Ill Wind and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.
Start reading Ill Wind on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Ill Wind [Mass Market Paperback]

Kevin J. Anderson (Author), Doug Beason (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 9.99
Price: CDN$ 9.49 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details
You Save: CDN$ 0.50 (5%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Wednesday, May 22? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition CDN $5.00   -- --
Hardcover --   -- --
Mass Market Paperback CDN $9.49   -- --
Audio, Cassette --   -- --

Book Description

Release Date: Dec 28 2010
It’s the largest oil spill in history: a crashed supertanker in San Francisco Bay. Desperate to avert environmental damage—and a PR disaster—the multinational oil company releases an untested “designer microbe” to break up the spill.

An “oil-eating” microbe, designed to consume anything made of petrocarbons: oil, gasoline, synthetic fabrics, and of course plastic.

What the company doesn’t realize is that their microbe propagates through the air. But when every car in the Bay Area turns up with an empty gas tank, they begin to suspect something is terribly wrong.

And when, in just a few days, every piece of plastic in the world has dissolved, it’s too late...

Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

A promising disaster scenario fizzles as Anderson and Beason (coauthors of Assemblers of Infinity and The Trinity Paradox) succumb to lightweight plotting, facile characterization and an apparent need to allude to as many pop-cultural artifacts as possible. When a panicky oil company tries to clean up a major spill in San Francisco Bay by dropping genetically engineered oil-eating microbes on it, the little organisms go berserk and start devouring most of the world's long-chain polycarbons (gasoline, plastics, etc.). Within the first 150 pages, this leads to a breakdown of communications and information-processing systems. From there until the end of the novel, however, affairs are basically limited to several displays of plucky ingenuity (during which one character compares the work of his group, unfavorably, to that of the Professor on Gilligan's Island). Meanwhile, an acting president and a general, independently, attempt to enforce martial law on an unwilling populace. The heroes are heroic, especially scientist Spencer Lockwood and pilots Billy Carron and Todd Severyn (the latter atoning for having unwittingly dropped the petrol-eating organism in the first place). Todd's girlfriend, Iris Shikozu, stages a post-apocalyptic rock concert at the Altamont Speedway. Almost all the chapter headings are titles of old pop songs, books or movies (Good Vibrations, The Stand, Urban Cowboy). It's possible that those who care, as Iris does, about Kansas's live comeback album will find this fascinating, but most readers are likely to feel that The End of the World As We Know It deserves better handling.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Two best-selling authors team up to confront a biotechnological catastrophe.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Lackluster Post Apocalypse a waste of time and money. Jan 30 2004
By Anthony Rimel
Format:Hardcover
As a kid who grew up on Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moesta’s Young Jedi knights Series and a disciple of Post-Apocalypse fiction I had high hopes for Ill Wind which fell flat almost immediately. This book gets bogged down quickly by uninteresting characters to much description of an ecological disaster from too many points of view, and basically no story to speak of. Period. There is nothing but a premise and filler. This is a boring book that I would not read again nor recommend to anyone else who actually want to read good literature.
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
4.0 out of 5 stars It's an Ill Wind that doesn't blow some good April 7 2002
By Rebecca Drayer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
That seems to be true of this book as well. Ill Wind is the story of the chaos that results when a tailored microorganism destroys the world's petrochemical products. I found the descriptions of the collapse of civilization to be interesting, but found the scientific basis not quite believable. The jump from an organism that just destroys octane to an organism that destroys all oil- and plastic-based products is just too great.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book. Other reviewers have mentioned that it follows the standard "disaster format" of multiple characters and plotlines, but this works for me. I found each of the characters to be engaging (with the possible exception of Connor Brooks, who was just too whiney for belief).

I admit that I initially picked up this book because I enjoy biotech thrillers, but I'm glad I did.

Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
3.0 out of 5 stars Disaster thriller entertains and keeps up suspense/interest. Feb 27 2002
By Chadwick H. Saxelid
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The opening pages, wherein an oil tanker collides with one of the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge and spills tons of crude into the San Francisco Bay, are pure suspense and realistic action. Sadly the multiple stories that follow are standard disaster thriller filler. The novel is far from boring, it's just that it suffers from the same problems with contrivance and characterization that plague other 'cast of thousands' disaster epics. This is strictly for those that can't stop themselves from watching The Poseidon Adventure or The Towering Inferno whenever it pops up on cable.
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Want to see more reviews on this item?
Most recent customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Read Mutant 59: Plastic Eaters instead
Ill Wind is well-enough done and a good cautionary novel. But I liked the plot in the "original" version better - of course, there are no new plots and art is all in the... Read more
Published on Aug 6 2000 by "bidness1"
3.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, fair execution
Ill Wind is about the grounding of a supertanker and subsequently a petroleum-eating bacterium which gets out of control. A broad story with "a cast of thousands". Read more
Published on Jan 14 1999
2.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating concept but ultimately falls flat.
Imagine a world in which petroleum products suddenly disappeared, along with all the machines and gadgets that use them. This would include gasoline, oil, and all plastics. Read more
Published on Jun 15 1998
4.0 out of 5 stars Ill Wind Highly Entertaining
Ill Wind was a very entertaining read. Anderson and Beason carefully describes the people, places and events. Read more
Published on Jun 19 1997
3.0 out of 5 stars Oil-eating Bug Dissolves Plastic Characters
The authors explore our society's dependence on petroleum-based products and the danger of relying on technological fixes for our every crisis. Read more
Published on Jun 9 1997
2.0 out of 5 stars A good concept, completely wasted
I picked this up in an airport based on the books concept (a good one). I soon asked "why am I reading this?" Its full of scientific holes and inaccuracies. Read more
Published on April 18 1997
5.0 out of 5 stars Changed my outlook on life as we know it.
This book created a very real sense of how dependent society is on oil and plastic. It paints a plausible scenario of how life as we know it would cease to exist if oil and... Read more
Published on Jan 28 1997
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

    Your Shopping Cart is empty.

    Give it purpose—fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics, and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    View Cart (0 items)

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback

      Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

      Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges