Monday, August 9, 2010

Review: Feed

Mira Grant, 2010, Orbit Books

2014: We had cured cancer and the common cold, but in doing so created something far worse. The infection spread, taking over minds and bodies with one, unstoppable command: Feed.

2040: Bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason have hit the big time, reporting from the campaign trail of a Presidential hopeful. But in a world where the dead walk and kill, nothing is ever safe or certain. As the Masons begin to uncover more and more evidence of a dark conspiracy behind the Infected, it seems less and less likely that either of them will survive to get the truth out.

In Feed (Book #1 of the Newsflesh Trilogy), Mira Grant has created not only one of the very best zombie novels I've ever had the pleasure to read, but also one of the very best Social SF novels I've ever read, taking the global zombie uprising as a starting point and extrapolating a fascinating and effortlessly believable post-apocalyptic society, with much invaluable back story and cultural info provided through the eyes of the central character. The plot itself is deceptively simple and linear (yet thoroughly enjoyable), which allows the reader still more opportunity to take a look around the strange new world of 2040, secure in the knowledge that nothing truly shocking or dreadful is likely to occur...

I use the word 'deceptively' advisedly, folks.

Feed is a page-turner of the highest order, which hits the reader (emotionally speaking) like a tonne of bricks when their defences are down. A must-read for all fans of horror, SF, and anything in-between.