Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but...
Review: I've always been a huge fan of Mr. Follett's work but was a little disappointed with the last two releases. After the first good reviews of his latest effort I eagerly awaited the delivery of the novel and immediately started reading.The story is good and exciting, but the book could have been so much better if Ken Follett had just developed the characters a little deeper. The british edition clocks in at just 324 pages, at twice that amount "Code to Zero" could have been brilliant. Just imagine the lead character waking up without any memory of who he is - solving not only his own mystery but working out his past love life, saving the American space program and bringing the bad guys to justice - all in 300 pages (net). I would have loved a little more of this basically good story for my money. Ken Follett knows how to keep readers hooked beyond a few pages, as he's proven with blockbusters like "Pillars of the Earth" or "Night Over Water" - why not try again?
Rating: 
Summary: Great espionage thriller
Review: In 1958, he awakens in the public toilet Of DC's Union Station. In the mirror he looks at the reflection of a bum. Still, the image means nothing to him, as he has no idea who he is. A companion Pete informs him he is Luke, a wino and that they shared a bottle last night. However, in spite of his buddy's insistence, being a derelict seems wrong to Luke and when he has no psychological need to find alcohol he concludes that Pete is a liar. Luke begins to search for his lost identity and the someone who went to the trouble of setting up the tramp scenario. As he uncovers more and more of the truth, Luke realizes that he is somehow involved in the American space race to match the Russian successful launch of Sputnik. How and what his role was eludes Luke who remains unaware of the master plan to abort the space program. Ken Follett returns to his most comfortable milieu, the heated period of the Cold War with a fabulous, fast-paced thriller. The story line moves forward quickly as readers obtain a look back to an era that seems so much like ancient history though it is only four decades ago. Though a bit formulaic, the plot keeps the attention of the audience due to Luke's everyman fighting impossible odds a la Grant on Rushmore. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A page turner of the fist caliber
Review: Loved this book, it kept me up till 1 am, I HAD to finnish it. The book is suspenseful, and probable. I could not guess who the villans were, and that always impresses me and makes the reading more fun. The female characters are great. I did have to snicker at the sex scenes, I just couldn't picture a woman saying those things, especially about an outfit she had sewn herself, but I suppose it is the fantasy of the male author. Don't wait for the movie, movies are rarely as good as the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Vintage Follett
Review: Ken Follett makes a return to the Cold War in this tightly-paced thriller. Set over less than 48 hours in 1958, it follows the story of a man with no memory. Waking up in a train-station toilet, Follett's hero has no idea who is is or why he's there. Was it a drinking binge, or are there more sinister forces at work? Naturally, it's the latter. In this case sinister equates to CIA, where a rogue Agent has targetted our man for removal. Needing to establish his identity, and find out why he's important enough to have that identity rubbed out, Follett's hero follows an ingenious series of logical steps. Discovering that he's named Luke is the easy part, discovering why he's in all this trouble will take the brains of a rocket scientist. Which means it's fortunate that he is one. But who is trying to remove him from the US's fledgling space program? How does it tie in to his days at Harvard? And why is a government agent involved? Follett's plot has more precision than a NASA engine, despite being at times a little politically simple. As usual we're treated to flashes of humour, sex, and character insight, though never enough to slow the inexorable pace of Luke's race against time to find himself and save the space program. That pace is what we read Follett for, and in this neat and clever thriller, he delivers in spades.
Rating: 
Summary: Eye of the Noodle
Review: Readers hoping for a story comparable to Follett's "Eye of the Needle" will be sadly disappointed by this limp effort. We have the standard impeccably upright and ultra-handsome hero, standard establishment villain (guess which one is named "Luke" and which "Anthony"), standard gorgeous women good and bad, standard sex scenes (so important to an actioner), standard totally implausible plot with unlikely coincidences, etc. To create a sense of portent or urgency the author resorts to the silly practice of interjecting "missile facts" every few pages. A frequent plot cop-out is that whenever the bad guy (a "trained agent") gets the drop on a good guy, the latter pushes him or trips him or punches him or something to upset the applecart. This happens so predictably that by the final, even less credible scene you expect it.
The only good thing I can say about this book is that it is probably - though not certainly - better than I could write. That's a miserably low standard for an author of Follett's talent. Don't waste your time on it.
Rating:
Summary: This book is NOT a Zero
Review: I've read several Ken Follett books and he is in top form with Code to Zero. It's written very well with developed characters and an intricate plot with some surprising twists. You get a real sense of the 1950's and the space race during that time. The repeated snippets during the story of counting down the rocket on the pad with all the technical details really added to the book's depth and created tension and suspense. I'd rank this as one of Mr. Follett's best books. A definite must read.
Rating:
Summary: fast and trite
Review: Follet knows his history, which always makes reading his stuff both fun and educational. In this story we're taken back to the McCarthy era and dropped in the world of communist spies and the race to control space. It opens with our hero Luke waking up in a train station bathroom with his memory wiped. He must discover who he is and why he has amnesia. Plot twists ensue. Regrettably, the story is fairly easy to decipher from page one. But thankfully the characters are pretty interesting, even if they are over the top sometimes. AS always, his women are very strong independant characters, which is something I find refreshing. Follet's writing is usually a bit better than than this, and he seems more comfortable when he is in his WWII mode. (Actually, some of the story flashes back to WWII). That this occurs during the 50's may have been one reason the environments and action seem dull. I read this in a couple of days, breaking for work and what not, but I could easily have finished it in a weekend, and I'm a slow reader. The only thing that really bothered me was that it took place over two days. Seemed kind of implausible to me. But it was a fun read overall.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't stop reading!
Review: This book was so interesting trying to figure out who Luke was and what happened to turn his friends against him. So much at stake. I really cared about the characters. It kept going back to the fifties when everyone was young, so I couldn't wait to find out what had happened in the past and what was at stake in the future. And I didn't expect such a great romance. This book had everything!
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: This is definately a great suspense thriller written by a great writer. There can be no complaining about plot and character development, because both are handled very well by Mr. Follet in this one. From start to finish it delivers what it was written to deliver, suspense, action, and plenty of thrills.
Rating:
Summary: A good, captivating page turner
Review: Although I am a Ken Follet aficionado and continue to unabashedly wave his banner "Best adventure thriller writer alive today" this was not his best work, nor his second best work, but it is a good, captivating page turner none-the-less. The momentum builds in the first half but peters-out in the later half, like a roller coaster that almost reaches the pinnacle, but lacks the umph and falls a few feet short of the critical hump. Thus, predictably, this story, like the roller coaster, slides backwards the last part of the novel. The last half is predictable and a bit unsatisfying. If you are a Ken Follett fan then you may find "Code to Zero" lacking the violence, intrigue and exotic passion (zero zing) that most of Follet's spy thrillers have had (Key to Rebecca - Eye of the Needle - Lie down with Lions). That said, though this was not a one night, "burn the midnight oil" read, it was a story that I wanted to finish in two nights. "Code to Zero" is worth the purchase. Recommended.
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