Wall Street Journal: Wendig’s story reminds us how interconnected we all are, with electronic links all the way down to our refrigerators and cars, all of them hackable. […] “Zeroes” is a very powerful development of the idea of science as magic, with a cast of unwitting sorcerors’ apprentices. It asks a lot of real-world questions, both moral and practical, and it builds a lot of documentary information into the story, as good sci-fi should.
RT Book Reviews: Butcher’s first installment in the Cinder Spires series is a rip-roaring adventure! Revealing the story through the perspective of a variety of characters, Butcher expertly breathes life into a vastly intriguing ensemble of players. Heart-stopping action, dangerous magic and plenty of evil chills make this a tale of the first magnitude!
After being unjustly drummed out of the Fleet, Captain Grimm now commands the merchant ship Predator. Loyal to Spire Albion, one of the immense Spires run by noble families that have sheltered and controlled humanity for centuries, Grimm and his crew have fought in the cold war against Spire Aurora. But now the cold war is heating up, and the Spirearch of Albion has an assignment for Grimm and his crew. They are to join a team of agents on a vital mission, and this unconventional team is about to learn that an ancient enemy is stirring.
B&N Sci-fi & Fantasy: Wendig’s below-the-belt approach to storytelling is, for lack of a coarser word, charming, mixing humor and horror into a nifty blob. He works in constant quick jabs, never afraid to mangle and mutilate characters at a moment’s notice. Blackbirds unspools with the frenzy of a bag of mad cats, an unpredictably energetic thriller with a supernatural hook.
BoingBoing: “Terminator/Matrix territory, the kind of thing that plays an open chord across all the strings of our collective anxieties about power, money, and political corruption . . . always great fun. You’re gonna like this one.”
InStyle: Leah Ferguson’s debut follows a 30-year-old pregnant woman wondering “what if” in a captivating Sliding Doors-like scenario. Join the conversation using #instylebookclub.
Publishers Weekly: Seventeen young adult writers including Steve Brezenoff, Beth Revis, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Courtney Summers contribute to this powerful project—a single story told through multiple perspectives—to provide insight into what drove Kirby Matheson, an imagined school shooter, to kill five classmates, a teacher, and himself. The voices include those of Kirby’s girlfriend, childhood neighbor, and even the gun he used, creating an external portrait of a complex character who “did some good things and some monstrous things in life.” There are hints at Kirby’s motivation—he saves a suicidal student, kills helpless bugs, gets bullied, is preyed on by a teacher—but, as is often the case in real life, the killer never explains himself. In the aftermath, Kirby’s younger sister realizes that the shooting “doesn’t define her” or even tell Kirby’s whole story, while a school bully wonders why when Kirby “had a shot at me… he didn’t take it.” These stories humanize a troubled teenager, as well as the people who hurt him along the way, but the authors don’t let anyone off the hook, Kirby least of all.
Wall Street Journal: Five low-level hackers are forcibly recruited by an anonymous three-letter government agency to work on a mysterious project. When these “zeroes” can’t resist using their access to hack the government itself, they uncover something downright diabolical. This taut thriller will reinforce your paranoia about big government, big data, and that big, nerdy barista who just seems to know too much.
Booklist: Best-selling Charbonneau’s newest thriller examines the dark side of social media. When 16-year-old Kayla’s friend introduces her to NEED, a new social networking site that’s giving teens exactly what they say they need in exchange for them completing a task, Kayla is quick to participate. What she needs is a new kidney for her brother, who won’t live long without one. But things quickly escalate to a fever pitch. Told in first-person chapters from Kayla’s point of view and alternating with third-person chapters focused on other teens in her community, this is a fast-paced read that teens antsy to untangle the mystery will devour. At times, the premise stretches plausibility, particularly when only Kayla seems to grow suspicious as the body count ramps up. Some teens may be turned off by the portrayal of their generation as having so little conscience, while others may find it right on the mark. Hand to teens looking for a thought-provoking, timely thriller. Charbonneau has an ample audience, and odds are good they will be eager for this one, which has all the excitement of a summer blockbuster.
Booklist: What must it be like to know, even tangentially, a shooter who kills 6 teens? This is the horrible realization of 16 young people (and a gun), all of whom have at least a vague memory of, if not a direct link to, highschool junior Kirby Matheson, the strange, quiet “good” kid who kills 6 and wounds 5 of his fellow students one morning at Middleborough High School. Some of the memories are sweet and poignant, others harsh. Many are guilt-ridden sins of commission or omission. Editor Hutchinson has gathered 16 of his fellow YA authors, from Neal Schusterman to Kendare Blake to Trish Doller, to collaborate on a set of perspectives, with each writer challenged to create a different picture of an average teen gone wrong—and the young people who knew him. They have no answers, of course, only insights that may serve as a wakeup call to readers regarding the consequences of their actions or inactions, intended or unintended, on their fellow teens during that difficult time we call adolescence.
Each new novel has seen Wendig’s talents become more finely honed, and Zer0es is his most focused and best-written book to date.
Like Stephen King, Wendig has the ability to put you inside a character’s head with just a couple of sentences […] As Zer0es progresses, a mythological element starts to come into play, before the novel explodes into conflict on a level far beyond what you might expect from the early part. It’s all told in a slightly breathless style that gives you what you need to know and keeps you turning the pages.
Verdict: Zer0es will grab you from the first page for Chuck Wendig’s finest story so far. 9/10