Well, I finished Deadline yesterday, it's the second book in the 'Newsflesh' trilogy with Feed being the first one. Now I
really liked Feed, I think it's one of the most well thought out Zombie books to come out so far. It has compelling characters that I got emotionally attached to and felt the rise and fall of the story right along with them. It's a different setting than most zombie novels in that it takes place around 20 years after the dead started coming back and everyone is getting on with their lives such as they can in a world where you can't 'win' against the living dead when you yourself will eventually join their ranks no matter what. One of the key aspects of of the disease (yes disease) is that it inhabits every mammal on the planet and anything that weighs over 40 pounds WILL come back and try to gnaw your face off! Sound like a great jumping off point for hard core action? Tough. Feed, follows a group of Bloggers following a political campaign. Just in case you don't know how that could be interesting, they're online journalist split into 3 different areas: Newsies, which deliver fact based journalism with registered biases so you know where they lean beforehand. Irwins, which poke dead things with sticks (or pistols, assault rifles, grenades...) to see what happens for your viewing pleasure. Finally, there are Fictionals, which write stories, poems, etc. so you can escape reality when it becomes too much to think about. So without giving away any plot points or spoilers, it get pretty interesting since of course it can't be just about the political campaign, something else has to be going on...
Now, DON'T read the second book (Deadline) before reading the first one. Since it happens after the end of the first one, it would ruin the revelations. This makes a meaningful review hard to do since it doesn't work well as a stand alone novel. What I can say is: It's good. Not quite as great as the first one in the series but it does expand on character development and opens a whole new bag of worms for the final book in the series to resolve... It's an installment in a grand sweeping trilogy that
does move the story forward, answers some questions, and poses even more. It's not quite ......, but it's close enough as far as addictions go. To make it worse, she included a first chapter of the final book, which kicks you in the head with a size 14 jackboot of WTF?!?!
In conclusion: Is it worth reading? Oh hell yeah! Just make sure you read Feed first. I don't know if I want the series to end after the next book. I've read far, far, FAR, worse series and still considered them to be solid stories. This is one of the best I've read, period. Now, no matter what I've said, I still want the next book NOW and not next summer.
