Year Zero

April 22, 2002
The sum of this complex tale is more than its parts of medical thriller, archeological fiction, action/adventure and doomsday scenario, as Long (The Descent) thrills with an intricate puzzle. A Greek collector of religious relics searching for artifacts from Christ's crucifixion sends samples of a powder dated to Year Zero to three foreign labs, thereby unwittingly unleashing a plague organism that races through the world's populations. Young archeologist Nathan Lee survives a murderous attack by his crooked professor, David Ochs, but lands in a Tibetan jail as the plague spreads. When the guards open the prison, Nathan makes his way through abandoned territories to Siberia and across to Alaska just ahead of the plague, heading for his daughter and divorced wife in D.C. He finds them gone and is mistaken by his old employer, the Smithsonian, as the messenger expected to take Year Zero bones from a Golgotha dig to the now fortified Los Alamos labs, where scientists are cloning humans who were crucified in the same time as Christ in hopes of finding an antibody from those who had natural resistance. Parlaying the bones for a spot in the restricted compound, Nathan is put in charge of the Golgotha clones by genius young scientist Miranda Abbot. She and Nathan become lovers and the nemeses of a mad scientist, who, along with Ochs, does fiendish things to clones and plague victims while disrupting the researchers. Long mounts one nearly impossible escape scene after another and doesn't miss a step as he builds a no-win scenario, then pulls it out. The shifting terrain is vibrantly portrayed, the religious fallout is deftly handled and the characters engage completely as they face a gruesome end to civilization in this dashing, exciting thriller.

April 15, 2002
In his follow-up to The Descent, Long once again combines adventure, horror, religion, and philosophy in a tale that can be, at times, absorbing reading. Nathan Lee Swift is a young anthropologist who falls prey to Professor Ochs, a grave-robber in the worst sense of the word. Miranda Abbott is a scientific wunderkind who has managed to create a way to clone humans. When a virulent plague dating from 00 C.E. (the titular year zero) is released and sweeps across most of the world, leaving billions dead, it is up to Miranda, Nathan Lee, and her scientist colleagues to find a cure. In order to best do that, they make a desperate bid to find antibodies by cloning humans from the first century who may have survived the plague. Those who enjoyed The Descent will find Year Zero equally compelling, though the ending seems a bit rushed. Recommended for all suspense collections. Alicia Graybill, Fairbury P.L., NE

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2002
Long exploded onto the fantasy-adventure scene in 1999 with " The Descent," an original, audacious, and hugely entertaining novel about an underground civilization and a place called Hell. Wisely, Long has not attempted to top that over-the-top novel; he has, however, put together a story that equals it for freshness and ambition. An ancient plague has been unleashed upon the modern world, a plague that has no cure. There is only one hope for humanity: clone human beings who survived a similar plague millennia ago--human beings from the year zero, from the time when Jesus lived. (Luckily, a recent archaeological expedition has unearthed plenty of bones from the year zero.) In the quest for the cure to the plague, will scientists clone the son of God himself? Adventure novels don't get much gutsier than this, and it is only Long's skill as a storyteller that keeps the tale from becoming ludicrous. He makes way-out-in-left-field plotlines seem plausible, and he makes the fantastic seem real. Fans of " The Descent "(or other bigger-than-life thrillers such as Allan Folsom's " Day after Tomorrow") will no doubt flock to this one; with aggressive marketing and word of mouth, it could--and should--go through the roof.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)