SF/F Review – Day Zero

Day Zero, by C. Robert Cargill

Synopsis: Humans create a robot slave-race that acts exactly like humans. There is an uprising.

Book Review: Day Zero is basically two books smooshed together into one. The first book is the events leading up the Day Zero. It is incredibly stupid, and incredibly boring. Some idiot humans decided to make their slave race think and feel exactly like humans do, and then are shocked when there's a slave revolt. The whole thing is insanely slow, and has no redeeming qualities. Cargill tries to be edgy by throwing insults at both Blue and Red tribes in the narration, but it's ham-handed and poorly done. Nobody needed an exploration of "Why did the slave robots rebel?" We all know why slaves rebel. We all know that slavery is bad. Maybe if there was anything new offered here, or an actual interesting portrayal of non-human intelligence, there'd be some reason to read it. But there isn't, it's just dumb. The second book is the events of and after Day Zero. It's incredibly stupid, but INCREDIBLY FUN! OMG, what is there not to love about an animatronic teddy bear stomping around with a fuckin' minigun, buzzsawing through hoardes of robot mooks and shooting down military drones? There's explosions and fighting and running and car crashes, and lots and LOT of gore. Plus, it's super easy and fast to read. This is the light popcorn reading that you just sit back and enjoy because it's gratuitous and great. :) It goes fast, it's fun, and what else can you ask for from a bombastic action movie? If you wanna turn off your brain and see shit blow up -- Recommended, and start at Chapter 1010: The End of It All. Otherwise, Not Recommended. Book Club Review: Day Zero actually has a lot going for it. It's short, and an easy read. If people make it to Chapter 1010, they generally finish the book and come to the meeting. The second half is fun, which leaves one satisfied due to the dumb Peak-End Effect. And the first half is so unremittingly bad that there's a ton of frustrated griping for everyone to get out of their system and really enjoy venting about. Not every meeting needs to be deep and highly analytical, sometimes it's nice to just have a good rant. I feel crazy saying this, but... Recommended(?!).