Book 5: Blackout

Deadline

Mira Grant

And so continues Mira Grant's zombie epic, following the survivors from Feed as they dig deeper into government conspiracies and the science behind their brand of the living dead. Though the book often suffers from its narrator, who's often just a bit too far off the reservation (though understandably so), a (somewhat) new supporting cast allows Grant to probe more deeply into her meticulously thorough post-zombie world. The narrator's newfound psychosis is understandable from a psychological viewpoint, but the asides can sometimes become a bit tiresome to characters and readers alike, realistic though they may be. But the story must go on, and Grant wastes no time launching directly into a do-or-die plot that reintroduces plenty of characters from the previous installment, though a few notable names are bafflingly missing. Like its predecessor, Deadline is often more compelling for the wholeness of Grant's vision more than its plot per se, though there is plenty of conspiracy-chasing and zombie-battling. Here, too, however, are the lengthy explanatory passages that prove Grant's imaginative genius but occasionally belie her writing or plotting. Though the characters occasionally make an appreciated meta remark about the propensity of antagonists to describe their evil plots, their self-awareness doesn't quite excuse the author's dependence on this kind of expository passage. The novel isn't quite as much of a high-octane adventure as a slightly paranoid scientific exploration, but it is strangely compelling. Though the more active incidents seem to be carefully paced, they enliven what is, at its heart, a more contemplative book. More intriguingly, Grant seems to view zombies as a means to explore larger political and moral themes, and this book treats neither with kid gloves. Despite the cast's wishes, there are no easy answers, and the coda opens the door for even more layers of nuanced complexity. Sure, some plot devices are too convenient and sure, there may be too few or too many zombie battles for readers at the periphery, but Grant's work consistently proves that genre fiction, and even extremely stereotyped tropes like zombies, can be an unparalleled testing ground for new ideas and new ways to explore some of the messier issues inherent in the human condition. Deadline doesn't offer as many pleasant surprises as Feed, but it is a worthy sequel and a good pivot point as the series moves from zombie-poking adventures into deep ethical quandaries.

Grade: A-