Mira Grant (pen name for Seanan McGuire when she's writing adult SF) has started a new series, Parasitology, with a Nebula-nominated novel, Parasite. Her previous series, the Newsflesh Trilogy, was quite a fun read and I enjoyed all three tremendously. This one...well...
Grant is trying for a different heroine here. Sally Mitchell is feminine and caring, where the protagonists of Newsflesh are hard as rocks. The tone is earnest, not sarcastic.
The zombies this time are tapeworms that start out as medical implants but get out of hand. Seriously. They kind of stagger and do violence with a vacant stare, at least at first. But some of them get better at it. Not so much the point, though.
The point is that the book comes off as a somewhat lesser reflection of the last trilogy. Georgia Mason was caring within a hard shell. Sally is just caring. The earnestness gets repetitive. The characters do have more differentiation here, but the book just has fewer notes--not as much variety. Just three stars this time.
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