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| - Newsflesh is a series of Zombie Apocalypse medical political thrillers written by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire, author of the October Daye Urban Fantasy novels). In the summer of 2014, three men tried to help the world, and nearly ended it instead. In Colorado, Dr. Daniel Wells worked on a genetically engineered virus designed to cure cancer, finally achieving a breakthrough with teenager Amanda Amberlee. In Virginia, Dr. Alexander Kellis worked on a similar program to wipe out the common cold. And in Pennsylvania, Brandon Majors led a group of college students to break into Dr. Kellis' lab, setting free the experimental and incompletely tested virus.
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| abstract
| - Newsflesh is a series of Zombie Apocalypse medical political thrillers written by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire, author of the October Daye Urban Fantasy novels). In the summer of 2014, three men tried to help the world, and nearly ended it instead. In Colorado, Dr. Daniel Wells worked on a genetically engineered virus designed to cure cancer, finally achieving a breakthrough with teenager Amanda Amberlee. In Virginia, Dr. Alexander Kellis worked on a similar program to wipe out the common cold. And in Pennsylvania, Brandon Majors led a group of college students to break into Dr. Kellis' lab, setting free the experimental and incompletely tested virus. Soon, the two viruses met and combined to form Kellis-Amberlee, which turned out to be the Virus: it caused the dead to get back up as zombies and eat people, which of course generated more zombies. The initial series of outbreaks was dubbed The Rising. In an attempt to prevent mass panic, the government decided to lie to the public; newscasters were given scripts indicating that it was either a zombie walk, or a variation of H1N1 making people act aggressively and violently. However, one brave doctor from the CDC leaked the real story, even as bloggers and geeks had already guessed the truth and started spreading the word. Once the worst was over (for some values of "worst"), humanity researched the situation and quickly learned just how screwed they were: every mammal on the planet was infected with Kellis-Amberlee; any mammal large enough (about 40 pounds) would reanimate as a zombie upon death. A few would simply convert directly into zombies without dying. There was no cure. In the twenty years since the Rising, life has changed drastically to address the continuous threat of new outbreaks. A significant portion of the American public has retreated behind walls. Everyone who has to go outside has to know how to shoot. Strict hygiene protocols must be obeyed. Bloggers are now considered valid journalists because they immediately shared the truth and spread the word during the Rising, while traditional media was still either dancing to the government's tune or just failing to take the disaster seriously. In 2039, Senator Peter Ryman, seeking the Republican nomination for president, chose a team of bloggers to join him on the campaign trail: After The End Times, headed by Georgia and Shaun Mason and Buffy Meissonier, from the first generation to come of age since the Rising. In addition to learning about Ryman, they discovered some disturbing truths that led them to dig deeper, finding more than they -- or anyone -- ever bargained for. Some months later, the After The End Times crew were getting back to normal when an unexpected visitor showed up -- and they realized that what they had discovered so far was just the tip of the iceberg. The novels are:
* Feed (May 2010) - 2011 Hugo Award nominee for Best Novel and optioned for a motion picture.
* Deadline (May 2011)
* Countdown: A Newsflesh Novella (August 2011)
* Blackout (May 2012)
* San Diego 2014: The Final Stand of the California Browncoats (scheduled for sometime in 2012) In addition, the short story Everglades was published in the anthology Living Dead 2 in 2010, and a series of vignettes collectively titled Countdown were published to the author's blog in the weeks leading up to Deadline's release. In August of 2011, Countdown was released as a Novella. (The chronological order of events is Countdown, San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats, then Everglades, then the novels.) Ms. Grant won the 2010 John W. Campbell award for best new writer for this series. As usual for stories set after a Zombie Apocalypse, expect a lot of unspoilered Death Tropes to be mentioned.
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