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Version Zero  By  cover art

Version Zero

By: David Yoon
Narrated by: Kevin R. Free, VyVy Nguyen
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Publisher's summary

From the brilliant mind of New York Times best-selling author David Yoon comes a lightning-fast and scorchingly observant thriller about how we can save ourselves from the very real perils of a virtual world.

Max, a data whiz at the social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he questions what his company does with the data they collect, he's fired...then black-balled across Silicon Valley. With time on his hands and revenge on his mind, Max and his longtime friend (and secretly the love of his life), Akiko, decide to get even by rebooting the internet. After all, in order to fix things, sometimes you have to break them.

But when Max and Akiko join forces with a reclusive tech baron, they learn that breaking things can have unintended - and catastrophic - consequences.

©2020 David Yoon (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

One of Entertainment Weekly's "Best New Books"

“For his first adult novel, YA superstar Yoon draws on his decades in the tech industry to envision a takedown of the digital world so complete that paper comes back into fashion.... A fast-paced, contemporary take on The Monkey Wrench Gang, blowing up digital infrastructure instead of dams.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“With Version Zero David Yoon holds up a mirror to our ways of life, our hardships and vulnerabilities. As he lures us into the story of a smart, naive young man’s desire to make the world a better place, the mirror turns black. This propulsive, visceral, tech-rich tale is both all head and all heart, which is to say, it’s all David Yoon." (Caroline Kepnes, author of You)

“The novel is at its best when satirizing the high-tech business world and internet culture...fans of dystopian fiction will want to check this one out.” (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Version Zero

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Unique

Definitely recommend this unique take on the internet,humanity and connectedness. Well developed characters and original plot.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Sharp observation dragged down by semi-woke hetero dudishness

The novel starts really strong and the observations about the racial & gender stratifications of the tech world and the horrors of global capitalist tech supply chain are sharp and spot-on. After the midpoint even as the plot goes gleefully berserk, the narrative goes kind of limp with YA-feeling (and also ultra hetero) relationship dynamics and philosophizing.

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