Rating: 
Summary: Better than Descent!
Review: When I read Jeff Long's first book The Descent, I was impressed all the way until the end. Disappointed with the ending I decided to give him another shot and eagerly awaited Year Zero. Again, Long grips you through a tantalizing story involving strong characters who come together throughout the story. The concept (plague destorys the world) is nothing new, but the religous side story and along with the main characters lives gives Year Zero a refreshing look. I couldn't put the book down even though the story took awhile to get moving. I was spellbound. The ending was much better than The Descent and appear to be better thought out. However, my biggest disappointment with Year Zero is that Jeff Long apparently forget about the Jesus Clone and the religious aspect he had embedded through the book. I began to wonder what the real point was and if somehow I was missing a few pages. I think he could have explored that option a little more and should have definately incorporated an ending to this side story. Its kinda of like watching a movie in which an important character gets caught in a life/death struggle and the move to the next scene leaving you in suspence. Problem is they forget to return to let you know what happened. Jeff Long provides a vidid detailed description of a world suffering the doomsday plague and the characters are very believable. I would recommend this book, but if your looking into a great story about Jesus coming back and what this could entail, you will be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Another superb saga!
Review: Jeff Long has a Homeric way with a story--immense & strange realities; relationships cast with spectacular masks; tantalizing connections. The world as we know it is disintegrating at an alarming rate--not the earth--us! A billionaire opens a religious relic & lets loose an invisible virus which transmogrifies everyone into--ah, you've gotta read it to believe it! One solitary man, an archeaologist who has lost his daughter, his honor & his way, travels the world searching, & winds up in an enclave in the American Southwest where he meets a prodigy of human engineering & a society of extra-ordinary human beings. Fascinating creations of communities & cultural clashes between the "haves & the have-nots," masters & slaves, prodigies & veterans. I like both the unique stories Jeff Long tells & how he writes them. Never trite, never easy, always absorbing! Highly recommended ...
Rating: 
Summary: Totally dissappointing
Review: This is an object lesson in how to ruin a fantastic concept. When I read the story from the cover, I was salivating at the prospect of reading this book. Alas, too late I discovered my mistake. The author continues in the same vein as his previous best seller "The Descent", which, imho, has got lot of flaws even tho the reviews were good. Still it was far more readable than this one. The author starts of with many storyline threads in the novel, but never completes any of them. And he has a tendency to ignore the explanations to integral things in the book. It was the case with the reason behind the genetic mutations in "Descent", so is the case with the actual cause of the plague and the mystery of the clone claiming to be christ in this one. I guess he thinks readers are capable of making up their own theories. And he leaves the novel with a dissappointing end, wherein people sacrifice themselves for no reason at all. And I agree with a previous reviewer, listening to a two part name "Nathan Lee" thruout the book is irritating to put it diplomatically. All in all a totally dissappointing experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Elated, then disappointed
Review: Until the end, this was the best book I had ever read. There was so much promise, but so much left hanging at the end. It is OK to leave some things unanswered, but I felt cheated and disappointed with the end of this book, as if it needed another hundred or so pages to wrap everything up. That said, it is still worth reading, but expect to be left hanging like at the end of a Steven King movie. I recommend "Conquest of Paradise: an end-times nano-thriller" as an alternative. It was a far superior novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A lot of sound and fury signifying nothing
Review: i found myself fairly engrossed in this book, but by the time I finished it, I felt empty. The plot is great, but then, the author isn't exactly making that up on his own given the fact that it comes from the Bible. I picked this book up hoping for something as engaging as Brian Caldwell's We All Fall Down, but this doesn't even come close to that standard. It's better then Left Behind in that the writing is quite good, but the author just doesn't seem like he has anything to say, no point to make, and that was a big disapointment.
Rating:
Summary: Starts really fast paced and intriguing, then fizzles out
Review: I really expected much more from Jeff Long, after he wrote the terrifying and engaging novel The Descent. Year Zero starts out with all of Mr. Long's talents on display, weaving his characters into a complex and horrific dilemma. A new virus emerges from opening an ancient artifact from the year and location of Christ's crucifixion, that leaves no survivors and has eerie effects on those who are exposed. We follow the paths of Miranda, an extremely gifted young girl who creates experiments with her genius but cold father; and Nathan Lee, an explorer who was lured into the illegal side of archeology by his sociopath brother in law, Ochs. They discover a tremendous find, and Ochs betrays Nathan by pushing him to his death from a mountain top. Nathan manages to survive by thinking of his young daughter Grace, and make his way down the mountain, only to be imprisoned for the murder of their mountain guide. As the virus tears through continent after continent, Nathan Lee escapes and we follow his frightening journey back to America, where he searches for and finds the community of Los Alamos where he hopes against hope that his daughter is safely hidden. Los Alamos is the last "clean" area, where scientists work against the clock and against each other, looking for the evasive cure for the dying world.
Unfortunately, this is where the novel pretty much just stops. Nothing seems to happen, and Mr. Long lost me on where his plot was heading to, leading to an unsatisfactory ending with too many threads severed with no answers. Nothing was ever solved with the clone made from the Year Zero find, hinted at being Christ himself. Nathan solved nothing and Miranda solved nothing, and from the point he arrived at Los Alamos the book quite frankly just fizzled out.
Don't give up on Jeff Long, there is TALENT with this creative writer. Pick up The Descent instead, and keep waiting as I do for his next novel.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I recently finished the school semester and I was looking for a good 'fun' book. Unfortunatly the first book I read was no good. Then I picked up 'Year Zero' and I couldn't put it down. I have always liked apocoliptic fiction and this is one of the best. I have found a new favorite author!
Rating:
Summary: Overly generous 2 stars
Review: Maybe I expected too much of this book. The blurb on the back tells you that cloning of Jesus Christ is part of the book. But is it? We are never fully allowed to know. As far as the cloning itself, too unreal, too contrived to establish a plot point. The main character in the book seems to be on a quest, I won't say what for in case you actually decide to buy this nonsense. But by the end of the quest I found that I was just relieved it was over. As far as the plague, all I can say is Stephen King did it better in the book "The Stand", and it was more believable. The book builds and builds and then just dissappoints at the end. A total waste of time. Characters are one-dimensional at best, and when the author tries to flesh them out, I found myself hoping they would get killed off since they were so boring to read about. This book could've been one of the great ones, instead Mr. Long opted for the easy way out of any plot points, and the entire book just comes across as dismal. Even Stephen King, who couldn't write a happy ending if his life depended on it, managed a more upbeat ending in "The Stand" than Mr. Long even attempted in this book. Blather, and not well done blather at that. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: No Cigar, No Respect
Review: Mr. Long's novel hooks the reader with several intriguing story lines, most of which lead nowhere. My main problem though, is that while I am not a practising Christian, I find the use of the deeply-held religious sentiment of millions of people in a work of entertainment to be offensive. The author's characters casually toss off any possibility of religious truth. Like the 'DARWIN' fish which swims on bumpers, Mr. Long has used the symbols of belief to belittle the faithful.
Rating:
Summary: More than meets the eye! Promising writer!
Review: I bought this book for a vacation read, as it promised to be a fun, quick read. The premise behind the book is ingenious--an ancient plague is unleashed and scientists believe the clue to the cure lies in cloning people who were alive 2000 years ago during the time of the original plague. A clever idea, but this book turned out to be much more than a simple disaster tale. Underlaying the simple plot is an appreciation for beauty and a sense of wonder that adds immensely to the depth and strength of the book. The images of a decimated world are strange and beautiful. And the descriptions of the high Himalayas are stunning. Even the depiction of the plague victims embues them with a strange dignity and beauty. However, despite the interesting premise of the novel, I would say it spends less time on science than on the mysteries of human relationships and their power. If you look too closely at the science behind the novel, you may not care for this book. (Humans cloned from crucifixion fragments from Golgotha retain their memory!? Huh?) My advice is to suspend critical thought and enjoy the considerable pleasures of this book by accepting it for what it is--a heart-felt look at why we love and how we live with honor. I found this book entirely captivating, and several weeks after reading it I'm still pondering it. I will be looking for other books by this author!
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