Zero Sum

A John Rain Novel

By: Barry Eisler

Narrated by: Barry Eisler

Returning to Tokyo in 1982 after a decade of mercenary work in the Philippines, a young John Rain learns that the killing business is now controlled by Victor, a half-Russian, half-Japanese sociopath who has ruthlessly eliminated all potential challengers. Victor gives Rain a choice: kill a government minister or die a grisly death. But the best route to the minister is through his gorgeous Italian wife, Maria, a route that puts Rain on a collision course not only with Victor but with the shadowy forces behind the Russian's rise to dominance - and the longings of Rain's own conflicted heart.

It's a battle between kingpin and newcomer, master and apprentice, a zero-sum contest that can only end with one man dead and the other the world's foremost assassin.

©2017 Barry Eisler (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Barry, please never do an Italian accent again

Great book, and the author (who is also the narrator) does a great job most of the time. My only complaint is that the Italian character sounds like The Count from Sesame Street. First real narration complaint in the whole series though

When the Rain began

I have not read that many John Rain books, but I always like to know where things got started. This is a good one for background. Eisler gives enough history, without boring the reader, and writes a very good story at that.
Another thing I love, is the fact that the book is written in 80's. I always think that spies and crooks alike had to be a lot clever before all the technology we are overwhelmed with today, while at the same time they had more opportunities to get away with stuff.
I loved the story as well as the performance and I hope to read, or listen to, many more

John Rain, I just can't help loving him

Would you consider the audio edition of Zero Sum to be better than the print version?

I am blind. I have no idea. But I love Barry Eisler's narration

Who was your favorite character and why?

John Rain has become my favorite character of well, maybe always. I am not sure. It was odd for me as this book goes back to when he and Tot's were together. That was poignant.
I wish you could keep John Rain books coming for the rest of my life. I know Barry Eisner has other stories in him but I just have such an attachment to Rain.

Which scene was your favorite?

I find questions like this pointlessa

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

All of it

Welcome back John Rain!

Oh Thank You Barry Eisler! I've been hoping that John Rain would make an appearance at some point and that the author hadn't given him up. Since he has been writing some other really good stand alone books I was curious if Rain had been retired.
Anyway back to this book. Basically this book is about John Rain being set up. He's given a difficult assignment of killing a politician by an unbalanced Russian ex spetznaz who is being used by an ex CIA honcho working the wrong side now. The plan is to have Rain complete the job based on intelligence provided by them and they will kill him afterward.
It's very interesting to listen to his introspective examination of his situation and his calculations of how he he will counterattack and his anxiety over whether he can pull it off. This being a much younger John Rain, he has not yet honed his skills to the lethal weapon he will become.
I think Eisler does a fantastic job narrating his own books.
This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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Thank You.

Eisler is the Best Narrator for hosting Books

Eisler's pronunciation of Japanese (maybe with a hint of American accent) is certainly a plus. It's nice to have Rain as. "player" again instead of wanting to quit all of the time. It gives the books that take place later in time more depth.

the bad thing about this series?

it’s over! i don’t even know what to do with myself now! i guess check to see if there are any more of his books that i’ve missed, right?! cause otherwise, super sad face!=(((

A great glimpse back

I've enjoyed the entire series of Rain books and this glimpse into his earlier days was very enjoyable and entertaining. As usual, the narrative by the author was excellent. His pronunciation of the names and places in the story is always very informative and really adds to the experience. He also is best suited for knowing exactly what he is wanting to impart with Rain. Glad to see this addition to the series.

Love the John Rain Novels

As always with this series, great story - wonderful characters and a slice of Japan you might not get as just a visitor.

Excellent John Rain suspense thriller!

Listening to Zero Sum just after completing Brad Thor's newest novel in his Scot Harvath series may have affected my rating of this John Rain novel. Although Zero Sum is Book 9 in Barry Eisler's John Rain series, it is the first in the series chronologically; it goes back to 1982 when Rain was around 30 years old. He grew up in both Japan and the US and is very fluent in both languages. Rain dropped out of high school at age 17 to join the US Army and he served in Vietnam. After that he joined the CIA briefly and then moved on to become a contract killer is Japan until he made a major error and was forced to leave the country. He moved to the Philippines for almost a decade before he became persona non grata there so he moved back to Japan in 1982 hoping he would be welcome there. That is the point that this novel starts.

I am a longtime fan of author Barry Eisler and his John Rain series. I rate most of his novels 5 star. Eisler along with his long time friend JA (Joe) Konrath are two of few well established authors with major publishing houses who moved early on to self publishing and they deserves substantial credit along with Amazon and others for bringing down the price of books. He also republished all of first six John Rain novels with new titles and with Eisler himself narrating. I've been very critical of such authors such as Lee Child and Brad Thor for republishing some of their audio novels when I already had copies of the original publication. That criticism does not apply to Barry Eisler although I already owned the original publication of his first six John Rain novels because the narration was much improved and the new versions were inexpensive. Zero Sum for example cost me only $1.99 rather than a full credit.

Eisler has been experimenting with other types of novels for several years. I am very pleased with him returning to his John Rain series. Zero Sum is an excellent addition to the John Rain series, but in my opinion it does not quite deserve 5 star rating for the story itself. Eisler demonstrates again that he is an outstanding narrator. Narration is so good that it brings the overall rating up to 5 stars.

I recommend all novels in the John Rain series because all are worthwhile and because Barry Eisler more than any other established author deserves credit for speeding the acceptance of self publishing.

Young Rain in transition

A return to early years when John Rain had yet to perfect his assasin skills to the point of making them appear to be accidents. in Tokyo he faces a multi leveled criminal/political situation including psycho Russian strong men, Japanese politics and US CIA.