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Countdown by Mira Grant

December 9, 2014 by

Source: Amazon Kindle
ebook, 82 pgs
On Amazon and on Kobo

Countdown (A Newsflesh Novella) by Mira Grant is a great addition to the trilogy, chronicling the emergence of Kellis-Amberlee from its aucpicious beginnings as separate cures for the common cold and cancer.  There is the saying that there can be too much of a good thing, and in this case, these good things combined to create one of the most destructive things imaginable for the human race.  Dr. Alexander Kellis is working on a way to cure the common cold, but his testing is still in animal trials, while Dr. Daniel Wells is working on the Marburg Amberlee cure for cancer and is testing on humans with some success.

“‘This guy thinks he can eat textbooks and shit miracles,’ was the pitch.”

“Freed from its secure lab environment, Alpha-RC007 floated serene and unaware on the air currents of the stratosphere.  It did not enjoy freedom; it did not abhor freedom; it did not feel anything, not even the cool breezes holding it aloft.  In the absence of a living host, the hybrid virus was inert, waiting for something to come along and shock it into a semblance of life.”

“There is nothing so patient, in this world or any other, as a virus searching for a host.”

While these scientists are working on separate cures, there are forces outside of their labs that threaten their progress.  The Mayday Army, once a pot-head group of kids, is bent on “sticking it to The Man.”  They see an opportunity and take it.  Meanwhile, the unsuspecting people throughout the country, including the Masons from the trilogy itself, are left to deal with the wide-ranging consequences.  Through a series of blog entries, these tales unfold in rapid succession, ramping up the tension toward the ultimate conclusion before the start of the official trilogy.

Countdown (A Newsflesh Novella) by Mira Grant is not a necessary addition to the series, but certainly one that will be appreciated by those that love the novels and want more about how the outbreak that ended modern civilization occurred.  Readers will enjoy how Grant mixes scientific jargon into a thriller.

About the Author:

Born and raised in Northern California, Mira Grant has made a lifelong study of horror movies, horrible viruses, and the inevitable threat of the living dead. In college, she was voted Most Likely to Summon Something Horrible in the Cornfield, and was a founding member of the Horror Movie Sleep-Away Survival Camp, where her record for time survived in the Swamp Cannibals scenario remains unchallenged.

Mira lives in a crumbling farmhouse with an assortment of cats, horror movies, comics, and books about horrible diseases. When not writing, she splits her time between travel, auditing college virology courses, and watching more horror movies than is strictly good for you. Favorite vacation spots include Seattle, London, and a large haunted corn maze just outside of Huntsville, Alabama.

Mira sleeps with a machete under her bed, and highly suggests that you do the same.

Filed Under: fiction, purchased, Read in 2014, reviews, short stories Tagged With: , , , ,

Blackout by Mira Grant

November 14, 2014 by

Source: Public Library
Paperback, 659 pgs
On Amazon and on Kobo

Blackout by Mira Grant (beware there could be spoilers for Feed or Deadline in this review) is the final installment in the Newsflesh series, and it is a stunning ride that will leave readers breathless to the final page.  It has been a long time since a zombie series has been this well developed and thought out.  Grant has created a masterful new world after the Rising of zombies in which bloggers have taken over as the trusted form of communication and information, and while the American populace continues to trust the CDC, the government is still considered sketchy at best.  Shaun Mason and his group of bloggers at After the End Times continue to dig into the death of one of their own, looking for someone to blame.  At the same time, Shaun is hardly coping, speaking with voices in his head, and his team is enabling his craziness.

“‘Shaun … ‘ There was a wary note in Alaric’s voice.  I could practically see him sitting at his console, knotting his hands in his hair and trying not to let his irritation come through the microphone.  I was his boss, after all, which meant he had to at least pretend to be respectful.  Once in a while.  ‘That’s your fourth catch of the night.  I think that’s enough, don’t you?’

‘I’m going for the record.’

There was a click as Becks plugged her own channel into the connection and snapped peevishly, ‘You’ve already got the record.  Four catches in a night is twice what anyone else has managed, ever.  Now please, please, come back to the lab.'”  (page 20)

As a tropical storm wreaks havoc on Florida and other southern states ad the dead begin to rise at a faster rate, Shaun and his team not only have to uncover what has happened, but have to find a way to get the word out when the government has effectively caused a media blackout.  While the team is still gathering information and poking zombies, the focus on higher ratings has fallen off the radar for the team.  Conspiracy theorists and zombie fiction lovers will love the ride Grant takes them on, and the series touches upon a number of issues, particularly medical ethics.

Blackout by Mira Grant wrapped up the series nicely, though there is an e-novella that follows this, and Grant has created characters who struggle with the truth — finding it and keeping it real for everyone else.  From experimenting on live subjects to creating clones, the Newsflesh series runs the gamut of medical ethics issues, but it also highlights the idea of journalistic ethics and objectivity.

About the Author:

Born and raised in Northern California, Mira Grant has made a lifelong study of horror movies, horrible viruses, and the inevitable threat of the living dead. In college, she was voted Most Likely to Summon Something Horrible in the Cornfield, and was a founding member of the Horror Movie Sleep-Away Survival Camp, where her record for time survived in the Swamp Cannibals scenario remains unchallenged.

Mira lives in a crumbling farmhouse with an assortment of cats, horror movies, comics, and books about horrible diseases. When not writing, she splits her time between travel, auditing college virology courses, and watching more horror movies than is strictly good for you. Favorite vacation spots include Seattle, London, and a large haunted corn maze just outside of Huntsville, Alabama.

Mira sleeps with a machete under her bed, and highly suggests that you do the same.

Filed Under: borrowed copy, fiction, Hachette Books, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, reviews, science fiction Tagged With: , ,

Deadline by Mira Grant

October 30, 2014 by

Source: Public Library
Paperback, 581 pgs
On Amazon and on Kobo

Deadline by Mira Grant is the second in the NewsFlesh series; see my review of Feed and be aware that could be spoilers in this review.  Following the presidential campaign of Peter Ryman, the news blog After the End Times has grown exponentially, and Shaun Mason hardly keeps track of the day to day administration of the site or who actually works for the business.  He’s still in mourning, but he knows that he has a team to lead, and he does it as best he can, while being mentally haunted by the dead.  No longer an Irwin who pokes zombies for ratings, Shaun has jumped to lead the Newsies and has no desire to return to the field.  Unfortunately, stumbling upon a larger-than-life conspiracy significantly changes his plans to hide in the background, pushing him and his team out into the field and on the run.

“‘Mahir, my main man! You sound a little harried.  Did I wake you?’
‘No, but I really do wish you’d stop calling so late at night.  You know Nandini gets upset when you do.’
‘There you go again, assuming that I’m not actually trying to piss of your wife.  I’m really a much nicer person inside your head, aren’t I? Do I give money to charity and help old-lady zombies across streets so that they can bite babies?’
Mahir sighed.  ‘My, you are in a mood today, aren’t you?'” (page 25)

Combining zombie infestations, anxiety, and conspiracy theories with humor, Mira Grant has built a world in which bloggers have replaced traditional news mediums and surviving zombie infestations is an everyday battle.  Kellis-Amberlee is the result of two bio-engineered viruses combining into something unexpected, and it it causes amplification in any mammal of 40 lbs or more to transform them into zombies.  Shaun and his team report on infestations, outbreaks, and other newsworthy items, as well as post fiction poems, stories, etc. on zombies and other things in their lives.  Generating ratings is a tough business following a successful president election.  Grant includes enough background in her second novel that it could be picked up without reading the first, but there could have been additional editing, as there was too much backstory included from the previous novel.

Deadline by Mira Grant is a fun romp in zombie infested waters, and will be a delight for those who love novels with government conspiracies.  While there is little that is resolved in this book, as there is a third book in the series, there is enough here to whet readers’ appetites for more.  Grant’s world is a unique post-apocalyptic rendering in which not only is surviving essential, but the world has irrecoverably changed from politics and media to how families cope and communities interact.

About the Author:

Born and raised in Northern California, Mira Grant has made a lifelong study of horror movies, horrible viruses, and the inevitable threat of the living dead. In college, she was voted Most Likely to Summon Something Horrible in the Cornfield, and was a founding member of the Horror Movie Sleep-Away Survival Camp, where her record for time survived in the Swamp Cannibals scenario remains unchallenged.

Mira lives in a crumbling farmhouse with an assortment of cats, horror movies, comics, and books about horrible diseases. When not writing, she splits her time between travel, auditing college virology courses, and watching more horror movies than is strictly good for you. Favorite vacation spots include Seattle, London, and a large haunted corn maze just outside of Huntsville, Alabama.

Mira sleeps with a machete under her bed, and highly suggests that you do the same.

Filed Under: borrowed copy, fiction, Hachette Books, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Feed by Mira Grant

September 23, 2014 by

Source: Book Expo America
Audiobook, 15+
On Amazon and on Kobo

Feed (Newsflesh #1) by Mira Grant (a pseudonym for Seanan McGuire), read by Paula Christensen and Jesse Bernstein, is a post-apocalyptic world in which the traditional news is no longer trusted and zombies have taken over the world, just after humanity created a cure for cancer and the common cold in 2014.  Bloggers Georgia Mason, Shaun Mason, Georgette “Buffy” Meissonier, and Richard Cousins run a semi-popular blog that reports the news about zombies and politics, with Georgia considered a newsy, Shaun an Irwin or zombie poker, and Georgette handling the fictional stories/poems and tech behind the blog, After the End Times.  When they are selected to follow the campaign of Republican senator Peter Ryman, who is running for the presidential nomination in 2040, the blog skyrockets to the top of the feed as the campaign trail is wrought with danger from zombie herds and more.  Once Ryman gains the nomination and selects Texas Gov. Tate as a running mate to balance the ticket, Richard Cousins joins the team as another newsy.

“I never asked to be a hero. No one ever gave me the option to say I didn’t want to, that I was sorry, but that they had the wrong girl.“

Grant’s zombie book is horrifying, but funny, as Shaun and Georgia banter back and forth as only siblings can.  Virology and the source of the virus that causes the zombies is well explained, as is how it is transmitted, but at no point is any of this information presented in a dry or uninteresting way.  The addition of blog posts from the bloggers is a nice touch as well.  However, there were points while listening that some information about the transmission of the virus is repeated throughout the book and probably could have been cut out, particularly the bit about mammals under 40 pounds not turning into zombies like animals of larger sizes.  The audio is well done, and the characters are easily discerned from one another.  The narrators did a great job making the emotions of the characters tangible.

Feed (Newsflesh #1) by Mira Grant, read by Paula Christensen and Jesse Bernstein is a journey into a world dominated by corrupt government, news, and zombies.  This is a tension-filled, thrilling novel that presents a believable world in which zombies exist and are mostly contained.  The political machinations mirror those of today’s society, as is the government protocols that constrain movement of humans through infected areas.  Grant meshes the horror of zombie apocalypses, blogging, news, and politics very well, and there are nods to previous zombie fiction and movies, which are viewed as helpful to the society’s reaction to the infection.  Blood, death, and tragedy are expected, but the ending could surprise some readers, though as it is a trilogy, it should be anticipated.

About the Author:

Born and raised in Northern California, Mira Grant has made a lifelong study of horror movies, horrible viruses, and the inevitable threat of the living dead. In college, she was voted Most Likely to Summon Something Horrible in the Cornfield, and was a founding member of the Horror Movie Sleep-Away Survival Camp, where her record for time survived in the Swamp Cannibals scenario remains unchallenged.

Mira lives in a crumbling farmhouse with an assortment of cats, horror movies, comics, and books about horrible diseases. When not writing, she splits her time between travel, auditing college virology courses, and watching more horror movies than is strictly good for you. Favorite vacation spots include Seattle, London, and a large haunted corn maze just outside of Huntsville, Alabama.

Mira sleeps with a machete under her bed, and highly suggests that you do the same.

60th book for 2014 New Author Reading Challenge.

 

 

 

 

This is my 2nd book for:

Peril the Second:

Read two books of any length that you believe fit within the R.I.P. categories:

  • Mystery.
  • Suspense.
  • Thriller.
  • Dark Fantasy.
  • Gothic.
  • Horror.
  • Supernatural.
Filed Under: audiobooks, challenges, fiction, Hachette Books, New Authors Challenge, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2014, reviews Tagged With: , , ,