Altogether, WHO estimates that vector-borne diseases chiefly via insects caused by either parasites, bacteria or viruses kill about , people a year and sicken hundreds of millions more. But it is plagues that have been and potentially still are the really big killers of humans. Plagues are still with us. The WHO reports that 1. The annual influenza epidemics cause , to , respiratory deaths, while in , there were more than , measles deaths globally. And of course we are in the midst of a Covid pandemic, and even though mortality is relatively low compared to previous serious plagues, it has killed at least 1.
On the other hand, we have become reasonably adept at controlling most plagues, especially through basic sanitation, hygiene and immunization. So it seems unlikely plagues will control our population, unless we get a pandemic as lethal as the Black Death; imagine, for example, an air-borne version of something like Ebola.
We have one horseman left — food supply: How effective will this be in controlling the human population? So far, food supply has more than kept pace with population growth. A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC notes that there has been more than a 30 per cent increase in the amount of food per person since This in spite of a growth in global population and growing demand for animal products in middle-income countries. Perhaps more troubling is the potential loss of seafood as we hoover up the oceans fisheries.
Climate change is undermining the most fundamental ecological determinants of our health. However, this requires increased economic development in low-income countries as it takes a certain amount of national wealth to fund the clean water, universal education and other factors that increase social and human development.
Of course, what low-income countries need is not four planets but a fair share of this one small planet. And that means that we in high-income countries have to take less.
But even with the overall global ecological footprint being only 1. In doing so, we are undermining the most fundamental ecological determinants of our health — water, food, materials and fuels being chief among them — and vital ecosystem services; a stable climate, UV protection, waste decomposition and recycling, and the cycling of nitrogen and phosphorus being some key examples.
And our intrusion into nature increases the risk of encountering and spreading new infectious diseases, as we have seen with Ebola, COVID and other diseases. Yes indeed. The beginning of wisdom is the fear reference of the Lord.
The Bible has the answers. When we are in the Lord, we need not fear. He is our strength and our rock. We are secure in the Lord. What this guy is saying is that we need population control. Not buying his Marxist socialistic mumbo jumbo. Even more, they want us to give up our life style for the rest of the world.
They will continue to live the high life No thank you. This type of thinking is not the solution. It is the problem! Indeed, reading the book of John would be good, but, please, stay out of the babylonian buildings called churches. I was in for about 15 yrs, since I was born again…left disillusioned at the lack of concern for sin and being set apart etc.
Hired hands leading, light forced to fellowship with dark. Just read your Bible and ask Yahweh to help you see and lead you in these exceedingly difficult last days of this age, before Yahshua jesus returns to resurrect His people and begin His rule and reign.
Much, much deceit out there! When they do, the results could be catastrophic. A breakdown caused by war in one part of the world, coupled with an outbreak of influenza, as in World War I, would be all it would take to set in motion a major disease pandemic on the scale of those described in the book of Revelation. And when these horsemen make their rides, it will be after repeated warning and pleading from God to turn from sin and live righteously based on His eternal law of love toward God and man.
When God first set ancient Israel in a land of promise, He gave them instruction on how to live and conduct their affairs in a way that would bring peace and harmony.
God wanted them to live with blessing and abundance, not suffering and misery. In His basic instruction, our Creator explained how to avoid the problems that will devastate the world with the opening of these seals. Here is the solution to false religion, represented by the first seal and its horseman.
Any form of worship other than that given by God is a false idol having no value or validity. Lacking meaning or sense, it is worse than nothing because it leads to willful ignorance and lack of understanding of the true God and His purpose for human life.
False religion and deception breaks the bond between God and His creation and leads to false systems of religion. When this bond is broken, human relationships suffer, leading to conflict and war, represented by the second of the seals. For obedience, God promises the opposite of the third horseman of famine—plenty of food from abundant harvests. And the antidote to the fourth horseman of disease? However, if they disobeyed and broke the covenant, they could expect disease to afflict them, their families and their nation.
The Lord will smite you with consumption, with fever and inflammation. Bound within the promises of blessings and curses is the larger context for the four seals of Revelation 6. The human race is bound to its Creator in a relationship that will reach a conclusion.
Mankind eventually will come face to face with God and admit that He is the one and only true God. God will bring justice to the earth, but first there will be a time of unparalleled tribulation.
The economic impact is disastrous, with the long-term consequences still uncertain. We will likely be feeling the impact for years to come. One can only imagine the worldwide impact to come from the culmination of the ride of the pale horseman. The world has seen relatively mild precursors. What will happen when modern communications and travel allow people to see literally millions of deaths? Which brings us to the only hope this world has to survive this devastating stampede.
Indeed, John saw more than four horsemen in his vision. He saw five. Revelation Revelation [11] And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war. So Pestilence decides to NOT kill her right away, and instead to make her suffer.
And, at first she really does. But, as time goes on, these two crazy kids, who each tortured the other, fall in love - Stockholm Syndrome style. It's beautiful. This guy is a total sweet-talker. And, he's a virgin. Now, I gotta say, good job on turning things around, Laura Thalassa! We need more virgin, beautiful god-men who fall in love with snarky not-virginal normal-women.
If I have to read about one more alpha caveman playboy asshole who only falls in love with the snowflake virgin girl who saved herself just for him, I will probably puke. Of course, since he's Pestilence, he might still dish them out, but at least he doesn't have them himself. Why do we even have that font? This book does have a paranormal romance going on, but it also has a lot of darkness, depth, and meaning in it. If there was anything I would have changed, it would have been towards the end.
I don't feel like every couple HAS to have a break-up and fit into that exact formula. Also, view spoiler [ I kind of wished that he would have stayed Pestilence and they would have rode around killing humanity.
That would have been a lot cooler. I fell in love with a stone-cold killer, not view spoiler [some average shlub who quits his job. View all 78 comments. Plague Daddy, yes please step on me. If only. Alas, that kind of scenario only happens in books. But hey, a girl can day dream, right? Anyhow, my morbid sense of humor steered me into rereading this post apocalyptic paranormal romance. And surprise surprise, what a stellar combo this turned out to be!
It was strangely comforting that amidst all the chaos, I could smoothly immerse myself in this more or less chaotic world of the Four Horsemen. This reread has made me appreciate the author more and love all the things I found slightly troubling on my first read. One day, Sara tries to kill Pestilence —for obvious reasons. But much to her and the rest of human race dismay, the guy is immortal duh!
These two are like oil and water! Sara is sassy, sarcastic, and compassionate. Pestilence, harbinger of death as he may be, is cruel but also adorably innocent. How is that possible?! In spite of the nonexistent plot and lack of world building, this book truly excels where romance is concerned. Our main leads have a rocky start to their relationship. The ending of this book kinda reminded me of Twilight: New Moon.
The writing manages to alleviate the bleakness of the setting. Regardless of all the grotesque carnage and violence, this book has granted me an overall fun and entertaining reading experience. My review of : 2 War — 4 Stars 3 Famine — 2. View all 19 comments. Holy shit! Review to come later! View all 9 comments. Jul 22, Whitney Atkinson rated it it was ok Shelves: romance , read-in , smutty.
This book was like a train wreck—so, so bad, but so, so fascinating. I could sit here and cri This book was like a train wreck—so, so bad, but so, so fascinating.
Which just makes me think, has Laura Thalassa ever seen a horse? I just hope the author is okay with me only reading this to make fun of it, because the entire concept is bizarre and silly. I was definitely surprised at the discussion of immortality and morality in this. View all 16 comments. Mar 27, Sabrina rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites.
This is the first book that I have read about the Four Horsemen. And damn if it wasn't good. This book is a great combination of a very realistic and sarcastic female character and a very well writing anti-hero.
What else do you need to be honest? Sara is just great, and she and I have 2 things in common, I'm tedious as well and I too have a soft spot for Pestilence. I absolutely adore it when she had her philosophical moments and her love for poetry and English literature.
And once you humanize something, you are essentially recognizing its existence. An anti-hero at its finest. He's somewhat oblivion about the world that he is supposed to destroy just made his character better.
And I absolutely adore him! With that cliffhanger? The next book will be about WAR! I need it! This is definitely a favorite of mine. View all 24 comments.
That cover! I had already paid for the paperback and now the new covers won't match. This is the last time I buy a print book of an incomplete series. View all 31 comments. Instagram Twitter Facebook Amazon Pinterest Writing this review makes me sad because I really wanted to love this book for several reasons. One, because I'm friends with the author on Goodreads, have chatted with her, and really like her as a person; she seems really kind, laid-back, and funny.
Two, because I am in love with that cover. It seems to be paying homage to the bodice-rippers of the s and 90s, which I am all for , as you probably know, being the self-professed Bodice Instagram Twitter Facebook Amazon Pinterest Writing this review makes me sad because I really wanted to love this book for several reasons. It seems to be paying homage to the bodice-rippers of the s and 90s, which I am all for , as you probably know, being the self-professed Bodice Ripper Kahleesi.
And three, the idea of a paranormal romance involving the four Horsemen of the apocalypse was a really unique idea and I wanted to support it, was hoping for something like J. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood meets R. Lee Smith's Last Hour of Gann. The beginning and ending are unarguably the best parts of this book. Sara Burns, the heroine, is a firefighter who has literally drawn the short stick to stay behind and protect her town at all costs.
When she sees Pestilence riding his horse, she shoots him and then lights his body on fire. To her horror, he comes for her, half-rotting and dead, and makes her his prisoner, vowing to her that as soon as he's fully healed, he intends to make her suffer.
His treatment of her is so cruel, and the story plays out across all these abandoned households and ghost-towns filled with the dead. It's creepy AF. The problem occurs with what I think of as insta-love, even though it doesn't happen instantly - Sara's attraction to Pestilence happens much too fast.
I saw it coming because the descriptions of his angelic beauty were far too numerous to ignore the warning signs looming on the horizons. I certainly wasn't happy about it, though, especially since she forgives his abusive treatment of her - shooting her in the back with arrows, dragging her bound down a tarmac road while he's on horseback, etc. One of the thing I love about R.
Lee Smith's work, who also specializes in immortal love stories, is that 1 she isn't afraid to make her heroes repulsive or at least inhuman and 2 the connections that are forged between her characters unravel gradually, amidst much emotional strife.
I kept thinking how much better this story might have played out in the hands of an author like that. I did like how the apocalyptic setting brought out the worst in people, although there were several scenes that were almost identical in how they played out.
These scenes gave me a taste of the grim setting I was expecting. I also liked the old couple they might at one point, and was quite moved by their story. That was one of the saddest parts of the book. As I said, the ending was also great and brought up some very interesting moral dilemmas; it also felt like a very different book from the first. It was like the author had 2 disparate ideas: one about a messed-up romance between a monster and an ordinary human girl R.
Lee Smith and the other about a tender romance between a misunderstood and tragic figure who must be redeemed by an ordinary human girl Stephenie Meyer. They really didn't mesh for me. Also, Pestilence says some pretty creepy things to Sara about her not being a virgin.
I quoted the thing he said in one of my status updates, but that made me really not like him, and that's supposedly after he's started to fall for her. What the hell, Pestilence? Sure, he redeemed himself in the end, but there's a pattern of creep behavior here that was never sufficiently addressed or talked through. Overall, I found myself sadly disappointed by this book because so many people were giving it high ratings and I really wanted to enjoy it too.
I do have other books by this author on my Kindle, so I'm hoping that they might be better for me than this one. I also saw that the second book in this series is about War, so maybe a character who deals in battles will be more appealing to me than one who deals in fevers and plagues.
Thank you, Heather , for buddy-reading this with me! View all 40 comments. I will definitely be reading it again. And the general consensus from our buddy read BR : It was a total roller-coaster. There were some moments where it seemed to damn near fly off the tracks just to keep us screaming and hanging on for dear life And even though this tale was filled with darkness, devastation, suffering, violence, heartbreak and despair?
While it also explored some of the deeper questions about life, death, faith, morality, and G 5 stars This book is now on my favourites shelf. While it also explored some of the deeper questions about life, death, faith, morality, and God? It was often freakin' hilarious. That humour helped us to get through them too. As for Pestilence who came to be affectionately known around BR parts as Pest? Well, you've got to read the book to understand just how much of a feat this author pulled off in making one of the freakin' four horseman of the apocalypse,"the literal embodiment of plague", a sympathetic romantic figure, especially when you consider that his sole purpose was to wipe out humankind and he was doing such a damn fine job of it Of course.
How exactly do you answer that one when the kids ask, someday, how you both met?! This is a story about love, forgiveness, understanding, compassion and hope, and the ways in which all those things but especially love have the potential to save the world Such a fascinating ride.
And now I'm definitely looking forward to Death. One of the upcoming books in this series, peeps, and not the real deal. Just so we're clear here. Since I'm also intrigued by the blurb? Onto the TBR pile it goes! View all 71 comments. So me about Laura Thalassa all the time: Which will probably lead to this: Anyways I preordered and everything, which I rarely ever do. Then once it hit my kindle I couldn't put it down except for sleep. Stupid stupid sleep.
Here's what I was like reading the book: And I loved it so much! My first 5 star book in over a month! This is about Sara, a young firefighter who attempts to kill Pestilence when he comes to her town. BUT, he cannot be killed. So Pestilence takes Sara captive in order to make her suffer. Over time Sara finds herself conflicted because of the horrible things he does, but she cannot help but see another side to the horseman.
The question is, can he ever change and go against his nature? I get completely sucked into her world building, her characters and her stories. I demand more of my book friends read her books!!! Seriously, you won't regret it.
And now, to wait for the next book View all 8 comments. Free on Amazon. Apparently when I get sick I have to do it to extremes. I have the nastiest cold I've had in years while on that time of the the month and battling migraines. I've had quite enough these past three days to be honest.
Anywhocaresaboutthisbitcheshealthproblemsway, I loved the book. I loved the concept and the writing wa Free on Amazon. I loved the concept and the writing was exceptional. It did remind me The Queen of All that Dies but I dunno if it was because of the characters and their love-hate relationship or just the authors writing style. Pro-tip, don't read this while you're sick.
I had some pretty messed up, feverish dreams about Pestilence touching me and me dying. Woke up in panic attack mode because I thought I couldn't breathe. Obviously, I could just not that well. I will try to re-write this review at a later time because this rambling doesn't even make sense in my brain, right now or give justice to this lovely book.
I will also try to catch up with all your reviews,updates and news probably next week as writing this has exhausted me. Hope you're all healthy and well. Please excuse any mistakes. The blurb! View all 33 comments. Love it! I needed more from the epilogue, but other than that Pestilence is my favourite book of the year so far.
View all 6 comments. I kept thinking, "How is she going to pull this together?!?!!? The ending didn't completely ruin the book.
But it did view spoiler [force me to lower my rating by 1 star. The lack of repercussions made what came prior feel campy and trite instead of awesome. From that perspective, the ending was a HUGE let down. If there are no repercussions for their actions, then what's the point? Where's the conflict? Literally, there wasn't happening anything remarkable that would push story forward. There was only annoying bickering between MCs and nothing else!
I can't remember the last time when I was bored as much as while reading Pestilence. To be honest, I found romance in this book disgusting and not romantic at all. There even wasn't any chemistry between Sara and Horseman, at least I didn't feel it. Author set on a quest to make a complete villain into romantic hero but it didn't work out. Author made it look as if hero wanted to change just so he could win Sara over, not because he realized his wrongdoings.
Moreover, there was no believable romance development at all. Except for lust, I had no idea what Pestilence saw in Sara and vice versa. How could she even consider indulging such a soulless creature?
How could she even think about having sex with THE killer while being witness to all those terrible deaths all around her? But what could I expect from one-dimensional characters Simply said, I couldn't find it in me to root for the "romance". If you want truly good and believable romance with somehow evil but complex hero, go for Extinguish by J.
Darhower and avoid this book. Using the alias "Dr. Green" a reference to the color of his ring and car Pestilence is working at the Serenity Valley Convalescent Home. He tends to an old woman named Celeste, telling her she has a combination of the common cold, dengue fever, and a "nasty, nasty case of Japanese encephalitis.
She asks if he is going to cure her, and he tells her that she is going to die. She vomits in his face before she dies. A demon-possessed nurse comes to warn him that the Winchesters have arrived and suggests they leave, noting that Sam and Dean have "a track record with Horsemen. Pestilence embraces the nurse and turns the ring on his finger, triggering an epidemic in the nursing home affecting every human inside, including Sam and Dean who are armed and hunting Pestilence. While writhing on the ground from their illnesses, Pestilence tells them they're suffering from scarlet fever, meningitis and syphilis, and gives them a condescending lecture about God , disease and humanity.
Castiel, now human, enters the room and falls to the floor after beginning to feel the effects of Pestilence's epidemic. Pestilence mocks him for being a powerless occupied vessel, noting that "there's not a speck of angel in you.
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