Year Zero by Rob Reid: Book Review

Year ZeroYear Zero by Rob Reid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Year Zero is about a lawyer named Nick Carter who is having an average day when two not so average people show up at his office. It turns out the two people are in fact aliens who are very concerned about music copyright laws. Apparently, Earth music is very popular in the universe, and every single alien in the universe has a complete playlist of all Earth music. They are a bit concerned about the Earth music industry suing them.

I am struggling a bit with describing how I feel about Year Zero. I enjoyed the book; however, I think my enjoyment of the book came from the audio book read John Hodgman. He read the book with such passion and flavor. Each character felt fresh and quirky. I am not sure I would have felt the same way, if I had read the book on the page.

Although I know the book built its foundation on copyright law, the law aspect of the book got a bit tedious at times. It felt like there was an imbalance between world building (and technical details) with action. Even though Hodgman did a great job reading the book, I definitely noticed a bit of exposition at times.

Publication Date: 2012
Number of Pages: 364
Series Notes: Stand alone
Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Reason for Discovery: I saw the author interviewed on Sword & Laser, and the book plot seemed interesting.

4 comments:

Rebecca @ Love at First Book said...
September 30, 2013 at 1:10 PM

Uggggghhhhhh Nick Carter??? As in BSB (aka Backstreet Boys)??? Seriously, I know it's not the same person, but the whole time I would be thinking "backstreet's back, alright!"

Unknown said...
September 30, 2013 at 2:56 PM

Actually, it is a running joke throughout the book. There is actually a point in the book in which he sings a Backstreet Boys song, which was quite funny, because I was listening to the audio book and John Hodgman nailed it. :)

Tabitha (Pabkins) said...
October 1, 2013 at 2:00 PM

I had thought about picking this one up - it sounds hilarious but then I also wasn't thrilled about the law aspect so didn't end up grabbing it. I'll check to see if the audio is available for me.

Unknown said...
October 1, 2013 at 7:20 PM

My interest in the law part of the book waxed and waned. If you are on the fence about it, I would recommend doing the audio book or just reading something else. Granted, I haven't read the book, but I feel that John Hodgman made the book.

Leave a Comment

Back to Home Back to Top Reading Is Fun Again. Theme ligneous by pure-essence.net. Bloggerized by Chica Blogger.