"Feed" by Mira Grant

I'm currently reading "Feed," book 1 of the NewsFlesh series, by Mira Grant for my SF readers' advisory presentation at the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) conference this year. This is the thinking person's zombie novel, and I'm really enjoying it.  So far there's discussion of zombies, and a really SF discussion - disease origins and vectors, the progression of the disease, and other effects of the virus.  However, the book is mostly about the social effects of the existence of the infected; what would it be like to live in a world with this horrible "super" disease that just won't go away? The actual summer of the rise of the disease happens 30 years before the start of the book. 

We're now following a political campaign which looks distressingly familiar - hard to pick a winner at the beginning because many of the canditates are just scary and the one who might be worthwhile - who knows?  I find I've become more politically cynical than I thought - I keep waiting for the author's "chosen" candidate to screw up and lose his political charm. 

There's also a lot of discussion of the news and news vendors.  Bloggers are regulated and a force to be reckoned with, yet are still proving themselves as "legitimate" news sources. 

There're also political conspiracies and zombie attacks and and and....

I'm really enjoying this, and I didn't think I would.  This novel is intelligent and thoughtful which makes it a hit with me. 

I hope the rest of it lives up to the beginning and the rest of the series does too.

Mira Grant's website: http://www.miragrant.com/  Unfortunately not very up to date.  Still has Deadline as coming soon, although they have a picture of the cover I'm seeing on Amazon.