It's everything in the middle that's new.
So come. Meet Ash, our Irwin narrator and Irish immigrant. Meet Ben, her Newsie companion and husband-on-paper, who's seen a less privileged side of the post-Rising world. Meet Audrey, Fictional, artist, and girlfriend, who's getting a little tired of waiting for Ash to get her life together. Meet Mat, makeup and maker blogger. Meet a lot of people, and find out how many of them will walk away.
Because Feedback provides a new angle on the original trilogy, I do not recommend picking it up until you've read Feed at the minimum, and hopefully Deadline and Blackout as well. But I hope you'll come to my party. I have so many stories to tell you.
This will serve as your discussion post; expect spoilers in the comments.
October 4 2016, 17:33:59 UTC 8 months ago
SO excited, SO happy. SO giddy.
Also, totally reading this tonight. Thank you.
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October 4 2016, 18:22:42 UTC 8 months ago
October 4 2016, 17:57:30 UTC 8 months ago
October 4 2016, 19:00:56 UTC 8 months ago
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October 4 2016, 20:13:28 UTC 8 months ago
October 5 2016, 01:27:44 UTC 8 months ago
October 5 2016, 02:09:15 UTC 8 months ago Edited: October 5 2016, 04:23:16 UTC
No, sorry, one more thought: more. I want so, so much more of this series and all the people in it. I am ridiculously attached. You are amazing at that.
October 5 2016, 10:48:51 UTC 8 months ago
I think this crew made the right choice. Like Ash said, it wasn't worth it. I imagine she'd be surprised to learn that Georgia would have agreed with her.
October 5 2016, 19:52:17 UTC 8 months ago Edited: October 5 2016, 19:52:59 UTC
8 months ago
8 months ago
October 5 2016, 14:00:46 UTC 8 months ago
October 8 2016, 23:59:36 UTC 8 months ago
October 5 2016, 22:41:51 UTC 8 months ago
October 6 2016, 12:38:46 UTC 8 months ago
PS, I picked up another book with your writing in it that came out just the other week. Loose Lips. I heard about it on the All the Books podcast last week, and didn't realize that you were a contributor until I picked it up at the store.
October 6 2016, 23:52:22 UTC 8 months ago
It was also nice to see what was happening in the wings: that all the major candidates got attacked, and the Rymans' was a set-up for interest**. And that the CDC wasn't so much setting up Ryman as making sure the climate was fertile for their goals and weeding out anyone they couldn't control. (I get the impression that if the Democrats won, they had contingency plans.)
I also liked the idea that either George's team or Ash's could have been the whistleblowers, but that, again, both our protagonists made a call that fit their personalities. Georgia Prime was a terrier for the news (and everyone knew it, which is why her stunt worked) and I don't even know if the EIS could get her to walk away***. Ash decided her family was worth more than being a martyr to the cause.
(Also Beth and her dog: I understood that reference!)
* I wonder if Shaun disagreed with George (if he cared enough) or if male Irwin stagecraft is a different enough craft than female Irwin stagecraft (or the choice Ash made; I think Becks also had some leanings that way).
** I think FEED implied the ranch attack was (I need to reread), but Easly was played a lot more straight. But, again that fits Georgia: why assume an attack was to set up a narrative of Brave Senator Ryman when the basic logic of 'zombies kill people, using zombies is terrorism' makes assassination simpler?
*** Georgia II did, but that was after both she and Shaun had been through enough shit to make them consider their life choices.
October 7 2016, 16:52:01 UTC 8 months ago
I think male Irwin stagecraft would be different--Ash comments on their wardrobe choices too.
I did laugh at "Tate wants to build a wall!" Was that written before or after Trump's wall?
I do wonder how well it's going to go for Ash to RETURN to Ireland, which wanted her pregnant and/or in an institution previously.
8 months ago
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October 7 2016, 03:36:47 UTC 8 months ago
October 7 2016, 16:52:39 UTC 8 months ago
October 9 2016, 00:34:14 UTC 8 months ago
By the way, I swear I saw a poster today for a local church, with "The Rising" in big letters across the top. Between things like that, and the Zika virus, I'm watching constantly for walking dead, and it's all your fault.
October 10 2016, 23:29:03 UTC 8 months ago
8 months ago
October 9 2016, 20:55:50 UTC 8 months ago
Wooo whoo!
October 11 2016, 15:27:32 UTC 8 months ago
The reference to San Diego 2014 nearly made me cry. That's my favorite Newsflesh novella.
Appearances by Dr. Abbey, Jill, Dr. Lake, and pre-Masons Rick :D
You introduced us to the real Kirsten Wagman and she is now a favorite. Next time I read about her in Feed, it'll be with a completely different perception. And her friendship with Kilburn was wonderful. I love you for giving us Wagman, Kilburn, and a supportive friendship in what we all know is a pretty cutthroat career path.
It's also interesting to see how Ash and her team viewed the Masons. It honestly makes me sad for George and Shaun, with how they were raised and how very different their family was from the image Stacy and Michael worked so hard to project and how they had to live to keep their relationship hidden...and then I think, you know, maybe they'd have been happier (and less willing to pursue the story at all costs) if they'd opened themselves up to other people and friendships and relationships instead of sealing themselves off. Lots to think about.
Finally, the wider view of what was going on with the lesser-known campaigns and the overarching goal was fascinatingly horrible. As far as conspiracies go, this is a nasty, devious one, and it's been great fun to read.
In short, this book gave me Strong Feelings and I'm looking forward to rereading all four books. Cornkitty approved! <3
October 16 2016, 00:04:40 UTC 8 months ago
8 months ago
October 12 2016, 02:13:24 UTC 8 months ago
I've bounced off Feed before a couple times, but after Feedback it works. I love Ash's POV and I could cheerfully have about 6 more books of her. She's easier for me to get on with than George, not because she's better or nicer but her world view is a better match for mine. It's probably the residual Catholic, I swear nothing gets rid of it. You did a really good job showing her argument with the Church without making it feel like the only one. And the sundresses and resolute certainty that nobody is gonna see Ash's undies without permission. Very very very relatable.
I'm also really liking how the world building gets more solid as I read more, not less. I have about a zillion questions about Kellis-Amberlee transmission (wait, hot air hand dryers DON'T spread it? Wha?) and a few zillion more about agriculture, life with animals, food processing and food shipping. Teacup bulldogs? Bulldogs are 40-50 lbs, breeding to get 'en under the threshold should be a piece of cake? (You don't have to answer, I'm pretty sure these are all spoilery or ought to be and every time I ran into an answer via story I liked the story better than a pat answer)
October 15 2016, 11:34:14 UTC 8 months ago
I miss Mat so much already.
I loved this book so much. I wish I could read it for the first time again. But I know that I will enjoy many rereads to come. I've reread the rest of the Newsflesh books and stories time and again, so this will be no exception.
Finished!
October 16 2016, 00:09:10 UTC 8 months ago
I actually dreaded that NONE of them would make it out alive, considering it was set in the past and they don't appear in other stories. Was glad to see some of them manage.
Poor Mat tho. They were, in my opinion, the nicest character in the book.
I'm hoping we'll see more of them, eventually....
October 17 2016, 21:22:39 UTC 8 months ago
I was really worried going in that it was going to be a rocks fall everybody dies book. I was happy it wasn't though I was extremely sad about Mat.
Loved Wagman...after how much of a joke as she's treated in Feed it was nice to see that she was a bit of a force to be reckoned with (and it really illustrates George's prejudices in some ways; gives her character even more depth than she had originally had and it's not like she was a shallow character to begin with.
I realize that part of the reason some of the events here weren't mentioned were that they hadn't been conceived of during the originally triliogy but when rereading Feed after it was surprising some of it wasn't. Thought I could have sworn there was a mention of Kilburn committing suicide somewhere. I felt terrible for her :-/
October 19 2016, 06:30:01 UTC 8 months ago
I loved the team - not only because yay! Diversity!, but because they're a great mixture of characters.
I loved the world-building - or rather, the different angles we got for the world Newsflash takes place in.
I loved that we got some more glances at faces that we have already seen in the trilogy and in Rise - like getting to know who that asshole Clive was.
I also loved getting another look at congresswoman Wagman, because she seems like a particularly interesting kind of politician - and a strong and interesting person.
The story did not keep me glued to the page the way Feed did though - I guess part of that was because I already knew where it would end, and that this team would not publsih anything grundbraking about the overall CDC plot.
I did fine up until the point were our team became a ... less active player in that whole mess. I completely understand their decision though - it makes much more sense to me than Georgias stubborn hunt for the truth.
I felt a little weird about said truth and team Georgia's fight for it once Ash's team learned what they did - because I knew they wouldn't get it out. Almost disappointed.
As I said, weird.
All in all, I'd probably give the book a 3 star review on amazon, because I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the other ones. I am personally very fond of 3 star reviews, because they tend to give me an honest and balanced look at stuff between all those 5 star 'OMG this is the best you have to buy this!' and 1-2 star 'Thise is utter crap and whoever likes this is stupid' reviews.
October 19 2016, 14:38:21 UTC 8 months ago
October 20 2016, 16:56:04 UTC 8 months ago
I re-read the trilogy last week, and there were lots of little technical questions which were addressed in Feedback, like how door mounted testing units were sterilized between each use, which made me happy.
Very nice to see our favourite mad scientist and also a small appearance from Dr. Lake.
November 17 2016, 03:29:25 UTC 7 months ago
i am still beside myself with love and happiness. it was not a happy story, and i didn't expect it to be, but OMG MAT EXISTING GIVES ME LIFE FOR SO MANY REASONS.
I really liked the end. It's not as rile-you-up-to-tell-the-truth as FEED was but I don't need it to be. Ash being determined to get the people she loves to safety and leave the job of dealing with the shit they learned to someone willing to risk it was something that I really identified with, tbh, because I know that's exactly where I would be. I like to think I'd be a Georgia, or at least a Shaun, but I wouldn't be. I would be Ash, getting my family to safety. And I love that she isn't condemned for that.