BLACKOUT open thread!

Curse you! I had *plans* for this evening! Plans that didn't involve starting and finishing Blackout!

Argh!

Addendum: I have to admit - all of the "unpublished" excerpts really had me worried, in the same way that Joss Whedon wanted us to be near the end of Serenity.

Things I love about Blackout:

1. That kiss! Oh, you guys know what I’m talking about. The KISS. The “Prove it, right now” kiss. ASDFSDKJFSDFN. I have no words to say how satisfied and happy I am with that kiss. I mean, come on. In Feed, I thought I was just reading too much into things (while also secretly hoping that Shaun and George were an item). Deadline confirmed their relationship, but there was practically no room for a romantic moment there, what with George being dead and living as a voice in Shaun’s head and all. So when that moment finally came in Blackout, I was like… FINALLY! It happened. *throws confetti*

2. Shaun’s reaction when he finally got reacquainted with Clone George. He went from “Oh, you can see her too?” to "If you so much as look at her funny, I'll blow your fucking face off". Oh Shaun! <3 You will forever be one of my favorite male characters ever. Thank goodness he never went all the way crazy. And, yay, "Hail to the King" is back! :D

3. Alaric fainting at the sight of George. Seriously, that was like one of the highlights of Blackout for me :))

4. Mahir's blog entry, the one that says "I hope they take physical labor in exchange" and "Nan will shout when she finds out I've become an indentured servant in America". I laughed so hard when I read that! :))

5. The HAPPY ENDING. I never actually thought Clone Georgia would survive, to be quite honest. I had this nagging suspicion at the back of my head that at some point, she was gonna sacrifice herself or die saving Shaun and the others. So imagine my surprise when I read the last few chapters of Blackout. Clone Georgia and Shaun managed to ride off in the sunset after all. Oh, and they occasionally send Mahir postcards too, signed "S & G". How cute.

On your #5, my only complaint about the whole book was that Shaun and Georgia were often in the same place and by the end of the chapter I wasn't quite sure which was narrating.

It took me three readings to realise that it was Shaun who'd been hit by the pen. I hadn't realised, until misreading those few paragraphs, that Georgia couldn't die. Up until then, I'd been expecting it to end badly that way. I was so pleased when it didn't.

Seanan definitely rocks. Hard.

I read Feed in one long go last year, starting while sitting in the airport waiting for my plane to take me home and ending somewhere in the middle of the night over the Atlantic ocean, tears rolling down my face.

I took a couple of weeks off before starting Deadline, because I was just too gutted from what happened in Feed. I ended up devouring it just the same, once I felt up to the task of diving back into the universe.

And now I just stayed up until after 3 am finishing Blackout and my main reaction is "dfgjdfjghdfghkdfgj". I LOVED it. Thank you so much for creating this world, even if it makes me do a lot of uglycrying in public places. I can't wait to read them all again,

Thank you.

Oh God thank you.

First, because this book and this story rocked. Second, because everything that was questionable was justified (er, in reader terms; certainly not in the terms of the characters inside the world). But finally, because I was horribly afraid that the nature of this world and story would require an ending substantially more ambivalent than what we got.

I feel bad calling an ending with that many deaths and sorrows a good one, but...it was. Almost all the people we're meant to root for got out, and got back where they were meant to be, and the balance of the world got a bit better. And oh my I did not think Shaun and George would get to keep each other and they DID. And Rick and President Ryman hadn't changed into horrid people, just good people in a horrid situation. And and and....

I too hope for more future stories in the world, but I admit Shaun and George's story *feels* complete. I'm curious about Dr. Abbey, and about what the world is like in a hundred years, and lots of things. But I'm hoping Shaun and Georgia get a quiet-enough life that following them beyond their blogs would be pointless, plotless voyeurism. They deserve it.

And the people we got to know and love who didn't make it out? They all got to make the choices that led to their fates and made their deaths count. If you have to go, that's better than most can hope for.

ATTN: SEANAN -- Direct question for the author because inquiring minds REALLY want to know.

So, now that you have turned the CDC into a force of evil in the world...

Do they still take your phone calls?

I was wondering that myself - I mean, they're probably not used to being treated as being such important characters in fiction, that I have to wonder if the transition from good to evil still leaves them happy.

Am I the only one whose plans for 2014 include shooting lessons and stockpiling canned goods and Diet Coke?

Here's a new filk, Georgia Girl, with spoilers for Feed and Blackout.

Someone needs to write "Georgia in My Mind."

Touché!

I love that you chose Mahir to wrap it all up. I also love that it ended properly. Actually I loved everything about the book, except for Becks. I still miss Becks, and I feel sad that I spent a lot of the book being angry at her for her reaction to George. Oh yeah, and the blog titles for the gang are beyond cool, especially Mahir's Fish and Clips.

You know, I keep thinking about spontaneous remission.

It seems like the Holy Grail - it might be possible to get back all our loved ones who became zombies! That's so awesome!!!

Except, totally not. In a world where the dead rise, everything bigger than a housecat is The Enemy, death can come borne on mosquito wings, and our protectors are actually our villains, spontaneous remission is still a horror story without equal.



See, I'm thinking. First of all, what would trigger spontaneous remission? It's not, you know, really spontaneous, just unpredictable. Maybe the zombie develops cancer, and when the cancer is killed the virus goes into remission. Maybe they get a cold, and when that's handled it goes into remission. Maybe they get shoved against an electric fence. Maybe they get exposed to another strain of KA and the interaction causes both to go into remission.

Okay, cool. Let's assume the remission is "ideal". It happens as fast as zombification - 5 minutes, maybe half an hour at the outside, and you go from zombie to normal person. Let's also assume that, mercifully, KA doesn't bother putting down memories so you don't recall what happened while you were a zombie. The last thing you remember is being bitten and feeling the KA take over. Yay.

So let's take stock. Your body is in crappy shape. You have the most awful taste in your mouth - a mouth full of teeth that are rotting out (zombies aren't notable for good oral hygiene, I hear.) And you probably can figure what that taste is. Your feet are pretty torn up, I'm sure - you probably lost your shoes somewhere. Your clothes are damaged. You're suffering numerous strains, bruises, and muscle tearing. Hopefully you haven't lost any limbs or have any have any other immediately fatal problems that KA was routing around. Oh, and you may have some gangrene. Now that you're among the more living, that could kinda be a problem. But no matter what you're sure to be in a LOT of pain and barely mobile.

And where are you? Oh, right. This is where it's going to really suck. You are now Somewhere Else. You probably have no idea where. Maybe you're near your abandoned home. Who knows? You may not be dressed for the weather, of course. Oh, but where do you find zombies? Near other zombies. You're not in a safe zone - you were a freaking zombie! You are now surrounded by zombies. And you just went from "apex predator" to "preferred prey". You are barely mobile, unprepared, disoriented, and surrounded by zombies.

And that's if you're lucky. What if it happens while you're actually in the midst of a horde of zombies? Congratulations, you came out of it just long enough to get the full experience of being eaten alive!

And what happens if the zombies don't kill you? Well... "best case" is that you somehow get your wretched, beat-up body to take you to civilization. And they don't shoot you on sight, even though you look like a zombie, and are probably still moving like a zombie. They test you, you're clean. They let you in and give you medical care. Here's hoping the CDC doesn't snag you for a test subject and carpet-bomb anyone who might know about you (okay, at least that part shouldn't happen anymore).
You're still an ex-zombie. Odds are, you personally killed one or more of your friends and family. You have eaten gods-know-what. You have, for all intents and purposes died a tthe hands (or teeth) of zombies.
And that's assuming the outlandish notion that you haven't had brain damage. Which is pretty outlandish. In Blackout it's indicated that KA keeps the brain on, but that it doesn't keep the brain up properly, so older zombies likely do have brain damage.

I'm having a hard time coming up with a case in which spontaneous remission is a good thing, outside of the lab. I do wonder how common it really is - as far as I can figure, most cases would result in the almost immediate death of the individual, and nobody would even notice.

I love how you handled Shaun's imaginary Georgia toward the end. Up until then, she'd been this smart, snarky voice in Shaun's head. And I could accept that. Yes, he was crazy, but to quote an ER nurse: "We never deal with the crazy people who have voices in their head that tell them to buckle up and eat a healthy breakfast." He was crazy, but it was a perfectly functional crazy.

But then the cloned Georgia showed up. And that's when things got difficult. I love how you did that. There was no sudden line where Imaginary Georgia changed, but once Cloned Georgia showed up, she just got creepier and scarier, and eventually she's trying to get Shaun to kill himself. I found that the most disturbing part; way scarier than the zombies.

Oh, ghods, yes, the crazy trying to protect itself from the encroaching sanity. I've BEEN there, not with hallucinations like Shaun, but with depression, and Seanan had it so perfectly RIGHT.

ETA to correct a spelling error.

I just finished Blackout, having re-read the first two books last week as a lead-up.

Amazing work, thank you for doing it!

::Gibbering Idiot::

Um. Yes. Brilliant.

Though there was a moment when I couldn't be sure which clone had gotten out (we first see the reunion from Shaun's POV), and after that little bit was resolved, I put down the book, turned to my husband and said "Oh good. I don't have to shoot Seanan now."

I know, right? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/01/cdc-denies-zombies-existence_n_1562141.html

I was so swept away by the first book, I could not read the second for a VERY long time. The losses made me fear the whole tone would change. And how could I face the world you made without those wonderful characters in it? But when I finally took the plunge into book two, I could not be happier! And, oh! To point out that natural disasters don't care that you had a zombie outbreak and could still end your life just as quickly? Priceless! I can't remember the last zombie story I read that wrestled with that part of reality. So bravo! I am waiting on the third book for the paperback as I prefer all of a set to match. But I can not wait to see the aftermath!

By the way, was the orange shirt wearing doctor a nod to yourself? I don't think I caught her counting crows, but in a movie version I could certainly see you pulling a Stan Lee moment and playing her. Anyway, thank you for some awesome reading material. I have been giving Feed as gifts and addicting others. May you write many, many more tales!

Just finished reading it and I have to say that your action scenes are completely brilliant! Also there were many, many emotions coming from the reading of this book. Becks... :( (there may have been tears). Also I like that Shaun got to have an honest hashing-out-of-issues with the Masons. I mean, not all emotions were hashed out, but that wouldn't be realistic anyway. That was deeply satisfying.

One thing honestly shocked me, though, I thought you were going to somehow connect Shaun's PhantomGeorge showing up (especially with her KA-less eyes, which he would have no reason to envision) to the CloneGeorge existing and somehow mind-contacting him through something akin to the virus-induced mob consciousness of the zombies (you know, the virus allows some sort of connection between zombies, if all humans are infected, why couldn't they have a connection as well?). But then it was just a good, honest psychotic break. Shows I've been reading a bit too much paranormal romance, perhaps.

An excellent conclusion to the trilogy!

I have just one question though. When does the modest little airpark 10 miles up the road from my house get delusions of grandeur and install jet bridges? ;-)

I have to thank everyone here for their reactions. They're all so varied and personal! It's like glimpses into friends' minds.

My reaction was so different from both of the other books in the trilogy. Feed was my entrée into a new world, and I sobbed when we lost Georgia. Deadline made me literally fear for the life of my new Nook e-reader, because the roller coaster ride had my palms sweating that much. Blackout was the return home. We got George back. We got Rick back. Funnily enough, my big teary moment came when, on one page, when reading an explanation about the Secret Service, I said "I miss Steve," only to have it echoed by George on the next page, AND THEN HE CAME BACK! Filker as EIS bigwig, complete with hawaiian shirt! Half of my tweets had the hashtag #myfriendswevecomehome.

It's also interesting to note how folks read the chapter-leading blog entries. Personally, a lot of the "Unpublished" ones proved the preamble to panic for me. From some comments that you made at the Borderlands "Feed" release, (basically, if I recall correctly, "We have broken the planet.") I feared that some events might doom the human race. (Which happened so nicely on film this summer! ;-) ) At other times, that one of the Masons would go, leaving the other to follow. Thankfully, it all ended beautifully. Not "happily," especially for you Becks fans, but beautifully plotted, following logically what came before, with hope, passion, and the Truth.


Thanks for the ride!

I've just finished reading Blackout, and wanted to thank you for this trilogy. It has been an extremely happy-making ride. And, had the world been fair, all love stories would be ending with that "It's the oldest story in the world. Boy loves girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back thanks to the unethical behavior of megalomaniacal dead scientists who never met a corpse they wouldn't try to resurrect" spiel - that was beyond awesome!

One thing I want to know, trilogy-wide: I'm sure the reference in the title of Becks's blog is intentional on your part, but is it on hers? (It seems unlikely, given how many people didn't get Buffy's name, but.)

*goes to listen to Into The Woods*

I'm only about halfway through, so I'm not going to read the comments just yet because I don't want to be spoiled.

But I hit something last night that I just had to ask about before my poor addled brain loses the thought again:

On page 112 (yes, I went back and looked it up), there's someone named George R Stewart, a familiar name from my youth. George R Stewart wrote the classic post-apocalyptic novel Earth Abides, as well as several natural disaster novels and a book about the Donner Party. Coincidence, Seanan?

If it is, cool, if you used the name on purpose, even cooler.

So, I had a question....Will Shawn give the immunity back to Georgia at some point? I can't decide if that makes sense or not.

So many thoughts but I mostly came to say Dr. Kimberly Shaw! Nice naming.

I just finished the book this afternoon.

I feel like I was running right along with them. Wow.

I'm going to wait a day or two, if I can make my brain take a rest (shoos away lurking zombies, yes, I know I said "brain" but I'm not through with it yet), then reread the trilogy from the beginning.

Well done, Seanan.

My copy arrived about three hours ago
Then my housemate and I spent five minutes screaming.
Then I had to wrestle her to the ground bed to keep her from stealing it.
Then I read it.

You are amazing.

I might come back with more coherent comments when I don't have to go out right now, but until then, that will have to do.

(also Mahir, I adore Mahir)