"The Zero Game"

by Brad Meltzer


If you're like me the only reason you know the name Brad Meltzer is because he wrote the popular DC comic book "Identity Crisis". I've always been interested in his novels, but until recently just never went out of my way to pick one up. However, the synopsis of The Zero Game really piqued my interest, so I decided to pick it up.

The Zero Game is about two best friends who work in congress. One is a senator's top aide, the other works on the appropriations committee. Matthew, who works on the appropriations committee is feeling burnt out after nearly a decade on Capitol Hill. Two faced politicians, lies, and lobbyists have taken their toll on his enthusiasm for politics and he's thinking of getting out. That's when his best friend Harris lets him in on the "game". It's an ultra secret system of gambling. What's more, you never know who else is playing. Once invited into the game, you're only allowed to invite one person and you're never allowed to reveal who's above you. Therefore Matthew knows that Harris is in the game, but past that he has no clue who else is playing. The bets are put forth using inter office mail. The wagers are always small and harmless. However, when Matthew and Harris bet big on one of the wagers, someone ends up dead and it soon becomes apparent that there's more to the game than either of them could've imagined.

The first thing that occurred to me about this book was that it was all written in first person perspective. I'm not sure if Brad Meltzer always writes his novels this way, but I personally am not a big fan of this style of writing. It works well enough sometimes and I can handle it in short stories, but the idea of reading an entire novel from the first person perspective wasn't too appealing to me. I still got through it, but it definitely would've been much more enjoyable to me had it been written in the traditional third person perspective. Add to that it jumps the perspective around a bit and you run into one of the main problems. Secondary characters that seem interesting lose all of their charm once we get inside their heads and read the chapters from their perspective. They all seem to think and act the same, which really hurts the book in my opinion.

The first half of this book is captivating. The look at Capitol Hill and the introduction to the game is a lot of fun. I found myself greatly enjoying it. Also, the character whose perspective we read from for the early half of the book is really enjoyable. Around the middle is where I really felt my enthusiasm for this book fading. We switch to a new main character for much of the last half of the book as the story fades from political thriller to just plain thriller. The book's big charm for me was in the first character's perspective and the great look at the game and the inner workings of Capitol Hill. Once it switched over the last half of the book felt like a generic thriller to me.

The point of any review is perhaps to give you a suggestion on whether or not you should buy the product. In this case, I would say yes. If you can find this in paperback somewhere I think it's worth reading. It's a good story and I did enjoy it. Brad Meltzer is obviously a talented writer and I suspect that his other books are a lot better than this one. The Zero Game started out extremely strong and finished pretty good. If you're looking for a thriller/conspiracy style novel I think you'll really enjoy this book.

 

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