Review: It fails following the "Newsflesh" trilogy
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 20, 2013
I'm a huge fan of the "Newsflesh" trilogy and I became very excited about this book because it's set where I live, in Australia.  Zombie kangaroos, killer koalas and hungry wombats - how can that not attract attention?  I had very high expectations.This book takes place pretty much immediately after the final book in the "Newsflesh" trilogy and features one of the characters from it, Mahir Gowda, one of the bosses of "After the End Times" newsblog.To support the Australian team he travels there to meet them and to see the "rabbit proof fence" now re-purposed as the world's biggest zombie/livestock corral.  A zombie kangaroo, never-mind a mob of rabid, fast, hungry kangaroo zombies is a lot more scary than the human zombies but sadly they don't feature much.  Also, you already know this is where it's heading, however you have to wait for almost half of the book before anything happens.  Mahir finds out that the Aussies having already faced down hostile habitats and fauna for centuries, "were unimpressed" with the zombie raising. This point is repeated over and over and driven home with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.I felt like this book was written by someone who's impression of Australia was taken from stereotypes, wikipedia and using "Google earth/street view".  There are parts where I was nodding and agreeing and parts where I was wondering whether to laugh or cry.In the end it was good but it just wasn't as gripping as the author's previous books and I felt a bit annoyed getting to 93% and the book was finished.  This is a short story at just 130 pages long.I'm not sure how easy it would be to read this if you hadn't read the trilogy first.  There are a lot of references back to the trilogy and they are briefly touched upon/explained but I don't think it would be enough without the full background.  At the same time I'd say - do NOT read this if you plan to read the trilogy, it contains massive spoilers for the plot in those 3 books.It was my love of the trilogy, that this followed immediately after it and the Australian setting that raised my expectations left me giving it the midd-range rating of 2/12.  I am still a huge fan of the author and will read more of her books.