ZERO SUM GAME
by S.L. Huang
Tor Books
October 2, 2018
From Goodreads:
Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight, and she’ll take any job for the right price.
As far as Cas knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower…until she discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Moebius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master.
Cas should run, like she usually does, but for once she’s involved. There’s only one problem…
She doesn’t know which of her thoughts are her own anymore.
The good people at Tor Books and NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of Zero Sum Game in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This book was cinematic, which is one of my favourite things to be able to say about a book. That’s when you don’t just see the scene unfolding in your head—with what would equal thousands of dollars in special effects—but after reading it, you desperately hope someone does make it into a movie without screwing it up!
As the synopsis says, Cas Russell is good at math. A bit of a understatement, but you probably guessed that. It basically gives her the ability to dodge bullets, because she can tell exactly where they’re going to hit based on the angle of the gun barrel. She can take you down from across the room by whipping her cell phone at you. And boy can she parallel park!
The plot is a little convoluted. Sometimes that’s good, but with this one I just wanted to move past it and see Cas do some more amazing feats. I didn’t really know the stakes of anything or what the end goal was. That always makes me feel a little lost. Sometimes that’s good. But it didn’t work in this case. But, It didn’t stop me from turning pages.
The characters, even the ones without super-powered math brains, were intriguing. Each one had depths and secrets, some of which I still have no clue about. Their personalities—or lack of—came off the page. You want to trust the ones you should be able to trust, but at the same time, you’re not sure if you can. Even Cas herself.
I would equate this book to a really great popcorn flick with an amazing cast. There’s no plot twists to make your head spin or life lessons that will make you a better person, but who cares? Another gun fight is about to go down!
I’ll wait for the movie! 😉