The captain, crew, and scientists aboard the chartered cruise ship Atargatis thought they knew what they were getting into when they signed on
for the Imagine Network's latest faux documentary, seeking "evidence" of mermaids in the most remote reaches of the Pacific Ocean. For the scientists, it's
a way to get funds and some actual research on the side. For the ship's crew, it's a paycheck. And for the camera crew and host, it's just how they make a
living. Imagine even sends along a team of real "mermaids", professionals who swim in custom tails at water parks and other aquatic events, so the cameras
can be sure to catch "glimpses" of something in the water. A few blurry shots here, some vague scientific jargon there, add some interpersonal shipboard
drama (mostly scripted), and that'll be the next Imagine ratings blockbuster in the can. Everyone sails home happy and well paid, regardless of what they
actually "discover".
Nobody expected the probes to find something in the waters over the Mariana Trench. And nobody expected that something to follow the probes to the
Atargatis... something with claws and teeth...
Review
This short, chilling horror tale foretells doom from the very opening, when the Atargatis is revealed to be the star of another Imagine Network
documentary on modern ghost ships, after having been found adrift and devoid of surviving crew. Even with that premonition of disaster, one can't help
getting to know and even like the various characters thrust together on the ship, all of whom have their own reasons for taking part in a "mockumentary" all
too reminiscent of many "reality" shows and events on popular cable channels these days. Grant's mermaids are rooted in biological plausibility,
terrifyingly effective predators of the deep waters who bear only tangential (at best) connection with the common popular perception of happy, beautiful
singing ladies in shell-top bikinis with technicolor fins. The collision of whitewashed fiction with cold-blooded reality - a collision in which reality
inevitably wins - is at the heart of the story, and everyone who went into the Imagine contract believing they could somehow gain tangible benefit from an
admitted deception pays dearly. It's also a culture clash, even if one of the cultures is so utterly alien that one is never quite sure how "human" or
animalistic it is... not unlike many animal attacks, in truth, where mixed messages and inability to comprehend the other mind leads to tragedy. The action
and danger ratchet up nicely, building to a horrific finale.
The cure for the common cold, and an end to cancer: two discoveries that would remake human history. Only nobody foresaw the complications when two
bioengineered viruses mixed and spread around the globe. Even then, few people believed it - few people except the bloggers who first reported the
walking dead rampaging through neighborhoods and cities.
Twenty years later, everything has changed... yet nothing has. A whole generation has grown up with quarantine procedures and routine blood tests,
knowing that putting a bullet through a loved one's head can be the greatest act of mercy. Traditional media fell behind, while bloggers have become
the most trusted sources of news and entertainment, driven by an endless pursuit of rating shares. Yet, every four years, presidential hopefuls still
travel America to drum up support... and, this year, the three bloggers behind the popular After the End Times site have been selected as the press
entourage of Senator Ryman on the campaign trail. Siblings Georgia "George" and Shaun Mason and close friend Buffy Meissonier - a truth-tracking Newsie,
a thrill-seeking Irwin, and a poetry- and story-crafting Fictional respectively - have been waiting for a break like this, a chance to get into the big
leagues of alpha bloggers. But the story they stumble into becomes much more dangerous, unearthing a potential threat not only to Ryman and his family,
but to the country itself.
Review
It's not often one reads a story at just the right time. Grant's tale of a viral pandemic, of irrevocably altered social norms (and those who would
leverage both the virus and the fear of it for personal or political ends) was published in 2010, but - in this age of coronavirus and social distancing
and lockdown protests and skepticism of media - it feels eerily relevant in 2020. It's a strange near future that sees George Romero movies becoming
unlikely survival guides (hence the popularity of "George"-based names among younger characters), as people struggled to come to grips with zombie movies
coming to life around them, yet it's a future that always feels solid and grounded, with characters who are never flat or stupid. George and her brother
are part of a whole generation that has known nothing but life with the zombie virus, a generation that feels some friction with the older people who
still dominate much of the world and dictate policy... people who still tend to dismiss them as "kids" and fail to consider how big of a threat George
and company can be to plots and conspiracies. As for the virus and its effects, Grant clearly did extensive research, lending an impressive air of
verisimilitude to the pandemic; indeed, part of the reason current events seem so familiar is that she thought through what would happen in a society
where a deadly disease was spreading like wildfire, and how people would respond. The story is a white-knuckle ride, and even when I thought I'd figured
out what was going on, there were a few twists in store, and more than one gut-punch. I honestly didn't think I'd enjoy a horror book, especially a
zombie-based horror book with politics and journalism at its core, this much, which is what kicked it up to a top rating. I'm looking forward to the
rest of this trilogy, though I don't mind admitting that I need a book or two off first... in part because, as I mentioned at the start, it's so very,
scarily relevant right now.
If Shaun Mason ever had a chance at a normal life, it ended when he was too young to remember, victim of the first Rising: the accidental
collision of two artificial viruses, one intended to end cancer and another the cure for the common cold, that created a cocktail capable of
resurrecting the dead. Orphaned in the initial outbreak and adopted by the media-hungry Masons with the girl who would be his sister and more,
Georgia "George" Mason, the two went on to become top names among the new generation of journalists, the bloggers who rose to the challenge when
traditional media stumbled. Their site, After the End Times, broke some of the hottest news in the country, even the world. Shaun and George knew
their jobs came with great risks, but the truth deserves it. Besides, Shaun always figured George would outlast him; she, after all, didn't go out
in the field to poke zombies for ratings.
When George was turned, victim of a high-reaching conspiracy threatening a senator with presidential aspirations, Shaun was the one who had to
pull the trigger.
While his sister may be dead, she's not entirely gone; she lives on as a voice in his head, manifestation of his shattered psyche. The only thing
keeping him going anymore is the thought of bringing justice to the doorstep of her killers, the still-faceless people behind the conspiracy that
brought her down. Once that's done, maybe they both can rest.
Then a doctor from the CDC turns up at the Oakland After the End Times headquarters... one who was just reported dead. She faked her own death and
fled when she stumbled onto information her superiors didn't want seen, a disturbing pattern of deaths and an even more disturbing cover-up. What
Shaun and the others are about to unearth will change everything they thought they knew about the zombie apocalypse, and challenge everything they
thought they could trust.
Shaun could never imagine living in a world without George. He might well be joining her soon enough... him, and the rest of the population of
Earth.
Review
Like the first installment in the Newsflesh trilogy, Deadline starts fast and hits hard. Shaun is a wreck after the death of George,
clinging to her ghost as a voice in his head (which can manifest in full-fledged hallucinatory embodiments as his sanity continues to crack),
barely functioning as he focuses solely on the only story that has any meaning to him anymore. He has people around him who care for him, but none
can reach him like George could, and his upbringing - he and his sister essentially being living props for the Masons, every emotion faked for the
cameras - left his ability to form normal human bonds damaged. The fugitive CDC doctor, a side character from the previous book, snaps him from the
lethargy he's been sinking into, even as she provides a new lead to track and a dangerous new twist. Along with a core crew of fellow journalists,
he delves into the dark world of outcast scientists who have been studying the zombie pandemic and coming to vastly different conclusions than the
official party line from the CDC and WHO, who clearly have come to embody the old saying about absolute power corrupting absolutely. This is not a
writer or a series that pulls punches, indulges in cheap bait-and-switch tricks, or short-changes characters or plot for the sake of thrills. Once
again, it reads eerily prescient in light of the COVID pandemic, in no small part because Grant did sufficient research to ground the zombie virus
cocktail in plausible-sounding science, and work out what society would have to do in order to survive: airlocks to get in and out of buildings,
bleach showers, blood tests as a matter of course, and so on. (I have read that the author claims that, had she known then what she knew now after
seeing the response to an actual pandemic, that she couldn't have written this series at all; it relies too much on people being willing to make
some sacrifices for the greater good, and the vocal, occasionally violent anti-mask and anti-vax pushes have put paid to that good-faith
assumption.) This is a solid, if dark, adrenaline rush of a story, pitting Shaun and his increasingly-small band of allies against forces with
global reach and incredible power who do not like their methods being questioned or exposed. It's a great gut-punch, ending with two hooks that all
but require the reader to grab the third installment. (I have it on the Nook, but I think I need a somewhat lighter read or two before I dive
in.)
The blogger journalists of After the End Times have sacrificed everything, including lives, in their relentless pursuit of truths across a
zombie-riddled post-Rising America. What they have found is a conspiracy reaching to the highest echelons of the Center for Disease Control,
who embody the concept of absolute power having corrupted absolutely in their zealous efforts to control the plague. Shaun Mason barely clings
to his sanity, not sure if his ongoing hallucinations of his deceased adopted sister Georgia are helping him or hurting him, dedicating himself
to bringing the people responsible for her death to justice before ending his own misery... but there are still more dark secrets and surprises
in store, as he and his core crew of journalists are about to discover. This story will be the biggest in their career, the one that might
quite literally change the world - if any of them survive long enough to tell it.
Meanwhile, in a top secret lab, a young woman awakens in a white room: a girl with the face and the memories of Georgia Mason, grown with
illicit techniques in a CDC facility. She may be the key to Shaun's survival and his mission's success, or the final blow to his
already-fractured sanity who destroys everything he and the real Georgia worked for.
Review
The third book of the original Newsflesh trilogy (which has since expanded by at least one companion volume and collected short
stories) continues the fast pacing and high stakes and grim emotional and physical toll (not to mention the body count) of the previous
installments, set in a world with eerie prescient echoes of our current pandemic situation (only COVID has thus far failed to raise the dead,
and the CDC is more trustworthy than not). Shaun's mind continues to fracture, producing full-body tactile hallucinations of the late Georgia,
the only person he ever trusted or truly loved; even as he recognizes his own deterioration, he digs in all the harder to honor her memory,
even if - especially if - it costs his own life. The friends and colleagues around him do what they can to help, but can only watch as he
entrenches himself further in his death mission and self-recognized delusions. Meanwhile, the cloned Georgia has retained more of her original
memories and personality than her makers might have anticipated, too loyal to the truth and to Shaun to be the showpiece or tool they intend
her to be. Still, she knows that she is not the person she remembers herself to be, for all that she can't seem to be anyone or anything else.
The conspiracy of power they've pitted themselves against continues wantonly tossing lives away by the thousands, even hundreds of thousands; after the
disastrous spread of the virus-transmitting engineered mosquitos turns the whole of Florida into a zombie wasteland, they aren't about to stop
now, not when they're so close to obtaining the future they've deemed fit for the world. It's a harrowing race, with twists and turns and
betrayals aplenty, leading to an appropriately powerful climax. As I'm not generally a fan of zombies, I was all the more amazed to find myself
enjoying it so much.
The zombie apocalypse known as the Rising reshaped human civilization, after nearly destroying it. From the viral origins of the dreaded hybrid
Kellis-Amberlee contagion to a new generation that has never known a world without bleach and blood tests and the risen dead as part of daily
life, there are countless stories to be told. This collection includes the short stories and novellas in the Newsflesh world: Countdown: Two scientists work to cure disease, one cancer and the other the common cold, entirely unaware of each other's work...
or how their breakthroughs, which could have ended so much human suffering, will instead nearly end the known world. Everglades: A young woman reflects on childhood visits to Florida as she decides whether life in a zombie apocalypse is worth
living. San Diego 2014: A group of fantasy and science fiction fans gather for a weekend of cosplay and fun, only to find internet rumors of
a zombie outbreak to be all too true when the undead crash the gates. How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea: A prominent internet journalist travels to Australia to experience their radically different
take on the apocalypse and visit the infamous "rabbit-proof fence" that contains their viral-amplified wildlife. The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell: A Seattle elementary school thought it had effective protocols in place to prevent a zombie
outbreak on the grounds, only to be proven disastrously wrong. Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus: An off-the-grid scientist and her team find an emaciated, insane stranger, harbinger of an
all-too-human threat. All the Pretty Little Horses: After becoming heroes during the Rising, a Berkeley professor and his grief-shattered wife struggle to
fill a gaping, child-sized hole in their lives. Coming to You Live: After taking on top government agencies and losing too many colleagues, former internet journalists Shaun and
Georgia Mason had thought that fleeing to the Canadian wilderness meant they could be free of the traumas that had warped their lives, only for
their fragile peace to be broken.
Review
Grant's Newsflesh world, based on solid viral research and understanding of human nature, expands beyond the core cast with these
additional tales. From the origins of the outbreak, a tragic combination of unintended consequences and the fallout of fearmongering "fake news"
journalism that doesn't care what wildfires it sparks so long as it feeds the lucrative outrage machine, through the chaos and tragedy of the
early days and on past the end of the third book in the core trilogy (I have yet to read the fourth entry), Rise fleshes out what already
felt like a solid world and fills in more details on several characters. Here, we get the backstory of the elder Masons whose artificial,
camera-dependent "love" of Rising orphans Sean and Georgia left the two adoptive siblings so psychologically damaged, as well as the origins of
the drug-addicted killer "Foxy". We also see how the rest of the world responded to the Rising, and what might be on the horizon if people can
let go of their addiction to fear (and the power that some groups gain through manipulating that fear). Hidden in the cracks are glimmers of hope
that a better future is possible, though there's also plenty of death and darkness and violence, enough to break the strongest wills. Through all
the tales, the world leaps to life in its many well-researched details and distinctive characters. As in the original stories, the biggest threat
is often not the hybrid Kellis-Amberlee virus or the undead, but the all-too-living terror and calculated monstrosity of people, though some of
the worst damage they do is not out of malice at all. Short introductions by the author explain inspirations and intents. My only real complaint,
one that I can't exactly blame this collection for, was that it had been long enough since I read the Newsflesh books that it took me a
while to remember the whos and whats and wheres of the core cast and referenced events. The rest ranks right up their with the main series,
earning it top marks.
