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 characters are familiar (Stacey and Michael Mason, George and Shaun's adoptive parents in the series) and some were only mentioned in passing (the original creators of the Amberlee-Kellis cures/viruses).

We got the 'prequel' story from many different angles and perspectives. From Suzanne Amberlee, who's daughter Amanda had cancer and was one of the first test subjects. From Alexander Kellis the original researcher into the 'Kellis Common Cold Cure' and his husband John Kellis. Stacey and Michael before and after the first outbreak. Some of the first victims of Amberlee-Kellis, as well as the initial reaction.

For fans of the series this is a goldmine. Grant doesn't stint just because its not an actual novel.

Full review to be posted at Poisoned Rationality ( )

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'm not even an activist.

Isn't it enough that the whole world of the main trilogy revolves around the consequences of their actions and the subsequent zombie threat? Did we really need the caricature of a delusional activist "leader"? Wouldn't it be more emotional and intense if the activists were depicted as smart and sensitive idealists who realized that they destroyed the world? Wouldn't their guilt have made a more powerful and thought provoking novel instead of this sneakily and cunningly propagandistic and trite depiction? ( )

Mira Grant is a master of the short story. I loved the insights into several different perspectives over the timeline of Countdown. It was absolutely terrifying reading about the onset of a global pandemic during a global pandemic. ( )

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 thinking on this one? Hilarity ensues? Moral outrage at their antiestablishment ways? What?! Please, someone tell me because I REALLY WANT TO KNOW!

Other than this wild misfire, the novella was pretty good. I was dreading the doggy scene (if you are familiar with this world at all you will know the one I'm talking about) but it was handled perfectly. I will rate it in the middle because the writer is a talent and writes clear, engaging books. She is entitled to some experiments from time to time to push the envelop but, PLEASE!, let the mayday crowd, every damn one of them, stay dead and not rise up to infect the rest of the series. ( )

A bit of a prequel to the first book in the Newsflesh series, Feed. Probably best read after you're into the series to provide a bit of backstory--for that, it's really interesting. Not sure it would function as well as an introduction to the books. I enjoyed it, though. Once you're immersed in this world it is hard to stop thinking about it. ( )