Zeroes - Chuck Wendig

Zeroes

By Chuck Wendig

  • Release Date: 2015-08-18
  • Genre: Science Fiction
Score: 4
4
From 158 Ratings
$7.99 On itunes Buy on Amazon

Description

“[A] high-octane blend of nervy characters, dark humor and bristling dialogue... smart, timely, electrifying.”
   — NPR

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

An Anonymous-style rabble rouser, an Arab spring hactivist, 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, 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.

Reviews

  • Only managed to read 2 pages

    1
    By Adisgruntleduser
    Didn’t get very far, because if an author doesn’t know or doesn’t bother to want to know the difference between a translator and an interpreter, the rest of the story is likely written with the same lack of care.

  • Zeros

    5
    By B.L.G.
    Great book, a real page turner.

  • Headlong thrilling ride

    4
    By theJBRU
    I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Wendig has a way of zipping the narrative along that just keeps you reading. I particularly liked how some chapters were very short because they gave you a glimpse into what was happing "off camera," so to speak. Just the right amount of information so the next part of the "main action" made sense and then right back into it. I also really liked that the protagonist team all had good, internal motivations and each represented a different kind of "hacker." I didn't buy all of the capabilities of the antagonist in the story, but they hung together reasonably well and the pacing was so driving that you just kind of go with it and enjoy the ride.

  • Not my cuppa

    2
    By Elkhornkate
    The writing is pedestrian, the ending is bizarre, it’s way too long. It would probably appeal to you if you love apocalyptic sci-fi and are more interested in action than nuance. Also if you are into government, techno conspiracy paranoia. I was only looking for a good trash read when I picked this up, but it didn’t quite fill that expectation. I did like some of the characters. But otherwise, a waste of time. Thought the ending would somehow redeem the whole thing. It didn’t.

  • The ending made no sense.

    3
    By gojogonthe.sea
    This book was fantastic all the way until the last three or so chapter which were confusing and rushed.

  • Starts out great turned out bad

    2
    By 9arm
    The story started out very well and accurate to real world stuff then turned into weird terminator scifi. Very poor one.

  • 0's

    5
    By Whim1954
    I liked this book. The characters were believable, the computer hacker world, even fiction was fascinating . Definitely a good read.

  • MR. ROBOT

    5
    By Anibalnika
    I knew it. There has to be a book that similarities with mr robot series. I'm. Buying this book and let's read!!!!!

  • Reasonable

    3
    By ByunStephanie
    I’m not a big fan of reading books, but decided to buy this because it was recommended on iBooks and I tend to enjoy adventure/mystery/thriller novels. This book is a little bit of a let down if you enjoy reading brain-intensive intriguing novels, but if you are just looking to pass time, it took me around 2-3 hours to fnish. The plotline isn’t extremely complex and the writing is easy to understand. The main issue I had with the book was that the writing was merely on par with that of a high-school student. The ideas were too simple and seemed like something I would read in a piece of fanfiction rather than a book selling on the iBooks store. Maybe I’m too picky, but this novel made me feel like I was going through the motions of reading a book rather than actually being drawn into the plot. It feels like a book written for those aged <15 years old but in my opinion includes some notions inappropriate for those age groups. Maybe if you’re the type to read one book a year because you’re too lazy to read/ hate reading, then this book is not too bad because it kinda puts you in a vegetable-like state.

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