In Zero Day, the final book in Ezekiel Boone’s The Hatching trilogy, America is at war. . . with an ancient species of killer spiders.
Following the events of Skitter (2017), President Stephanie Pilgrim faces more tough decisions. Already, she’s signed off on The Spanish Protocol, agreeing to nuke multiple U.S. cities in an effort to destroy the savage spiders inhabiting them. So too did she order bridges and roads be destroyed, all aimed to keep the spiders from spreading. Overall, her actions have amounted to a massive failure — the spiders, while slowed, have not been stopped.
As the human race attempts to band together, knowing that their entire existence hinges on finding a way to defeat the doomsday spiders, two methods of attack begin to divide the survivors.
On one side, President Pilgrim has commissioned scientist Melanie Guyer–the professor who made the original discovery that the ancient species was in fact still alive–to find a way to kill the spiders once and for all. Her theory involves surgical strikes targeting the queen spiders, who she claims are working together. On the other side, a group led by Ben Broussard attempts a military coup, adamant that the way to end the creepy-crawlers is to use blunt-force trauma.
In typical human fashion, people can’t seem to get along even when they face a common enemy and the threat of extinction, giving the spiders a tactical advantage. Zero Day is coming, and there can only be one survivor. . .
While the premise of a spider apocalypse seems on the surface to be downright silly, Boone’s books are anything but. The combination of sarcasm, over-the-top scenarios, and an honest look at the dysfunction human beings have been prone to since the beginning of time, create a realistic universe for killer spiders to threaten.
The magic of Boone’s writing is that he nails the small technical details about the military, firearms, and even nuclear weapons, but without taking himself too seriously. One minute he’s slipping in scientific facts, shining a light on politics and human relationships, and talking about the advantages of being short when onboard a ship. . . and the next he’s making Breaking Bad references and trading in the scientific name “swarm X spiders” for the much cooler “Hell Spiders.” At the end of the day, Boone’s attention to detail makes things feel real, thus making it easier to overlook the implausible aspects of the story. . . like huge, organized, flesh-eating spiders taking over the world.
Imagine a James Rollins-like scenario, but instead of Sigma Force (a team of world-class scientists who also have combat experience) standing by to save the day, the fate of humanity lies in the hands of a tired professor, an inexperienced president, pissed-off military commandos, and a crazy survivalist armed with a custom-built weapon designed to obliterate spiders.
If nothing else, this book is a whole lot of fun to read, and far more exciting than some readers will be willing to admit. Oh, and not for nothing, but the cover for Zero Day is absolutely, positively sick. . . in a good way!
It’s an epic, winner-takes-all, mano a mano showdown between humans and killer Hell Spiders in Zero Day, the explosive finale to Ezekiel Boone’s spider-iffic trilogy.
Book Details
Author: Ezekiel Boone
Series: The Hatching #3
Pages: 336 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 1501125109
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Release Date: February 27, 2018
Book Spy Rating: 7.0/10
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.