Zero World by Jason M. Hough

Zero World by Jason M. Hough

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Jacket Blurb:  Published in rapid succession, Jason M. Hough’s first three novels, The Darwin Elevator, The Exodus Towers, and The Plague Forge, earned mountains of praise and comparisons to such authors as James S. A. Corey and John Scalzi. Now Hough returns with a riveting near-future spy thriller that combines the adrenaline of a high-octane James Bond adventure with mind-blowing sci-fi speculations worthy of Christopher Nolan’s Inception.

Technologically enhanced superspy Peter Caswell has been dispatched on a top-secret assignment unlike any he’s ever faced. A spaceship that vanished years ago has been found, along with the bodies of its murdered crew—save one. Peter’s mission is to find the missing crew member, who fled through what appears to be a tear in the fabric of space. Beyond this mysterious doorway lies an even more confounding reality: a world that seems to be Earth’s twin.

Peter discovers that this mirrored world is indeed different from his home, and far more dangerous. Cut off from all support, and with only days to complete his operation, Peter must track his quarry alone on an alien world. But he’s unprepared for what awaits on the planet’s surface, where his skills will be put to the ultimate test—and everything he knows about the universe will be challenged in ways he never could have imagined.

October's book group book.

Premise of the book is Peter Caswell is a secret agent who never remembers his missions. He knows he assassinates people, he has a body count, but the specific missions are wiped from his memory shortly after completion. Memory wipes are painful and disorientating. After Peter's most recent assignment, his handler contacts him with a Priority job and he's shuttled off into space to investigate a salvage crew who stumbles upon something much, much bigger than mere junk: a weapons research vessel. Next breath Peter finds himself elimiating the salvage crew and being shunted down some kind of worm hole to a Earth-like planet. His mission - kill the only survivor of the research vessel. Easy for someone like Peter, except when it's not...

This was a fun read. That being said, there were some parts that just flew by, and a couple spots were the plot kinda dragged. When we discussed this at book group, all of us had some concern with the shear number of day's Peter went without eating or drinking. We liked how the different earths had different bacteria's that prevented Peter consuming food, but for the amount of activity he was doing we all questioned the biology of it. And that was taking his implants ability into account.

Melni was an interesting character and refreshingly, NOT a love interest. She could stand her own ground and did with gusto. She was a great way to visualize and show how the two planets were different: language, customs, politics, geography and more.

The little twists and turns, which I shan't elaborate upon here to avoid spoilers, were, in my humble opinion, quite delightful. A couple things I didn't see coming which made the plot all that much more enjoyable.

Ultimately, a solid scifi story that had a couple of questionable aspects but not enough to detract from the overall fun.



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