Quoting works of fiction. Why not? It's no different than most of the stuff we hear around here.
Yet I'm certain that people will argue that the fictitious novel is true, while documented reports are false.
Originally Posted by Yssup Rider
I think you have missed the point. Perhaps I was not clear. As the Seinfeld character, George Castanza often said, "It's not you, its me."
The novel is not cited as an authority or as a news source. I have even started that in my opinion, it is not all that good as a work of fiction.
However, the author does describe how our world wide society could collapse under a truly universal and fatal pandemic. The Black Death of the middle ages, the viral disease called Bubonic Plague, was "only" 30% fatal at the time and though still with us, is 100% treatable with therapeutics today.
What caught my attention was how quickly our standard of living can deteriorate from our current 21st Century high water mark to something like pre-Roman or earlier. By "earlier" I mean things like how to make fire and how to store food. The life path might drop back to "hunter-gatherer" in places. Without metal work it could be back to chipping flint.
The author missed a lot of that while looking for a mini--utopian, communal sort of ending. It might be worth reading in the context of this thread while recognizing that it is not great literature.