Deadline (Grant novel)

Plot

A year has passed since Shaun Mason killed his infected sister, Georgia, and he is still struggling with the aftermath. He has moved from his Irwin role to lead the After the End Times team, but his grip on reality is slipping as he hears and sees Georgia speaking to him, worrying his colleagues. Shaun returns to Oakland with Becks Atherton, Alaric Kwong, and Dave Novakowski. There, CDC researcher Dr. Kelly Connolly arrives, explaining her team studied why people with K-A reservoir conditions—where the virus stays in one body part without causing zombification—were dying at high rates.

She faked her death with a clone to flee. A major zombie outbreak follows, and Dave sacrifices himself so the others can escape. The group reaches Weed, California, meeting Maggie Garcia, a Fictional whose parents are wealthy pharmaceutical magnates. They find Dr. Shannon Abbey, who says reservoir conditions are an immune response that might fight off zombification.

Shaun and Becks head to Portland’s CDC office, where a staged zombie outbreak nearly kills them. Shaun sends the gathered data to Mahir Gowda, the site’s head Newsie.

Background and themes

Without the framing device of a presidential election used in Feed, McGuire focused on the zombie virus itself: its development as a lab-engineered pathogen and human responses on societal and biological levels. The novel also addresses the long-term psychological impact of a zombie apocalypse, along with themes of medical ethics and human responsibility. Deadline was originally to be titled Blackout, but the title was changed to avoid confusion with Connie Willis' novel Blackout (2010); Grant later used Blackout for the third Newsflesh novel.

Reception

Reviewers noted that Deadline avoided the pitfalls common to middle works in a trilogy. Rob Bedford of SFFWorld praised the strong pacing despite the novel's length and found the treatment of medical ethics thought-provoking. Selena MacIntosh of Persephone Magazine cited improvements over Feed in plotting and character depth, though she credited a new editor for some of the success. Brian Fitzpatrick of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote that the book ratchets up the political intrigue and called the conclusion highly praised, noting that using zombies as a means of hidden agenda makes the work scarier than straightforward zombie fiction.

The use of the deceased Georgia as an advisory voice in Shaun's head was widely praised: Bedford called it a great tool for internal dialogue, while MacIntosh and Fitzpatrick saw it as a plausible reaction to loss. MacIntosh also liked that Shaun's raw and messy state made him a more interesting protagonist than Georgia. The book was compared favorably with Max Brooks' World War Z. Locus included Deadline on their list of the best science fiction novels of 2011.

It was nominated for the 2011 Philip K. Dick Award and the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel, losing the latter to Among Others by Jo Walton.