Zeroes

Meh. The book was fast paced, but so much so that it felt like a cheesy thriller movie. The plot was essentially Terminator with some “hacker” stuff sprinkled in at the beginning. Typhon is identical to SkyNet—I mean, come on. The author tried to bring a diverse cast to the book, but it felt forced and artificial, with all the characters feeling cookie-cutter.

Having BBS's start to come online during my childhood and then seeing the movie Wargames when it first came out, I've always been fascinated by the possibility of Artificial Intelligence becoming a reality. Wargames posed the question of what could happen if the government ever handed the keys over to such an intelligence or what could happen if such an intelligence grew smart enough to take those keys away from the government on its own. While fascinating, it was also frightening.

Over the years, we've seen advances in data transfer speeds (no more dial up, pokey modems), worldwide connectivity (hello, internet of all things), hacking (in all of its glorious forms), the mapping of the human brain, neural networks, nanotechnology, quantum computing, and certainly not least–Artificial Intelligence (Google, NSA, CIA, other Alphabet Soup organizations run by Uncle Sam).

This book poses the question of what happens then you combine all of these advances into one system with the initial purpose of protecting the US, but not being able to remove the one human trait of ego. The result is truly terrifying.

If you enjoy science fiction that has its roots planted in reality (a future and hopefully impossible reality), then this is definitely a great book for you to read. It doesn't waste too much time pandering to those that have no knowledge of modern technology. There's plenty of suspense, intrigue, and action. And it was very well written. It truly grabbed my attention right from the first page and I had a difficult time putting it down when I had to.

Chuck Wendig did a great job here and I hope that he writes more books in the same genre.

UPDATE: I just discovered that Chuck Wendig has released book #2 in this series less than a week ago. It's called “Invasive”. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27213152-invasive

I found the first page a bit off-putting with all the partial sentences; and now that I think about it, why were they there? The rest of the book was well structured.

Also, I can't remember how that opening scene tied to the end? Did the plot get caught up with it and then move beyond? Maybe it did and I was just too caught up in the creepy twist. Intriguing science but creepy! I'm praying we don't have people with those ideas but frightened they really are in places of power.

I'm not so fond of 3rd person perspective because I want to know why the heck Reagen did an about face a quarter of they way into the story? It never said!

There are hackers arrested for cyber crimes but are given a choice jail or hack for the government. They need to work together to figure out what is really going on and wind up having to save the world but how are they going to do it when the computers have taken over everything. If you enjoyed the tv series Person of Interest this will really be a great read for you. It moves fast and furious. You don't know who will make to the end of the book.

The story hit many of my favorite topics: near future, mostly believably possible sci-fi, hackers of many varieties, and government conspiracies, just to name a few. My biggest criticism of the book would be a spoiler. Let's just say that the underlying technology of the villain is not believable. That won't stop me from reading the sequel.

I definitely wouldn't have picked this book up on my own, but I'm glad my book club chose it. It starts out as a hacker thriller novel, but halfway through morphs into some really crazy sci-fi on themes of artificial intelligence and exactly how much of our lives is offloaded to the internet. The characters are often reprehensible but interesting and mostly realistic. I think more could have been done with DeAndre and Aleena, but overall I enjoyed watching these characters. I'm not sure if Wendig is a genius or just a walking dad joke with his spot on naming (Copper? Chance? Really?). The science starts strong, but things do get wonky at the halfway point so don't count on it for hard sci-fi. If that doesn't bother you, it's a great thrill ride.

Some minor spoilers may follow.

A mysterious government agency puts together a team of five black-hat hackers and forces them to work on secret projects. (What could go wrong, right?) They come to call themselves “Zer0es”.
The members of this team mostly aren't very likeable, at least not at first. (They are criminals after all.) But, they do tend to grow on you as the story develops.
The story starts slowly, introducing the individual Zer0es and their situation. But once it gets going, we get lots of action – gunplay, explosions, chases, escapes, and do-or-die situations.
For the antagonist, Wendig introduces a unique (to me at least) take on the concept of a rogue AI. It calls itself Typhon, and it is one particularly nasty beastie. Typhon has a rather revolting way of spreading itself. It physically bores into peoples skulls, implants in their brains, and takes over their minds -- making them zombie-like extensions of itself. I was reminded somewhat of the Borg and of the massed minds of Frederik Pohl's Heechee.
In the end the Zer0es have to save – well everything. They combine their individual unique talents in a good slam-bang finish. Things are finally wrapped up nicely, but with a hint that there might be more to follow.
Pretty good book. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Executive Summary: A strong start with an alright finish. I liked the book as is, but probably would have enjoyed it more as a Cyber thriller rather than a sci-fi book. 3.5 stars

Full Review
I picked this book up on a daily deal at some point and I had been planning to read it towards the Sword & Laser's Laser group challenge because I was behind on my pledge. Then they went and made it the November pick.

I've long held a fascination on the early days of computers, networks and the phone phreaks and hackers who found ways to manipulate them. I've read numerous nonfiction books on the subject, but very few fiction books. Most fictions books with hackers tend to become cyberpunk (which I also enjoy) but I'd like to see someone do a good take on modern day hacking akin to the first season of Mr. Robot.

Hacking has taken on a much more negative connotation these days, despite the idea of “White Hat”, “Gray Hat” or Hackavists, most people tend to automatically associate the term hacker with criminal. That isn't to say hackers aren't breaking laws, or that there are criminals who use computer savvy to commit crimes. The early hackers were more explorers and prankster than they were hardened criminal however.

One of the things I loved about this book is that Wendig covers pretty much all the common-day hackers. He's got an old guy from the earlier days of hacking, a hackivist, a carder, an internet troll, and a “script kiddie” among others.

They are all well flushed out too. It seems like Wendig knows his stuff when setting up the tech side. But this book isn't a cyber thriller. It's science fiction. That may not be apparent until pretty far into the book but it is.

While I enjoyed the second half of the book, I didn't like it as much as the first half. I think I might have liked it better if he had kept things a little more grounded in the science side of things.

That said, I may still pick up the second book in the series at some point because I'd like to see where he takes things next.