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Richard's Reviews > Year Zero
Year Zero
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A "science fiction" book for people who normally wouldn't be caught dead reading science fiction, and one that's directed with laser-like focus at its intended audience.
Year Zero is entertaining enough for what it is, but the book is trying very hard to evoke the spirit of Douglas Adams and not surprisingly, it falls well short of that mark.
Add to that an irritating tendency to include pop culture references that are getting well past their time (Rickrolling, Gaga, etc.), and flavor-of-the-moment vocal tics as well ("...Really?", "Zip it!"), and you have a book that's going to feel very dated in about... Well, actually, it feels a bit dated already.
Even this would be fine if the book wasn't quite so desperate to pander to its intended audience. Obviously, a book like this should be entertaining, but it's hard not to notice certain details.
Take for example, the corrupt senator in the pocket of the music labels, who happens to belong to the political party the book's probable readers would prefer he hail from--even though he almost certainly would belong to the other party. You know, the one this book's 30-/40-something, likely-to-be-loyal-NPR-listening readers probably belong to themselves. But we might have found that upsetting, so Reid obliges, even if the result seems very unlikely (and thereby misses a potentially more biting opportunity for humor).
So it's not surprising that the book is getting positive reviews from the likes of BoingBoing (it's not like they would ever ding a book like this, no matter how it was written), and you might very well love it too. But you might want to sample the first couple of chapters before you take the plunge, just to be sure you won't find it more annoying than amusing.
Year Zero is entertaining enough for what it is, but the book is trying very hard to evoke the spirit of Douglas Adams and not surprisingly, it falls well short of that mark.
Add to that an irritating tendency to include pop culture references that are getting well past their time (Rickrolling, Gaga, etc.), and flavor-of-the-moment vocal tics as well ("...Really?", "Zip it!"), and you have a book that's going to feel very dated in about... Well, actually, it feels a bit dated already.
Even this would be fine if the book wasn't quite so desperate to pander to its intended audience. Obviously, a book like this should be entertaining, but it's hard not to notice certain details.
Take for example, the corrupt senator in the pocket of the music labels, who happens to belong to the political party the book's probable readers would prefer he hail from--even though he almost certainly would belong to the other party. You know, the one this book's 30-/40-something, likely-to-be-loyal-NPR-listening readers probably belong to themselves. But we might have found that upsetting, so Reid obliges, even if the result seems very unlikely (and thereby misses a potentially more biting opportunity for humor).
So it's not surprising that the book is getting positive reviews from the likes of BoingBoing (it's not like they would ever ding a book like this, no matter how it was written), and you might very well love it too. But you might want to sample the first couple of chapters before you take the plunge, just to be sure you won't find it more annoying than amusing.
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Reading Progress
September 13, 2012
–
Started Reading
September 13, 2012
– Shelved
September 13, 2012
–
Finished Reading
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by
Joanna
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rated it 3 stars
Nov 28, 2012 08:00PM
That senator was sorta based on Orrin Hatch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrin_Hatch) who was uh... Republican.
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Did we read the same book? I thought this book leaned solidly right if anything:* The aliens were happy we managed to hold off an ice age via CO2 production. (And if that was tongue in cheek then the birds in the Eatery were surely intended to be truly critical of a certain sort of knee-jerk environmentalism.)
* The patriot act is (in passing) noted to be a good thing for allowing a spirit of co-operation in civil defense.
* The hyper-advanced aliens are on a gold standard.
* The book contains the line, "Pugwash can't bear to mention any Latin American location without making some pathetic gringo stab at sounding native. He thinks it makes him sound worldly and liberal - like those NPR reporters who make pretentious gagging noises whenever they utter a faintly Hispanic name."
* And finally the bad guy of the piece is a public service union thug and a good guys says of the unions, "The government allegedly works for us. But you try telling a public sector union what to do." When the union in question starts executing everyone who attempts to visit a sort of galactic police headquarters.
If you would stopped reading the book because of it's politics you should give it another chance!
I saw it as a lefty book and loved it even though I'm a righty.
Richard, do you think you're being classically sentimental, and not giving this author respect just because D. Adams opened a genre & now you think all others are derivative?
