Although this plot point is not as front and center as a cloned protagonist and simmers under the surface, it proves to be a powerful notion in the search for a cure. Much of the politics involves the power play of control between the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the EIS (Epidemic Intelligence Service), specifically the information about the Kellis-Amberle virus and the potential for a cure.Ī living breathing Georgia wasn’t the only major revelation in Deadline to have ramifications for Blackout, the other is Shaun’s immunity to Kellis-Amberle. This isn’t to say the game of politics isn’t present, because it very much is and drives the plot of the novel. So, structurally we’ve got our map laid out, the path Grant takes continues to be filled with conspiracy and subterfuge with a little less on the political game inasmuch as the politicians themselves don’t take to the page until the latter portions of the novel. I felt that Georgia’s voice in Feed was stronger than Shaun’s was in Deadline, but there’s more of a balance between the two here in Blackout. It’s a rather obvious trick, but still quite successful. That is, Becks is part of Sean’s narrative and when we see a blog quote from her, it signals a chapter from Georgia’s point of view.

The point of view narration in the previous two volumes is indeed intact however, Grant rotates the chapters from Sean and Georgia, with the only initial indication being blog quotes from the opposite perspective. What Grant has done, in a narrative sense in Blackout, is truly enjoyable and fascinating. The focus on Georgia does not preclude focus from Sean Mason. The only real physical difference is her eyes, where previously the KA Reservoir condition forced her to constantly wear sunglasses because of her dilated pupils, the clone does not have this condition. Grant injects a great deal of delicious narrative tension through the early Georgia chapters as she butts heads with her handlers before learning more about the conspiracy behind the conspiracy. As she and her ‘handlers’ indicate, she’s 97% the Georgia we knew. That’s right, Georgia is back, though not exactly the Georgia readers knew. As readers of Deadline came to know, the dead are rising because of the CDC’s active engagement in the form of cloning. The dead are rising and not just because of the Kellis-Amberle (KA) virus, whose outbreak resulted in the first rising a couple of decades prior to the first novel Feed. The first two novels in the Newsflesh sequence were major game changers for the zombie trope and with Blackout, Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) has changed the game in her own world.

As I indicated in my review of Deadline, It will be very difficult to review this novel without spoiling events in both Deadline and Feed, so reader beware…

Blackout mira grant