Zeroes audiobook

Review originally posted on www.fantasyliterature.com:In Chuck Wendig’s techno-thriller novel Zer0es, five hackers — some highly skilled, some not so skilled — are not-so-innocently going about their daily business when they are unpleasantly interrupted by a tall African-American man who introduces himself as Hollis Copper or (in one case) “Mr. Government.” This motley crew of five consists of Chance, an aspiring Anonymous-style hacker who’s more con man than computer whiz; DeAndre, a talented hacker who specialized in stealing credit card data; Aleena, an Arab Spring hacktivist; Reagan, an unhappy and vindictive Internet troll; and 63-year-old Wade, a grizzled conspiracy nut and cipherpunk who collects classified information and deeply distrusts the government.Hollis whisks his five hackers away, less than voluntarily, to an unknown location, where he makes a pitch to each of them: work for the government for one year on a top secret project, or take their chances with all the criminal charges and blackmail the government can bring down on their heads. The hackers all agree, with varying degrees of reluctance, ranging from DeAndre’s “F— you” to Reagan’s surprising response:I quit my job a few weeks ago. I hate my apartment. I hate my town. I have a cat somewhere, and I hate that cat. He’s weird. He reminds me of Gollum. Piss on my old life. I’m in.The five are sent to a remote location called the Lodge, where they join other groups of hackers in working on off-the-books cyber-espionage projects. With so many hackers cooped together in one location, rules are bound to get broken. And the consequences of their actions are impossible to foresee, and far more dangerous and terrifying than any of them imagined.Zer0es is a gripping suspense novel that kept me up far too late into the night, unable to put the novel away until I finished it. Unfortunately, a little too much of its plot is derivative, from the unwilling group of misfits being molded into a team, to the artificial intelligence that spreads through all Internet-linked systems — a staple SF plotline that harks back to John Varley’s 1984 Hugo and Nebula award winning novella “Press Enter■” and even earlier SF works. There is perhaps an over-reliance on profane humor and snarkiness in the story, although Wendig’s many fans will undoubtedly be pleased. And not all of the subplots were explained sufficiently to be satisfying; some of them were literary dead-ends that came back to needle me when I recovered from the initial rush and started to analyze the plot.Despite these drawbacks, this is undeniably an exciting and compelling thriller. Chuck Wendig skillfully assembles a large cast of main characters and manages to make all of them varied and interesting, an impressive accomplishment where there are so many point of view changes. Characters aren’t always what they first appear to be, but their development remains believable and grounded in realism. Zer0es includes fascinating and detailed descriptions about different types and styles of hacking, the rules of the hacking world, and the personalities of different hackers, shedding light on a part of society that will be unfamiliar to many readers.There are also some unexpected and creative twists and turns to the story, including a ghoulish, robot-like character called the Compiler who periodically haunts the pages of the novel, becoming more and more of a presence in the plot until his true role becomes appallingly clear, and the overarching mystery of Typhon. On the second page of Zer0es, an interrogator asks Chance a question:“How did you stop Typhon?”Now Chance laughs. A ragged, raspy sound. “Who says we stopped it?”This question haunts the pages of this novel, disturbing until the end… and perhaps beyond.What Zer0es lacks in depth and originality, it makes up for in excitement and humor, enough to earn a place on the shelf for readers who enjoy techno-thrillers with an element of horror.Content advisory: Lots of F-bombs and crude talk, violence, horror.

Original review post can be found at On The Bookshelves"The Kardashians are hot.""They're not. Okay, Kim's kinda hot.But that one sister looks like a shaved Wookiee.She's basically a giant thumb with a wig." Five hackers—an Anonymous-style rabble-rouser, an Arab Spring hacktivist, a black-hat hacker, an old-school cipherpunk, and an online troll—are detained by the U.S Government and given two options: spend time in jail, or work for them over the next year. The group are thrown together and it's a clash of personalities, but as they work to complete tasks, they soon begin to uncover dirt on a secret and unsanctioned Government project. But when all hell breaks loose, the Zeroes must work together to right the wrongs made and save the country from a deadly threat. RATING: 4/5 Zer0es by Chuck Wendig is incredibly gripping! The 'Zeroes' consists of Chance, a wannabe Anonymous-style hacker who's better at hacking people than the digital; DeAndre, specializing in skimming credit cards; Aleena, an Arab Spring hacktivist; Reagan, a vindictive and sarcastic Internet troll; and Wade, a 63-year-old conspiracist and cipherpunk with a deep distrust for the government. At the start of the book, the characters are set up in a way to highlight such differing personalities. We get to see each character in their own element and lives prior to being taken in by the government. Sometimes when you read a book with different point of views and multiple main characters, their voices tend to blend and the character can become lost, but this wasn't the case with this book. This book is a great mix and this has a lot to do with the characters providing their own mark such as Reagan with her vulgar and nasty attitude against Aleena's more subdued nature. With most of them, their personalities are also reflected within their hacking specialization which was a nice little touch. The overall concept of the book was very intriguing. If you're a fan of anything sci-fi or cyber, this is certainly a book you'll enjoy. At first the book comes across as somewhat realistic with the hackers going about their normal lives and then hacking away together. But as the book progresses, you begin to learn more about what exactly is going on, and then the sci-fi elements come into play. It went off far beyond where I believed it was heading with holes in the back of skulls and a zombie-esque vibe, but it didn't deter me from reading, it only made me more compelled. Usually when reading altering POV's, it can become a little jarring and affect you fully immersing into the book, but this time it seemed like it was more compelling. Perhaps this could be because the book was very action-packed as it is a 'thriller' and the continual adventure unfolding helped to keep a nice flow. The only dislike about the differing sections was the prologue and epilogue as it just fell a little flat, especially the epilogue—standalone books with a cliffhanger, no thanks. But throughout the entirety of the book, everything was very visual and it would potentially make a great film. Even if you're not sure you will like it, read it just for Reagan, everything she says despite it being so inappropriate is so utterly wonderful. Be warned though, this book is a little crude with violence and some explicit talk. But nonetheless, this book was very enjoyable and other books by Mr Wendig will be definitely added to an overgrowing TBR!

Phenomenal! To be fair, I'd buy cereal for the box if Chuck Wendig wrote the Nutritional Information. To me, when he puts the words on the paper, he can do no wrong and I believe the far-fetched, yet oddly believable narrative spun in Zer0es is a spot-on example of this.Just...wow!

It's difficult to put into words how bloody brilliant this book was! I loved the Miriam Black series and thought it was impossible to beat its greatness but I'm pretty sure Zeroes did that and more! It was just so stunningly intricate and my mind is still reeling from everything that happened! While it was mildly confusing at first having to deal with the many different characters and POVs, I quickly became absorbed by the story and fell in love with each character and their quirks. And let me tell you, this is definitely a wildly quirky bunch of hackers! I love that they're each so different but in the end they come together to beat back their common enemy, Typhon. I loved the whole idea of Typhon and the artificial intelligence/sci-fi aspect of this book, it was wildly entertaining but also slightly terrifying at the same time. Terrifying mostly because we've all imagined robots taking over the world and this was an all too plausible imagining of that! I could go on and on about how freaking fantastic this book was but I'm going to stop it here and just urge you all to pick it up for yourselves! Seriously guys, it's like Illuminae by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff for adults AND on killer steroids!Also, I'm kicking myself for not having ordered the second book in time for it to arrive before I finished this one because I'm dying to see what this bunch of hackers will get up to next!

"Naw. I'm no Boy Scout. Boy Scout does the right thing because it's the right thing. I dug a hole with an ugly shovel and now I'm trying to fill it in with good dirt."Jesus Crispy Pork Cracklings Christ, this was wicked entertaining!Zer0es is Chuck Wendig's cyberpunk exploration into artificial intelligence and hackers. It follows a diverse crew of hackers, trolls, cypherpunks and credit card scammers who have been sentenced to jail time for the crimes they have committed online. This ragtag group are brought together when they are hired by a shady US government agency for a secret project. The ultimatum? Either do hard time for their offences or spend a year living in an isolated location called "The Lodge" and working on various missions, both as individuals and as a pod (team) of hackers.I'll give you one guess as to which deal they end up taking.The Zer0es - Aleena, Wade, Reagan, DeAndre and Chance - find themselves hacking into high-level security systems from all over. Websites that seemingly have no relation to one another. That is, until the team discovers just what type of sinister project it is that they are truly working on.“Maybe that’s the problem with generations. You start to forget what it was like when you were like them, so they become your enemy and you become theirs and nobody understands each other. Then you die and they become you and finally, finally they understand, but by then it’s too late.”I went through a hacker phase back in the day. Not that I actually, you know, hacked anything. I just found the hacker culture fascinating, being the millennial that I am! One of my all-time favorite movies is Hackers and Zer0es certainly leans heavily on those vibes, yet seemingly draws some inspiration from The Terminator as well.The multi-POV's and short, punchy chapters amp up the tension as the story speeds ahead. In typical Wendig fashion, Zer0es is witty and sweary and brutal as fuck. There are more than a few horror elements, high-powered cinematic sequences and assholes that you can't help but root for.Zer0es is an action-packed techno adventure that's one hell of a good time!HACK THE PLANET!!

For the TL;DR crowd I’ll skip straight to the end: Go read this fucking book now!For the rest of you, strap yourselves in and let’s ride.See, as soon as I found out Chuck Wendig had written a book about hackers, I was like YES, I’M ALL IN!I used to love reading books about hackers. When I was in high school, I eagerly gobbled up Neal Stephenson’s early books like Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. My favorite was actually Zodiac, more of an eco-thriller than a cyberpunk book, but I loved the high-speed thrills and the psychological challenges the heroes of his books had to overcome. I also enjoyed William Gibson’s take on cyberpunk, which was slightly more cerebral, but definitely still high octane. Neuromancer, Idoru, Pattern Recognition, reading these made me feel like in the future, smart people wouldn’t be considered nerds, but rebels, outlaws and even celebrities.To read my full review, check out my post this Wednesday at http://wp.me/puryz-3gQ.

In short, I don’t give a damn what NY Daily News says, Zer0es is a sheer f-ing blast and might very well be my favorite novel of the year. Although, I do reserve the right to change this opinion after I finish reading Chuck Wendig’s next novel, Star Wars: Aftermath, due out in about two weeks, in which Mr. Wendig gets to play around in the SW universe. And that, my friends, could very well be the book of the decade century. But, for now, let us discuss Zer0es.In case you can’t tell, I’m a huge fan of Mr. Wendig, and whenever his new titles release I make it a point to read/devour them immediately. I love his Miriam Black books, and The Harvest Trilogy, and am looking forward to meeting up with Mookie Pearl again one of these days, preferably with a plate of charcuterie between us. All of this is to say that I might be a bit biased, but I do honestly feel that Zer0es earns each of the five stars I’m giving it.Also worth noting is that I have very little real-world knowledge of computers, programming, or hacking. Or really how much of anything technologically works beyond the knowledge required to start, shut off, or play video games or watch movies. I care little for the inner workings of these things, and most computer talk bores the hell out of me. I’m probably the last person you want to call for IT help, in other words.So, is Zer0es technically sound and accurate? I don’t have a flipping clue. And I don’t care if it is or not. Because what it is is a rock-solid bit of entertainment filled with techno-thriller whizz-bang shenanigans, a terrific amount of wit, and a healthy dose of science-fiction. As far as Wendig’s skill in plumbing the dark shadow world of hackers goes, it’s good enough for me to escape into and provides enough plausible scary horrors to sink my teeth into. The more fantastical realms that these characters find themselves in as things progress are fun and makes for an action-packed, rapid-fire read — and frankly I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is a great big cinematic summer blockbuster set to prose, and it freaking rocks, man.To his credit, Wendig casts as our lead, Chance, a guy who is basically a phony. His hacking skills are nill, and he’s caught up in a scheme far larger than his limited abilities can cope with. A real underdog, this guy, and it gives me, as a reader, the chance to enjoy the experience alongside him. He’s not some uber computer god who can algo his way out of any awful situation. In fact, he gets his ass handed to him more often than not. The real hackers he’s surrounded by are the real deal – there’s the troll Reagan who gets off on internet shaming her victims and possess snark to spare, DeAndre the credit card scammer, Earthman, who’s basically an old-school BBS-version of Edward Snowden, and Aleena, a hacker intent on bringing true democracy to Syria. Each of them are recruited by an FBI agent named Hollis Copper, Mr. Government himself, to become white hat (good guy) hackers in exchange for not spending at least a decade-plus in prison for their various crimes.Each of these characters have their own quirks, personalities, politics, and culture to bring to the table. Some are fighting for social justice, others for government accountability, and some just for laughs. There’s elements of the hacking group Anonymous, coupled with the Arab Spring, fighting back against rape culture and the grotesqueness of the Stubenville events. (Even a bit of obsession with Greek mythology when it comes to the central antagonist, which is just darn cool.) In short, this is a cast of well-defined characters with different skill sets, abilities, and goals. Together, they’re a total band of misfits with little in common and even less of a reason to become friends. They spend a lot of time sniping at each other and arguing, yet they somehow mesh well together as each are put through their paces and become a unified team, made stronger by their differences and disparities.Ultimately, I have very, very few quibbles about Zer0es. I found it to be a complete thrill-ride from start to finish, with little in the way of lag. And kudos to Wendig for taking a topic as dry as coding and hacking and transforming into something that’s as equally exhilarating as the violence and mayhem surrounding these characters and their antagonists (which is pretty damn exhilarating, by the way). Now, bring on the 0nes!

I found this next to impossible to put down which was a problem given its length. I adored the set up and the cast of misfit-hackers, who had the great advantage of feeling like genuine misfits, i.e. unlike the usual photogenic, close-up ready Hollywood Misfits played by people like Brad Pitt. My favorite character, to my enormous surprise, was Reagan, the internet troll, and probably one of the nastiest bitches to ever serve as heroine of a bestseller; the effect was downright liberating. She has a reckless, anarchic energy to her, and even more than the rest of them, she truly does not give a fuck--except of course in those few amazing moments when she does. I will add that I liked the first half of this quite a bit better than the second half: the opening scenes of the group coming together, the hacking tests, the Poconos-resort-meets-prison camp, were all addictively good. I was less enamored of the BIG MYSTERY PLOT once it really got going. Though I usually love sci-fi, this ended up being so over-the-top that the original hacker plotline got overwhelmed by mushrooming improbabilities that felt increasingly preposterous.That being said, the sci-fi extravagancies did not make this any less readable. I am overjoyed that this is slated to be the first book in a new series since I could not get enough of the characters. I highly recommend this to hacker/thriller fans.

I went into Zeroes just thinking it was a story about hackers and a secret government plot. I got so much more as yes, it was about hackers, but also, it was a suspenseful, technothriller.5 hackers with completely different skill sets and from different backgrounds are captured by the U S government and they had a choice to make. Either go to prison for years or join them for a year at The Lodge (a more comfortable sort of prison) and become White Hats. Of course our 5 elect to go to The Lodge. Just when I thought the story was slowing down and losing its oomph, Wendig threw out some amazing twists and changed up the entire story and it got really crazy! I just found out there’s a 2nd book called Invasive, which I’d seen but didn’t realize was the sequel to Zeroes. I had to have it so I could see where this storyline takes us. I have a feeling there are more surprises in store from Wendig. I can’t wait!

i am hopelessly tech challenged. so i normally pass on "cyber espionage" type books. but i was fortunate enough to meet mr wendig at phcc and he was super nice and kind enough to give me an arc of this book. so i figured it would be rude of me not to read it. plus i've always had a hard time putting down one of his books once i start it. zer0es was no different. while there was plenty of tech talk, it wasn't overwhelming or bogged down by insider jargon and it never slowed the intense pace of the narrative. and as usual with mr wendig's stories, as soon as you thought you had a good handle on the story and had the "in control/i know where this is going" feeling it spiraled out of control into batsh*t craziness. i laughed, i cried, it moved me. it's brilliant, everyone should read it. now excuse me while i go live off the grid somewhere. :)

What a pleasant surprise! If you liked Daemon then be sure to give this a read. I actually got this completely by accident, I actually meant to get Zeroes. So a strange twist of fate made me read this wonderful book which I would not have gotten otherwise. Very entertaining and looking for more from the author,I too was a BBS junkie. So it could relate. :)

A group of hackers are gathered by the government, installed in a compound to do what they do best. But in the process, the doing becomes a case of getting it undone. Wendig fleshes out the characters, providing a SciFi Techno-thriller with a slow burn to a frantic ending.

One of the best books I've ever read!

I missed a chance to pick up a paper version of Zer0es while at Phoenix Comicon, but after an email to Harper Voyager, they sent me an eARC via Edelweiss. I love a nice autographed paper version, but eARCs are my preferred reading method.More than one reviewer has compared Zer0es to the television show Person of Interest, and this comparison is just. I enjoy the TV show, and I really enjoyed the book.I have yet to read a story by Chuck Wendig that I didn’t like. I’ve not cared for certain aspects of his writing, but over all I feel he’s an excellent writer. At first the characters didn’t ‘wow’ me, but as the story unfolded, I was hooked and cared about the characters and their place in the story.Chuck has often talked about character agency and writing strong female characters on his blog, and his writing continues to capture these ideas in Zer0es. My favorite character by far is the “internet troll” character, Reagan.I was a script kiddie in the early 90s, so I’m by no means an expert on hackers, but none of the hacking in the story jumped out at me as implausible. The entire story was a great read, and the ending left me wanting more.Zer0es is an excellent look into the criminal underbelly of governments and hackers in a fight to save the future from a sinister NSA program that threatens the country and the world.

This was my first venture into one of Mr. Wendig's novels and, suffice it to say, I have purchased just about his entire bibliography based on this novel alone. The book is classified as a technothriller, as it should be, considering it is about hackers and artificial intelligence. But once you really dive deeper into the pages, you begin to realize it is more of a horror story. There is plenty of pulse-pounding action, witty banter between the fellow hackers and enough plausible situations to keep you invested. The best part is that Wendig doesn't spend too much time on the oft-boring technical jargon that should come with this type of novel, but he peppers the pages with just enough to please the technically savvy (though I'm not sure if this jargon is 100% accurate, considering I know just above the median about technology). Definitely grab this novel if you are a big Wendig fan, but take a chance on it if you enjoy thrillers with a bit of science thrown in.