An apocalyptic disaster novel by Ira Tabankin.
November 12th, 2014, the Rosetta mission lands a probe on a comet for the first time in history. Six months later, it is announced the Philae lander has detected an organic-rich black crust, most likely the residue of some form of life. In November of 2016, the Leonid meteor shower deposits some of this extraterrestrial substance in Earth's atmosphere, which turns out to be a virulent airborne plague.
Within the first 36 hours, half a billion people die, and the world powers in mutual suspicion nuke each other, adding to the death toll. The survivors of the plague (about 30%) are irrevocably rendered mute, incapable of speech. Thus the disease gains it's name: the Silent Death.
The story follows the Johnsons, a family in Tennessee who flee home to their father's shelter when people begin collapsing, thus weathering the initial stages of disease and nuclear war. Now they must adapt and survive in a world where all modern conveniences are gone, where people need each other more than ever but are largely unable to communicate. Worse, it seems the Silent Death is mutating again...
The Silent Death contains examples of:
- Apocalypse How: Global pandemic, complicated by nuclear war.
- Crazy-Prepared: The patriarch of the Johnson family has a bunker and months worth of supplies.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Averted once again with Barack Obama portrayed as a feckless incompetent whose reaction to hearing that millions are sick is to be outraged he canceled a golf game for the crisis.
- Poor Communication Kills: Inevitable with a large portion of the population rendered speechless. But long before that part, the nuclear devastation caused as each nation assumes the Silent Death to be a biological attack.
