black Death, and that interest only grew as I learned more about it over the years. Diving into the study of environmental history was especially fascinating for me, as I learned how under-emphasized the role of epidemics and pandemics has been in history, as if humans were trying to pretend that history was actually under our own control. This eventually culminated in me writing The Wrack, my own plague novel which, for better or worse, ended up coming out at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Slightly awkward timing, there.)
Plague has come to the continent of Teringia. As the Wrack makes its slow, relentless march southwards, it will humble kings and healers, seers and merchants, priests and warriors. Behind, it leaves only screams and suffering, and before it, spreads only fear.
Lothain, the birthplace of the Wrack, desperately tries to hold itself together as the plague burns across it and its neighbors circle like vultures. The Moonsworn healers would fight the Wrack, but must navigate distrust and violence from the peoples of Teringia. Proud Galicanta readies itself for war, as the Sunsworn Empire watches and waits for the Wrack to bring its rival low. And the Wrack advances, utterly unconcerned with the plans of men.
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A time-traveling historian is stranded in the fourteenth century when an epidemic breaks out in her own time. A bittersweet, depressing, wonderful, character-driven book that shows the individual costs of plagues better than just about any other novel I’ve ever read- and I’ve read a lot of them. Deservedly won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.
Aliens crash-land near a medieval European village during the Black Death, and establish friendly relations with the villagers- but Earth’s food lacks vital nutrients for them, and the plague creeps closer every day. Wonderful, heart-wrenching book about communities during times of crisis and disaster, and about the fundamental humanity that crisis brings out in us—even towards those who aren’t human.
Most zombie stories have horribly unscientific epidemiology, but Feed is definitely the exception. Mira Grant knocks this tale of journalists covering a post-zombie apocalypse presidential election out of the park- it’s a brilliant take on both epidemiological fiction and zombies. Considerably more action-packed than the rest of this list, and the sequels are excellent as well.
A slice-of-life epidemiological fantasy novel set in the small town of Balam, as it deals with a mysterious illness accompanied by strange insectoid monsters intent on stealing the corpses of the victims. One of the weirder books on the list, with a setting heavily inspired by the Final Fantasy game series and lower stakes than most of the others – but still well worth a read.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant explores plague through the lens of empire, as a deliberate tool of conquest for the monstrous Masquerade. It’s only one of the tools they use, but it’s the single best exploration of the deliberate use of infectious disease as a weapon I’ve ever encountered in fiction. The protagonist, the titular Baru Cormorant, is also one of the most competent protagonists in fantasy, and her struggle to tear apart the Masquerade from within without letting herself be corrupted by power is absolutely compelling.
5,215 authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about pandemics, the Middle Ages, and physicists.
We think you will like In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, and To Calais, in Ordinary Time if you like this list.
From Bryn's list on The best books about pandemics, parasites, and pathogens.
Cantor’s book showed me that when a lethal pandemic arrives, it can change society in ways that make “returning to normal” impossible, because the conditions that made “normal” possible no longer exist. The Black Death - probably a bubonic plague pandemic - wiped out as much as half of China’s population, before traveling the silk road to Europe where, from 1347-1351, a third of the population died. The pandemic also suffocated the feudal order, created the conditions for capitalism, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, breathed new life into art, and transformed the legal system. In effect, the pandemic plowed the seedbed for the modern Western world. Covid may be a similar epidemiological juggernaut, sweeping away human institutions that we know, leaving us a novel world that will be strange and different in ways we can’t yet imagine.
From Yvonne's list on The best pandemic books published pre-COVID.
Unfortunately,
the Great Influenza is no longer “the deadliest pandemic in history,” but Barry’s
nonfiction book does an excellent job bringing history to life. After setting
the stage of American medicine in the early twentieth century, he depicts the
progression of the pandemic, showing its effect on public health and society as
a whole. I was fascinated with how people communicated (colored crepe on the
door, for example, to indicate a death) without our current technology.
From Lesley's list on The best books about pandemics.
I’d never read a book quite like this one before. Set in 1348, the pandemic setting for this book is, of course, the Black Death. A gentlewoman, her servant, and a group of soldiers travel across England, only slowly becoming aware of how much danger they are in, as the disease lays waste to the population. Be warned, it is written in an Olde English dialect which takes a little while to get used to. It’s well worth sticking with it, though, because the characters are beautifully drawn, and you will be rooting for them every inch of the way, as they attempt to out-ride their fate.
