Zeroes (Zeroes, #1)

by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti

Ethan (A.K.A. Scam) has a way with words. When he opens his mouth, whatever he wants you to hear is what comes out next. But Ethan isn't just a smooth talker. He has an actual power--an ability to say things he doesn't even consciously know. Pick up a cute girl? His voice will tell her everything he loved about her favorite singer's most obscure recording. Looking for a ride home? His voice references a mutual friend to a stranger. Sometimes the voice helps, but sometimes it hurts--like when that stranger ends up being on the way to a drug deal and Ethan's lies bring him into a massive mess culminating in a bank robbery gone wrong. So Ethan needs rescue, stat.

• ISBN10: 1481443364
• ISBN13: 9781481443364
• Publish Date: 29 September 2015 (first published 24 September 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon Pulse
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 560
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Zeroes is the first novel in a series of the same name, but that’s making it sound pretty dull. Zeroes is actually a really cool project, one that is being written by three different authors at once. And you know how much I love joint efforts.
Written by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanaga, and Deborah Biancotti, the Zeroes introduces us to a world in which some people have powers. These powers may not seem all that special at first glance. In fact, some of them seem downright dangerous or inconvenient. But this group – these Zeroes – has found a way to make it work. Or at least they’re in the process of doing so.
The Zeroes is made up of six different people with unique abilities and skill sets. First, there’s Nate. Also known as: Bellwether. He’s the leader of the group, or ‘glorious leader’ as some of the group have taken to calling him. His ability is one that can draw a crowd’s focus in on him. He’s also incredibly intelligent and has a data file on each and every member of the crew.
Next is Ethan, AKA Scam. His ability gets him into a lot of trouble. And it’s earned its own name; the voice. You’ll learn all about that as time goes on. But for now, just know that his voice will let him say the right thing – no matter the situation.
Also on the team are Crash), Anonymous), Flicker, and Mob. But to tell you about them would risk spoiling their plot arcs.

“Don’t call them heroes. But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart. They can do stuff ordinary people can’t.”

The Zeroes was an amazing read, one I devoured from cover to cover. Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanaga, and Deborah Biancotti are a brilliant team, and I honestly can’t wait to read the rest of the series. As it stands, I’m actually fairly mad at myself for taking so long to get around to this series.
This was a whirlwind of a book, in all seriousness. It took no time at all to introduce the main plot – through Ethan getting himself way in over his head. From there it all seemed to flow smoothly onto the pages. Though that shouldn’t be too surprising, given how many authors were working to make this novel cohesive.
The different powers each kid had were well thought out and unique. But I especially love that each and every one of them also came with a negative. There’s a price to be paid, each time, and that makes everyone (well, most of them) cautious in the way the powers are used.
And those costs were pretty high at times. So high, in fact, that it was impossible not to feel for certain characters in particular (if you’ve read the book, then you know exactly who I’m referring to here). It added a shocking amount of emotion to what I thought was going to be a fun metahuman type story. And I love that.
I know that Zeroes is the first of a series, so I’m pretty lucky to have more of this series to dive into next. To my understanding, there are two more books in the series. Which I’ll happily take. The real question is: do I savor them, or jump right in?

For more reviews check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[layawaydragon]

I hadn't heard of Zeroes before, how I don't know, but I jumped at the chance to read it for free on RivetedLit.com. I've loved Scott Westerfeld's previous work, but had never heard of Margo Lanagan or Deborah Biancotti. Now I'm really curious about their work and plan on checking it out Soon™.

Zeroes starts with Ethan, aka Scam, creating a hot mess. Nate, aka Bellweather, brings the crew back together to save Scam's sorry ass. Amid non-stop action and drama, we learn their powers, dynamics, and why they're no longer friends.

Scam's Voice ability pales in comparison to his stupidity. The Zeroes jump from problem to problem and Scam keeps fucking up along the way. As annoying as he can be with his whining, self-pitying, and irresponsibility, it's NOT his fault Kelsie's dad is in the mess. Her dad would've been fucked anyways. But Scam's dick takes the lead and proves he's stupid no matter which head is in charge.

Okay, maybe that's not totally fair but his attraction to Kelsie does propel the second half of the plot with the mobsters.

Kelsie gets dragged into it by trying to help her scumbag dad. I understand the fear not knowing what's going to happen to you and your future but I don't get why she saved her dad...It's okay to let toxic family members go and sinking yourself, your life into saving them isn't a virtue. And I'm really tired of it being touted as one.

He's a shitty drug dealing con-artist. He doesn't deserve death by mob, no one does, but I'd have just called the cops and sent everyone to jail. Saving him from jail does nothing but make all the Zeros criminals without a defense.

As it stands, they all got away with everything. It's hardly satisfying. The Zeroes should've listened to Crash and worked on saving their butts. I understand saving Scam because he got in trouble with his powers and couldn't have gone to the police but they should've been smarter about it.

Okay, so they're a group of stupid teens and act like it. Even with the not-that-satisfying ending, I kinda love it for this. They're saving two con-artists, one who robs a bank and is a first degree murderer (by definition of CA law, doesn't matter if he didn't pull the trigger). Why? Because of personal ties and in the case of saving Kelsie's dad to date/recruit her.

This sounds like a start of a group of villains. Good intentions don't mean shit and at least one of them realizes that. I'm interested to see how this continues and works out. Glorious Leader clearly had plans...but what kind?

Though I have some issues with the why's behind the tale, I did enjoy this fresh take on powers, teens with those powers, and being a hero. They’re authentic growing teens and fuck up accordingly. Each grows in their own way and their group evolves with them.

Characters:

My favorite characters were Teebo/Anon, Riley/Flicker, and Chizara/Crash. I didn't have any problems switching between all their POVs and loved the little tidbits gleamed from it. Sure, I have my favorites but each brought something solid to narrative and story.

I grew to appreciate all the characters, even those I didn't particularly like by the end.

Scam's backstory really helped his character and he has fantastic progression at the end. I'm really proud of him, though he still needs some work. I have a theory about his power too...

Kelsie/Mob was defined by her relationship with her father and her group-addicted ways. While she didn't grow as much or as independently as I would have liked, she still did grow as a person. It was just hard to like her after she found out how far her father had sunk and still went forward on the same path. But I like how she deals with Scam and the group.

Riley/Flicker was defined by her power, sister and love interests. It took a while for the full scope of her and Nate's relationship to come to light and I liked how they both handled themselves. Her feelings towards Anon and her sister was adorable. I give major props for how she tracked him down and remembered him.

Nate/Bellweather alternated between the blandest character and the creepiest. His powers, his use of them, and his secret agenda were the main cause behind the latter and the former was just his bossy, back-seat driving. Later he gets his ass out there and puts in some work though.

Chizara/Crash: I loved her thoughts, her morals, her consequence and her family from beginning to end. She kicked ass and though I loved every minute of her narrative, I'm glad I got all their perspectives. Not sure if I could've stuck it out without the rest of them because POV's brought a lot of insight.

Teebo/Anon: The way his power affects him is just heartbreaking and it's awesome how he tries to use it. His philosophy on life doesn't feel fake or forced, he works at being Zen. He does screw up but it was mostly out of his control and I'm sure he'll work on making it right.

The best part about them though was the twists of the supernormal abilities and how it affected their upbringing, their personalities, and morals. I don't want to spoil it but I'm in love with how grounded it is. Ethan/Scam is the only whiny "I'm doooomed. It's a cuuuuurse" of the bunch while the others are more nuanced and balanced. Once Ethan's past is revealed though it becomes understandable and his character progression redeems him.

BOTTOM LINE:

Recommendation:

If you want superhero action with a fresh take on powers and dynamic people, Zeroes is highly recommended.

Have you read any of these authors? Any recs for someone new to Lanagan and Biancotti's books?

[Amber]

This review was originally posted on Books of Amber

Books about people with superpowers give me life, and this book was great for it. There was a nice collection of superpowers here, and a couple of them were different to anything I'd seen (or read about) before which made for a nice change. That said, I didn't love Zeroes as much as I wanted to, although it was still easy to fly through and I will definitely be reading the sequel.

For such a big book, Zeroes was a surprisingly fast read. I don't know if it was the font or the writing style or what, but I managed to finish it in just a few hours of reading time over the course of two or so days. I don't know what happened.

There was a lot of action packed into this book, and that took priority over the character development. In this case, I wasn't too bothered because I enjoyed the plotting and the superpower scenes more than most of the characters, who really weren't that interesting.

I have to say, though, that I have developed huge affections for both Thibault (who is the most adorable person in all of existence and I just want to squish his cheeks and make him get together with Ethan I MEAN WHAT) and Chizara (who deserves a bigger part in the sequel because THIS QUEEN). I didn't care for Kelsie in the slightest and her very presence annoyed me, and the other characters were just kind of there. Ethan had a slightly bigger roll but meh, I wasn't bothered about him unless he was with Thibault because SHIP.

I have a lot of things that I would like to see from the sequel, including more superpowers, more romance between Thibault and Ethan, and more development for Chizara. I don't think Zeroes was particularly memorable, but it was an enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for something action-packed.

[violetpeanut]

Stories about people with super-human abilities seem to hold a universal appeal for people. We all like to dream about what we could do if we could fly or if we had super-human strength. That’s why comic books and movies like the X-Men and The Avengers are always so popular. Zeroes takes the idea of super powers in a new direction. The book is about a group of teenagers who have unusual powers. When one of them gets into trouble, they band together to try and help him out. These teens don’t have the typical comic-book powers, though. There’s no flying, no invisibility (well, not really). Instead, there’s a boy who no one can seem to remember, a girl who is blind but can see through other people’s eyes, a girl who can crash electronics, a girl who can influence and control the emotions of large groups of people, a boy who has another voice inside him that knows things that he has no way of knowing, and a boy who can make a crowd love him. I love, love, love these powers. I think they are super-original and offer a lot for this group of authors to work with. There is so much potential for this series and for these characters to do really great or really terrible things. And that’s one of the themes of this book: there is no black or white. Each of these powers has potential for so much good, but also for so much evil. Like we learned from Spiderman, “… with great power there must also come–great responsibility.” These characters learn this firsthand.

Unfortunately, though, the rest of this book is pretty forgettable. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it. It’s just that I read it a number of weeks ago and had to sit down and skim through it again to refresh my memory before writing this review. I remembered that I generally enjoyed it, but not what actually happened, or anything about any of the characters other than their powers. In Zeroes, the characters are their powers and that tells me that there’s not enough character development for me to remember them as anything else. I also didn’t really remember much about the plot. I remembered a couple of scenes in particular and I remembered that there was a decent amount of action, but it was hard for me to recall the specifics.

Overall, this book was fun while I read it but it wasn’t all that memorable. There are some great powers but little character development, some great action sequences but a plot that is forgettable. I’d skip buying this one and get it from the library instead. Will I read the next one? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I won’t be rushing to buy it and I won’t be requesting it but if a copy falls into my hands I would definitely read it and I’m sure I would enjoy it while it lasted.