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Year Zero
Year Zero
Author: Jeff Long
In his sensational novel The Descent, Jeff Long created a world of stunning terror and adventure, "an imaginative tour de force" (Jon Krakauer). Now he imagines a scenario so vivid, so haunting, it anchors his place among storytelling masters. YEAR ZERO An archaeological manhunt is raging in the holy land -- a hunt for the histor...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780743406116
ISBN-10: 0743406117
Publication Date: 4/9/2002
Pages: 416
Rating:
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 23

3.3 stars, based on 23 ratings
Publisher: Atria
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Mahala avatar reviewed Year Zero on + 192 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
This was a MUCH different book than I expected, it had a couple loose ends that were never resolved, but other than that it was an enjoyable read, lots of twists and turns thru the story and interesting subject matter for sure! Worth the time to read!
reviewed Year Zero on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Great read. Apocalyptic page turner. If you like books like "The Stand" by Stephen King you will like this one.
ritaflwr avatar reviewed Year Zero on + 16 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
I really enjoyed this book. The story is about a virus found near Golgotha in Jerusalem. DNA from bones found near this area unleash an ancient virus that causes a pandemic. The main character, Nathan Lee, crosses the world to reconnenct with his daughter just weeks ahead of massive death. The second half of the book finds Nathan Lee in a scientific community near Los Alamos NM, where scientists try to find a cure for the sickness. Human clones produced from the Golgotha DNA are used to help find a cure. There are strong religous themes here also, of crucifixion, and redemption. This theme becomes obvious when one of the clones begins to say he is the messiah.
reviewed Year Zero on + 72 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Very good tale of survivors after pandemic. Makes you wonder if we're worth saving.
reviewed Year Zero on + 88 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
The sum of this complex tale is more than its parts of medical thriller, archeological fiction, action/adventure and doomsday scenario, as Long (The Descent) thrills with an intricate puzzle. A Greek collector of religious relics searching for artifacts from Christ's crucifixion sends samples of a powder dated to Year Zero to three foreign labs, thereby unwittingly unleashing a plague organism that races through the world's populations. Young archeologist Nathan Lee survives a murderous attack by his crooked professor, David Ochs, but lands in a Tibetan jail as the plague spreads. When the guards open the prison, Nathan makes his way through abandoned territories to Siberia and across to Alaska just ahead of the plague, heading for his daughter and divorced wife in D.C. He finds them gone and is mistaken by his old employer, the Smithsonian, as the messenger expected to take Year Zero bones from a Golgotha dig to the now fortified Los Alamos labs, where scientists are cloning humans who were crucified in the same time as Christ in hopes of finding an antibody from those who had natural resistance. Parlaying the bones for a spot in the restricted compound, Nathan is put in charge of the Golgotha clones by genius young scientist Miranda Abbot. She and Nathan become lovers and the nemeses of a mad scientist, who, along with Ochs, does fiendish things to clones and plague victims while disrupting the researchers. Long mounts one nearly impossible escape scene after another and doesn't miss a step as he builds a no-win scenario, then pulls it out. The shifting terrain is vibrantly portrayed, the religious fallout is deftly handled and the characters engage completely as they face a gruesome end to civilization in this dashing, exciting thriller.
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reviewed Year Zero on + 50 more book reviews
Okay book but not great. It wasn't really a survival story. It was as much or more science fiction. It had something of an anti Christian slant that I (who is not Christian) found very irritating. It is worth reading.
reviewed Year Zero on
I just may be short-sighted but can someone really get excited about a book when the main character's first name is "Nathan Lee?" Otherwise, the book was pretty depressing overall; also, various story lines started up and were then dropped without any sort of followup. We will be putting this one right back on the swap list; I'm not recommending that my spouse or any friends read it.
reviewed Year Zero on + 29 more book reviews
Like The Descent, this is a clever and provocative book. Also like Descent, it leaves a skein of loose ends. Not in the sense that a continuation seems in the offing - rather the fate of characters and the explanation for major plot issues are not given. That may be on purpose, but I personally like things tidied up. Also, I am ready to accept unlikely science fiction plot elements, but in a book set in the present the author should get his science straight. Cloning an individual (unlikely as it is from the type of samples used) does not recreate their memories.
stormchaserblue avatar reviewed Year Zero on + 43 more book reviews
Year Zero

On Corfu, a wealthy artifact collector Nikos seeking the DNA of Jesus opens up a twenty-century-old artifact. He has unleashed Pandora's box containing an extinction event in the form of an airborne plague, last seen early in the first century. All die who come into contact with this particular disease.

Nathan Lee Swift has fallen from grace in the field of archeology and is reduced to grave robbing in war zones. Incarcerated while the historical plague sweeps through the world, he crosses half the globe and ends at Los Alamos where a group of scientists are tasked with saving what is left of humanity.
The shifting terrain is vibrantly portrayed, the religious fallout is deftly handled and the characters engage completely as they face a gruesome end to civilization in this dashing, exciting thriller.


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