Countdown is the novella that forms a prequel to the Newsflesh trilogy proper; published as an Orbit Short, it's only been available in the UK for a few days now (and is on the Hugo ballot). Both because it is a novella, and because of its format, this will be a relatively short review, on a completely different scale to those for novels.
Countdown is told episodically; divided up into a number of short chapters, each told in the third person and ending with an excerpt of some kind (whether it be from a blog post, a newspaper article, an after-the-fact piece, or simply a relevant document, all culled from the Newsflesh world), it tells the story of how Kellis-Amberlee came to be. We start with the separate Kellis and Amberlee cures, for the common cold and cancer respectively, and as the novella goes on we see how the work that created them went on to bring about the Rising: how good intentions went badly awry, how what one ought to do for the many might conflict with what one ought to do for the individual, and indeed how important good procedures for dealing with outbreaks of disease are. Indeed, Grant's really got this one as a theme, alongside proper clinical testing.
The other side to Countdown is the character of Alexander Kellis, designer of the Kellis cure for the common cold which forms part of the mutant Kellis-Amberlee disease that causes the Rising. He's one of a number of characters in the novella, but his is the only one which really comes across as more than a brief appearance or a cliché; his passion for his work, his scientific intelligence, his lack of emotional intelligence and his reaction to the effects of his work are all fantastically portrayed as a study in despair, and the grim close of his life is portrayed wonderfully. Indeed, Grant's novella really is much darker than anything else in the Newsflesh series, even the ending of Feed, dark as that is; there's no heroism and no real hope offered here, and it's all the better for that.
This is a grim, compact little story that works really well, but also really grimly; not uplifting, but certainly excellent, although it does require knowledge of the Newsflesh world to really work to its full effect.
(Read 4/7)
Countdown is told episodically; divided up into a number of short chapters, each told in the third person and ending with an excerpt of some kind (whether it be from a blog post, a newspaper article, an after-the-fact piece, or simply a relevant document, all culled from the Newsflesh world), it tells the story of how Kellis-Amberlee came to be. We start with the separate Kellis and Amberlee cures, for the common cold and cancer respectively, and as the novella goes on we see how the work that created them went on to bring about the Rising: how good intentions went badly awry, how what one ought to do for the many might conflict with what one ought to do for the individual, and indeed how important good procedures for dealing with outbreaks of disease are. Indeed, Grant's really got this one as a theme, alongside proper clinical testing.
The other side to Countdown is the character of Alexander Kellis, designer of the Kellis cure for the common cold which forms part of the mutant Kellis-Amberlee disease that causes the Rising. He's one of a number of characters in the novella, but his is the only one which really comes across as more than a brief appearance or a cliché; his passion for his work, his scientific intelligence, his lack of emotional intelligence and his reaction to the effects of his work are all fantastically portrayed as a study in despair, and the grim close of his life is portrayed wonderfully. Indeed, Grant's novella really is much darker than anything else in the Newsflesh series, even the ending of Feed, dark as that is; there's no heroism and no real hope offered here, and it's all the better for that.
This is a grim, compact little story that works really well, but also really grimly; not uplifting, but certainly excellent, although it does require knowledge of the Newsflesh world to really work to its full effect.
(Read 4/7)
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