Last Friday, I began my reporting back on the novel finalists for the Hugo Award for Best Novel 2011 with NK Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, (Orbit.) Today I am continuing with Mira Grant’s Feed (Orbit.)

I will also briefly reiterate my evaluation criteria from last Friday’s post—bearing in mind that all this reading has to finally result in an ordering of the finalists on the Hugo’s ballot. So, briefly, what I am thinking about as a reader is:

– the use of genre elements in the work, ie its strength as a work of speculative fiction;

– whether the book works for me as a story, ie is it compelling, well written and engaging—and remembering from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms’ report that I personally like both emotional depth to my story telling and interesting ideas (although not necessarily for their own sake.) Consistency of both characters and plot is really important to me. And I do rate good use of humor in the story.

– I also mentioned, in relation to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, that I appreciate a good ‘twist in the tale’, although I also averred that it was not strictly necessary to my enjoyment of a book—good characters and a sound tale, well told, are the baseline.

So on with that reporting back!

Feed by Mira Grant

The Basic Story:
From the back cover: “The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something, new, something terrible that no one could stop…”

I think it is no secret that this is a novel that deals with the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, one where zombies remain an ongoing threat. The other basic plot element you probably need to know is that the protagonists, Georgia and Sean Mason, are bloggers who have secured the coveted role of reporting on the US presidential campaign through following one of the candidates. The back cover also promises that the Masons find themselves unearthing “the dark conspiracy behind the infected.”

The Report:
A recent visitor saw Feed on my TBR table and asked: “You’re not reading a zombie book, are you?” To which I replied that I most certainly was—and that in fact another zombie book, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, was one of my top reads in 2009. So I was very much looking forward to Feed, especially as the author, Mira Grant (who is also known as Seanan Maguire) won last year’s John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

I was not disappointed. Feed is what I consider a fun read: fast paced, with great use of genre elements, and plenty of political action mixed in with the zombie slayage—in fact, it’s probably more of a political thriller than a slayage fest, although there’s enough of the latter to satisfy a traditional zombie fan. It’s a smart, spirited story with good use of both the zombie apocalypse trope and pop culture elements, such as bloggers as a key part of the contemporary media. The latter element also pulls in the “reality media” angle: ie in Georgia and Shaun Mason’s world, it’s all about realtime blogging and getting ratings. To top all this off (no zombie pun intended!) Feed also has great characters.

Overall, I thought the use of genre elements in the story was particularly strong. The post (zombie) apocalypse world was convincing and I particularly liked the scientific rationale for the ongoing presence of the shambling, single-focus undead. After all, you would logically expect zombies to eventually die out, wouldn’t you? Well, clearly they haven’t—and the reason given for this was convincing. I also really liked the way the bloggers-as-key-media-of-the future aspect worked. To me, it was good sci-fic, a natural extension of a process that we can already see beginning to happen.

Feed’s other great strength, as already indicated, lies in the characters. As with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, it is not just the central characters of Georgia and Shaun Mason who are compelling, but also their core “team”, such as the tech guru, Buffy (I “know”, but it is an in-joke in the story, so I felt it “passed”—and remember, pop culture is a big part of the ethos of this book) and more mainstream journo, Rick, as well as “off main page” yet nonetheless credible characters such as the Masons’ fellow blogger Mahir Gowda. As a reader I was engaged with all these characters and for me that is definitely a big part of what makes a story engrossing.

So what didn’t I care for quite so much with Feed? My first quibble relates to that remark about a “twist in the tale.” I said, in relation to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms report, that “… I am not a reader who needs surprises in my stories—good characters and a good story well told are generally enough for me …” So I suspect I am making a liar out of myself, but I found there was one aspect of Feed where I kept waiting for the deeper plot twist to emerge. This was in relation to who the bad guy really was—but in the end the obvious bad guy was indeed “it”, and I found that just a trifle disappointing. (I note, however, that this is a first-in-series so there may indeed be more twists and reveals to come.)

My main quibble, however, related to the way in which the ending unfolded. Not to the ending itself: I suspect that some readers may be uncomfortable with that, but it worked for me emotionally and in the context of the plot. (Sorry I can’t be clearer, but—no spoilers!) My quibble relates to the way in which the ending was engineered, plot-wise. Yup, it’s one of those continuity bugbears. Here’s the thing: one of the major characters has been proven time and again to be trustworthy throughout the story. He is also someone with the power to make things happen that need to happen—but when the chips are down, the protagonists don’t act on that trust; conversely, they shut the character out. This makes the plot action work, but for me, it didn’t fit with the evolution of the relationship between the characters until that point. As a reader, this didn’t spoil the overall book or ending for me, but it did take the edge off it a little.

I believe though, that these are relatively small bugbears in what I still found to be a fun, enjoyable read—and yes, post-apocalyptic zombie horror meets political thriller is definitely fun read territory for me. 😉 I feel, in terms of that Hugo Awards shortlist for Best Novel, that Feed still has to be a very strong contender, particularly given its pace, the strength of genre use, and the overall strong and engaging line-up of characters.

—

To reiterate, the complete list of finalists, by book title, comprises:

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra; Allen & Unwin in AU/NZ)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

I hope to keep the reports coming more swiftly now, and have also begun reading the short stories, novelettes and novellas—so keep watching this space!