Rise (Mira Grant)

Rise: The Complete Newsflesh Collection
The Newsflesh series
Mira Grant
Orbit
Fiction, Collection/Horror/Sci-Fi
***** (Great)

DESCRIPTION: The zombie apocalypse known as the Rising reshaped human civilization, after nearly destroying it. From the viral origins of the dreaded hybrid Kellis-Amberlee contagion to a new generation that has never known a world without bleach and blood tests and the risen dead as part of daily life, there are countless stories to be told. This collection includes the short stories and novellas in the Newsflesh world:
Countdown: Two scientists work to cure disease, one cancer and the other the common cold, entirely unaware of each other's work... or how their breakthroughs, which could have ended so much human suffering, will instead nearly end the known world.
Everglades: A young woman reflects on childhood visits to Florida as she decides whether life in a zombie apocalypse is worth living.
San Diego 2014: A group of fantasy and science fiction fans gather for a weekend of cosplay and fun, only to find internet rumors of a zombie outbreak to be all too true when the undead crash the gates.
How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea: A prominent internet journalist travels to Australia to experience their radically different take on the apocalypse and visit the infamous "rabbit-proof fence" that contains their viral-amplified wildlife.
The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell: A Seattle elementary school thought it had effective protocols in place to prevent a zombie outbreak on the grounds, only to be proven disastrously wrong.
Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus: An off-the-grid scientist and her team find an emaciated, insane stranger, harbinger of an all-too-human threat.
All the Pretty Little Horses: After becoming heroes during the Rising, a Berkeley professor and his grief-shattered wife struggle to fill a gaping, child-sized hole in their lives.
Coming to You Live: After taking on top government agencies and losing too many colleagues, former internet journalists Shaun and Georgia Mason had thought that fleeing to the Canadian wilderness meant they could be free of the traumas that had warped their lives, only for their fragile peace to be broken.

REVIEW: Grant's Newsflesh world, based on solid viral research and understanding of human nature, expands beyond the core cast with these additional tales. From the origins of the outbreak, a tragic combination of unintended consequences and the fallout of fearmongering "fake news" journalism that doesn't care what wildfires it sparks so long as it feeds the lucrative outrage machine, through the chaos and tragedy of the early days and on past the end of the third book in the core trilogy (I have yet to read the fourth entry), Rise fleshes out what already felt like a solid world and fills in more details on several characters. Here, we get the backstory of the elder Masons whose artificial, camera-dependent "love" of Rising orphans Sean and Georgia left the two adoptive siblings so psychologically damaged, as well as the origins of the drug-addicted killer "Foxy". We also see how the rest of the world responded to the Rising, and what might be on the horizon if people can let go of their addiction to fear (and the power that some groups gain through manipulating that fear). Hidden in the cracks are glimmers of hope that a better future is possible, though there's also plenty of death and darkness and violence, enough to break the strongest wills. Through all the tales, the world leaps to life in its many well-researched details and distinctive characters. As in the original stories, the biggest threat is often not the hybrid Kellis-Amberlee virus or the undead, but the all-too-living terror and calculated monstrosity of people, though some of the worst damage they do is not out of malice at all. Short introductions by the author explain inspirations and intents. My only real complaint, one that I can't exactly blame this collection for, was that it had been long enough since I read the Newsflesh books that it took me a while to remember the whos and whats and wheres of the core cast and referenced events. The rest ranks right up their with the main series, earning it top marks.

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