Readers gripped by The Hatching and Skitter, the previous titles in Ezekiel Boone’s trilogy of novels in which humanity is taken to the edge of extinction by swarms of ferocious, scuttling spiders – now luridly dubbed ‘Hell Spiders’ – might have been expecting a gloves-off fast-paced gorefest for Zero Day, the series’ final entry. The first two novels, after all, detailed the coming of the spiders, their first waves of carnage and the helplessness of the scientific community and, particularly, the American Government (led by President Stephanie Pilgrim) to do anything to put a stop to the worldwide rampage of this new breed of aggressive arachnids. At the end of Skitter President Steph had initiated ‘the Spanish Protocol’, carpet-bombing numerous major American cities with nukes in an attempt to somehow prevent the spiders from continuing their devastating assault across the country. Now then, for the thrilling, all-action finale, man against monster in a series of explosive set pieces in which the human race fights up close and personal for its very survival against blood-crazed, flesh-eating creatures spewed from the hidden depths of the planet. Or maybe not…
It’s very much ‘business as usual’ for Boone in Zero Day with many of the criticisms of the first two novels unaddressed or ignored in a book which ambles and dawdles when it should be racing. There’s precious little sign of the spiders themselves for at least half the book and we’re treated, again, to endless scenes of the series’ bloated cast of core characters standing around discussing the situation and arguing with one another whilst subsidiary characters get short shrift in subplots which are wrapped up far too quickly or else (the family unit holed up in an island off the Scottish coast who are never involved in the main storyline and are never in any danger whatsoever) go absolutely nowhere and offer nothing to the driving narrative. Things do perk up as the novel progresses, though, as President Steph is faced with a military coup led by her own Joint Chief of Staff and a hastily-cannibalised weapon which locates the spider-queens leads a group of soldiers and scientists into a couple of flesh-crawling close encounters in an abandoned casino in Atlantic City and the Museum of Natural History in New York.
Boone clearly adores his sprawling cast of characters and enjoys the relationships he’s built up amongst them and despite its occasional lack of urgency – you’ll probably be tempted to mutter ‘Just get on with it’ from time to time – Zero Day is an enjoyable no-nonsense read which frustratingly bogs itself down with too many unnecessary supporting players who contribute little to the story itself. Boone’s writing is spry and confident, though, so the book is never a chore to read and when it finally moves into first gear and charges towards the finishing line it generates the adrenalin rush thrills and genuine horror the series has always seemed reluctant to over-indulge in and more than justifies the time previously spent wading through pages of dialogue and largely superfluous background character detail. Zero Day is a slightly disappointing end to a series that had been building up a decent momentum in its first two entries but has never allowed off the leash to fulfil the potential of its urgent, apocalyptic premise. Spiders are still bastards though…
ZERO DAY / AUTHOR: EZEKIEL BOONE / PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
