Zeroes
Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan & Deborah Biancotti
Scam’s voice can say whatever he needs it to – whether to pick up a hot girl or to get himself a lift home. He never really knows what the voice says though, and it tends to get him into trouble if he isn’t specific enough about what he wants. When he ends up running from druggies and ends up with the police, he needs some of his old Zero friends to get him out. What he’s started is more messy than he imagined.
The blurb on this novel simply doesn’t do it justice! Don’t read the blurb, just do what I tell you and go buy it to read right now. It’s action packed, and yet still manages to get some character development going, and swaps perspectives all the time, but I still loved it!
I hated Glorious Leader. Hate, hate, hated. He was drunk on power from the beginning! I can understand why he wants to be the leader, it’s his job, and I can understand why his power is so tempting, but ugh. As a person, I’m really disappointed in his -rich- parents and the way they must have brought him up. Or perhaps he has always been this way. You don’t get enough backstory about him to come to any conclusions for yourself.
The passing references to school, mainly from Kelsie’s perspective, made me wonder how long they had been a group of Zeroes. We know that Scam’s voice has made a mess of things, but only because someone else goaded him into it. Scam’s power seems the more personally dangerous, and other powers more passive, but everyone knows it takes a mix of powers for things to work.
I can’t believe that the timeline of this is one week. Most novels couldn’t imagine packing in so much action into a month and still have the characters surprisingly well alive at the end of it! This novel doesn’t let you put it down, and it made me read it until I was sunburnt.
I couldn’t believe it when this novel finished! I needed more! I want more from this series right, right, right now. I found myself thinking that a book this good with a premise this interesting must just be a standalone, but no! It’s in a ‘thrilling new series’. I don’t think I can wait another whole year for the next one. 5 stars from me.
Of these three authors, I’ve only ever read Scott Westerfeld, and that last novel was ages ago – read my Afterworlds review here. I wish I had more reading time to devote to those other greats, because a book this good isn’t just created by one genius write with two tag-alongs. I fully expect their individuals works to be fantastic.
This book was sadly late to me because my mailing address with Allen and Unwin was wrong. But thanks so much to the rep that resent it to me anyway!
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