Zero Day Code

End of Days, Book 1

By: John Birmingham

Narrated by: Rupert Degas

Every modern city has one week’s worth of food to feed itself. Then it will collapse.

Cut off the resources to New York, Sydney, or even a mid-size metropolis, and millions will soon starve. In Zero Day Code we see those immense and open, hyper-complex, networked supercities of the new millennium die. And in the last moments we see their vengeance take form as all the best and worst traits of humanity bubble to the surface.

Zero Day Code is set in a realistic near future with dwindling global food supplies under increasing pressure from worsening droughts, floods and extreme weather events. Written by prolific Australian writer John Birmingham, the thriller follows a handful of survivors from the first day of society’s descent into violent, uncertain futures.

James, a consultant to the US National Security Council, is the first to suspect that the worldwide emergence of a crippling computer virus is actually a cover for something else - a devastating cyber-attack by China on the food distribution system of the United States. The attack is a bid for the Middle Kingdom to distract America as it seizes the food bowl of South East Asia and feeds its starving population. But Beijing has miscalculated.

Follow the missions of an embittered activist chasing salvation, a single mum rescuing her child from a frantic San Francisco and an army veteran who has long retreated from society, as the world they knew crumbles around them.

Please note: this audiobook contains mature content and listener discretion is advised.

©2019 Audible Australia Pty Ltd. (P)2019 Audible Australia Pty Ltd.

As another reader put it ...

A tool (no pun) for this alt right author to unleash his racist vitriol disguised as literary license . They’ve come out of the wood work in the last 4 years in droves . Apparently their lust for ignorance defeats any decent reading taste .

Spooky realistic apocalypse novel

I'm a fan of end of the world fiction and this plays as something that could happen tomorrow. I stayed up late and woke later dreaming about it. Government, if you're watching, this is what you should be guarding against, we as the human race is moving towards a society that is dependent on cyberspace and what happens when that is used to attack us? This novel is a logical look at what happens and it does it well, I will be thinking about it for years to come.

Good elements, great narration, cartoonish characters

Some aspects are provocative and unsettling in their plausibility. The setting before COVID 19 has many relevant elements derived from real events like banking runs, cyber attacks and national disasters. Decent job highlighting hoarding and supply chain vulnerabilities.

But many of the characters are one-dimensional and cartoonish. Woke elements feel forced and are unnecessary, distracting from the story.

Great characters

I really this this book is better than some by more celebrated authors. The character development is good and believable.

Compilation of short character stories

I am over 3 hours into this first book, and the author is STILL introducing characters and telling their stories, one chapter at a time. We are at 12, 13 characters now?
Can we get on with the story?
Or is this it? Just slices of life in as many people as the author can squeeze into 8 hours. At this rate, I will know a bit about 50 characters, and that is just Book 1.
Come on, dude. I can write a million vignettes. I want to hear a STORY.