Year Zero

Year Zero
By Jeff Long
Pocket Books, 2002. 406 pgs. Fiction

Nathan Lee Swift is an archaeologist who essentially loots the Golgotha site of the remains of many crucifixion victims. Then he's off into the Himalayas on another adventure which goes awry and he spends 17 months in a jail. When he emerges the world is dying. A plague is sweeping across the planet with devastating consequences.

In the United States all attempts to counter the plague have failed; however, a band of young scientists have gathered at the Los Alamos facility and are attempting radical solutions to stay the plague. The author creates several very interesting threads in this novel: the archaeology, cloning of humans from the first century, and the plague destroying virtually all humanity and civilization. These threads begin weaving nicely together, but then they unravel--the novel's conclusion is anti-climatic and disappointing.

SML