Zeroes

By: Chuck Wendig

Narrated by: Ray Chase

Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

An exhilarating thrill ride through the underbelly of cyber espionage in the vein of David Ignatius' The Director and the television series Leverage, CSI: Cyber, and Person of Interest, which follows five iconoclastic hackers who are coerced into serving the US government.

An Anonymous-style rabble-rouser, an Arab Spring hacktivist, a black-hat hacker, an old-school cipherpunk, and an online troll are each offered a choice: go to prison or help protect the United States, putting their brains and skills to work for the government for one year.

But being a white hat doesn't always mean you work for the good guys. The would-be cyberspies discover that behind the scenes lurks a sinister NSA program, an artificial intelligence code-named Typhon that has origins and an evolution both dangerous and disturbing. And if it's not brought down, it will soon be uncontrollable.

Can the hackers escape their federal watchers and confront Typhon and its mysterious creator? And what does the government really want them to do? If they decide to turn the tables, will their own secrets be exposed - and their lives erased like lines of bad code?

Combining the scientific-based, propulsive narrative style of Michael Crichton with the eerie atmosphere and conspiracy themes of The X-Files and the imaginative, speculative edge of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson, Zer0es explores our deep-seated fears about government surveillance and hacking in an inventive, fast-paced novel sure to earn Chuck Wendig the widespread acclaim he deserves.

©2016 Chuck Wendig (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Action, Humor, & Sharp Commentary on Technology

Any additional comments?

Enjoyable near-future SF, with the focus on cyber issues and AI/IA. Wendig has taken a slice of life and built the plot around five characters who represent common hacker stereotypes but manage to become more than mere caricatures. You have a white hat hacker/hacktivist, a black hat, an old school cyberpunk turned conspiracy theorist/prepper, classic social engineer, and an internet troll. They all have layers and secrets, and strengths that compliment one another. The story has plenty of action and uses the characters and their interaction to poke fun at and highlight the dangers of our interconnected society. The book is not perfect and the penultimate climax/resolution feels a little pat, though not exceedingly so. Nonetheless, I look forward to other books by Wendig, including the well-reviewed follow-up to this book, Invasive.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

frighteningly real fast paced entertainment!

great characters couldn't put it down, listened to the whole thing in a weekend. exciting and horrifying and REAL.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Interesting idea -way too slow

The story was too long. It failed to hold my interest in some places
I was drawn to the major characters ,but after a while I just wanted them to get on with it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Fun, fast book.

Terrific voice work by Ray Chase captures all the nuances of Wendig's dynamic cast. Awesome!

Heavy Sci-fi comes out of no where

First half of the story is good, then gets really sci-fiy. Unexpected shift in the story line. I was hoping it would be more about hacker and computer stuff and not so much sci-fi action.
Narrator was really good though.

Modern Suspense

Very good story. It was suspenseful and scary. If you were a fan of Star Trek, think of The Borg. Like a great sci-fi story, it built a story around what could be possible if ...
Recommended read.

Decent

The narration was good, kept me entertained, a little monotonous. The story was okay, left some questions and parts of the story were severely under developed.

it reads like a movie.

it's a fast-paced book with lots of action. The author does what is so hard with team stories in that every character gets equal time and makes a memorable contribution. He's great at scene description. The narrator is great at reading the personality into the characters. The story is a little over the top, but everything else is flawless.

A little too out there

Picking this up I thought it would be a normal cyber thriller, but turned into a really wacky sci-fi story. It's interesting but I wish it was grounded more in reality.

hacking rollercoaster ride

good characters mixed with interesting storytelling and tingling details on the side. for people who like 4chan and trolling

Brilliant!

This was such a good story. I had a little idea what it was about, but couldn't put it down once I started. It's fast-paced and brilliantly crafted. My favourite thing about it were the characters; there are many, but they are all so believable and unique. I loved the Blackbirds series, but, for me, this topped them (although Miriam Black will always be my top anti-hero). I haven't checked, but I really, really hope there will be more books to go with this one. Please???

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Magnificent performance

Fantastic narration of an excellent story.
My only complaint is that the large cast of characters had confusing similar identities and I had to buy the book to reread and check who was who during the first third of the novel. Well worth it though as it's such a good book.