Feed (The Newsflesh Trilogy) [Kindle Edition]

Mira Grant (Author)

Book Description

*SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE*

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.


FEED is the electrifying and critically acclaimed novel of a world a half-step from our own---a novel of geeks, zombies, politics and social media.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Urban fantasist Seanan McGuire (Rosemary and Rue) picks up a new pen name for this gripping, thrilling, and brutal depiction of a postapocalyptic 2039. Twin bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason and their colleague Buffy are thrilled when Sen. Peter Ryman, the first presidential candidate to come of age since social media saved the world from a virus that reanimates the dead, invites them to cover his campaign. Then an event is attacked by zombies, and Ryman's daughter is killed. As the bloggers wield the newfound power of new media, they tangle with the CDC, a scheming vice presidential candidate, and mysterious conspirators who want more than the Oval Office. Shunning misogynistic horror tropes in favor of genuine drama and pure creepiness, McGuire has crafted a masterpiece of suspense with engaging, appealing characters who conduct a soul-shredding examination of what's true and what's reported. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

While the past few years have seen no shortage of new takes on the zombie genre, critics thought that Feed broke away from the shuffling horde. They appreciated the care Grant took in building a detailed world, noting how she infused originality into genre elements like the vaccine gone bad. Some reviewers criticized this extensive exposition, and while none of them were ever bored by the world Grant describes, they questioned whether it was realistic for her characters to have such excellent recall of the apocalypse. Nevertheless, critics recommended Feed as a title that should entertain even those who are not normally fans of the SF or horror genre. Stay tuned for the second in the Newsflesh series, Blackout.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 721 KB
• Print Length: 609 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0316081051
• Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (May 1, 2010)
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003GFIVSE
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,806 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #43 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Science Fiction > Dystopian

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 89 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bloggers (and zombies) have taken over the world April 27, 2010

By Erika (Jawas Read, Too)

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I am reviewing an Advance Reading Copy provided by the publisher.

The year is 2039 and bloggers have taken over the world. Twenty five years ago the Kellis-Amberlee virus went live. Infected humans and animals began reanimating after death--some underwent spontaneous change--to become walking feeding machines. With an appetite for the truth as insatiable as a zombie's diet, Georgia--George--Mason and her brother, Shaun, have climbed the ranks of news bloggers around the world. Their ratings have everything to gain from their recent invitation to join a senator's political campaign. Now they're on the road providing coverage of what's promising to be the campaign trail for the next President of the United States of America. There's only one problem: wherever they go, KA begins breaking out, putting the team at risk. Will they survive to see their candidate win the Republican ticket?

Feed is Seanan McGuire's third published book, but first under the pen name Mira Grant. Fans of her October Daye books will recognize some similarities between the two series. Mainly, these are minor--writers will invariably develop quirks that nuance their writing. Georgia is an independent, no-nonsense workaholic with a license that requires her to carry a gun and a disease that makes it impossible for her to cry. Clearly Grant likes writing strong female protagonists. They lean toward the flinty end of the spectrum and stop just short of growling when not amused.

It might appear at first that the inability to cry is going a bit overboard. It isn't necessary to literally remove a reaction stereotypically associated with the female gender to show how tough she is, but Georgia makes it clear how frustrating Retinal KA really is. She wants access to that human reaction and is frequently reminded of the deprivation, however much reliant she is on it when the situation requires stoicism. Here is a character fighting against two polarities. Her tears were stolen and without the necessary moisture, she can't even "tear up" about it. Add to this being adopted by parents making the gesture for the ratings and Georgia's developed into a very sympathetic character. She's had a difficult life--who wouldn't, growing up in a world where fear of contagion has kept people indoors and glued to their computer screens? What makes her--and her fellow bloggers, Shaun and Buffy--different is knowing when to put fear and terror aside to keep living.

How they earn that living is very interesting. When established media proved untrustworthy reporting the first outbreak, the world turned to bloggers. Bloggers spoke for the common good--as much to inform themselves as the frightened public. They helped make sense of the unexplained chaos breaking out across the nation. Enter Shaun and Georgia, sponsors willing to fund their efforts, and After the End Times was born. Grant manages to build a convincing news body which isn't too far from the truth. Some people already rely enormously on the internet and trust amateur bloggers for any number of needs. Grant's astute observations integrate this relationship with her own universe to mesh into the working framework of her narrative.

Grant's characters are solid; her universe well-established. It's so established that readers may become as exasperated over the meticulous mention of blood testing kits and procedure as the characters were to get tested. Grant has thought of everything--not just the small details to consider when and how an outbreak could occur. Feed is politics-heavy, not just because George and Shaun are on the campaign trail. Kellis-Amberlee is cause to reconsider things like the death penalty (why kill someone when a dormant virus goes live at death, thus endangering the public at large), gun control laws, pet ownership, and public gatherings. Playing in the backyard now depends on the danger level your neighborhood has been zoned for. Presidential candidates are made or broken on a campaign trail riddled with archaic practices now seen as brave instead of expected.

I do have one, and only one, thing to nitpick about. George's relationship with her brother Shaun was a bit too unrealistic for me. I say this only because I have a brother and we're pretty inseparable, but would never share the same bed with each other, let alone the same room. I suppose it's a bit immature of me, but I couldn't relate to certain aspects of their relationship and so didn't appreciate how close they were as much as I could have. Other readers (who have siblings) may feel otherwise--I can only hope they do. After all, this is a fault of my own. About as close to understanding as I came was realizing they also had a working relationship that functioned best under those circumstances. And in the end, they were a strong pair. I can't complain too much.

With Feed, Mira Grant proves she's an author to be reckoned with. The book may be lengthy (almost 600 pages), but we have to remember it's the first in a self-contained trilogy. There's such a large and complex story to tell--a lesser book would not be this involved. If readers haven't already started paying attention to Seanan McGuire because of her October Daye books, Feed will do the trick. There may be similarities between it and her other books--mysterious murders, resilient and accident-prone female protagonist with ready access to pain medication and a constant need for good night's rest, deranged bad guy, suspect good guys--but you also can't let yourself miss a book where one of the main characters runs around in a chain-mail shirt for fun, can you? And, there's a kitty. You can't beat kitties.

I do not know when its sequel, Deadline, will be out, but I'm looking forward to it. I hear it has epileptic teacup bulldogs.

37 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding May 5, 2010

By Mark L. Bernstein

Format:Mass Market Paperback

There are zombies. There's some gore, though not as much as you might think. And yes, some people (and animals) die in highly unpleasant ways. Still, I don't think of Feed by Mira Grant as a horror novel. It's science fiction in both the extrapolative and speculative sense, and a fine example of both.

A little term definition is in order here. Extrapolative and speculative SF have sometimes been referred to, respectively, as the "if this goes on" and "what if" types of science fiction. An extrapolative story looks at our world as it is today, examines current trends, and makes educated guesses as to what will happen next. A speculative story posits one Big Change, and explores how that change will affect the rest of the world.

In Feed, that Big Change is the Kellis-Amberlee virus, an engineered and mutated plague with the nasty habit of animating the corpses of those it infects, and using the time before the body collapses completely to a) feed, and b) spread the infection. Hence, zombies. In the Feed timeline, the first spread of Kellis-Amberlee, and the Rising that followed, occurred in 2014. It's now 2039, and the world is, as you might expect, a very different place. It's a world where the CDC carries the highest level of governmental authority, a world where Alaska has been abandoned, and a world where a bullet to the brain is far, far preferable to death by natural causes, and everyone knows it.

The extrapolation? That comes from the protagonists, Georgia and Shaun Mason. They're a brother and sister team of bloggers, and bloggers have become the primary source of news and information for the majority of the remaining population. We see how online news gathering and reporting (among other things) has come fully of age, with a feel for how people and organizations pursue ratings and status, and how those organizations function. We also see the technology used, though for my taste the advances shown there were actually on the conservative side.

The structure on which all this extrapolation and speculation is built is the 2040 United States Presidential race. Senator Ryman, a Republican candidate, invites the Masons to travel with and cover his campaign. Beyond that, it's a trip I encourage you to take for yourself.

"Mira Grant" is the not-at-all-secret pen name of Seanan McGuire, whose urban fantasy novels have landed her on this year's final Campbell Award ballot. Her greatest strengths under both names are in world building and characterization. The world here is believable and engrossing, and the infodumps are relatively unintrusive. The characters are fully formed, with individual voices, beliefs, and attitudes. I grew to care about them deeply, so much so that at one point I likely would have yelled "No!" if I hadn't been reading on a crowded plane, and at another I had to put down the book for a minute to wipe my eyes.

McGuire/Grant's weakest area before now, the one that's been the target of the most criticism, has been plotting, particularly where it comes to building and resolving mysteries. That's still a little bit of an issue, in that the villain of the book is too cartoonishly obvious, but Feed displays a more developed sense of pacing than her previous work, and carries the reader along, sometimes at breathtaking speed.

Feed is the first volume of the "Newflesh" trilogy, so there are a couple of key questions that remain unanswered for now. But this book has a clear, satisfying end, so the wait for next year's Deadline (which has already been delivered to the publisher) isn't too onerous.

This is an outstanding book. Highly recommended.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not really a zombie book... June 12, 2011

By C. Hines

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Feed depicts the life of three twenty somethings a few decades in the future where things have gone wrong. Very wrong. Typical media is in the minority and internet media and blogging are where it's at. Our bloggers end up following a Presidential hopeful on his campaign trail and find out that some people would rather keep the world as is than move it past the catastrophe that happened. With one turn after another they figure out a conspiracy that's bigger than they anticipate.

That's the good.

Here's the bad.

If you were looking for a zombie book, this isn't it. This is a political thriller with some zombie information thrown in on the side. The concept of how the zombies got here is discussed, a lot, and is solid. However, you could easily replace the zombie with almost anything else: HIV, Anthrax, Ebola, etc and get the same result. The zombies aren't needed and are a mere side note, which left me disappointed.

Half of this book reads like a solid thriller. The other half tho, reads like a freaking technical manual. I can't count the number of blood tests they take. But it gets described over and over and over and over and over again. To the point that, as a medic, I have to raise the B.S. flag because there's no way their skin would take that much sticking. Not to mention the increased risk of infection due to the multiple sticks. Multiple needles, multiple times a day. That's more than even your worst diabetic does and they will tell you how much it sucks. Also, how many times do I need to know the exact number of cameras any one person has on them at any given time? Apparently it's a lot. In all honesty, you could have cut out about half the pages if we hadn't been given these details ad nauseum. And there's a lot of repetition on the details. yes, we know Shaun only calls her by her full name when it's bad. Because we've already been told a half down times by 50%.

And finally, I know they're supposed to be brother and sister, which is why it seems a bit creepy I guess. I would have settled for best friends or something, but as siblings their relationship is enough to make you cringe a bit with a "So that's how they do it in THAT family" kind of feeling.

I almost gave this two stars, but I gave the benefit of the doubt because parts of it ARE very strong. If you enjoy tech and political thrillers, you'll probably going to enjoy Feed. If you want a zombie book, you might want to pass.

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#77 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror

#77 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror