Jimmy Brewster

I wanted to read Patternmaster by Octavia Butler because I have previously read the other books in this series and it was time to complete the series.

This novel, like the other in the series, touches on the topics of class society, individuality and community, and power dynamics.

Arguably this is the worst book in the series, however, the series is such a great set of stories that I would still rate this book very highly. I recommend this series to everyone.

I wanted to read Feed by Mira Grant because I purchased a Humble Bundle which included several books from this series. It has been a very long time since I have read any zombie fiction, so I decided to check it out.

The story is set 20 years after a virus which causes zombification was introduced to the world and zombies have become part of everybody’s day to day reality. It follows a news blogging team as they cover a U.S. presidential campaign.

Despite the unique premise, I found the overall story to be basic zombie fiction. The novel goes so far as to simply describe the zombies as “George Romero” zombies, adding nothing unique or interesting to the zombie lore. The characters are not sympathetic, which is not a requirement, however, they are also one dimensional and boring. The characters are constantly subjected to blood tests that check for zombie infection and if you removed all of the text describing the endless blood tests the book would probably be half as long.

The post-apocalyptic future described is essentially exactly the same as the pre-apocalypse world, except with zombies (and endless blood tests), which makes for a very boring science fiction experience. I expected a book set during a presidential campaign would make insightful political commentary, but alas, like the rest of the novel, the politics are one dimensional and boring.

I would not recommend this novel to anybody except perhaps the most die-hard zombie fiction consumer who has run out of other things to read.