Book Review: Zero Day Ghost - Scott Olson

 

Original Review (11 AUG): “Zero Day Ghost” is a debut novel by Scott Olson. Mr. Olson worked on Amazon’s Alexa and knows a bit about AI and tech buzzwords. I must admit that the idea of this book intrigued me. Overall, I think the bones of a great story are there, but there’s a lot of intrigue, techno speak that I didn’t always understand, and the plot had a few too many twists for my taste. There are some basic flaws that need an editor to tighten up. First - a character is introduced suddenly, like the reader is supposed to know who that person is already. I ended up doing a search in the book to see if I missed a previous reference - nope, just an awkward character introduction. In another scene, the hero notes she doesn’t have her phone, but manages to find a house - after midnight - that’s at least half an hour away from the train station. Had she visited the house before and remembered how to get there? Did she consult a map back at home and remember the rough outline? So many questions that actually took me out of the story! Time jumps abound, which I found a bit jarring to the flow of the story too. Once the main character ends up in Hong Kong, things happen very quickly - at times too quickly, though it did all make sense for a fast-paced action story. For a first time author, again, the bones are here for a really good story, but I wish there’d been a bit more explanation of the technological parts and a bit tighter general storyline. Overall, 3.5 stars, rounded up.

Edited Review (1 SEP): Before it's official publication, I received an email from the Publisher that the author had made modifications based upon feedback from reviewers. I redownloaded the book and glanced through it - a number of the things I noted in my original review had been changed, so I thank both the Publisher and Mr. Olson for those changes. The plot still had a bit too many twists for my taste, but characters are introduced more smoothly. I still believe that Mr. Olson dislikes a certain Silicon Valley town, but we can quibble about that at another time. Is the technical information more explained - yes. I still think the bones of the story are good. I will stick with my 4 star rating - though, again, it was a tighter read with fewer things that took me out of the story.