Strange book. Despite several major annoyances I'll describe later, overall I liked the book. But I think a lot of that is attributable to Agnes (I just looked it up by mistake, and Agnes was the patron saint of young girls. Adds a whole new layer to things...), she's just so endearing a character. She was the only one I really cared about.

On to the flaws. First, and most important, the description of the society at 2054 is totally absurd. Telephone lines cut off, no supplies being delivered, etc etc etc. Even in 1954 things wouldn't have gone so out of control. What's the logic in the phone lines cutting off, anyway? If people are sick and lying in beds they make less calls instead of more, so what exactly is it that supposedly jammed up the lines? I don't get it. Also, it takes them forever to figure out that the virus came from the dig and the reader has figured it out hundreds of pages ago. And what's up with Basingame? I kept expecting him to be found murdered in some lake or something, but the issue never got resolved. Very annoying.

I could go on about the flaws in the future part of the book, but let's move on to the past. I hated the way Willis kept portraying the people of the time as noble and goody-goody and saying that written history must be all wrong, as a way of trying to evoke our sympathy for them. I have no problem believing that people ran away from the plague; it's what I, and any sane person, would do. But no, Willis thinks everyone who does that is a shameful coward and the only right and honorable thing to do is stay and die along with the rest. I just don't see anything admirable in that attitude...