I was thrilled to bits when I first learned that Mira was planning an Australian Newsflesh novella, and I've been holding out for it for quite some time. When it at last became available for download today I got it as soon as was humanly possible and devoured it in one sitting, pausing only to leave running commentary reactions on her blog.

I feel that Mira has done an excellent job of portraying the Australian landscape, wildlife, and attitude in this novella. As usual it's by turns humorous and terrifying, as well as thought-provoking. The pacing is sharp; I don't think there was a single unnecessary word in the entire piece, it was so tightly written.

As it contains spoilers for the original Newsflesh trilogy, I highly recommend that you read that first, but if you've already read it, then follow it up with this novella as soon as you can. ( )

There were some fun moments/lines/characters, but nothing felt as fleshed out as Grant's stories usually are. The pacing was off with the majority of the story slow and unresolved points of interest at the end. ( )

This post trilogy novella is not one to pick up since it gives away some of the plot twists in book three. Mahir travels to Australia to meet some of his employees while they show him a possible story at the rabbit proof fence. Now the fence is used to keep zombie kangaroos away from major population centers. The thing I liked about this wasn’t so much the story but how the Australians cope with the Rising and how travel has changed so much as well. A fun story but not one for someone new to the universe to read. ( )

Three stars and a half, in truth (how I wish we had half-stars for ratings!!!): this book reads more like a documentary of post-Rising Australia, rather than a new installment in the Newsflesh series and only the last part of the story adds a very welcome thrill of the kind that the original trilogy had given me.

Hopefully there will be more in the future... ( )

Two things made this novella very cool: More Mahir Gowda, and more world-building. I am constantly in awe of how Mira Grant has thoroughly thought through this world. And I'm very impressed that she came up with a solution to the zombie problem for Australia that is different from other parts of the world and very, very appropriate. ( )