Deadline by Mira Grant
Dec. 24th, 2012 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Nothing stays buried for long …
Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organisation he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem as fun when you’ve lost as much as he has.
But when a researcher from the Centre for Disease Control fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun’s relieved to find a new purpose in life. Because she brings news: the monster who attacked them may be destroyed, but the conspiracy is far from dead.
Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.
It’s several months after FEED and Shaun still hasn’t recovered from the murder of his sister Georgia – to the extent that he now hears her voice in his head. He’s retired as an Irwin but still runs After The End Times with the considerable help of Mahir from his base in London. When Dr Kelly Connolly from the CDC suddenly arrives on his doorstep it’s troubling for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that she’s been reported on the blogsphere as having died.
Kelly’s brought news of a troubling conspiracy within CDC relating to data on the spread of the Kellis-Ambrose virus (the virus that led to the zombie apocalypse). Shaun almost immediately gets an idea of how powerful a conspiracy this is when the powers that be call down a firestorm on the headquarters of his blog. Soon he and his team are on the trail to get to the bottom of the mystery, which will see them go cross-country, encounter underground labs and meet lots and lots of zombies …
Mira Grant’s sequel to FEED develops the overall conspiracy story arc and widens the scope of the action while giving Shaun a more central role.
Depressed by Georgia’s death, Shaun’s getting used to the responsibility that comes with leadership. His conversations with Georgia worked well and Grant does well at showing how his attachment to her harms his relationship with others, especially new Irwin head, Rebecca, who’s emotional interest Shaun remains oblivious to.
You don’t need to have read FEED to follow DEADLINE, but you get more from it if you do. Although I’m a little tired of shadowy government conspiracies and games within games, Grant keeps it going well and it’s interesting to get a new slant on familiar characters.
There’s plenty of zombie action but at times it got a little repetitive albeit not as repetitive as the scenes where Grant shows the procedures that people have to go through to show they’re zombie free. These became really boring after a while, frequently killing tension and deadening pace and I wished that she’d just skipped over it in a couple of sentences rather than plunge into the detail.
However the book does end with a real jaw-dropper shock, which should really shake things up for book 3, which I will definitely be checking out.
The Verdict:
Mira Grant’s sequel to FEED develops the overall conspiracy story arc and widens the scope of the action while giving Shaun a more central role. I did find the prose to be repetitive at times, particularly with regards to the zombie protection procedures, which went on too long and went into too much detail for me. That said, there’s a real jaw-dropping ending, which promises much for book 3 and which I will definitely be checking out.
Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organisation he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem as fun when you’ve lost as much as he has.
But when a researcher from the Centre for Disease Control fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun’s relieved to find a new purpose in life. Because she brings news: the monster who attacked them may be destroyed, but the conspiracy is far from dead.
Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.
It’s several months after FEED and Shaun still hasn’t recovered from the murder of his sister Georgia – to the extent that he now hears her voice in his head. He’s retired as an Irwin but still runs After The End Times with the considerable help of Mahir from his base in London. When Dr Kelly Connolly from the CDC suddenly arrives on his doorstep it’s troubling for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that she’s been reported on the blogsphere as having died.
Kelly’s brought news of a troubling conspiracy within CDC relating to data on the spread of the Kellis-Ambrose virus (the virus that led to the zombie apocalypse). Shaun almost immediately gets an idea of how powerful a conspiracy this is when the powers that be call down a firestorm on the headquarters of his blog. Soon he and his team are on the trail to get to the bottom of the mystery, which will see them go cross-country, encounter underground labs and meet lots and lots of zombies …
Mira Grant’s sequel to FEED develops the overall conspiracy story arc and widens the scope of the action while giving Shaun a more central role.
Depressed by Georgia’s death, Shaun’s getting used to the responsibility that comes with leadership. His conversations with Georgia worked well and Grant does well at showing how his attachment to her harms his relationship with others, especially new Irwin head, Rebecca, who’s emotional interest Shaun remains oblivious to.
You don’t need to have read FEED to follow DEADLINE, but you get more from it if you do. Although I’m a little tired of shadowy government conspiracies and games within games, Grant keeps it going well and it’s interesting to get a new slant on familiar characters.
There’s plenty of zombie action but at times it got a little repetitive albeit not as repetitive as the scenes where Grant shows the procedures that people have to go through to show they’re zombie free. These became really boring after a while, frequently killing tension and deadening pace and I wished that she’d just skipped over it in a couple of sentences rather than plunge into the detail.
However the book does end with a real jaw-dropper shock, which should really shake things up for book 3, which I will definitely be checking out.
The Verdict:
Mira Grant’s sequel to FEED develops the overall conspiracy story arc and widens the scope of the action while giving Shaun a more central role. I did find the prose to be repetitive at times, particularly with regards to the zombie protection procedures, which went on too long and went into too much detail for me. That said, there’s a real jaw-dropping ending, which promises much for book 3 and which I will definitely be checking out.
