youve seen the movie Earth Girls Are Easy thats 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 places where too much time is spent dwelling on mundane details, Also there are numerous references made to classic rock, If you don't know Led Zeppelin from the Graf Zeppelin you can still enjoy this, but you're going to read some of the jokes and go "Huh"
The premise is a good one.
Aliens intercept our tv and radio transmissions and think we are the greatest beings in the universe when it comes to music, Upon finding us, they believe we are entitled to royalties that would make everyone a millionaire, Neato! I'd be more than happy to take payment in gold,
If you like offbeat humor and science fiction this should appeal to you,½.
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 theidentified “Noble Arts.
”
One day a few years ago some alien anthropologists eavesdropping on Earth heard their first music created by humans, And rhapsodic joy swept the cosmos, Human music was so much better than any music ever heard elsewhere in the galaxy that many aliens died from forgetting to eat while replaying the theme song.
The Refined League was so moved by the discovery of human music that they begin counting time anew from the moment of the discovery, and that moment became Year Zero.
And the song that inspired such exaltation and respect The theme song to the television show Welcome Back, Kotter,
If that last sentence made you laugh, or even smile, than you will probably enjoy Year Zero, a kind of Men in Black meets The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Its a very funny take on human society through the eyes of young lawyer Nick Carter, a peon in a law firm specializing in copyrights and patents.
He is in his office late one night when his assistant announces the arrival of two strange visitors, They are aliens trying to arrange for a license for all of humanitys music, It turns out the Refined League has strict rules about following the laws of primitive societies like ours, and as aliens have been illegally downloading billions of copies of our music since thes, they now owe us all the wealth in the universe.
There are other aliens who figure it would be far easier, and far less expensive, to destroy the Earth instead,
Fortunately for Nick, the aliens mistake him not only for the founder of the law firm now retired, but also for the Backstreet Boy by the same name.
The interaction between the characters is great, and Nick is a likeable and totally believable guy, At one point, the author spends half a page describing Nicks thought process as he types up a brief text message to the girl he likes, so that it will sound friendly but not goofy, enthusiastic but not dorky.
Year Zero has references to other sci fi/fantasy series, but they are not overwhelming the way Ive found them in some books, Year Zero also contains a wisecracking sentient alien parrot and his sidekick, a sentient alien vacuum cleaner,
Author Reid offers a satirical look at the music industry, music piracy and the U, S. legal system. He takes many pokes at Windows, Microsoft, and Bill Gates, “I twisted my fingers to hit the CTRL, ALT, and DEL keys a gesture I associate so strongly with both annoyance and panic that my hand now reflexively makes it when Im caught in traffic, stuck in a long line, flying in extreme turbulence you name it.
” When Nick and a friend have trouble with an alien interface on a computer, the computer switches to a “native” interface that turns out to be Clippy from Microsoft Office and no desperate act will make Clippy go away.
I completely enjoyed Year Zero, and Im not even a big music fan, Its funny and well written, and it moves at a great pace, I highly recommend it. I read an advance readers edition Year Zero will be available on July, .Stars
Year Zero is a humorous romp about a guy just trying to save the Earth from copyright infringements and fangirling aliens.
The publishers blurb and a lot of readers compare this book to sitelink The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy , And on the surface, they do have similarities, They are both comedies about average joes who get stuck in the middle of aliens trying to destroy the Earth, But its kind of unfair to compare Year Zero to such a hallmark, I think it might have set some extremely high expectations, Year Zero does have some rough parts, but it was a light, breezy read that I had a lot of fun reading, Sure, it had some cheesy parts, but it made me laugh out loud,
Nick Carter is a lowlevel copyright lawyer not a Backstreet Boy who is drifting through life, Everything changes the day he meets the aliens, It turns out that the galaxy is filled with refined beings who prize and excel at all art forms except music, They really, really suck at music, So when they started picking up Earths transmissions, the rest of the galaxy became obsessed with Earth music and everybody downloaded all the music they could get their hands on.
The problem is that the rules of the refined beings dictate that if you use a planets material, you have to follow that planets laws.
Now the rest of the galaxy owes Earth an absurd amount of money for copyright infringement, And some evil genius has decided it will be cheaper to just blow up the Earth rather than pay the legal fees,
Like I said, its a silly story, But silly was exactly what I was in the mood for, Some of the humor was trying a little hard, but there were quite a few moments that made me laugh, Hell, that Backstreet Boys scene is still making me giggle just writing this, The music references were fun, Theres an awesome Rick Roll in there, And I could picture what was happening so well even if the writing was simplistic, The ending fizzled a little, but this was an entertaining and hilarious story great for lovers of humorous SciFi,
RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading:Stars
Writing Style:Stars
Characters and Character Development:Stars
Plot Structure and Development:Stars
Level of Captivation:Stars
Originality:Stars Lowlevel entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks its a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office.
But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced if bumbling extraterrestrials, And boy, do they have news, The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanitys music ever since “Year Zero”to us, when American pop songs first reached alien ears.
This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang, The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe, We humans suddenly own everythingand the aliens are not amused, Nick now has fortyeight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him, 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 thes until today, As a child raised in thes, I have no idea what most of these references even are, For anyone who doesn't know who the of thes and earlys are, keeping up will be quite difficult as well, I cannot imagine this will be on too many shelves inyears,
The story itself seemed a little hurried and even sporadic, The characters didn't really keep me interested and the style of writing reminded me of an elementary school student's short story then this happened, and then that happened, etc.
I gave up on the footnotes about halfway through,
I'm giving it three purely because of the shock value, I was constantly like, "what just happened" The parrot, for instance, . . Year Zero was somewhat entertaining and I did get through it very quickly just to see what sort of randomness would happen next, but I definitely wouldn't read it again.
This review can also be found at sitelinkCornerfolds, comStars
This book could have been great, The premise sounded hilarious. Sadly, it was full of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and failed jokes, 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 you gone to school in the past decade Have you listened to music Or stayed up with the buzz on Facebook Have you ever been RickRolled If you answered yes to ANY of those things, then this book is for you.
From page one this story is jammed packed with popculture references and viral tagups that any redditer would be amazed with, Chances are anything iconic youve seen on the internet, heard on the radio, watched on TV, or played in a game in the pastyears is referenced somewhere in this book.
I was completely amazed at Reids ability to intricately weave humor and plot, distributing little quips here and there and interlacing entire pages that were literally laugh out loud funny.
From the strangely familiar logo on the cover down to the roots of each character, this book entirely absorbed me and has changed the way I listen to music for the rest of my life.
Reid did a great job giving our lives on earth some perspective, and laid some impressive groundwork for some unique and original science fiction concepts.
WARNING: this book will give you a new appreciation for all things creative, be ready!
Also, the birds in Chapterwere EPIC and made me laugh so hard I cried! 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 musthaveelectronic 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 musicrelated easter eggs hidden in the text there are hundreds.
. . I completely lost count! and all of the supporting characters the mysterious cat, the girlnextdoor, the copyrightbreaking alien colony, the pretentious cousin, the seething medusa lawyer boss, the vacuum cleaner were all quite hilarious in their own rights.
And the resolution to humanity's dilemma could probably send at least dozen conspiracy theorists to the geneticist quicker than Ozzy Osbourne can snarf down a Chipotle burrito.
I say read it. Read it when want to laugh aloud in public and spew beverages from your nose onto strangers, Long Live The Townshend Line!,Stars
This book is a laugh out loud blast to read, It is cut from the news headlines and it is very relevant with the news of today, This is a novel that centers on the greed and machinations of the ultimate evil in the universe, the largest and most powerfully corrupt empire to ever walk the face of our Earth.
I am speaking of the music industry of coursethose dirty bastards, This novel is a parody, a science fiction unmasking of the music industries corporate greed, It is an alien novel twisted with good old spy action, Did I mention that it is laugh out loud funnyBecause it isI had to reread many passages out loud to my wife because they cracked me up
The novels main story:
“Welcome back, Welcome back, Welcome back.
On Earth, these lyrics were a humble cue to hit the bathroom before Whats Happening!! came on, But everywhere else, they were the core of an opus so sublime that the Refined League reset its calendars to start counting time from the moment it was first detected.
And so, October, :p. m. EST became the dawning moment of Year Zero to the rest of the universe, ”
Our universe became much smaller when aliens first heard that memorable TV song, forever changing the human races place in the galaxy, Without any real spoilers this book themes on current law and practicesthink Napster!!! Or The Pirate Bay,
This is a fast action novel that does not hold back any punches or opinions, but it does so with humor the whole way through:
““I was disappointed, too,” Özzÿ said, making a shrugging gesture.
“I was hoping for ironmaidium, But back when we renamed it, the votes were with Lars and the boys, ”
“And what other superheavy metals do you have” she asked, clearly more stunned than ever,
“Well, theres vanhelium, which is tough as steel but has a negative mass that lets it float heavy objects, Defleppimite, which is used in prosthetic limbs, And of course, slayerium, which is the most energetic element in all of creation, And then, lets see, youve got your megadeathium, your ledzeppimite, then theres anvilium, sabbathide ” As he went through this list, Özzÿs voice seemed to be getting higher, raspier, and softer.
”
Another scene that I really enjoyed ended with this:
“And uhremind me what happened with that one” I asked, Holy shit!
“Some idiot gave them an Arabic copy of the new Glenn Beck book, and they werent even five chapters into it before they all defected and joined the Tea Party movement!” The effort of shrieking this left Özzÿ gasping, and brought his pacing to a halt.
“Whoa,” Manda murmured after a long, stunned pause, “There goes my entire worldview, ””
I had a blast reading this book and it so much reminded me of those golden XFiles episodes that used humor as the springboard to the story.
Jose Chungs From Outer Space is the perfect example of what I am talking about,
If you enjoy extremely witty and funny light hearted science fiction that is also heavy in its politics similar to that of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, then this book is perfect for you.
Highly recommend!!
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