Doomsday decomposition

I’ve borrowed eBooks, I’ve downloaded freebie eBooks, now the time had come to actually purchase an eBook.

But, which one, there are more than a couple out there competing for my attention, what criteria should my potential initial purchase possess?

In the end, the book I chose was one I’ve had for years, and now is the time to cut it loose and replace it with the new upgraded model.

My  copy with its broken spine & the contents stapled together

According to the iTunes Store, it’s title is “Mutant 59”, but my old paperback copy is “Mutant 59: the plastic eater” by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, the guys who invented the Cybermen for “Doctor Who” (the still epic "Tomb of the Cybermen" series). Gerry was one of the script writers for many of the Doctor Who episodes (the old and best series).

“Mutant 59” is a chilling story of what can happen when scientific research, done in the name of progress, backfires to spread terror throughout the world.

It was the premise that awed me, and has stayed with me, like other similar apocalyptic/disaster speculative sci-fi novels – “The Andromeda strain” and Patrick Tilley’s “Fadeout”. A premise that may be more realistic now, than back in 1971 when it was written, what with our increased pollution, reliance on electronics, and utter dependence on the humble plastic.
It begins innocently enough, motivated by ecological issues to produce eco-friendly products, a manufactured microbe that consumes plastic, is accidentally released, and as the strain evolves it begins to wreak havoc through the London Underground as electrical wires stripped of their plastic coating are no longer insulated ... at first it is bizarre incidents and unconnected accidents that develop into a major crisis. A jet explodes and falls out of the sky, a nuclear submarine vanishes, and infrastructure starts to collapse.

Our hero has to analyse and contain the infection before the expanding devastation causes a world-wide catastrophe. 
It is a frightening (and realistic) scenario when things we take for granted are suddenly out of our control and begin to disintegrate before our eyes.

So, I’m off to purchase the eBook edition before some parasitic plastic muncher can destroy my iPad.