When Will You Rise: Stories to End the World by Mira Grant

When I last experienced the Newsflesh zombie wasteland created by Mira Grant, I lamented the fact that she had published another short story set in the same universe by couldn’t access it because I don’t do eBooks. Well imagine my joy when the other day I found this “exclusive eBook” resting on the shelves at my local library in bound hardback form. Of course I snatched that baby up while making several patrons give me dirty looks as I squealed in delight. 

When Will You Rise is a collection of two short stories or novellas, depending on how you want to define them. The first story, ‘Countdown’ is the prequel to the Newsflesh trilogy. It shows how the two viruses that will become the Kellis-Amberlee zombie virus were created. The tale also provides a glimpse at what the Masons life was like before they became blogging sensations as well a glimpse into the quandary the CDC and other government agencies found themselves in as reports of the dead coming to life were coming true.

The only thing that this story was missing I thought was the missed opportunity to discover who the real parents of Shaun and George were and what they were like. We get to see what they’re future adoptive parents were like before the Rising but I think it would’ve been interesting to see if what their real folks were like. I think it could’ve been an interesting experiment in nature vs. nurture seeing how George and Shaun’s parents went about their lives. Did Shaun real father have a reckless swagger? Was George’s mother intuitive and a little punk like her? Were any of their parents from West Virginia? These are some interesting questions Grant could’ve explored while painting a picture of how the world fell into zombie chaos. 

The second story; 'Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box,' isn’t set in the Newsflesh universe. In that tale, a group of friends learn that they may have unwittingly become both the destroyers and saviors of the human race. It’s an eerie tale left slightly open at the end. I think it ended way to short as I wanted to know more about what happens next. Maybe Grant will return to this scenario sometime in the near future.

This couple of tales were awesome. Grants has a clear writing style that is easy to follow. She makes her characters real and easy to know, if not understand, very quickly. That’s why I was left yelling “NOOOOOOO!” when The Box ended much too soon. I had grown to care about those 6 friends in just 30 short pages and I wanted to know more about their lives and how they were going to survive the apocalypse they accidently created. 

I am also hoping that more Newsflesh tales will be in the works. There is plenty of material that’s been left untouched that Grant could explore for her readers. She’s got a new trilogy that’s in the works and I look forward to reading those books when they become available but I hope she’s a little like Stephen King or Dean Koontz, who like to write several projects at a time. That way a new book set in this zombie apocalypse can come out sooner than later. 

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Blackout by Mira Grant, Book III of the Newsflesh Trilogy

The Newsflesh Trilogy comes to a close and I think I’m in love with a new favorite writer. Book II wasn’t as good as Book I; not because it was a sequel but because I thought that the character of Shaun was a weaker narrator than his sister George. In this book we’ve got the best of both worlds as Shaun is attempting to break into the declared disaster zone of Florida to retrieve some biological samples (and to rescue the baby sister of one of his fellow bloggers) and George returns!

(Do not read any further if you don’t want spoilers) 

Georgia Mason has been cloned by the CDC in hopes of somehow wrangling Shaun in. After the events of the last book, Shaun and his news team went rogue. So, the CDC hopes to shut him and his website up by using a clone of his sister. Whether this clone will be used peaceful or as an assassin is unknown as this clone of George that narrates alternating chapters with Shaun, is a test model and will be incinerated once a more perfect clone is completed in another lab.

As Shaun seeks to finally blow the lid off the global conspiracy involving the truth behind the zombie virus, George and some undercover scientists hope to escape the clutches of the CDC and reach Shaun’s team before it’s too late. When the questions behind the scope and scale of the government’s plans to prevent the Zombie virus from ever being cured are finally ready to be answered, the Mason siblings will travel from one corner of the US to the other and may even obtain a much desired interview with the President.

I really enjoyed this volume. Along with the final chapter, Mire Grant includes some extra “content” at the end that shines light on the origins of the two harmless viruses that later merge into the super-killer that is commonly referred to as “Kellis-Amberlee.” Now, there’s also a blub about an “eBook only” novella that pertains to the Newflesh Trilogy. I don’t know if it includes the origin chapter I read in this book or is something different.

I’m very interested in getting that novella, but I don’t have a Kindle or other eBook device. Actually, I am anti-eBook period. I believe that the good Lord wanted everyone to read their books in print/ paper form. I’m old school. I know many who read strictly eBooks and a couple of writers/ artists who use the eBook medium to publish their own material. I guess I’m one of them using my Blogger account to post my reading journal. (However, I have Carpal Tunnel and writing hurts more than typing does, and I like typing.) But, there’s just nothing like holding a book in your hands while snuggled up in a recliner with 2 cats in your lap.

  Anyway, if anybody knows Mira Grant and can find a way to get her to send me a manuscript of her novella- I’d be eternally grateful.

   I hate to see this series end. Yet, I know that Grant is working on another medical conspiracy type trilogy as I write this review. I think one book is out already. I hope to get my hands on those books very soon too! Like I said earlier, I’ve got a new favorite writer and for someone who’s a strictly comic book only type of guy that speaks volumes.

A fantastic read.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

“Deadline” by Mira Grant, Book II of the Newsflesh Trilogy

Book II of the Newsflesh Trilogy isn’t quite as good as the first book, Feed, but it wasn’t a disappointment. Georgia Mason is dead after what transpired in Book I, so her brother Shaun is the narrator. I didn’t find him as engrossing a narrator as Georgia. Maybe that’s because she’s a more intelligent and less emotional storyteller. It could also have something to do with the fact that Shaun’s slowly going off the deep end, believing that his sister now resides inside his head.

In this chapter, Shaun and his team of reporters at After the End Times delve deeper into the conspiracy that threatened to destroy Senator Ryman’s presidential campaign and ultimately killed Shaun’s sister. The team is in the thick of it when a CDC researcher shows up on their doorstep, only CNN and other news sources are reporting her deceased. The crap really hits the fan when someone unleashes a zombie outbreak on the news team’s roof and the whole building is scheduled for elimination.

Shaun and his team seek refuge in the fortress-like structure of a pharmaceutical heiress and end up on a variety of road trips seeking to discover why they’ve been targeted by this global conspiracy. Could the CDC researcher’s notes on the evolving strains of the Kellis-Amberlee virus that turns the dead into the undead have something to do with it? And what’s going to happen to Shaun’s already fragile psyche when he discovers that certain anomalies in his sister’s blood might’ve actually saved her life when she was infected with the live virus in the previous book has Shaun not killed her before she had a chance to transform into a zombie?

   Thankfully, this book gives plenty of ample time some several underused characters from the first book, like the Brit blogger Mahir. His character steals several scenes. Noticeably absent from this book was the character of Rick, a newbie to the Mason’s news agency. He’s gone on to bigger and better things, becoming the vice President and despite several mentions, not used once in this entire book. An oversight I hope is fixed in book III.

     Also, as you are reading this book from Shaun’s perspective and it’s clear he’s not a genius like his sister was, it takes a while to truly grasp the implications behind the conspiracy and the motives of the CDC. Thus, Deadline started off very slow.  I devoured the last 200 pages in less than 3 days. When the team gets caught in the remnants of a tropical storm and the whole world seems to have disappeared, it got spooky good! At that point, Deadline began to recapture that energy that captivated me in Book I. I couldn’t put the book down at the moment. I was craving to know what happened so much, that I couldn’t stop thinking about it yesterday at work. Once I was home, I tackled that book and like a hungry zombie, devoured every last bit of it!

By the way, I’m still hungry. Bring on Book III- STAT!

Worth Consuming.

Rating 8 out of 10 stars.

“Feed” by Mira Grant, Book I of the Newsflesh Trilogy

Our local library has this thing called the “Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” program. They take books, wrap them so as you can’t see them and then they paste the first sentence of the book on top of the package. It’s to encourage people to read and discover books and subjects that might be out of their comfort zone or that folks might just overlook entirely.

My first sentence was as follows:

“Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the last twenty-six years: with an idiot- in the case, my brother Shaun- deciding it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick and to see what happens.”

I thought the sentence was fully as hell and I was totally intrigued. I like zombie comics, but I’m not really a fan of horror films or fiction. I like horror comics too! But, deep down I am a wuss. But, the first sentence was funny and I thought that I might just have the next Shaun of the Dead in my hands. I was sorta right.

  This book involves a pair of twins named Georgia, our narrator and her brother- the idiot, named Shaun. In this post zombie apocalyptic world, bloggers and online reporting has replaced the traditional news. With the constant threat of outbreaks and rampant fear, it makes sense that people writing about what they see out their windows would become newsworthy. When the twins get hired to go on the road with a up and coming Presidential candidate, the duo of reporters get more than they bargained for, as their presence has just uncovered a massive conspiracy.

  The book started off a little slow. I got a little nervous, because the twins start off the book poking a zombie with a stick and then fleeing from a horde of undead Californians. My head was saying that this is a typical zombie work like the multitude that’s flooded the market in recent years. Yet, my instincts said to keep reading on and I am glad I did.

   By the time the siblings get home and have to undergo an unthinkable number of blood tests and then a sterilizing ritual that doesn’t just kill the zombie virus, but just about any bacteria good or bad on the human body, I’ve realized that author Mira Grant just hasn’t written a book, she’s created an entire world. With the history of the virus to how society survives in an oft isolated manner to the new political system developed “after the end times”, it’s easy to see this as a real possibility in the event of zombie devastation.

  Look, I know zombies aren’t real. But, this book made me realize that the zombie “virus”  doesn’t just attack bodies once dead. This microscopic bug that turns a corpse into the undead is in everybody. All living beings over a certain weight are infected. It’s white blood cells that’s keeping folks from turning into walking Petry dishes of hot death. I never understood why someone alive could turn into a zombie if bitten. It’s because the virus is in everyone and so a little extra germ causes a massive infection.

  It’s like Typhoid Mary, she was a walking germ factory, but she never got sick- she just made people sick. But,  I bet if she had been injected by someone else’s typhoid cells, she would’ve shown symptoms as well. I don’t think we’ll be fighting zombies any day now, but there are terrible viruses and bacteria out their waiting to mutate and rear its ugly head and I think if that kind of outbreak happens, we could be seeing quarantines scenes like those out of a George Romero film.

I really loved the book. It did take a while to get going and once it did, I couldn’t stop- literally like a live host being converted after a bite! Yes, I cheated and had to read ahead a little as the suspense was killing me. There are two more books in this series and I will be heading to my library tomorrow to pick up the next book. I can even see this series becoming a trilogy of films or maybe even a TV series on like SyFy. And I would watch it! Faithfully!

Thank you, Orange County Public Library. You opened me up to not just a great book, but to a brave new world that I wouldn’t want to live in, but I definitely wouldn’t mind observing from afar.

Worth Consuming

Rating 8.5 out of 10 stars.