Well, this was definitely an interesting read for sure. Year Zero is the first novel from Rob Reid, who is the founder of Listen.com, which created Rhapsody service. After reading this story, it seemed like the perfect plot for him. After I read the prologue I knew Year Zero was bound to be a hilarious read, and I was not disappointed in that aspect. Nick Carter, the protagonist was very easy to like, and relate to in that he seemed pretty much lost when it came to a lot of the technological aspects. I admit, I had a hard time understanding what was going on a lot, even with the varied descriptions given. I think you have to have some serious nerd genes to really get all of this book. That's not to say I didn't recognize a lot of the brand names and terms that were thrown around. There were plenty of pop culture references to recognize, but many that I didn't. I would say that I'm probably too young, at 22, to relate to a lot of the references that came before my time. I would say Year Zero is probably for that mid level adult, say, aged 30 to 50. Many people that are older than that have missed out on the huge technological advances and might not really relate to a lot of the references. I'm sure that are some though, that have followed closely enough that they would be more than able to understand what is happening. I was ecstatic to find a Portal reference, though. The footnotes given were not always helpful in understanding, but they did provide some needed background information as well as being clever and witty like the rest of the writing style. I enjoyed all the humor throughout the book, even if I didn't completely understand the context. And of course there was the much needed love story between Nick and Manda. It wouldn't be a novel without one. Their story was much more interesting and different than many, so it made for a fun change of pace. The space characters were wonderful, even if I had hoped they'd seem a little less like common humans. So, even though I had a lot of issues with knowledge, I still thought this was a pretty great book. Just the cover makes it seem like a good read. It's not something I would recommend for everyone but I have a clear idea of they type of people I could recommend it to.

I received this book for free through a Goodreads First-Reads Giveaway.