alyciajstewart's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this book! The characters had personality and made me care for them despite some fairly obvious flaws. The book really made me think about how we define thought. I'm excited to read the next two in the series, although I am disappointed I didn't know it was a series to begin with. I much prefer to read series all in order.
the_discworldian's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
crystalroses68's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
amdamsgard's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
distantplanet's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
jvilches's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
yuna's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Tightly paced (mostly), good action, intriguing characters. The pacing fell off a bit for me toward the end, where it kind of got in the story's own way being so good earlier that it then tried to pull the same trick twice and made the actual finale feel a bit anticlimactic.
Loved Checker and Rio, and I like how Tresting worked as a foil for Cas. As very much a not mathy person, I liked how the math was described here. She's got Sherlock vibes, only with numbers instead of hyper observation.
I wasn't as sold on how the Big Bad's telepathy worked, because it seemed contradictory in action than how it kept being described. More like mind reading + the power of suggestion, though the "rules" for the latter were stated as one thing but again, seemed different in practice.
I'd read the next one, but I'm not sure how much patience I'll have for Cas's selective amnesia re: her backstory. It works in this book, but I'd hope for answers or enough of an answer to move forward rather than rehash old ground for an entire book.
Loved Checker and Rio, and I like how Tresting worked as a foil for Cas. As very much a not mathy person, I liked how the math was described here. She's got Sherlock vibes, only with numbers instead of hyper observation.
I wasn't as sold on how the Big Bad's telepathy worked, because it seemed contradictory in action than how it kept being described. More like mind reading + the power of suggestion, though the "rules" for the latter were stated as one thing but again, seemed different in practice.
I'd read the next one, but I'm not sure how much patience I'll have for Cas's selective amnesia re: her backstory. It works in this book, but I'd hope for answers or enough of an answer to move forward rather than rehash old ground for an entire book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Medical content, Murder, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Child death and Alcohol
ginnikin's review against another edition
I bounced out of this in text, but the audio really worked for me. I'm hooked enough to try the next book.
kblincoln's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not a huge thriller reader, but wow, Zero Sum Game was action, guns, impossible leaps, motorcycle gang battles, stashes of weapons and supplies in various parts of LA, shadowy organizations, conspiracy, a scary psychopath who somehow ends up being a "good" guy, and a protagonist who uses math to overcome all odds.
Cas Russell sees vectors, angles and calculations of probability, and statistics wherever she goes. Thus, if she's in an alley, she can throw a baseball at the wall and have it bounce off several times and hit a punk kid in the side of the head. She can calculate the exact angle of a bullet needed to get her out of a locked room with three armed bad guys.
She's very cool. And paranoid. She has one person in the whole world she can trust...Rio. Who just happens to be a brutal killer whose only check is a belief he is doing God's work. So when Rio gets her involved in rescuing a girl kidnapped by a drug cartel, Cas readily jumps in.
Only things aren't as simple as they seem. The girl acts stupidly naive, and her sister makes Cas feel odd. Things start blowing up, people start coming after Cas, and a PI who doesn't approve of Rio at all connects it all to a possibly conspiracy.
I read this in like two days. The action grips you, and then Cas's cool abilities and her relationship with the PI and Rio keep you going. Don't get me wrong, this is not a love triangle. Cas and Rio have some kind of bond that is frustratingly not explained through most of the book, and only hinted at near the end, but let's just say (don't want to spoil) that Rio's psychopathy and his unique reactions to Cas feature heavily in the plot of this book.
Once they identify one of the main bad guys, there were a couple of repetitive "let's entrap this person" that took just a bit of suspension of disbelief, but truthfully the nature of how Cas has to defend herself from this bad guy was so fascinating (and chilling) that I didn't care. Plus the action scenes, heavily laden with real-seeming gun knowledge.
And what is it about psychopaths that fascinate us so? Rio was so cool. And the hints about Rio's connection to Cas at the end of the book are irresistible. I need to know their history. Darn it, why isn't the next book out now?
Cas Russell sees vectors, angles and calculations of probability, and statistics wherever she goes. Thus, if she's in an alley, she can throw a baseball at the wall and have it bounce off several times and hit a punk kid in the side of the head. She can calculate the exact angle of a bullet needed to get her out of a locked room with three armed bad guys.
She's very cool. And paranoid. She has one person in the whole world she can trust...Rio. Who just happens to be a brutal killer whose only check is a belief he is doing God's work. So when Rio gets her involved in rescuing a girl kidnapped by a drug cartel, Cas readily jumps in.
Only things aren't as simple as they seem. The girl acts stupidly naive, and her sister makes Cas feel odd. Things start blowing up, people start coming after Cas, and a PI who doesn't approve of Rio at all connects it all to a possibly conspiracy.
I read this in like two days. The action grips you, and then Cas's cool abilities and her relationship with the PI and Rio keep you going. Don't get me wrong, this is not a love triangle. Cas and Rio have some kind of bond that is frustratingly not explained through most of the book, and only hinted at near the end, but let's just say (don't want to spoil) that Rio's psychopathy and his unique reactions to Cas feature heavily in the plot of this book.
Once they identify one of the main bad guys, there were a couple of repetitive "let's entrap this person" that took just a bit of suspension of disbelief, but truthfully the nature of how Cas has to defend herself from this bad guy was so fascinating (and chilling) that I didn't care. Plus the action scenes, heavily laden with real-seeming gun knowledge.
And what is it about psychopaths that fascinate us so? Rio was so cool. And the hints about Rio's connection to Cas at the end of the book are irresistible. I need to know their history. Darn it, why isn't the next book out now?