Year Zero

by Brian M. Stableford

A Limited Edition of 300 (unnumbered) copies, signed by the author on the title page. "What will the new millennium bring? Alien abductions, Demons and the Immortal 'Dead'. The Devil setting up a 'Hell' on earth and the Apocalypse. And more, much more." 221 pages, with four provocative illustrations by Tim Denton.

Genres: Fantasy

221 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Brian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This.... is safely one of the weirdest darn books I have ever read. I don't think I'm spoiling anything here thanks to the cover, but the main character, Molly, meets Elvis in the greengrocer's, meets a fallen angel, gets abducted by aliens, and interrogated by the men in black. And that is ONLY IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE BOOK. I've even left out some parts that aren't represented on the cover. It's just TOTALLY. UTTERLY. CRAZY.

There is a narrative thread, but so many new elements get thrown in that it's hard to believe while reading it that the author is going to tie them all together by the end. He does manage it, barely, using a really dense and sometimes philosophical sort of prose. It's pretty twisted in places, with some harsh language and graphic descriptions of things you really don't want described.

Anyway... this was part of my small "B-movie sci-fi novels" collection, and this one is going out the door, now that I've read it.

[Ethan Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is really something and the best Dollar store find I’ve ever made. Too bad real dollar stores don’t exist anymore. It’s not good, but there is so so much going on. The main character is a woman and it’s written by a dude and he fails somewhat, but it’s hard to put my finger on how not being a woman myself. And she has issues she’s working on and she meets Elvis at a date night at a grocery store. There’s aliens and devils and zombies and so much more.

I have a shelf of books that are special to me and this book was just so bonkers it is on that shelf because I am forced to remember it sometimes and I don’t think I will ever read it again but if someone was to ask me if it was good I’d probably say “That book is really something!” And let them borrow it and probably forget about it and then remember it and wonder where it is…

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Year Zero is about the Millennium - an odd novel to see its first (American) publication in 2004. Odd, too, to find a novel by a British author in a British library - in an American edition. Central character Molly makes the decision that she won't be year 2000 compliant - to her, 2000 will be year zero and she will be able to use this to make a new start in her life. She is a former prostitute and drug addict who has two daughters housed with foster parents, and her aim is to be able to persuade social services that she can take over the care of the two girls herself. Soon after she makes her decision, strange events begin to happen to her - she meets Elvis in a local supermarket, befriends an angel, is abducted by aliens (and this is only in the first few chapters!).

Year Zero is a problematic novel. There are two main issues. The first is that there is too much going on; each little scenario (Elvis, the angel, the aliens, and so on) could fill a whole novel - something by Tom Holt or Robert Rankin, for example. Sometimes this works, but here it just irritates. Maybe it is because the encounters come too swiftly one after another, and they are not allowed space to develop and interest the reader.

The second problem is that this is clearly meant to be a humorous whimsical fantasy in the style of Holt or Rankin, but it is just not particularly funny. There are amusing moments, and sometimes clever jokes, but on the whole Year Zero reads as though it were intended to be taken seriously. If it is, then there are other problems - Molly is not a very convincing character, and she does not really change as a result of her surprising experiences; the eventual reason which is revealed as to why she is the centre of all this is glib and extremely hard to accept, even in science fiction; and the tone of the writing is too light.

There are good things about Year Zero. It is sufficiently entertaining to keep the reader going to the end. For the genre aficionado, there are little homages to other science fiction writers, nods to novels like Stanislaus Lem's The Futurological Congress as well as the more obvious use of fringe popular cultural motifs like the alien abductions. But all in all, it is a second rate version of a Tom Holt novel, only worth reading to pass the time.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this title when the author was selected for a book club read. Most of his books that I could find were part of a series and I was interested in a standalone, so I chose this one. Published in 2000, the end of the millennium and the various apocalyptic predictions surrounding that event influence the storyline and support a running gag throughout the book.
Molly is a woman with a troubled past (and sometimes present) who is trying to get her life in order and support her kids. She experiences a chance encounter with Elvis at a supermarket, then with an angel lost on the street, after which she is abducted first by aliens, then by men in black, and then the aliens again. She moves to a new apartment but discovers that her neighbors are demons on the lam from the devil himself, who shows up and threatens Molly's eldest daughter. Unable to find regular work, Molly takes a position as a test subject for new anti-aging drugs, but finds herself subconsciously contacting the original universal architects of our solar system while on the meds, who are sending her a message which gets interrupted by a visit to the fey court to rescue her younger daughter from the queen of faeries.
All this gets us about two thirds of the way through the book. A few more adventures get us to the peak point of the action, when Molly has to decide whether she's gone crazy or whether all of these things actually happened to her, and whether she's about to save the world or end it or is it actually all in her head?
The book is rather schizophrenic, though told in a droll British manner that doesn't take itself too seriously and somehow strolls through the breakneck pace of the action. The overarching plot is weak and overshadowed by the plethora of subplots, and the ultimate resolution left me unsatisfied.
I'd be curious to try some of Stableford's other works if I get around to it.

[Bon · Rating 2 out of 5]

LAME.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, light, punchy humor in a scifi setting. Think Douglas Adams but a *little* less sarcastic.