Zeroes

By: Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti

Narrated by: Amber Benson

X-Men meets Heroes when New York Times best-selling author Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti to create a sizzling new series filled with action and adventure.

Don't call them heroes.

But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart.

Take Ethan, aka Scam. He's got a voice inside him that'll say whatever you want to hear, whether it's true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn't - like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren't exactly best friends these days.

Enter Nate, aka Bellwether, the group's "glorious leader". After Scam's SOS, he pulls the scattered Zeroes back together. But when the recue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. At the heart of the chaos they find Kelsie, who can take a crowd in the palm of her hand and tame it or let it loose as she pleases.

Filled with high-stakes action and drama, Zeroes unites three powerhouse authors for the opening installment of a thrilling new series.

©2015 Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Zeroes Got a Straight 10

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was a little edgy, maybe a bit too real for 8th graders, but it was a great storyline about 6 kids with mind powers and how they control or do not control these powers within themselves. It was interesting to see this side of the Super Hero tales. I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book about how power can be corrupt, or something like that - I think it is NATE that will be bad or the antagonist in the next tale.

had some “feel-good” moments within

Zeroes is touted as being X-men meets Heroes and it really fits for this story. It follows a group of six seemingly random characters who all have different abilities. They use the typical superhero mantra’s throughout (with great power… type stuff). Follow this group of “zeroes” as they call themselves as they band together to try and work together and figure out the extent their “powers” go.

The narration for this was done by Amber Benson and she was perfect for this role. Though it could have been easily done by numerous narrators (like The Beam) one for each character. Sometimes that can become confusing. At least the authors of this realized that they were dealing with 6+ points of view and they started each chapter with a name so we know who we’re dealing with. Benson really becomes some of these characters and does a great job filling the voids that just reading the book can sometimes leave.

The story was interesting. I haven’t really watched Heroes and I’ve only seen some of the X-men movies, but this does really seem to follow the same type of story. The part that I like most is that you cannot even tell that it was written by three different authors. The fact that they pulled that off is extremely difficult and I’m glad that it worked out the way it did.

The story was very difficult to follow unless you were listening to it pretty intently. No reading while doing chores type of a book. I mostly listened while driving or working out and found myself having to go back because I wasn’t sure who’s part it was (partially because of what I mentioned earlier just having one narrator).

Overall, the story wasn’t exactly what I was hoping it would turn out to be, but it still had some “feel-good” moments within. I grabbed this audiobook just based on the one author (Westerfield), but since reading this, I may be checking into the other two authors too. This is an audiobook I’m glad I checked out, but I won’t be looking for any others (if this is made into a series) in the near future).

Audiobook purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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Loved It!

This is one of the best books I've listened to this year! One of my favorite things is how uncommon the abilities of the Zeroes are. It's a very fresh take on the superhero genre!

Wait for it...

It take around 10 chapters to really start rockin but the character development and world building really needed those chapters. There are six main characters which by the end you get to see them for their past their flaws their love and their powers.

Can't wait for the next one in the series

I love everything by Scott Westerfeld. All the characters are so broken but also relatable.

“Zeroes” was a really good book.

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I read “Zeroes” by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti back in February and I was trying to find my review for a friend and found out that I didn’t have one. I felt that I need to remedy this and get my thoughts out there for the world to see.

“Zeroes” was a really good book. I didn’t know much about Zeroes. I found out that Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti were doing an event at my local bookstore and wanted to go. Of course I had my ARC and bought a copy to get signed for my sister. I believe this was back in October. I found out a little about the book then. I was fairly intrigued to read this story.

One thing I love about the three authors writing this story together is the fact that you really can’t tell who wrote what part. I think that is really great. It looks or is completely seamless. I thought Westerfeld, Lanagan, and Biancotti did a great job writing. The story was very though out and fun to read.

“Every Power Has A Price”

That right there is a very powerful statement. This statement made me so curious. I really wanted to know what would be going on in this novel. This story follows six teenagers. Each of these teenagers has some kind of superpower. Each power is different. Some powers will affect everyone and other powers will only affect one person when they are used. The one thing these teenagers have in common is they were all born in the year 2000. The call themselves the Zeroes. A bit of a spin-off of Heroes. They have many missions to learn about their powers or at least they used too. The split up the previous summer over a big fight.

These kids don’t want to be heroes at all. They just want to be themselves and figure out how these powers work for them. One thing I really loved about these characters is the fact that when one of their own was in trouble, they came to the rescue. Even though there was a huge fight and most of them hadn’t talked at all. There is a large cast of main characters. It was a lot of fun getting to see each perspective.

I really enjoyed this novel a lot. I am looking forward to seeing what happens in book two. This story is just about kids who have superpowers. It is about growing up, becoming your own person, dealing with friendships, taking care of one’s family, and many more deep subjects. I really like how the subjects were tackled because I didn’t feel like I was being educated but I was at the same time. This is definitely a fun book that I think everyone should read.

“AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY”

I love and hate Benson's voicing method

It took me a while longer to listen verses read this book due to the voicing. i love how Benson distinctly voices each narrator, but I disliked some of the voices used. I don't like high pitched females and some were the mental equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.

The book was good. I love Westerfeld's writing and even his collabs like this are fun. Scary fun. It is pleasantly assuring that this story isn't plausible like the Uglies Trilogy.

Fantastic Book

The character development was absolutely phenomenal. I have always loved audio books and the characterization of each Zero was fantastic.

Fun!

Fun and original take on the classic superhero kid story. Very unique - characters were lots of fun! Do NOT waste your time with the sequel.

So much potential

I can't wait for the next in the series. Great start and narration. The character development was amazing.