2015 book: Zeroes

[thistlechaser]

Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



As other people on my friends list intend to read this book, I'm putting all plot details behind a spoiler cut:

For reasons unrevealed in the first 25% of the book, a small number of teenagers have super powers. One of them can say anything that will get him what he wants (a voice takes over his mouth), one can sense and crash any technology, one can see through anyone else's eyes, one is "forgettable" -- no one can ever remember his name or what he looks like, and the last (their leader) seems to be able to influence emotions. (Hm, writing this up here makes the powers sound a lot more interesting than they are in the book...)

The first quarter of the book is about Scam (the one with the voice power) getting himself into trouble. The others go on a mission to rescue him.



While there was nothing wrong with the book, for me there was nothing right either. I had no interest in any of the characters. The whole plot felt flat and uninteresting to me. Somehow all the powers seemed yawn-worthy (not because I'm into BIG GIANT SUPERPOWERS or something, I think sucky superpowers would be a lot more interesting to read about, just the way these were presented).

If I had had no other books to read, I could have continued on with this one; I didn't hate Zeroes, I just didn't like it. I was hoping it would be a slow-starter and so gave it a good chance to hook me, but if I'm not enjoying it by a quarter in, then it's fair to move on to the next one.

Speaking of next books! Next up: Silver on the Road, which a bunch of people have reviewed on LJ lately. So far, just a couple pages in, I can agree with all the positive reviews it's been getting. Especially after Zeroes, the writing and story feel so alive!

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Aww, that's disappointing to hear. I generally enjoy Scott Westerfeld's books (the Leviathan trilogy is my favorite, though it's aimed at younger readers, I think, than his other stuff), even when they don't quite work for me. But doesn't sound like this one deserves any effort in tracking down...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I loved his Leviathan series so much! But his Uglies series was a strong miss for me, so now I'm wondering if Leviathan was the fluke instead of how his books generally are.

If he starts some other series, I'll give him another chance, but agreed -- I wouldn't recommend bothering to track Zeroes down.

[hamsterwoman]

Uglies did sort of work for me, but it's definitely not my favorite. I find the premise very anviliciously executed and Tally an annoying protagonist, but I do like Shay a lot, and the friendship between her and Tally (I'm not sure how far on in the series you read, though).

I did like Peeps and the sequel, even though it's not really my preferred topic -- not as much as Leviathan, but better than Uglies. Zeroes sounded slightly similar in premise to that one, so I was curious, but eh.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Huh! Peeps looks interesting, somehow I hadn't known about that one before even though I googled him after loving Leviathan. I'll have to check it out!

I didn't get through enough of Uglies to even remember the character's name. Ha! I checked my review of it (http://thistle-chaser.livejournal.com/1388044.html) to see if I had hated it as much as I remembered. Apparently so! "I looooved Westerfield's steampunk trilogy so much, but I hated every single word of every page of this book. Or, well, of the couple chapters I read. If a book were ever written for the exact purposes of me hating it, it would be Uglies."

[hamsterwoman]

I think Peeps might be up your alley! I hope you enjoy it if/when you do read it.

Looking at your review for Uglies, yeah, the setup in the beginning is meant to be a dystopia and things evolve from there, so the message is actually fairly laudable. BUT a) by the time I got to that part, I was thoroughly sick of Tally and most of these people -- like, it's an unreliable narrator thing, but there's a point at which your unreliable narrator is so annoying, that even knowing they're being an unreliable narrator is no help, and b) while there are some interesting development, I felt like the teenage crap remained pervasive enough that it was rather silly against the backdrop of everything else. Like, I think it's an ambitious idea that Westerfeld set out to play with, but I don't think the execution is optimal.

And, of course, even knowing there is some payoff coming, if you can't stomach the opening chapters of a book, you're not going to get far enough to enjoy any sort of payoff.