beccastareyes (
beccastareyes) wrote2012-05-12 09:22 pm
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100 SF/Fantasy Stories 001: Deadline by Mira Grant
So, I decided to do the
100things_index, a challenge to write 100 blog posts on a topic or topics. Mine is going to be 'stuff I've read'. There may be some repeats from my book reviews, since I'm on the 'reread until I get the Hugo voter package'.
The first one on the list is Deadline by Mira Grant. I don't remember if I reviewed this when it came out, but let me do so now, as my inaugural 100 SF/Fantasy/Horror Books/Short Stories I've Read.
First off, this is a difficult review to write because it's a second book in a trilogy. Moreover, it's a second book in a trilogy where ANYONE CAN DIE. And Grant (a pen name for Seanan McGuire (
seanan_mcguire) when she's getting her horror on) means this. Seriously, I've heard that you can tell when someone reaches the climax of Feed (the previous book) by when they start cursing the author's name and/or crying.
But, here I go. Deadline is the second book in the Newsflesh trilogy, set in America around 2040. It's a thriller series... in a world where two experimental virii met in the mid 2010s (after idiots broke into a lab and released one before its creator had discovered it liked to make friends with other vireo) and when two virii love each other very much, apparently you get a new virus that cures the common cold, prevents cancer, and also reanimates the dead into hungry zombies.
I know, zombies, right? But the thing I like about the series is that the zombies are a fact of life. The protagonists, brother-sister team Shaun and Georgia Mason, were born after the Rising and pretty much take the constant blood tests, the fact most people live inside, avoiding personal contact, and, you know, the idea that any mammal over forty pounds can become a zombie when it dies and infect everything else, in stride. I mean there's plenty of zombie action -- Feed opens with Shuan baiting zombies for his blog and having to have his ass pulled out of the fire by Georgia and her motorcycle -- and the books are about how much having the living dead changes (and doesn't change) society.
But the plot isn't 'oh, noes, zombies, let us run from them'. The previous book, Feed is about a small team of journalists (Shaun and Georgia… and Georgette, who goes by Buffy because of her love of classic TV and the fact that you might have noticed that variants of the name 'George' are their generation's Hip Baby Name*) who follow a senator's presidential campaign and stumble on an assassination plot that is using active strains of the virus.
Deadline picks up with Shaun the year after, pretty messed up by the events of Feed and the staff of his newsblog site, many of whom are mostly named-dropped in Feed. Shaun is still picking at the threads of the conspiracy from Feed, mostly because while the apparent villain went down, there was plenty of suspicious money floating around. Then virologist Kelly Connelly falls into his lap, on the run because her research team discovered something that someone doesn't want known, and Kelly is the last survivor (and also legally dead, thanks to the magic of cloning and a governmental organization that is an exception to a lot of rules). And then Oakland gets a zombie outbreak, suspiciously timed to Kelly's arrival.
So, Shaun and his crew have a virologist who is pretty much the naive scientist working for a Shady Government Organization, a bunch of data that none of them really understand but that is apparently worth zombifying and firebombing several city blocks to destroy, and a grudge. It's a pretty standard thriller set up and the book is paced well, both to show how generally Not Okay Shaun is and to unravel the plot. It also does some nice expansions to Feed, which doesn't give the scope of the team George, Shaun and Buffy had.
There's also mad scientists who work off the grid, rich pharmaceutical scions who write poetry, watch old horror films and operate a teacup bulldog rescue, and the most atmospheric boring roadtrip ever. (Seriously, there's a scene in the climax of the book while you're waiting for the other shoe to drop that's just so beautifully done.)
Also, at the end of the book you will be swearing at the author again. Good thing the third book is coming out this month. Also, if you want a sample of the author's in-universe work, she wrote a free novella celebrating the Rising. And we're supposed to get a tale of how the California Browncoats got through (for values of 'got through' that count only in horror movies) the catastrophic 2014 San Diego Comic Con this year.
* After George Romero, director of the Night of the Living Dead. Shaun is also named after the movie, and Barbara is mentioned as another popular name. I wonder if Ashley rose in popularity as both a girl's and boy's name. People cope in weird ways.
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The first one on the list is Deadline by Mira Grant. I don't remember if I reviewed this when it came out, but let me do so now, as my inaugural 100 SF/Fantasy/Horror Books/Short Stories I've Read.
First off, this is a difficult review to write because it's a second book in a trilogy. Moreover, it's a second book in a trilogy where ANYONE CAN DIE. And Grant (a pen name for Seanan McGuire (
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
But, here I go. Deadline is the second book in the Newsflesh trilogy, set in America around 2040. It's a thriller series... in a world where two experimental virii met in the mid 2010s (after idiots broke into a lab and released one before its creator had discovered it liked to make friends with other vireo) and when two virii love each other very much, apparently you get a new virus that cures the common cold, prevents cancer, and also reanimates the dead into hungry zombies.
I know, zombies, right? But the thing I like about the series is that the zombies are a fact of life. The protagonists, brother-sister team Shaun and Georgia Mason, were born after the Rising and pretty much take the constant blood tests, the fact most people live inside, avoiding personal contact, and, you know, the idea that any mammal over forty pounds can become a zombie when it dies and infect everything else, in stride. I mean there's plenty of zombie action -- Feed opens with Shuan baiting zombies for his blog and having to have his ass pulled out of the fire by Georgia and her motorcycle -- and the books are about how much having the living dead changes (and doesn't change) society.
But the plot isn't 'oh, noes, zombies, let us run from them'. The previous book, Feed is about a small team of journalists (Shaun and Georgia… and Georgette, who goes by Buffy because of her love of classic TV and the fact that you might have noticed that variants of the name 'George' are their generation's Hip Baby Name*) who follow a senator's presidential campaign and stumble on an assassination plot that is using active strains of the virus.
Deadline picks up with Shaun the year after, pretty messed up by the events of Feed and the staff of his newsblog site, many of whom are mostly named-dropped in Feed. Shaun is still picking at the threads of the conspiracy from Feed, mostly because while the apparent villain went down, there was plenty of suspicious money floating around. Then virologist Kelly Connelly falls into his lap, on the run because her research team discovered something that someone doesn't want known, and Kelly is the last survivor (and also legally dead, thanks to the magic of cloning and a governmental organization that is an exception to a lot of rules). And then Oakland gets a zombie outbreak, suspiciously timed to Kelly's arrival.
So, Shaun and his crew have a virologist who is pretty much the naive scientist working for a Shady Government Organization, a bunch of data that none of them really understand but that is apparently worth zombifying and firebombing several city blocks to destroy, and a grudge. It's a pretty standard thriller set up and the book is paced well, both to show how generally Not Okay Shaun is and to unravel the plot. It also does some nice expansions to Feed, which doesn't give the scope of the team George, Shaun and Buffy had.
There's also mad scientists who work off the grid, rich pharmaceutical scions who write poetry, watch old horror films and operate a teacup bulldog rescue, and the most atmospheric boring roadtrip ever. (Seriously, there's a scene in the climax of the book while you're waiting for the other shoe to drop that's just so beautifully done.)
Also, at the end of the book you will be swearing at the author again. Good thing the third book is coming out this month. Also, if you want a sample of the author's in-universe work, she wrote a free novella celebrating the Rising. And we're supposed to get a tale of how the California Browncoats got through (for values of 'got through' that count only in horror movies) the catastrophic 2014 San Diego Comic Con this year.
* After George Romero, director of the Night of the Living Dead. Shaun is also named after the movie, and Barbara is mentioned as another popular name. I wonder if Ashley rose in popularity as both a girl's and boy's name. People cope in weird ways.