Year Zero

This was a fun romp through aliens and music copyright law. It reads a lot like a one of John Scalzi's less serious efforts (so much so that I originally suspected it was a pen name.) Anyway, the author also wrote the non-fiction “Architects of the Web” and founded Listen.com aka Rhapsody, so he knows what he's talking about. (Re: music, probably not re: aliens.)

I really liked the idea, but not the execution - much like [b:Redshirts 13055592 Redshirts John Scalzi http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348617890s/13055592.jpg 18130445] which I plan to give another try in hopes I was simply in the wrong mood for it. I doubt I will give this another chance.I view this as primarily a humorous farce type of book, but I only laughed a couple of times. Strange things were given really long descriptions which did not advance the plot - in certain places stalling it completely. It was a fast-paced book, which is not a problem, but some things seemed to just happen and not get any description (counter to the aforementioned too long descriptions). Perhaps the pace was too fast, not giving time for important plot points to sink in.Maybe I was just too excited to read it and had too high expectations :(PS - the Linux geek in me did like the computer stuff :)

Year Zero is about the wacky hijinks of aliens, and their human copyright lawyer, trying to deal with the recently discovery that they owe the Earth literally the entire universe's wealth in music licensing fees for all the music they've been pirating for the last 40 years. It was written by Rob Reid who is no stranger to the world of music and copyright law. The very, very absurd and ridiculous world of music and copyright law. This farcical and comedic novel is a perfect foil to point up just how comedic (in a black comedy sort of way) the reality of the subject is. In fact, the slowest parts of this fast-paced novel is where copyright law and licensing are discussed. But the thing is, the real subject – the revolving-door lobbying, the absurd legal penalties, the paranoid and spiteful barriers to licensing improvement – is so absurd that it actually doesn't take away from the farcical fiction of the story.

One of the ups and downs of the book is just how much it tries, tries hard, to emulate Douglas Adams. Maybe not quite a “Hitchhiker's Guide” novel, but at least a “Dirk Gently” novel. At times Reid handles it quite well and I laughed aloud at the pun or slapstick or wacky description, but much of the time, I listened with a small smirk the occasional eye-roll and groan. The novel bounces around from clever to silly to clever quite a bit, and the number of times aliens are depicted saying, “Well, duh!” got a little tired. ...and then, like a Family Guy gag, it was to over-used that it almost became funny again.

In any case, it was a fun read, well written despite the groan-worthy puns. I hate puns!

The book started off very well, with the encounter of an ordinary human lawyer named Nick Carter met with two alien beings. They represented some sort of intergalactic council that have decided that earth's music made it worthy of notice to the rest of the universe, and now wanted to purchase the license to all of its music.

The story started to crumble in the very next scene, where the protagonist met up with his cousin in a restaurant where an alien controlled parrot started to ask him what the two other ones wanted with him. This scene was very confusing and unamusing. Sudenly it was a common thing for aliens to come to Earth.

The next scene has him go home and invite his hot neighbor over, because she has a surprise birthday present to him. Listening to the author to describe how infatuated Nick was with her felt a little cringy and cliché. Then she said she had a new man in her life, that turned out to be a cat. And the present was actually just a bottle of wine. And then an alien (another one!) shows up and Nick acts as that is just the most normal thing in the world.

Those sort of things resembles a lot like The Hichhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is fine, but it was played out SO much better in Douglas Adams's book. Plus I did not like any of the humor so for far, besides the opening scene.

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