Rating: 
Summary: excellent read
Review: an excellent read. it seems to be a well thought out storyline that was an unique experience. not as good as his 'Descent' book -- but very few books are! overall, everyone i know that has read this book really enjoyed it. i can't wait for his next one.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: Entertaining and complex, I found this novel hard to put down. As you follow the adventures of Nathan Lee, an archeologist who survives an attempt on his life, a Tibetian jail, to find that the human race is headed for extinction from a deadly plague. All the while he is trying to reunite with his young daughter and starts his journey back to the States, where he meets Miranda a young scientist who is trying to find a cure for the plague that involves human cloning. Lot's of twist and turns that keep you guessing until the very end. A good book for all sorts of readers, because this is my first science fiction book, and i loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: The end of times
Review: A gargantuan earthquake has ripped apart the bowels of the Earth at some time in the near future. The areas hardest hit include the holy lands in Israel and Palestine. The quake has exposed numerous archaeologic relics which are now the prey of opportunistic grave robbers. Rich collectors have established a market in ancient body parts such as bone, hair, flesh and blood. A wealthy Greek collector on the island of Corfu has extricated a vial of blood from a crucifix dated to the first century. Upon opening the vial he unwittingly unleashes an apocalyptic viral plague which will go on to wipe out just about the entire population of the world.Nathan Lee Swift, an anthropologist and colleague of Professor David Ochs has been coerced by Ochs into grave robbing for profit. They plunder Golgotha, a Palestinian site of Roman crucifixion for bones and other human remains. Through Swift we see the annihilation of the human race as he travels from Nepal, where he has been unjustly incarcerated, to get back to his family in the U.S. Miranda Abbot, MENSA genius and daughter of Paul Abbot, the head of the National Academy of Sciences, is a brainy and accomplished 19 year old geneticist. All the top scientific minds in the U.S. have been sequestered at Los Alamos, New Mexico to find a cure or vaccine against the ravenous plague, which has already wiped out all of Asia and Africa. Miranda leads one of two factions of scientists in that quest. The other is lead by a brilliant genetic engineer named Cavendish, who is literally writing the book in the area of cloning. Using bones and other bodily parts unearthed at Golgotha, men who have been crucified in the first century at the time of the original plague are cloned. They are used as guinea pigs to try to find a cure. Among the clones, one who has been created from blood on a splinter of wood claims to be Eesho or Jesus. This creates turmoil amongst the scientific community and dying victims of the plague wo have congregated outside of the sealed city of Los Alamos. The dissolution of the world as we know is seen through the eyes of Nathan Lee and Miranda, who ultimately meet and fall in love as Swift finally makes his way to Los Alamos. Long takes us through this grim tale of the destruction of the human race, leaving us with hope that scientific knowledge and compassion will nurture a renaissance of mankind anew.
Rating: 
Summary: Jeff Long Zeros In And Flies Wide
Review: This is the first book by Jeff Long I have read. I found it fascinating in the beginning and even disturbing which is good for a writer. Jeff is obviously an accomplished writer, however, I feel he sort of let this one go a little wide and off target. What I mean is, in the beginning the book he was specific, but as it neared the middle and the end, he left many details hanging or totally lost them all together. For example, Elise just up and died and he never offered any explanation for it, and the time line bounced around all over the place. One minute he seemed to be in the present and the next he was in the future with no reference to a time line. You just sort had to keep up with him if you could. This story could have been a lot bigger than it is. Maybe some of it was edited out? I am not sure. I was able to gloss over parts instead of thoroughly reading them. Some of the text included could have been left out while other things could have been included. I feel Jeff is a very skilled writer, but being too wordy is sometimes a disadvantage. Another thing I found way off base was some of the science. For example, when creating a clone, I don't think that all the memories of the original person will automaticaly develop in the clone. When you create a new body (clone) from a single blood cell, how is it possible that an entire lifetime of memories can be stored in that cell waiting to unfold in the new clone such as speech, love, mathematics, etc? It worked well for his story, but this went way outside of reality in my unprofessional opinion. He weaved it in nicely though by writing up a part where such memories were 'awakened' in the clone. Also, Jeff's treatment of his 'Jesus" character was not up to par. I agree that Jesus was just a human misrepresented by Roman orthodoxy, but the impact of his Jesus clone was not played up enough, nor was it sensational enough. Since the story was not about Jesus, Jeff added it in, but really let it fall flat in my opinion. Nathan Lee was more important than his Jesus character, and to me, the entire end of the book just fell flat. In fact, I found no end to the book or story, just an end to the words. Does this mean there will be sequel? I hope so[....]The first half of the book was excellent despite each chapter being a separate story jumping around in a different part of the world. [....]All in all, I felt that a better job could easily have been accomplished. I score the book about average. [...]
Rating:
Summary: NO HOPE!
Review: I was fascinated by the premise of this book - cloning people from 2,000 years ago to find a cure for a plague. Up to a point, Long wove a fascinating tale of people who had both the best and the worst brought out in them by adversity - of the politics and ethics of science - and of the parallel politics and ethics of religion. But about two thirds of the way through the book, it seems he totally dropped the promised premise. In the end, the Year Zero clones meant nothing. What's more, the people cloned from Year Zero were condemned to die a second time, not by crucifixion, but by the plague they were brought back to combat. I hated the ending - I had invested some emotion in the main characters, but in the end it was obvious - no hope - for them, or mankind.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I came to this book ready to enjoy it thoroughly, as I had the author's previous book "The Descent." Unfortunately, it simply wasn't possible. The flaws of "The Descent" were magnified and intensified in this book. The author goes too many directions, introduces too many ideas, and ends up resolving nothing. None of the interesting medicine ended up having anything to do with the resolution. The Clones served little to no purpose. We don't know what really started the plague to begin with. Wisps and hints of mysteries all of which lead nowhere. The ending was not inevitable, nor was it even really hinted at, in addition, it took far too long to get there because of plot diversions and dead ends. Long is a talented and interesting writer when he hits his stride; however, this book is sadly lacking some of the interesting points of "The Descent." It needs serious editing and nearly a complete reworking to tighten it up and make sense of the strange events that occur within it. One is simply left wondering at the end what exactly his point in writing this was because it does not work as metaphor, satire, criticism, story, or plot. It gets two stars because, despite all of its shortcomings, the author composes some really magnificent sentences and he can make you see the things he is describing. I hope the next novel is better.
Rating: 
Summary: "The Stand" it ain't!
Review: About halfway through "Year Zero" I realized I had made a mistake. But after reaching that far, I
persevered and completed this novel. In the acknowledgements, the author admitted that he
started writing one story, but then changed directions. Obviously he should have considered
re-writing the completed passages. "Year Zero" is a terrible example of dead end writing. There
are at least three main story lines, and at least a half dozen sub-plots. The subplots receive
adequate development within the novel, but then the writer apparently gets bored and quickly,
literally in a paragraph or two, unsatisfactorily disposes of them. Two of the main two story lines
are not dealt with in a manner that would be considered satisfactory to the casual reader. Relating to character development, the symptoms of the plague may have been an unintended
metaphor for the quality of the writing. The victims experienced a symptom where their skin
became transparent; a quality shared by the lack of depth of the characterizations. This book will be compared to Stephen King's "The Stand", arguably King's best. It doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same review. All in all, a big waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: A Bit Disappointed
Review: After reading The Descent, I was avid to read Year Zero. The premise of the search/cloning of Jesus was so intriguing! Alas, the book lost the premise and turned into a scientific journey with less than interesting characters, underdeveloped plots, and an ending that left me with a smirk on my face and the thought that I was seriously misled.
The book does have many good moments...it's basically a good read but if you're interested in relics and the religious conotations, you won't get it here.
I'll give his next book my attention, but if it fails, I'll know he was a one hit wonder.
Rating:
Summary: Jeff Long targets another hit!!
Review: YEAR ZERO repeats Jeff Longs's ability to seduce you with his descriptive prose that leaps to life with realism. In this age of scientific advances in cloning plus the frightening discovery of newly formed incurabe diseases, Jeff Long creates a future that is all too possible and completely believable. If you are looking for quality fiction based on in-depth research that will keep you turning pages into the night, YEAR ZERO is the book for you. Jeff Long does it again!! Marjorie Spitzel, RN MS
Rating:
Summary: YEAR ZERO HITS A HOMERUN!
Review: Jeff Long's newest novel is an apocalypse masterpiece, rivaling other post-apopcalypse-type blockbusters such as SWAN SONG,LUCIFERS HAMMER, THE STAND; just to name a few.
In my opinion, this is a rare jewel EVEN for those readers out there that dont even read this type of genre! Thats how well written this is. Poetry in motion. Adventure without tons of action is usually a turn-off for me, but Long's immense power of storytelling is just phenomenal and his characters so well written - its almost impossible to put down. His words convey vast images of both pure beauty as well as horror.
A must read for anyone who likes just a well-rounded,fun and exciting read.
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