This will seem like an odd thing to say, but the Newsflesh world is my world. I would love to live there with George, Shaun, Buffy and the rest of the characters. Yes, yes, I’m well aware of the zombies, but I honestly don’t care. Given the choice, that’s where I’d want to be.

The point of my little confession is that I welcome every word Mira Grant decides to write. This is not a novella per se because it doesn't have a single storyline, it’s nothing like Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box. Inste More...

come back, alfonso!

okay, another quickie mini-review for another mini-book i free-read on the work-nook last week.

no more dashes in the entire review, i promise.

this little novella chronicles the events leading up to feed and deadline (oh, and blackout which i want to come out now please). and once again, mira grant has rocked my world. it is a split-viewpoint (damn you, dash!) story, where the perspectives of scientists, eco-terrorists, the first victim, a dog, doctors, reporters, and citizens More...

'Countdown' is a strange publication. The writing is excellent, and it's a perfect intro to the newsflesh series. The only problem is that it was published AFTER the first book (FEED). Why write the introduction after you have already introduced the series? It doesn't really make any sense. Everything written in this short story had already been covered in FEED. There aren't any new revelations, only more details. This could have very easily been wedged into to the first book so why publish it s More...

How did the end begin? Or more specifically, how did Kellis-Amberlee come to be? How did the world that Georgia Carolyn Mason and Shaun Phillip Mason were living in happen to be? How?! Need answers to these questions then, READ THIS ON!

This is the last kind of thing I would usually read. Not that I have any prejudice against post-apocalyptic novels or dislike zombies - it's just not the genre that would usually catch my eye.
But oh boy, did I love this. Frankly, it's terrifying. It makes me want to snuggle into bed (with the next book in the series, obvz), seal every opening in my house and wait for the world to die.
Aside from the technical/sciencey aspect, which I only vaguely got because I'm totally not the sciencey type, the More...

I loved this. Being a short novela it lacks some of the most prominent problems of the first and second book and that makes it even more appealing. It is also a good intro to people who haven't started the series yet.

My only problem is this:
I find disturbing the cliché and supposedly ironic depiction of activists as conceited, self obsessed, pretentious, dumb hippies. This portrayal, overused by Hollywood films during the '90s, seems anachronistic, prejudiced and quite frankly insulting....and I More...

Its really hard to review anything in this series for me at this point. I totally love the world that the books are set in, super imaginative. But the stories usually are pretty pedestrian - see the underwhelming backstory of the Feed trilogy. The saving grace are the characters which are well written and believable even if the plots are sometimes not.

Then we get to the Mayday crew in this novella. Let's take the worst stoner/hippie caricatures and plug them into a zombie world. What was the thi More...

I'm not sure I can write rationally about this novella because of ALL THE FEELS!!!!

These stories originally appeared on Seanan's blog as a leadup to the release of Deadline (Newsflesh 2.0). Several people have posed reviews that they were confused about how the introduction to this world could be published after the first book. That is because it's a prequel but most certainly NOT an introduction. To properly appreciate this work, you have to have at least read FEED first.

That is because this bo More...

At the moment I'm going through a zombie loving phase. I'm absolutely addicted to the Walking Dead TV series and I'v always been a massive Resident Evil fan. Shaun of the Dead remains one my favourite films of all time if you have not seen it then please do. Soon. On that note the weird thing is, is that the zombie book craze completely passed me by. I had seen this series once or twice before on amazon or whatnot and it kind of only vaguely interested me. Why? I have no clue. For some reason a More...

Mira Grant prequel to her popular trilogy showed again what a fantastic writer with a scientific mind. With this novella, she goes back to when the virus starts and hops from place to place until all the pieces fully come together.

She has put alot of effort into the beginning of the end of civilisation and she was able to handle this with great skill. All her characters come across intelligent with extreme detail to characterisation and warmth. The evil that exists is given a three dimensional More...

In 2014 Dr Wells was on his way to curing cancer. Tests are progressing well. At the same time Dr. Kellis is working on a cure for the common cause. Who would have thought that the two genetically modified cures would ever combine and almost end the world.

This novella tells the story of how the dead rose. The days leading up to the Rising.

I’ve really enjoyed the rest of Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy, and this is an interesting look at how that world came to be. The origins of the zombie apocalypse. More...

For anyone who loves the NEWSFLESH TRILOGY, I highly recommend you go ahead and read this little novella, COUNTDOWN, as well. It's the prequel to book 1, FEED, in which we see snippets of scenes from varying perspectives, all of which ultimately culminate in the rising -- the zombie apocalypse. It's all fact here, leaving the tugs at your emotional heartstrings for the novels themselves, but the presentation is impeccable -- just as in the trilogy -- drawing the reader in and setting the pace fo More...

5 Stars

Blackout, book 3 of the Newsflesh trilogy is my most anticipated release of 2012. I am a huge Mira Grant fan and I absolutely love the first two books of this series. This is a post apocalyptic story that seems to be cut out of today's news. It is relevant in the science that it purposes. It is relevant in it's format and telling. Blogging and the internet is today's best media outlet. This series works by putting an amazing set of characters into a world not much different then ours is t More...

I love this series anyways, and having a novella that shows you how it all started is just icing on the cake for me. this story shows you what we've already learned in Feed, which is that two "cures" merged into one giant infection that destroyed the world, but its all from the perspective of the people who lives and died in 2014. Its a great filler for anyone who wants more of the Feed world, its also great for anyone who has wanted to pick up Feed but was unsure of if they would like it. This More...

Comments originally published here.

Apparently this novella was originally available on the author’s website and has now been released as a short ebook. I didn’t know anything about it, so was happy to see it turn up for sale.

This is the story of the actual zombie Rising that forms the background and basis of Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy. Despite not being at all into zombies, I have found that the right book – one about the science and the mystery, rather than the blood, guts and gore – can work ve More...

I read this on the author's blog as a serial in the lead up to the release of book 2, DEADLINE. I wasn't entirely certain what to expect at first, since I've read similar set ups for other authors. I kind of expected something superficial I think, a couple pages long one-off that didn't really expand on the universe so much as the characters.

This was so much more.

Each piece is only a few pages long and follow the events leading up to the first outbreak and then the second outbreak. Some characte More...

This book was creative from the perspective that it was written as a series of news articles. It allowed the author to touch on a fair number of characters and a complicated story, without delving into a lot of detail. Instead, the reader is left to fill in the blanks with their imagination.

I would have preferred a more fully fleshed out story (pun intended), but I appreciate the approach taken here. It made for a fairly concise story that accomplished quite a bit in a fairly short book.

The stor More...

[I read this novella as part of the Hugo Voter Packet in 2012.]

The spoilers listed below are only spoilers if you're unfamiliar with the Newsflesh universe; if you are familiar with that backdrop, nothing below will be any surprise (but then again, nothing in the novella will be either!).

This novella is actually written in a semi-similar style to the last one I read, Ken Liu’s ‘The Man Who Ended History’, and so I jumped straight in with gusto. It’s not presented as a documentary, but it’s the s More...

My Rating: Worth Reading, with Reservations

I've finally gotten around to the Hugo-nominated novellas! I've actually had Mira Grant's Countdown on my Kindle since its release date, but I just kept forgetting about it. That happens a lot with my Kindle downloads, actually. I forget to record them in my spreadsheet (I know, I'm a nerd) or LibraryThing, and those are the primary two ways I track my purchases, so when I forget to record a Kindle download, it's as if the book doesn't exist. I certain More...

I'm always leery of starting a new series with a bunch of bonus novellas. I have this need to 100% complete everything, and I just can't *not* read these little bonus stories. Usually, I dish out my two to three dollars for a measly 15 to 20 pages in return, leaving me wondering where the rest of my story is (and did the author really need my three dollars...).

Mira Grant's novellas do not have that problem.

And I also think I'm in love.

This is my introduction to the Newsflesh world, and it's a d More...

"People blame science. Shit, man, people shouldn’t blame science. People should blame people." – Shaun Mason

In 2009, invented by Daniel Wells, the Marburg Amberlee (Marburg EX19) can cure leukaemia. First tested to Amanda Amberlee, a young leukaemia patient in Colorado been shot with Marburg EX19 at the age of thirteen, cured from the torment of her sickness. At the age of eighteen, her life becomes normal. The world once again saw the greatness of medicine.

In 2014, invented by Alexander and Joh More...

One of my favorite things about the Newsflesh trilogy is that it's set more than a decade after the Rising, and the world has already adapted to its new way of life. There's an interesting history there, but more interesting is the way the world is different from what we've got now.

Countdown fleshes out (ahhhh I had to!) the story given to us in the full length novels, and gives an incredible amount of detail about the viruses involved, how they're spread, etc. Hey, I majored in religion, so I h More...

Why I Read It: I love the Newsflesh series and don’t want to miss any stories. Plus, it introduces us to the origins of the viruses responsible for the zombie epidemic and the government’s response.

This is told from several different POV’s but is easy to follow. We meet the creators of the viruses and see how they were well intentioned. In this case, it seems that the road to Hell really was paved with good intentions. We also meet the Masons in this story and see how normal they were when all t More...

Reviewed as part of the 2012 Hugo Voter Packet.

Synopsis: Set in 2014, some 25 years before the time of Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy, Countdown shows us what went wrong and caused the Rising (zombie apocalypse). We meet Dr Kellis, Amanda & Suzanne Amberlee, Michael & Stacey Mason and their young son, Phillip, and many others involved in the Rising.

Plot: There’s not a huge amount of plot, what little there is involves the various actions of a dozen or so different people, the random happen-st More...

Yowza. For a novella short enough that I read it on my iPhone's Kindle app while waiting for files to upload at work, this packs one hell of a punch. Countdown explains how the Alexander Kellis's cure for the common cold (pre-human trials) came to meet up with the Marburg Amberlee cancer cure in Colorado to lead to the rising of the dead. Hint: One corrupt reporter, a bunch of college-age stoners, and a whole lot of stupidity were involved: i.e., this could totally happen. The format completely More...

This fills in the back story of Feed and Deadline. I would have liked it to be a little longer and let me see how the Mason's found and adopted George and Shaun but still it was a good read. The thing about this novella is that in 2051, 2061 when the Newsflesh trilogy is being studied in schools as the definitive post zombie apocalyptic novels it will be read for extra credit and all the discrepancy between it the the background given in Feed, Deadline and Blackout will be analyze and debated as More...

Countdown is a novella set in the universe of Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy, and chronologically occurs before the trilogy although it was released after the first book, Feed. Countdown explains the cause and spread of the zombie outbreak and provides an introduction and backstory to the parents of two of the protagonists of Feed. Having read Feed first I was glad of this more detailed and more careful explanation of the outbreak, and found Countdown to be a very interesting read. However I did More...

This is the How-did-it-go-down story you always wondered about.

If you've read Grant's Newsflesh trilogy, you want this companion novella. If you haven't read the trilogy, by all means start here.

She is one of the best zombie authors out there. Her and Max Brooks are really at the top of the heap for me. Just so smart.

With this novella I came away with the same horrible gut fear I did with World War Z.

Most of us choose to live in suburbs for comfort and safety. Sidewalks and parks and public sch More...

Countdown is a short prequel to the Newsflesh series. I have previously reviewed the first two books in the series: Feed and Deadline. I read the Kindle version of Countdown so it didn't have page numbers but I think it probably has only about 65 pages. It's a detailed account of the days in 2014 leading up to The Rising.

Mira Grant is an excellent world builder. Adding more details to the story of how the Kellis-Amberlee virus was created and spread only made the possibility that something like More...