Where Time Ends

The human race ends not with a bang but with a whimper, in this nightmarish novel. Baird ( Finding Fever , Walk Out a Brother ) presents the face of modern war in terms that are on a personal level, making his story's message even more chilling. Teenagers Doug and Loop are on a camping trip in the Adirondacks, where they hear a series of strange sounds one night. Next day, other hikers tell them that the Soviets have attacked the U.S. with missiles, and that the country is in a state of emergency. On the way to a ranger station, the boys meet up with redheaded Ernie and her bitter older brother Orin. From the health precautions that the government orders citizens to take, Loop surmises that the Soviets used biological weapons containing a lethal airborne fungus. The four teens set out for Doug's grandfather's house. Along the way, they see the ordered normality of life disintegrate into violent chaossymbolized by the ever-growing flocks of crows winging hysterically through the sky. Over an abandoned ham radio, they learn that the fungus, and the virus that the Americans used to counterattack, have infiltrated the entire planet; mankind is doomed. One by oneexcept for Orin, who makes his own endthe protagonists succumb to the insidious disease. This is a powerful, horrifying book. Its theme, strong language and violence may make it unsuitable for the younger end of the recommended readership; it is definitely not for the squeamish. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)