Orbit Zombies ATTACK! Book Review: Deadline by Mira Grant

Lindsay Elizabeth

Slayra- I’m just chiming in because I’m also a bit of a coward when it comes to zombies. In fact, I hate the zombie horror story more than anything. However, I did read Feed because I’m also a scientist and I was intrigued by the premise.

Feed is fantastic, both from an emotional and scientific background. I would definitely recommend it as an awesome book. However, it did give me zombie nightmares, and I thought about it for days afterward with a sort of sick horror… If zombie books do the same to you, and you can’t handle it, then I wouldn’t recommend it. If you can, go for it!

Paige

Slayra, I loved Feed, and like you, I don’t like zombie novels.

I also loved Deadline: I think I might have liked it even more than Feed. For me, though, it was very much a book about grief and disability, because that was how I interpreted Shaun’s ongoing dialogue with George. I thought that the effect of said disability was to start raising questions about the binary of healthy/ill, and how it operates in society. I also liked Deadline as an exploration of identity, and how it’s affected by our relationships with others.

As for the ending, and the couple of surprising things that happened, I was startled by them (though I wondered briefly, early on, if we were being set up for Revelation #2) — but I didn’t react with dismay, mainly because I thought that both revelations were going to cause as many problems as they solved. This is a series about journalism, right? And about information transmission, or transformission, to use a word coined by Randy McLeod, who studies how renaissance texts are transmitted and changed. So it makes sense to me that Newsflesh would become a story about when phenomena (like a disease, or a change in it) become information as they’re discovered, and then what happens as humans interact with that information. And revelation #2, and the character to whom it happens: well — that’s as much a story about an individual grappling with information as anything.

I sound very academic, don’t I? And make the books sound very academic as well, so it’s kind of amazing that I devour them the way I do. I think that Mira Grant is doing a bang-up job of blending hard and soft sci-fi with them.

One other thing: given her interest in parasitology and epidemiology, and the stuff that’s covered in Parasite Rex, which she’s mentioned as influential, it made sense to me that she’d want to play with the more unusual and “out there” side of diseases and mutating organisms: in that sense, that Deadline turned in the direction it did didn’t surprise me in the least. And I suppose that reading Parasite Rex also meant that I didn’t see some of the plot shifts as inorganic; for me, they mirrored the unpredictability of discoveries about disease.

But I also might just be a sucker who really liked the book.

Paige

Thea, oh, yeah, the last thing that I intend with my earlier comment is to make any argument that my reading ought to trump someone else’s. I can totally understand your feeling disconnected, and I’m almost surprised I didn’t feel more of that disconnect myself. I couldn’t get into Lost for just the reasons that you mentioned, and the revelations at the end of the BSG reboot drove me nuts.

I’m glad you clarified on revelations: I was thinking of Revelation #1 as Shaun’s immunity from KA, and Rev. #2 of Georgia as waking up as a clone.

As for George and Shaun’s relationship, I can understand feeling thrown by that. There were moments in Feed that made me wonder about it, but I can also see feeling that it’s inauthentic. And I go back and forth about it a bit myself: sometimes I see it as a complex relationship whose portrayal I love because it’s not following the romantic formula of will-they-won’t-they, and sometimes I get annoyed, and feel that it’s been oversimplified.

And I can certainly see how “clone George and an immune Shaun seems like a terrible cop out” — in fact, if Seanan McGuire hadn’t assured people that she was going to throw more into the mix, then I might be reacting entirely differently.

I guess it just goes to show how much I’m taking on faith.

Slayra

Thanks for answering everyone! I think I may give it a try. The only zombie book I’ve read was the Forest of Hands and Teeth and it wasn’t that bad… I guess I always associate zombie books with zombie movies and I really can’t stand those. *shivers* 😀

Sumeria

Just chiming in to respond to the comments in re: the two/three twists.,,

SPOILERS

In re: the sexual relationship, I admit to having been surprised by it myself and I’m not sure I particularly am enamored of it, but for what it’s worth, the two aren’t biological siblings, so while an argument could be made for emotional incest, it’s not *technically* incest. Both are adopted, and we’re told in Feed that George is something like six weeks older, so I think we have to assume they have separate biological parents.

In re: Shaun’s immunity to KA… that is a medical thing that does happen. I think it could have been more clearly explained in the book, and hopefully it will be in the third, but “contagious immunity” (to viral infections) is an observed thing that does happen on occasion between people who are all up in each other’s spaces like Woah. As far as that goes, the sexual relationship between the two of them probably makes Shaun a lot more likely to have contracted George’s immunity.

As far as the cloning thing goes, something the author mentioned on her blog when someone raised the question of how sci-fi-y that seemed (and this I *really* wish were explained in the book, because it seems very necessary, but I’m again, hoping it gets detailed in the third volume) the issue in Real Life with force-growing clones (ie, getting a full grown person in a year) is that the procedures we’re experimenting with are carcinogenic. Since everyone in this universe is, by virtue of KA, immune to cancer, cloning technology is much simplified. The mental imprinting, I have not a clue on, but I’d be surprised if we don’t *get* an explanation eventually.

So… my two cents.

END SPOILERS

Trev

Kay, normally I don’t comment, but this discussion is simply too good to pass on…

SPOILERS BELOW…

1 – Re Shawn’s possibly acquiring immunity from George… the CDC / whoever is actively killing off people with resevoir conditions prior to introducing new virus strains, presumably to prevent people from developing immunity… so with many of the people with resevoir conditions dieing, how common is it that someone would have grown up in regular close contact with one? I think the “1/1,000,000,000+” chance of Shawn inheriting Georgia’s immunity that Thea referred to might be much more likely but for the the fact that that situation doesn’t occurr all that frequently due to the murders. And most of the time, do people wait to do a blood test after possible infection like Shawn did?

2 – On George’s clone… I find myself asking why the CDC would do this. Is it for study? Is George’s immune response to KA that unusual? Does she know something they need to know? They would have cloned her in Feed, either after the attack which killed Buffy and led to them being taken into CDC custody, or from her body after Shawn shot her. I don’t think she was cloned to “mess with” the minds of the After the End Times crew, since the CDC demonstrated in deadline that they wanted Shawn and co dead.

3 – Is the fact that Shawn talks to Georgia related to the existance of clone Georgia? Neither wears sunglasses or has retinal KA. Seems like a big coincidence.

4 – On the nature of Shawn and George’s relationship… I don’t think the sexual aspect was for shock value… I recall reading something from Mira/Seanan saying it was necessary from a plot point of view. It also wasn’t a total shock to me… there were places in Feed where I got the impression that there was more to Shawn and Georgia’s relationship than George was letting on. I also saw Shawn and George’s relationship as more “really close friends who have only one another to count on against the insanity of the world around them” that “traditional brother and sister”. I would have preferred if the sexual aspect of their relationship hadn’t been there, but I guess if Mira says it was necessary from a plot point of view… well, she would know.

Eagerly awaiting book 3… I think the last time I was this interested in a series was Harry.

Scott Glass

Love the series; here’s my two cents.

Cloning/Imprinting memories.
Scientists have been training mice to run mazes, then grinding up their brains and injecting them into the brains of untrained mice, who then suddenly either know how to run the maze or are able to learn it in half the time of normal mice. -They’ve been doint this since the 60’s and still don’t have a full understanding of how it works.

Since the CDC took George’s body after her death and the CDC has a mandate for full body cloning, I won’t be too hard a sell on the idea -if the author can make it work in the storyline.

Let’s face it, full body cloning -with memory transfer, is a practical form of immortality. As such, it would have a much larger impact on the human race than a simple Zombie Apocalypse.

MisterT

Spoiler:

I actually didn’t feel the Georgia/Shaun sexual relationship was out of place at all. I kept noticing a number of times in Feed where their relationship seemed a little TOO close to be a traditional sibling relationship. Add the fact that they were both allied against the way their parents exploited them (and factor in the accompanying off-camera neglect from those same parents) and I wasn’t surprised at all to find they were sleeping together. Upon reflection, it’s pretty clear that Georgia never mentioned it in Feed the same way she never really mentioned her bowel movement or her period – it was simply part of the biological background noise she wasn’t interested in talking about. It also explains why her handsome, adventurous, adrenaline-soaked brother wasn’t cutting a swath through the available women at any given moment and why she was always bemused (but not threatened) by women flirting with him. They were a unit, they always saw themselves as a unit and the sex aspect was completely ordinary and not worth mentioning. Feed makes it very clear that neither of them trusted anyone else (not even their own parents, for god’s sake!) and this attitude was proved correct by the betrayal of Buffy. By screwing each other they not only further cemented their unity but also ensured that they never needed to rely upon/trust/let in anyone else. Makes perfect sense to me.

And while I’m at it, I’ll mention that this is almost the sort of background throwaway that I kind of like in a book. In the otherwise execrable “Time Traveler’s Wife there’s a similar throwaway moment where the protagonist (who uncontrollably travels through time and has since he was five) mentions in an offhand way that he was visiting himself from last week and they were having sex when this other important plot-related point came up. After the initial double-take, you realize that for someone in his unique position, this is effectively masturbation and therefore not really textbook homosexuality. It added quite a bit of depth to the character – too bad the rest of the book was poorly plotted and drippily written. It also clashed horribly with the somewhat pedophiliac aspects of the plot which were very deliberately never mentioned…

As for Shaun’s immunity, I don’t have an issue with it. Note that at this point we KNOW the CDC has been screwing around with developing new strains of the virus and we know they have a virtual monopoly on all testing units. Throw in the whole conspiracy issue and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if plenty of people are either immune or partially immune. Bear in mind one of the major plot points of Deadline is that Georgia might very well have recovered from her deliberate infection. Dr. Kelly claimed she only had a 1:2000 chance of recovery, but she was pretty thoroughly painted as a pawn and a dupe and she may not have known what she was taking about. At this point, I think EVERYTHING we know about KA is subject to skepticism.

The clone I’m not sold on at all, but I’m willing to wait for Blackout for a good explanation.

Shelley

For the record, I’m actually delighted they opted to go the route with cloning Georgia and bringing her back. I was very attached to her from “Feed” and found her a very interesting and insightful character, refreshing in her pragmatism. I’m very much looking forward to reading “Blackout” as this is the first zombie series I’ve read that explains zombies in a scientific and logical way without making my head ache like a in depth biology student’s report.

As to her relationship with Shaun, while it shocked me slightly to begin with, it grew on me rather quickly. I had always thought the idea of them being so physically affectionate and sharing a bedroom no less as adults was rather…odd. After all, why wouldn’t a stud like Shaun be draping himself in beautiful, bubble-headed femme fans that came with his fame and exploits? The answer, of course, was that he’d found his one true soul mate as a very young child and had no need to bother with other women. Georgia and Shaun compliment each other so perfectly, they have a sweet, forbidden, taboo sort of romance lingering around them in such a natural way it’s as unneeded to mention as breathing. Now that I know it’s there, I’m almost astonished I didn’t pick it up immediately in the first book. As Shaun once stated, it’s almost as if The Rising occurred just to bring them together. For all I know, something in their combined DNA might be the cure to Kellis Amberlee all along.

Melissa

I didn’t get into this series until very recently, and just finished Deadline a few days ago. Your review echoes my opinion of the book very closely.

I was hoping Shaun would grow more as a character throughout the story, but he just seemed to tread water. And I’m not thrilled with the ‘science fantasy’ twist either. Here’s hoping that Blackout feels closer in style to Feed than it does to this book.

Caio Borrillo

I really love de site, but… what the hell happened with the layout? Why is so damn ugly now?