Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
Contagion & Cosmos: Sci-Fi’s Best Plague Stories
14
items Ever since I read the Hot Zone and lived through the Pandemic, I’ve always been a sucker for sci-fi that hits a little too close to home—especially when it involves viruses, plagues, or post-pandemic worlds. There's something about watching character...
This is a list I’d send to any fellow science fiction lover who’s into outbreak thrillers, dystopian collapse, or hard science virus fiction. Whether you want brainy AI infections, atmospheric post-flu worlds, or mutated space microbes, this list has...
This is a list I’d send to any fellow science fiction lover who’s into outbreak thrillers, dystopian collapse, or hard science virus fiction. Whether you want brainy AI infections, atmospheric post-flu worlds, or mutated space microbes, this list has...
Sections
4
Outbreaks That Changed Everything
Viruses From the Stars
Experimental & Unconventional Infections
Viral Fiction That Feels Real
Outbreaks That Changed Everything
When the infection hits, society cracks. These stories explore the collapse of the world as we know it—and what comes next.
This post-apocalyptic epic pits the survivors of a deadly superflu against each other in a battle between good and evil. It’s massive in scope, hauntingly prescient, and grounded in King’s ability to make every character feel real. A must-read for an...
The Stand by Stephen King, Paperback
After a fast-moving virus wipes out most of humanity, survivors piece together a new way of life. The novel focuses on art, memory, and the strange beauty of what remains. If you're into literary sci-fi with a strong emotional core, this one will sta...
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Paperback
A military experiment turns inmates into vampiric plague-carriers, plunging the world into chaos. Part viral outbreak, part dystopian epic, this book blends action, horror, and deeply human storytelling. Great for fans of biohazard fiction with a sup...
The Passage (Passage Trilogy Series #1) by Justin Cronin, Paperback
Written in 1949, this quiet, philosophical tale follows one man’s journey through a post-plague America. It’s deeply reflective, asking what civilization really means when almost everyone is gone. Think The Road, but with a more hopeful core.
Earth Abides: A Novel: Stewart, George R.
Viruses From the Stars
Alien contagions, mutating DNA, and spacefaring diseases you’d never want to catch—but can’t stop reading about.
An alien microbe crashes to Earth and scientists race to contain it before it mutates. With real-world science and taut pacing, this medical thriller launched Crichton’s career and helped define hard sci-fi plague fiction. Still sharp, still scary.
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton, Paperback
Though more grounded in medical realism, this thriller leans hard into the sci-fi realm with genetically engineered viruses and corporate coverups. It’s fast, scary, and feels eerily familiar in the modern era.
Outbreak by Robin Cook, Paperback
Not about a virus in the traditional sense, but about social contagion and quarantine at a scientific facility watching an alien world. This book explores the limits of human perception and the viral spread of knowledge itself. Unique and mind-bendin...
Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson
Space traders encounter a mysterious disease and are labeled carriers—forced to clear their name while being hunted across the stars. A pulpy, action-heavy classic that blends interstellar travel and pandemic panic.
Plague Ship by Andre Norton
Experimental & Unconventional Infections
Not all viruses destroy the body—some rewrite your mind, your DNA, or reality itself.
In a genetically engineered near-future, a virus wipes out most of humanity. The story, told through the eyes of a survivor, critiques biotech, corporate greed, and human ambition. Dark, satirical, and disturbingly plausible.
Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy #1) by Margaret Atwood, Paperback
A fungus causes spontaneous combustion in the infected, and society descends into panic. One nurse tries to protect the infected and find a cure, even as fire consumes the world. If you liked The Stand, this spiritual successor is well worth reading.
The Fireman: A Novel by Joe Hill, Paperback
An uplifting virus meant to evolve monkeys instead uplifts spiders—yep, intelligent spiders—on a terraformed planet. Over thousands of years, humans and their mistakes collide with this new arachnid civilization. Weird, brilliant, and deeply original...
Children of Time (Children of Time, 1)
Set after humanity’s extinction, this one flips the plague script—an AI “virus” wiped us out, and now robots fight for survival. It’s a plague story without the humans, and a fascinating blend of pathos, action, and machine politics.
Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill, Paperback
Viral Fiction That Feels Real
For readers who want hard science and even harder consequences, these books explore plausible plagues with real-world echoes.
A virus causes “Haden’s Syndrome,” locking people into their own bodies while their minds remain active. A futuristic FBI agent investigates crimes committed by and against these “locked-in” individuals. Technothriller meets disease narrative with Sc...
Lock In by John Scalzi, Paperback
A slow-burn global thriller where strange sea life behavior turns out to be linked to a microbial intelligence. Eco-catastrophe, viral communication, and science politics swirl in a gripping epic. Bonus points for being scientifically dense and globa...
The Swarm: A Novel by Frank Schatzing, Paperback