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10th out of 257 books
—
693 voters
Year Zero
by
Rob Reid (Goodreads Author)
An alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet.
Worse, they were lawyering up. . . .
In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry.
Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s...more
Worse, they were lawyering up. . . .
In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry.
Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s...more
Hardcover, 384 pages
Published
July 10th 2012
by Del Rey
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A "science fiction" book for people who normally wouldn't be caught dead reading science fiction, and one that's directed with laser-like focus at its intended audience.
Year Zero is entertaining enough for what it is, but the book is trying very hard to evoke the spirit of Douglas Adams and not surprisingly, it falls well short of that mark.
Add to that an irritating tendency to include pop culture references that are getting well past their time (Rickrolling, Gaga, etc.), and flavor-of-the-mom...more
Year Zero is entertaining enough for what it is, but the book is trying very hard to evoke the spirit of Douglas Adams and not surprisingly, it falls well short of that mark.
Add to that an irritating tendency to include pop culture references that are getting well past their time (Rickrolling, Gaga, etc.), and flavor-of-the-mom...more
I received this book in a First Reads giveaway and really had no idea what to expect when I got it out of the mailbox. It had an alien wearing headphones on the cover... I read the back and realized that this is totally not my style. Still, I felt an obligation to the author to give it a go (he gave me a free copy of his book, after all).
Right from the start, the reader has to be up to date with every musical performer from the 70s until today. As a child raised in the 90s, I have no idea what...more
Right from the start, the reader has to be up to date with every musical performer from the 70s until today. As a child raised in the 90s, I have no idea what...more
If you’ve seen the movie Earth Girls Are Easy that’s where I thought this book was going. A motley bunch of aliens bumbling around Earth trying to assimilate our culture and instead standing out like the Three Stooges.
It turns out to be a lot more than that. Although creative, original and funny there were times where the author overdoes the creativity and the humor felt forced. Instead of building on the background of previous aliens, we get introduced to more of them. And there were a few p...more
It turns out to be a lot more than that. Although creative, original and funny there were times where the author overdoes the creativity and the humor felt forced. Instead of building on the background of previous aliens, we get introduced to more of them. And there were a few p...more
As I listened to the audiobook during a particularly long and grueling week of work, this was a welcome and hilarious distraction from the technology grind. Probably one of the funniest things I have come across in a while, it has a wicked satire of popular music, trendy television, our array of must-have-electronic devices, laws and lawyers and the improbabilities of space. I probably can't describe the plot any better than any other reviewers, but I will say that all of the music-related easte...more
Both hilarious and relevant, this book is a must read for people of my generation. The plot is zany and off-the-wall, but it is a great vehicle for explaining the complications, greed, and absurdity behind our music industry. The characters are fun and easy to like. There are plenty of references to bands and musicians that will make any pop culture geek smile. There are also actual laugh out loud moments. This surprised me because I rarely find "humor" books funny anymore. They all seem to try...more
3 likes · like · see review
This is a satire set today in NYC as a low-level lawyer must save the world from aliens. Doesn't sound great--but what if the earth was to be destroyed because of the popularity of our great music and the enormous penalties from copyright infringement? But wait, there's more. What if the song that first created the universal mass hysteria for Earth music was the theme song from Welcome Back Kotter? Now you have my attention. This is a very funny--maybe not laugh out loud, but certainly a snicker...more
I won this book on the Goodreads "enter to win". I read it and all I have to say is that this book is amazing. It truly made me laugh out loud, and I couldn't stop reading it. It has some really clever humor, some of which you have to have the right references to understand like "The cake is a lie", etc. The story line kept me captivated and it's delivery made me feel almost as if I was speaking to a friend. I honestly feel this is one of the best books of all time and I will be truly disapointe...more
3 likes · like · see review
Nick Carter (but not the Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys) works at a law firm as a copyright assistant. Life drastically changes when two aliens pop into his office and tell him the news: Earth know owns the entire galaxy and some aliens aren't so happy about that.
NOTE: I received this through the Amazon Vine program.
Up until this morning, I had every intention of reading this book until the very end. But I had an epiphany: I had absolutely ZERO interest in finishing this book.
Why did I sto...more
NOTE: I received this through the Amazon Vine program.
Up until this morning, I had every intention of reading this book until the very end. But I had an epiphany: I had absolutely ZERO interest in finishing this book.
Why did I sto...more
5 likes · like · see review
Since the moment I first saw this book I have been completely fascinated by it, and was even more enthralled when I won an advanced reading copy on GoodReads.com. At first glance, the cover looks somehow familiar, yet foreign. Anyone see a hint of Napster? Well you should, as Rob Reid took a lot of the inspiration for this story from those very legal battles. Oh, also, he was the founder of Rhapsody (Napster competitor and iTunes predecessor).
Have you worked in an office in the past decade? Have...more
Have you worked in an office in the past decade? Have...more
1 like · like · see review
Dec 20, 2012
Joanna
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
People actually involved in the music industry or copyright/license law
It starts off really funny, but not gonna lie I got kinda tired of the joke after about the halfway point. Like, seriously I should have written this review earlier because I find it hard to have an opinion anymore. Like two months after watching a mediocre movie or television episode and someone asks you, "How was that?" and you're like, "Uh... it was... okay? I think? I mean, I finished it so it couldn't have been bad... "
Nobody should ever be compared to Douglas Adams. It's unfair. Not to eulogise the dead but Adams is literally incomparable. That's why I respect the bravery of Eoin Colfer. Now there's an idea. Rob Reid matches and often surpasses the wit and glorious absurdity of Eoin Colfer. Year Zero not only paints a beautiful tale of the absurdity of our laws but packs the story full of excellent geeky nuggets both musical and Monty Python. Plus there's some damn fine science fiction concepts packed in lik...more
11 likes · like · see review
Juuuust good enough to keep me reading. Of course, any book that people put in the same sentence as Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy has a lot of expectations to live up to right off. When reading the book, I don't get the sense that the author is a professional writer. I was listening to Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box at the same time, and it is a stark contrast on the mechanics of describing a scene. Lots of "sort of" and "kind of like" in this one. If the author gets a great editor, I think he ca...more
When book blurbs reference Douglas Adams and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” alarm bells the size of cannons go off. I never got the joke (despite being a huge Monty Python fan), and Adams’ work just left me more puzzled than amused.
But for some reason, I decided to read Rob Reid’s “Year Zero” (Ballantine Del Rey, $25, 357 pages), despite the “Hitchhiker” mention – and, once more proving, as my hillbally father used to say, that even a blind sow finds an acorn now and again, “Year Zero”...more
But for some reason, I decided to read Rob Reid’s “Year Zero” (Ballantine Del Rey, $25, 357 pages), despite the “Hitchhiker” mention – and, once more proving, as my hillbally father used to say, that even a blind sow finds an acorn now and again, “Year Zero”...more
Jan 25, 2013
John
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Americans 30+ years of age who are lawyers or music aficionados
I read this book over the course of two days and mildly enjoyed it. It contained a few laughs and wasn't a waste of time. Gen X-ers who were "into" pop music during their youths, adolescence and early adulthood might really dig it, but I didn't. I would not read it again, nor would I recommend it to anyone who wasn't into law, music or clumsy silliness.
Year Zero has been compared to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and High Fidelity. It is nothing like either book. This is a light, silly read w...more
Year Zero has been compared to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and High Fidelity. It is nothing like either book. This is a light, silly read w...more
Spots on summary by Amazon, once again. It's VERY like the HITCHHIKER'S, though at some points it gives the impression of trying to hard (direction: hipster). Nevertheless, it was witty and engaging and occasionally makes me laugh out loud, which I always appreciate in a book...until I got to the bit about "the hot girl". (Yeah that phrasing right there, in the Amazon review, I admit, should've been a warning.) HITCHHIKER'S oscillates between people's perspective and not having any particular pe...more
This book was quite a ride, but a bit of a let down at the end.
The premise of the novel is that humans have a particular talent in music that other beings in the universe do not possess, and when pop music radio and television was discovered by the billions of beings in other galaxies, they began to, illegally by our standards, download our music. Thus the conflict, all of those downloads created an enormous debt that some in the far off ether want to cancel by destroying Earth and all its inha...more
The premise of the novel is that humans have a particular talent in music that other beings in the universe do not possess, and when pop music radio and television was discovered by the billions of beings in other galaxies, they began to, illegally by our standards, download our music. Thus the conflict, all of those downloads created an enormous debt that some in the far off ether want to cancel by destroying Earth and all its inha...more
I hated this book.
I think it has a brilliant premise but beyond that it just fails on everything else. Poor writing, bland characters, boring world, and old jokes. Nothing in this book really worked for me and it was made even worse to find out the book is one long setup for an old, uninspired, not-that-funny, and completely obvious joke at the end of the book.
I think besides the bad writing, boring characters, poor execution, and boring obvious jokes, I think the thing that gets me the most is...more
I think it has a brilliant premise but beyond that it just fails on everything else. Poor writing, bland characters, boring world, and old jokes. Nothing in this book really worked for me and it was made even worse to find out the book is one long setup for an old, uninspired, not-that-funny, and completely obvious joke at the end of the book.
I think besides the bad writing, boring characters, poor execution, and boring obvious jokes, I think the thing that gets me the most is...more
If you are a music maven or if you are an IP lawyer who knows something about copyright or if you simply find comedic sci-fi to your liking, you'll think this book is a hoot. If you are all three of these things, you'll find it hard to stop laughing.
I'm not giving anything away (that you won't read in the first chapter anyway) by telling you that since the 1970s (a hysterically ironic moment in the 1970s, in fact), every intelligent being in the universe has been illegally copying (in NYC) &...more
I'm not giving anything away (that you won't read in the first chapter anyway) by telling you that since the 1970s (a hysterically ironic moment in the 1970s, in fact), every intelligent being in the universe has been illegally copying (in NYC) &...more
The perfect fusion of legal mumbo-jumbo and sci-fi hogwash, Year Zero is also extravagantly original. Rob Reid is in the same spectrum of speculative fiction as Jasper Fforde and Neil Gaiman; that is to say, he is inventive, wacky, and bitterly funny. Goofy analogies, ridiculous puns, and well-placed non sequitors flow through every paragraph of Year Zero, lampooning everything from the music industry to alien invasion tropes to environmental do-gooderism. Reid's pen is merciless and absurdly, c...more
Having finished my advance copy of Year Zero from Goodreads, I believe there is finally a worthy successor to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not only is it truly funny; Rob Reid's first novel also stands up intellectually to the concepts explored in the Guide's narrative asides.
Year Zero, like the Guide, is a space epic inspired by a social problem on our own planet. However, unlike the trouble with building bypasses, this time Earth has unknowingly sent a problem out to the rest of the...more
Year Zero, like the Guide, is a space epic inspired by a social problem on our own planet. However, unlike the trouble with building bypasses, this time Earth has unknowingly sent a problem out to the rest of the...more
Hilarious fun. Author Rob Reid is the founder of Listen.com, which created the Rhapsody online music service, and therefore is well versed in the legal issues surrounding digital music. So of course, you write what you know
First off the premise: on October 13, 1977 at 8:29 pm EST, aliens discovered earth music when the end credits rolled the theme song to TV's "Welcome Back Kotter." At that moment Year Zero was born, with everything before now known as PK (Pre-Kotter) and now time would be mark...more
First off the premise: on October 13, 1977 at 8:29 pm EST, aliens discovered earth music when the end credits rolled the theme song to TV's "Welcome Back Kotter." At that moment Year Zero was born, with everything before now known as PK (Pre-Kotter) and now time would be mark...more
I'll bet you never thought you would see an intergalactic alien thriller that all centered on the intricacies of copyright law, did you? Well, if that's what you've been waiting for, then this is the book you want to read.
The universe, as it turns out, is well-populated with other civilizations. Some of them are nearly human in appearance, others are so radically unlike us that they're hard to imagine, much less talk to. Giant snails, two-dimensional beings, foul-mouthed parrots and bio-machine...more
The universe, as it turns out, is well-populated with other civilizations. Some of them are nearly human in appearance, others are so radically unlike us that they're hard to imagine, much less talk to. Giant snails, two-dimensional beings, foul-mouthed parrots and bio-machine...more
The premise of this novel is that the rest of the universe discovers Earth music in 1977 and immediately goes on a down-loading binge of the most awesome sounds ever produced. The highly ethical beings known as the Refined League have deemed that Earth must be paid for these downloads. This results in Earthlings being entitled to all of the known wealth of the universe, and not everyone is happy.
Rob Reid is an accomplished writer, and his prose is well polished. I fell into the story almost imme...more
Rob Reid is an accomplished writer, and his prose is well polished. I fell into the story almost imme...more
First off- this book is not my usual fare. I rarely read Sci-Fi, but I picked this up after reading about it in Entertainment and thought the premise was intriguing. This book, if anything, is a whip-smart and cheeky reflection on our current society, and deals with fame, social networking, and music in a highly entertaining fashion. The pop-culture references were funny and made Nick feel very relateable as a hero. Sure, in a decade these quips might be outdated, but they are funny as hell righ...more
Year Zero is the silliest and probably the funniest book I have ever read. Many books bring a chuckle, but this one had me laughing aloud. But, like the best stories, it also makes a statement; in this case it’s the absurdity of the copyright laws of the music industry and the lawyers who gain from it. You’ll also find an interesting take on the Windows operating system. If this book isn’t sponsored by Macintosh, it should be.
If this doesn’t intrigue you enough to read it, then consider the poss...more
If this doesn’t intrigue you enough to read it, then consider the poss...more
No, no, no, no, no. This is not in any way like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The only remote link is that like Hitchhiker's, we discover that there is a rather large and very silly universe out there, but that is where it ends. The book is amusing, slightly chuckle worthy and a good book in its own right, but it has absolutely none of the intelligent, dry, hilarious and out right craziness of Douglas Adams.
The sad thing is that the reference to Adam's work in the marketing for this book has...more
The sad thing is that the reference to Adam's work in the marketing for this book has...more
According to Year Zero by Rob Reid, it turns out that there are many sentient life forms in the universe, and all of them are terrible at music – except one species. Humans. Us. Other brilliant and peaceful species in the universe have formed a confederation called the Refined League (Earthlings have not yet been invited to join), and members of the Refined League value music as the highest of the 40 identified “Noble Arts.”
One day a few years ago some alien anthropologists eavesdropping on Eart...more
One day a few years ago some alien anthropologists eavesdropping on Eart...more
3 likes · like · see review
Apr 04, 2013
Alan
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone who's ever felt even a little guilty about downloading an .MP3...
Recommended to Alan by:
An interesting title and even more interesting cover graphic
The thing I first noticed about Year Zero is that it does not overreach itself, and therefore it does not fail. It's a humorous novel, but it's usually witty and absurd, rather than gut-bustingly funny. And that's okay...
The premise is elevator-pitch simple: the universe is full of aliens, a peaceful star-spanning society, who have been pirating our incomparably magnificent music en masse for decades. But they've always felt at least a little guilty about it, and now their own sense of—let's cal...more
The premise is elevator-pitch simple: the universe is full of aliens, a peaceful star-spanning society, who have been pirating our incomparably magnificent music en masse for decades. But they've always felt at least a little guilty about it, and now their own sense of—let's cal...more
Rating: 4 paws
One quote from the book that I particularly cared for: "More like 'involuntary assisted suicide.'"
Summary of the book in one sentence: What happens when aliens decide humanity has the best possible music and bankrupts the universe because of copywrite laws.
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First paw consists of the writing style - basically, this is the technical aspect of the book. This book is going for two genres: sci-fi and humor. The humor is coming off every page, but even then, he doesn't get s...more
One quote from the book that I particularly cared for: "More like 'involuntary assisted suicide.'"
Summary of the book in one sentence: What happens when aliens decide humanity has the best possible music and bankrupts the universe because of copywrite laws.
--------------
First paw consists of the writing style - basically, this is the technical aspect of the book. This book is going for two genres: sci-fi and humor. The humor is coming off every page, but even then, he doesn't get s...more
It started off with a good chuckle--the noble opus so sublime as to trigger the dawning moment of Year Zero was the theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter. Which, I've got to say, while I might not call an opus, is a mighty fine song that is on my iPod.
My first impression was Christopher Moore meets Hitchhiker. I'm not sure why the Moore since it's sci-fi, maybe just the slapstick humor. Now I know everyone is comparing it to Hitchhiker, and really it's not fair to hold it to such a high standard,...more
My first impression was Christopher Moore meets Hitchhiker. I'm not sure why the Moore since it's sci-fi, maybe just the slapstick humor. Now I know everyone is comparing it to Hitchhiker, and really it's not fair to hold it to such a high standard,...more
5 likes · like · see review
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Indie Exchang...: Win an ARC of Year Zero by Rob Reid | 1 | 4 | Jul 31, 2012 10:38am | |
| Bloggers Unite™ : Win an ARC of Year Zero by Rob Reid | 1 | 4 | Jul 31, 2012 10:36am | |
| Book Bloggers Ano...: Win an ARC of Year Zero by Rob Reid | 1 | 1 | Jul 31, 2012 10:35am | |
| Creative Reviews: Win an ARC of Year Zero by Rob Reid | 1 | 2 | Jul 31, 2012 10:34am | |
| The Sword and Laser: S&L Video- #07 Pt. One- Interview with Rob Reid and Our New Format! | 19 | 174 | Jul 28, 2012 07:35am | |
| The Sword and Laser: Questions for Rob Reid, Author of Year Zero? | 7 | 100 | Jul 04, 2012 01:29pm |
Rob Reid is a writer and technology entrepreneur based in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. He's the author of "Year Zero" (Del Rey, 2012) - a novel about aliens with a mad passion for human music. He also wrote "Year One" (William Morrow, 1994), a memoir about student life at Harvard Business School; and "Architects of the Web" (Wiley, 1997), which chronicles the rise of the Interne...more
More about Rob Reid...
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“I used to think that English-speaking who conveniently look, dress, and act human only turned up in lazy science fiction. But as Carly and Frampton dematerialized, I became grimly aware of how well they'd also fit into a psychotic hallucination.”
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Nov 28, 2012 08:00pm
* The aliens were happy we managed to hold off an ice age via CO2 prod...more
Dec 10, 2012 10:53am
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