Year Zero

by Jeff Long

In "The Descent, New York Times" bestselling author Jeff Long led readers into the darkest regions of suspense and adventure. Now he returns with an apocalyptic scenario that threatens to eradicate mankind. In Jerusalem, an American archaeologist working on Project Year Zero -- the search for the historical Jesus -- crosses the line between science and theft when he helps plunder an old Roman landfill beneath the crucifixion grounds known as Golgotha. Nathan Lee Swift's crime will have devastating consequences. When an ancient relic is opened on the black market, a two-thousand-year-old plague is unleashed -- and the dying begins. As the pestilence threatens to wipe out humanity, he finds a chance for redemption -- by finding the cure. Skirting the edges of civilization, Nathan Lee sets out to find his younger daughter and travels to Los Alamos, where a desperate tactic has been adopted: the use of human lab rats cloned from Project Year Zero remains. Now Nathan Lee will come face-to-face with one special cloned human who may hold the key to salvation -- in more ways than one. Patient Zero claims to remember who he is.... And his name is Jesus Christ.

• ISBN10: 0743406125
• ISBN13: 9780743406123
• Publish Date: 10 May 2003 (first published 9 April 2002)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 1 December 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster International
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 512
• Language: English

Reviews

[SilverThistle]

I think I read a different book to the one that was advertised on the back cover blurb. The book sounded really interesting and a bit different to most other 'end of the world' scenarios I've read but mostly it's just not that gripping once you get into it. It's a steady story which kept me turning pages - but only to try and get to the tale that was promised. I don't usually quote a synopsis in my reviews but I'm going to break with tradition here so that you know what the story wasn't about.

"An archaeological manhunt is raging in the holy land -- a hunt for the historical Jesus. Nathan Lee, the thief of bones, comes face-to-face with men made from the very relics he looted, one of whom claims to be Jesus Christ, but may also be Patient Zero."

Sounds like Jesus is an integral part of the story, no? Nope. Blink and you'll miss it and even if you catch it it's not what you're expecting/hoping for.

The synopsis sounded good to me and the first few chapters were really promising but very quickly I lost interest in the main character, which isn't really what you're looking for in a book.

My indifference to Nathan Lee (for some reason even his name gets on my nerves) meant that I never really got involved with his struggles and/or experiences.
There are also a few characters we meet and I'm still not sure why or how they figure in the story. They're given fairly large chunks of storyline but if they were removed I can't say that it would take much away from the tale.

It's not the worst book I've ever read, but I'm a bit disappointed that the fabulous story I was looking forward to wasn't forthcoming. I think that if I wasn't misled into looking for a story that wasn't there, then I might have got involved more. But, before I knew it I was at the end and left wondering if I'd missed a chapter or 3. The conclusion when it comes seems so rushed that I had to go back and re-read the last few chapters because I was sure I'd missed a crucial pivotal moment. I hadn't....and there wasn't...

It's a bit of a mish-mash of ideas going on actually and not all of it gels when thrown together into a single story. The worst part is the the virus itself, which the book revolves around....it's just madness. Utter tripe!

For fans of apocalyptic plague fiction, give it a whirl....just don't expect what's written on the back cover.

It's not a book I'd go back to, but since it belongs to a genre that I'm very fond of, I'm glad I read it.

[ibeforem]

This book had a lot crammed into it. Religion, cloning, plague, messiahs… The basic premise is that a man searching for physical proof of Jesus unknowingly releases a Bibical age plague with no cure onto the world.

I believe this was a first-time author, and in places it shows. It got a little lost somewhere in the middle. A great deal was made about a few characters who then disappeared until the very end.

Overall, it was quite an interesting story with an ending I didn’t expect.