The Jupiter Legacy

A.K.A. The Plague From Space or The Jupiter Plague. The explorer ship Pericles returns from Jupiter. The single surviving crewman is infected with a deadly plague that has the potential to wipe out life on Earth. The plague soon starts spreading, despite all attempts to quarantine it, because it's carried by birds. Bird flue. Something like that. Don't want to give away more of the plot, because it would spoil it. Besides, its not terribly complicated. This is a small snazzy thriller, written with Harrison's consummate skill for writing fast-paced action stuff; with good characterizations. Short and snappy, as a lot of novels from that period were—unlike today where anything under 200k words seems to be considered to be unfit for serious consideration. Why it's on the list: Because it's much more fun that Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain, which deals with a similar topic and might have been on this list if it hadn't been for this book here. And, let's face it, for completeness's sake you've got to have a plague-from-space-intended-to-wipe-us-out novel on this list. It's the storytelling that makes The Jupiter Legacy 'great'. It focuses on characters rather than procedure. Some of the technological elements may look antiquated (the books was first published in 1966), but it doesn't matter. In case you're interested, McDevitt's The Hercules Text tackles a similar subject from another angle. Read if you like: Harry Harrison, who also penned the Deathworld series. Apparently-unstoppable-epidemic tales. Great entertainment.