Zero Day

A Jeff Aiken Novel

By: Mark Russinovich

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

A technothriller for the malware and Stuxnet era

An airliner’s controls abruptly fail mid-flight over the Atlantic. An oil tanker runs aground in Japan when its navigational system suddenly stops dead. Hospitals everywhere have to abandon their computer databases when patients die after being administered incorrect dosages of their medicine. In the Midwest, a nuclear power plant nearly becomes the next Chernobyl when its cooling systems malfunction.

At first, these random computer failures seem like unrelated events. But Jeff Aiken, a former government analyst who quit in disgust after witnessing the gross errors that led up to 9/11, thinks otherwise. Jeff fears a more serious cyber terrorism attack targeting the United States computer infrastructure is already under way. And as other menacing computer malfunctions pop up around the world, some with deadly results, he realizes that there isn’t much time if he hopes to prevent an international catastrophe.

Written by a global authority on cyber security, Zero Day presents a chilling “what if” scenario that, in a world completely reliant on technology, is more than possible today - it’s a cataclysmic disaster just waiting to happen.

©2011 Mark Russinovich (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Great book and intro to Mark Russinovich

I really enjoyed this. I was turned on to this listening to a TWiT podcast, either Windows Weekly or Security Now, actually both I think. This is a great, suspenseful, realistic, and compelling story, especially if you are knowledgeable or interested in computer and internet tech. I would recommend it to anyone that fits that bill and enjoys fiction.

The reading is really good, about as good as it gets for a single reader/narrator audio book.

An enjoyable read for both techies and non-techies

A good read, made even better by the true plausibility of the story. I think the suspense factor could've been slightly improved by including a greater number of instances where viruses wreaked havoc in the early parts of the story. I think it would've given a greater sense of the true destruction to come had that been more fully developed. Aside from that minor quibble, it was a very enjoyable book. I look forward to his next.

Sexy! Exiting! Intelligent! Thought Provoking!

I follow Security Now on the TWIT.TV network.. So I knew this would be of interest to me, but I really was surprised how good the story and characters were. This is a non-stop thrill ride from the very beginning. The reader also does a great job, however the choice of microphone or maybe the quality of the audio engineering could have been a bit richer for my taste, but that did not impede my enjoyment of a fine audio book while at work. If Mark Russinovich's next book is as good as this one, I will really be happy.
Zero Day is a must read/listen. :)

P.S. Quick, update your antivirus software, flush your cache and don't open any links in your email !!!

Enjoyable story marred by some technical liberties

Would you try another book from Mark Russinovich and/or Johnny Heller?

Yes, In fact I am listening to the remaining Jeff Aiken series now

Would you be willing to try another book from Mark Russinovich? Why or why not?

Sure!

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Some dislike this narrator. I am biased because is voice sounds exactly like a good friend that I respect immensely. I can see why some may prefer another narrator but I think Johnny Heller does well

Did Zero Day inspire you to do anything?

Read the other books in the series

Any additional comments?

I would call this book good but not great. I wanted a story like a Neal Stephenson or Daniel Suarez novel. For the most part, I got that. However, Neal Stephenson and Daniel Suarez have a gift for creating an engrossing, all consuming, edge of the seat experience. In one scene in this book the author describes an airliner hit by the virus. The account of what happens next shows limited knowledge of flying. Some of it is correct and some is way off base. Inaccuracies such as this, while understandable, will leave some readers put off. More importantly, the character development is good but a little surgical. I admire the author's talent and suspect that he will become better as he continues to develop his craft

great story but too many details.

The underlying story was really good but there are too many subplots I found it hard to keep up with where we were at in location and in story anybody

interesting, accurate but a bit anticlimactic

I picked up this book because the author is someone I highly respect from the tech world. The points are accurate and the author spices things up a bit. This book needs to be read on Kindle or paper. The narrator reads long stretches of Assembly language code. this turns into 5 minute monologs of hexadecimal figures and computer language that was never designed to be read aloud.

The ending was also anticlimactic and didn't fit entirely with the beginning of the book.

I still recommend reading this book. just do it on Kindle or paper.

The story was going along alright, but...

...The author left a few too many things up to the reader to assume, rather than give explanations or confirm certain dots were connected. The ending also kinda fell flat on its face, it seemed unsatisfying and abrupt. I didn't have any problems with the narration as others have stated.

Excellent tech world story, with a great story

For a geek like myself it had enough tech references, the way the story goes back and forth on the story of each character is great.

One word... Amazing!

Amazing! The realism was absolutely incredible. My hat is off too both the author and the narrator .

this is what makes audible great

the performance of this top notch story was outstanding definitely in my top 5 of all times