Zeroes #2: Swarm by Scott Westerfeld (2016) Book Review

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. Today I'm here to talk about the second book in the Zeroes Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti. Finally, after six years, I finally got the chance to read the second book in the series. Like with the last book, there will be spoilers in this review because I can't talk about it without them, so if you're interested in reading this trilogy, then please do so before reading my review unless you don't care about spoilers. Let's get into it.

Swarm took the concept of Zeroes and turned it into a full on superhero story on the level of an X-Men or Teen Titans comic. Right down to the villain being someone else with powers, only he doesn't care about collateral damage the way Nate and the other Zeroes do. 

I'm going to start with the villain, Swarm, because that's basically my one really big problem with the book. Swarm is not a unique villain. He's been done in comics, novels, movies, and TV shows since teen superheroes became a thing. He's the Evil Green Ranger, the rogue Mutant, the freak of the week from Smallville, and Sylar from Heroes. The person who uses their powers for personal gain, because they're brain-washed, or for revenge on the people who wronged them. Like Magneto and Mystique for example. And the Zeroes can't reason with him. What does set him apart from any other superpowered villain in the history of superhero fiction is that he also messes up the powers of the other Zeroes, inverting them so that they turn in on the user. For example, Thibault's powers make him forget himself and everyone around him.

One of the things that I like about this book, which carries over from the previous one, is the characters. Nate and the rest of our main cast of Zeroes, since that's the overall term for the people who were born in the year 2000 and have powers, not just Nate's small group, all begin to realize they can turn their powers inside out, like Chizara realized in the first book when she started fixing things instead of just crashing them. 

My favourite part of this book is all the characters celebrating Christmas with their families before everything goes horribly wrong for them. And they're in pairs, with Kelsie and Chizara having a thing for each other, and of course Thibault and Riley having started dating at the end of the first book. Nate and Ethan are the only ones who simply spend Christmas with their own families instead of the family of their significant others. Because they're both single, though Ethan might have a chance with the girl he saved at the bank in the first book, though she's now investigating the weird, similar to Chloe in the early seasons of Smallville. Which makes her a pain in the butt for Nate and his crew, because she's focusing her investigation solely on them, due to her quick association with Ethan. But that just makes her more like Vicki Vale, Lois Lane, Susan Williams (Arrow), and Cassidy Cornell (Power Rangers Dino Thunder).

Also, this time around, Kelsie struggled with the possibility of her being like Swarm, because their powers are basically the same. On top of still trying to deal with her father's death in the previous book. Nate also deals with this in a way because he got bested by people whose powers work against his. Which isn't something he's all that used to. Riley, well, Riley has to deal with teenager stuff, as she and Thibault continue to work out the bugs in their relationship caused by his powers.

The cliffhanger ending for this book was insane. Thibault killed Swarm, Nate took the fall for it, because Thibault vanished, and the rest of the Zeroes are now on the run due to Nate being connected to the nightclub they set up as a place for them to train with their powers, and also served as Kelsie and Thibault's home, since Kelsie's dad died in the previous book, her mom's not around, and Thibault's powers makes his family forget he even exists.

This book was amazing. I am very glad that I bought the trilogy boxset because, like the original Star Wars Trilogy, the Zeroes Trilogy starts off as something very different with Zeroes, but then with Swarm it morphed into it's final form, similar to how The Empire Strikes Back (1980) changed the entire trajectory of the Star Wars Trilogy. If you haven't read this series, I definitely recommend picking it up and giving it a try, because it's pretty good. 

Alright my friends, that is going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of season 2 of Only Murders in the Building as the season finale drops tomorrow morning. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you later. Take care.