Zeroes by Chuck Wendig (Mockingbird, Blackbirds) begins with a premise that may feel familiar at first: five bad-guy hackers are coerced, by one means or another, into putting their technological skills to work for the United States government. Taken to a campus in an unidentified location, cut off from communication with the outside world, the "pod" (as they are dubbed by their government handlers) is asked to tackle one hacking challenge after the next, first as individuals, then as a group.
In true Wendig style, though, the familiar ends there. As the group moves forward in their various challenges, they begin to see a common thread. And it's when they pull on that thread that they discover Typhon, which is--a program? A robot? Artificial intelligence?
What--or who--Typhon is remains a mystery to the pod, just as it does to the reader, for far longer than is comfortable. That mystery is what gives Zeroes its drive as Wendig builds a novel that is at once a heart-pounding story of suspense and a cautionary tale about the invasion of privacy as well as the dangers of an over-reaching government. It's a lot to pack into one book, but Wendig pulls it off with aplomb, peppering his writing with pop culture references, clever jokes and detailed technical research that will delight those who love computers, clever sci-fi novels and those who love to see the two combined. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm