Daybreak Zero

Daybreak #2

by John Barnes

What began as a technothriller continues as high adventure
in the newly savage ruins of civilization.



In late 2024, Daybreak, a movement of post-apocalyptic
eco-saboteurs,  smashed modern
civilization to its knees. In the losing, hopeless struggle against Daybreak,
Heather O'Grainne played a major role. That story was told in Directive 51.

 

Now Heather's story continues in Daybreak Zero .  In the summer of 2025, she leads a tiny
organization of scientists, spies, scouts, entrepreneurs, engineers, dreamers,
and daredevils based in Pueblo, Colorado. Both of the almost-warring
governments of the United States have charged them with an all but impossible
find a way to put the world back together.



But Daybreak's
triumph has flung the world back centuries in technology, politics, and
culture.  Pro-Daybreak Tribals
openly celebrate ending the world as we know
it.  Army regiments have to fight
their way in and out of Pennsylvania.
The Earth's environment is saturated with plastic-devouring biotes and
electronics-corroding nanoswarm.  A leftover Daybreak device drops atom bombs from the moon on any outpost of the old civilization it can spot.

 

Confined to her base in Pueblo to give birth to her first
child, Heather recruits and monitors a coterie of tech wizards, tough guys, and modern-day frontier a handful
of heroes to patrol a continent. 

All the news is
Tribals have overrun Indiana and Illinois; the last working aircraft
carrier
sits helplessly out in the Indian Ocean, not daring to come closer to
land;  the crash of one
of the last working airplanes kills a vital industrialist; Tribals try
to force appeasement on the Provi government while the Temper government
faces a rebellion of religious fanatics; seventeen states are lost to
the
Tribals as California drifts into secession andhereditary monarchy, and
everywhere,  Provis and Tempers lurch toward civil war.

Heather's agents
have exceptional courage, initiative, skill, intelligence, and daring,
but can
they be enough?  For the sake of
everything from her newborn son to her dying nation,  can she forge them into a the weapon that can at last win
the world back from the overwhelming, malevolent force of Daybreak?  Her success or failure may change
everything for the next thousand years, beginning from Daybreak Zero .

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Thriller, Science Fiction Fantasy, Dystopia, Apocalyptic

432 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

John Barnes (born 1957) is an American science fiction author, whose stories often explore questions of individual moral responsibility within a larger social context. Social criticism is woven throughout his plots. The four novels in his Thousand Cultures series pose serious questions about the effects of globalization on isolated societies. Barnes holds a doctorate in theatre and for several years taught in Colorado, where he still lives.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bar...

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite some annoyances, I liked this one better than the first entry in the trilogy. 4 Stars. He kept me on the edge of my seat for the last half of the book. I found myself really caring and pulling for some characters and hating some others. Lord Karl did not get what he deserved! On to the third book when I can find a copy.

[Schnaucl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I read the more confused I am about what Daybreak actually is. To be fair, I think that's the point.

Generally speaking, I get annoyed by books where a character is obviously being manipulated by something but that very manipulation means they can't figure out they've been manipulated. If it's subtle and as the reader I don't figure it out that's fine. The problem is in cases like this where the first time Aaron dropped by I was 90% sure what was going on and the second time I was positive.

It's still not clear to me how people are manipulated. I get what Arnie was doing to Leslie and I suspect there was something in the rhythm of doctor/doctus etc. But as far as I can tell Allie and Reverend Peet were just having conversations. What I want to know is how they hooked them in during the very first conversation. Why didn't anyone protest the second Daybreak's agent first showed up? Are we supposed to believe that the ex-daybreakers were starting the indoctrination of Arnie when they were talking about Daybreak? Unwittingly, maybe. But that would suggest that Daybreak can't be studied because to study it at all opens you to indoctrination. And I'm not sure how the two person system works unless one person is outside and never comes into contact with the materials. Otherwise, don't you just have two people being indoctrinated at the same time who will reinforce each other's indoctrination?

But that doesn't explain Allie, unless we're supposed to assume that someone around her has been indoctrinating her before the tribes' envoy ever shows up. If that's the case, it needs to be shown, not inferred. Was she supposed to have started the process under Arnie when he first started to study Daybreak?

And why take such a different approach with Castro? Why threaten whether than try to convert? That makes no sense.

There was some suggestion that a really strong belief in something (anything) would make it harder to be indoctrinated so maybe they couldn't indoctrinate him. Except that there's also a suggestion that if you believe strongly in something Daybreak will just co-opt it. I think that's what supposedly happened to Peet.

I would buy Arnie's theory about Daybreak being a system artifact (which I think would be really interesting)except I could swear in the previous book there were people in space controlling the moon gun.

While I like politics a lot, I was happy that this book focused more on rebuilding and trying to deal with Daybreak than the politics of re-election. That's not to say I'm not interested in the upcoming match between Grayson and Phat.

I think this is actually the third series where (one of) the new capitol(s) of the US is somewhere in Washington State.

I was really sad to lose Arnie but I agree he couldn't be kept around.

I'm really looking forward to the next book.

[Kristin Lundgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sequel to Directive 51, and I think it was even better than the first. It built on the foundation of what happened in the first book, and the people that were the main characters, and delves into why and how it might have happened, adding some twists and turns in that area, and brought the two factions to the brink of war, with other influences and dangers creeping in, such as the castles, and the outsiders. Pueblo remained the center of action, and this one was scarier, a little torture, a little spookier, and a real study into how people might work, function, and use their strengths, ad to what ends some will go to get or continue in power, and others will withstand the pull, and stand by their principles, even if they have different results. It's grittier, larger, and I still want more. You don't ned zombies to make it a scary world. You just need a bunch of people who are ingrained and indoctrinated with a meme. This one is still like the first, full of details on governments, how they function, and on strategies, and how large scale problems may be solved, like the mysterious EMP pulses that attack whenever a strong radio signal is sent out. Who is ending them and from where? The characters are the strong part, real people, with real ideals, and real weak points. But yet is uplifting, in a Postman sort of way, with the idea that hope, or the belief that the world is working again, albeit differently is all that is needed to jump start regular people into doing things, and that from such small starts, come bigger results.

[Thomas Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in a series by John Barnes. The first book, Directive 51, was mostly horrible. The world Mr. Barnes creates is quite interesting. It is set in the future where a group called Daybreak has decided to take down the system by infecting the world with things that wipe out plastic, rubber, and nearly all electricity. They also have set off massive nuclear sized bombs around the world. America is reeling and most believe that Daybreak is over. That whatever was going to happen has happened, but when large groups of hostile tribal communities begin to form it starts to become apparent that Daybreak is not done with the world yet.

I was happy to move away from all the whining about who was the proper president of the US that happened in the first book. The Daybreak epidemic becomes far more interesting in this book.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Be careful reading this or you will surely be seduced into Daybreak.

[Alex Telander · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Barnes sets the stage in Directive 51 by ending the world as we know it, and bringing to life a new, altered one as the diminished population tries to restart civilization. But just when it seems like the right start to getting things back to some semblance of order, people soon find out that the terrifyingly brilliant movement known as “Daybreak” isn’t completely finished yet, plus when its comes right down to it, people overall are just selfish and greedy, especially when their lives are at stake.

Heather O’Grainne not only has a new world to contend with, but a newborn to also take up her time, nevertheless she’s going to keep doing her job and getting her viewpoint in no matter what; she was after all one of the very few people on the planet who knew about Daybreak without being a member of the movement. The nation is still very divided, primarily with two different populations on either side of the country, doing what they can do get by. Meanwhile Heather is challenged with a diverse team of scientists, engineers, spies, and anyone else she thinks she needs in the small town of Pueblo, Colorado to start putting the country back together again. As she begins putting together reconnaissance from across the country, the news isn’t good: growing groups that come to be known as “tribals” are amassing and they are relentless in their capturing of those different from them, engaging in torture to whatever means to find out what their prisoners know. And then there’s the mechanism of Daybreak that still seems to be in full swing and attacking them somehow; the question is whether this is planned or part of some automated system.

Overall it appears that Barnes has a pretty bleak view on humanity, and yet readers will certainly be able to identify actions and events in Daybreak Zero that have certainly reared their ugly heads throughout our own tumultuous history. Nevertheless, his analytical detail is fascinating in these different populations and groups and what they do to survive and improve their lives. At times the book drags and could’ve used some editing to speed it up and quicken developments, but Daybreak Zero is an interesting sequel that doesn’t answer all the questions by any means, setting up for the third book in the series.

Originally written on June 9, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

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[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. I like the small snippets and continually changing locales and characters. The main viewpoint is of decent people, the kind we'd like to have rebuilding our country in the face of such a disaster. You want everything to be okay and it looks like it would be, if only we'd trust the good guys. Which makes it all that much more surprising and shocking when things don't turn out the way we'd like them to, the way we think they're going to. Case in point: the ultimate fate of natcon Cam Nguyen-Peters, one of the primary voices of reason in the splinter republic of Georgia, one of two main competing centers to be the new capitol of the United States. Cam has his main antagonist, General Grayson, seemingly talked into a very reasonable solution to their mutual problems, which makes it all the more surprising when Grayson makes an unexpected choice that leaves everything dangling at novel's end. Hopefully there'll be another book in the Daybreak series to resolve things.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second installment of John Barnes's "Daybreak" series (begun with "Directive 51). Still want more, and am looking forward to what happens next.

What happens to civilization when a mysterious entity known as Daybreak destroys pretty much all technology requiring plastic or petroleum? All kinds of weird stuff.

The United States is divided into two separate provisional governments, both of which promise to fulfill their mission to restore the nation under the constitution. But with the country fractured, and threatened by new fiefdoms and "tribals," and with the insidious nature of Daybreak's mind control, this is much tougher than one might imagine.

Barnes continues with the main characters from the first installment, and introduces many new ones. There are many diverse plot lines, and the characters are never quite sure they can trust one another.

My only criticism may be that there are TOO MANY different plot lines, and I sometimes have trouble remembering which characters are which. But Barnes's Daybreak premise is entertaining and thought provoking.

[Jerome · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book in a series I started reading during my deployment last year. This book was a bit shorter, but equally as absorbing. I'd expected it to be the final book in the series, but the ending makes clear that there will be at least a third, and I'm happy for that. This is still one of the only science-fiction series I've ever enjoyed, and I enjoy it immensely.

My only real concern at the end of the first book was that there were some loose ends, but this book proved that there were none, those that I believed were loose were merely waiting for larger parts in this second book.

My only regret is that there was such a length of time between reading the first book and this one that I had to be reminded who some of the players were, but that was only a small regret, and this book would have stood well on its own.

The third book in the series is set to be published at some point this year, and I can't wait to read it as well.

[H. R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise: what happens when a nano tech is released that dissolves all plastics into a liquid state, and assorted other eco terrorism attacks, with an unnamed group's objective of reducing the world population to 100 million and moving to a hunter gather society. Makes Berkeley look like a John Birch stronghold in comparison. Barnes is a seriously under appreciated writer, but hard science novels in general are out of vogue these days. This is the second in a trilogy.

[Nathan Shumate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sequel concentrates on a matter which was a little undertreated in the first book: What IS Daybreak? And it turns out to be more than a social movement -- it's a virulent mind-control meme with eradication of humans as its goal. Not that the humans that are left need any help with that.

[Tim Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are reading this review you probably already know that this is the middle book of the Daybreak trilogy. As such it both benefits and suffers from that. Mostly it suffers, I think, for reasons I will go into later.


On the benefit side the introduction of the characters, setting, and plotline is largely out of the way. Barnes plunges into the post Daybreak conflict. Or rather, the Daybreak War as it should be called, for apparently unleashing petroleum, plastic, and electric destroying nanoswarms and biotes AND a number of fusion bombs on the world’s major political, industrial, and population centers wasn’t quite enough. A number of pro-Daybreak people organized into what are loosely called the Tribes. At first presented as somewhat annoying, pseudo-Native American organizations, put together by New Agers, Hippies, and idealists into what they think a pro-Gaia “indigenous” group should look like, as much true Native American rip off as something stolen from a bad version of Tolkien or World of Warcraft, they soon become a force to be reckoned with, launching attacks on those trying to restore civilization.


I should put an asterisk at the end of the last sentence. They are KIND OF a force to be reckoned with. Oh they are a threat, trying to smash what is left of the various U.S. national government remnants, attacking settlers who are “raping” the Earth by daring to farm or ranch, and even bringing into the fold new allies, either getting them to join the Tribes or at least work with them. However, they are so inept, incompetent, badly organized, and foolish that they don’t come off to me as that interesting or dangerous.


If they Tribals are that bad, how can they seduce others to join them? Apparently Daybreak is a meme, much as in the setting of Barnes’ other series, The Century Next Door. It can take over a person’s motivations and personality, sometimes subtly, sometimes quite overtly, but direct people to do things that benefit Daybreak’s plan (i.e. destroy humanity). That would make sense to me if the setting was technological; maybe some computer program could be uploaded into a person’s mind, or nanoswarm can rewire someone’s neural pathways, something like that. Apparently one can be brainwashed by just TALKING to someone with a Daybreak-infected mind. I don’t get how that is possible. The setting is not at all high tech; people are lucky to have 19th century technology at best, traveling the country in steam engine trains rescued from museums or in sailboats, using black powder guns, working at night by oil lamp and candle. How is a computer program still surviving inside people’s heads?


Oh wait, it is not just surviving in the human brain. I don’t want to spoil things too much, but as other reviews mentioned, I will too…there is a Moonbase run by Daybreak’s robots, one that takes potshots at what is left of civilization. More fusion bombs? More nanoswarm or biotes designed to target things that had been forgotten? No, something much, much weaker. Dare to use a radio, and it sends an EMP bomb at the user. Not low enough of a nuclear detonation to actually destroy the site, just enough to destroy the transmitting equipment and maybe those actually using it (but it being entirely possible that the building that they were using might be spared). Interesting, I suppose, but it seems a massive waste of resources on Daybreak’s part.


I was talking about strengths…ok, well, hmm, there is lots of conflict without much intention to wrap up plotlines. Not a fault mind you, I do like that about the middle act of any series; no need to end things wrapped up in a neat little bow, but it fails for me on two counts. One, the high tech, technothriller, fast paced opening to the first installment was GOOD. We don’t have that in the second book, not really. Two, some characters could still use a lot of fleshing out. Some never did become that three dimensional for me (admittedly a problem for many technothrillers) and others became something of a stereotype or otherwise one dimensional (particularly, sad to say, several of the women characters). The only stereotyping worse than that is what is done to many of the characters of the Athens government, located in Georgia; most are presented as Bible-thumping, Fundamentalist, intolerant types, truly believing that the events in the Book of Revelation are coming to pass. While there is that element in the American South, the book certainly makes that seem a great deal more prevalent than it really is, particularly for a book set in the 2020s, and made the Athens government very one dimensional indeed.


At the very least though the Athens government seemed to stand for something, however unfortunately monolithic it was. The Olympia government in the Pacific Northwest had a vague “We don’t stand for what Athens believes in” but otherwise has no strong ethos, no strong feel or flavor to it. We don’t get to see much of that government and what we do – like in Athens – is hardly sympathetic. Which would you the reader rather root for; Fundamentalist, intolerant, censorship loving rubes who like to spend all day in church or smarmy, we-can-do-what-we-want-now types now that the Conservative South is not in our way types who apparently are not above a fair amount of corruption? In the end I disliked both groups, but disliked the Athens one more. I am not saying that everything has be a clear good versus evil, but in a book that already had some flaws, that didn’t help.


There are other things I disliked. Too much torture in one scene for one. Cutesy jokes and onliners in group interactions that just fell flat for me and weren’t entertaing. Sudden violent deaths that didn’t seem to make a lot of sense sometimes. Many of the main characters were from Heather O'Graine’ s inner circle in the first book, characters that fit well in the tight confines of a intelligence group in the bowels of a D.C. bureaucracy, but when they became thrust front and center as major characters in different parts of the world, it didn’t feel that they were distinctive enough at times for me to get a good handle on them. Maybe that is fine; the bureaucrat that is distinctly uncomfortable becoming a regional leader or military commander, politically squirmy or squeamish, uncertain of himself, but it also didn’t help the book that so many of them came off that way to me. I wanted stronger personalities, maybe a Governor or a Rick type personality from the Walking Dead, someone you can get inside their head and maybe even predict their next move. I never got that. There is some hint that they started to emerge towards the end of the second book, but it was a bit late for me.


I didn’t hate the book, as hard as it may be to believe, but it was a bit of a slog at times. I did buy the third volume but I will put off reading it for some time.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

October 28, 2024 - Daybreak. When a shadowy conspiracy breaks out the nanites and everything based on hydrocarbons (like plastics and petroleum chemicals) is turned into the ubiquitous grey goo, followed up with thermonuclear devices for EMP effects. A year after the action in the first book of this series (Directive 51) we find the U.S. split into regions, two of which claim to be the legitimate governments, and a scattering of feral Daybreak tribes and independent fiefdoms. Any periodic radio communication is targeted from the Moon and it seems that Daybreak may be something that humans did not totally originate. The minutiae of governing such a country forms the bulk of this second book of three by John Barnes, but the real excitement comes when a spy is revealed within the RRC (Reconstruction Research Centre) and the tracking and ultimate resolution of this arc provides the interest. There is a lot of violence in this book, graphically described, so be warned. The deal struck between the two opposing candidates for President falls apart due to treachery but the plot arc of the Moon gun is left for another day. Characters are a bit hard to like but I’m assuming all will be made clear in the final volume, The Last President.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

These three books by John Barnes, Directive 51, Daybreak Zero and The Last President are a must read. They provide a chilling reason for why SETI may be a bad idea. The writing is excellent. Set in the near future, people all over Earth start working to reverse progress and take us back to the technology level of the early 1800's. The reason why this is so can't really be seen until the last book.

I bought the first book based on the cover and the description of the story on the back of the book. Three days later I bought the final two books.

I strongly reccomend these books.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed Directive 51, the first book in the Daybreak series, but I found this second book to be too repetitive and too similar to the first one to hold my interest. While I enjoyed the very short, “moment-in-time” chapters the first time around, they became tedious in the second novel.

I didn’t finish Daybreak Zero and have no plans to look for the next entry in the series.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the first, in my opinion! Directive 51 was about how governments are fragile; this book gets more into how human minds are fragile. The science is established, so we wade deeper into the politics. John does a great job keeping you guessing who the good guys really are.

[Mark Pasquini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Need to read this series from the beginning. A lot of characters. Other than that, interesting premise on why the world destructed. Secret organization, madness, religious fanaticism, power conflicts. As a dystopian novel, not bad. Recommend starting from the beginning.

[Anthony Faber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Middle of the road post apocalyptic novel. There's a previous book, so the stuff I didn't get may have been in there,but nano mawchines that will dissolve plastics should dissolve cellulose, too. Also, The mind control stuff doesn't work the way it does in this book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started slowly but picked up the pace. It is a must to read volume one first. I liked it but did not love it.

[Frank Ashe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can suspend belief just so far. This goes too far.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first book in the series, IMHO, but that seems to often be the case with trilogies. Still a good read and happy to move on to the third book.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice follow. But maybe a good stopping point.

[Lianne Burwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book suffers from a major case of middle-book-itis, and if I hadn't just recently read Directive 51, I might have marked it one star lower.

The book starts several months after the end of Directive 51. People are adjusting to this new world with nanoswarms and biotes that attack anything electrical or plastic, and a moongun that attacks sites of strong radio signals, possibly controlled or simply automated. Daybreakers have formed 'tribes' in the wastelands, and attack any settlements trying to rebuild.

This books covers the rivalry between the two possible governments, one on the west coast that is more secular and wants to maintain the constitution, and the one in Georgia that is in danger of being seized by the Post-Rapture church that thinks the dead have been raptured up, the earth is in the seven years of tribulation, and that a true american should follow *their* brand of Christianity, and anyone else.. well, you get the idea. In the middle of these two groups is Pueblo, New Mexico, where the old government maintained warehouses of brochures on how to do just about anything. Pueblo, under the command of Heather O'Graine, tries to maintain the peace, and get the two governments to coexist. Finally, there are the survivalist 'Castles', setting up mostly in California, which are moving towards feudalism, and some of which are controlled by Daybreak.

Meanwhile the tribes have been managing to 'infect' (they can act as a sort of meme/virus, and people infected have seizures if confronted) people close to the seats of power. While dealing with this, three 'scouts' are sent into the tribal lands, partly to figure out what is going on, partly to try to expose the Daybreaker mole inside Pueblo.

The story is good, but it just seems to start and end, with no really story arc resolution; a common problem for middle books in series. Also, throwing in the last working carrier and a miraculous rescue from it at the very end was a little deus x machina for me, but still, I enjoyed it enough to plan to read the next book when it comes out.

[Anna Louisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing read, the second in this post apocalyptic thriller. Like Harry Turtledoves alternate history books, this shows us one the ways our country is going. Here's one of my favorite and most heart breaking excerpts, from an ex-daybreaker " “That was the warm-up in the Daybreak sales pitch to women,” Jason said, thinking how much that sounded like his father or brother. “Some women love the idea of being all Earth-mothery, I am woman, I give birth to the world, I am the mother the world needs—I used to riff on phrases like that all the time for my Daybreak poems. But if human beings are a blight on the face of Mother Gaia, and getting rid of them is the paramount goal, you’ve got to get rid of women. “Men breed too,” Chris pointed out. “A hundred men and one woman can turn out about one baby per year. A hundred women and one man can turn out about a hundred babies per year. If you want to get rid of people, you get rid of mothers,” Jason said. “But that wasn’t what we said to them, not at first. Our first message was, ‘You are Woman and the world depends on you.’” He wasn’t looking up from his food, lost in thinking about home and his pregnant wife. “That’s what got Beth into it; she was from a dirty-ass pack of urban white trash scum that was trying to pretend they were ghetto gangstas because for them it was an upgrade. Daybreak was the first time anyone said they wanted her for something besides her boobs. A lot of women didn’t see where it was going till too late. A lot of men, too.” He seemed to be a thousand miles inside himself. “Why don’t they rebel?” Chris asked. “Some do. Beth and I walked into Pueblo and volunteered. I don’t know why more ex-Daybreakers don’t.” “But why don’t they rebel here?” Jason shrugged. “Why do you think there’s a whipping post and a boneyard?”

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing read, the second in this post apocalyptic thriller. Like Harry Turtledoves alternate history books, this shows us one the ways our country is going. Here's one of my favorite and most heart breaking excerpts, from an ex-daybreaker " “That was the warm-up in the Daybreak sales pitch to women,” Jason said, thinking how much that sounded like his father or brother. “Some women love the idea of being all Earth-mothery, I am woman, I give birth to the world, I am the mother the world needs—I used to riff on phrases like that all the time for my Daybreak poems. But if human beings are a blight on the face of Mother Gaia, and getting rid of them is the paramount goal, you’ve got to get rid of women. “Men breed too,” Chris pointed out. “A hundred men and one woman can turn out about one baby per year. A hundred women and one man can turn out about a hundred babies per year. If you want to get rid of people, you get rid of mothers,” Jason said. “But that wasn’t what we said to them, not at first. Our first message was, ‘You are Woman and the world depends on you.’” He wasn’t looking up from his food, lost in thinking about home and his pregnant wife. “That’s what got Beth into it; she was from a dirty-ass pack of urban white trash scum that was trying to pretend they were ghetto gangstas because for them it was an upgrade. Daybreak was the first time anyone said they wanted her for something besides her boobs. A lot of women didn’t see where it was going till too late. A lot of men, too.” He seemed to be a thousand miles inside himself. “Why don’t they rebel?” Chris asked. “Some do. Beth and I walked into Pueblo and volunteered. I don’t know why more ex-Daybreakers don’t.” “But why don’t they rebel here?” Jason shrugged. “Why do you think there’s a whipping post and a boneyard?”

[Iain Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing the story of "Directive 51," "Daybreak Zero" takes us right into the doomsday initiated in the first novel. Society has already crumbled, technology is rare and treasured by survivors using it to prepare for the impending complete lack of technology. We learn that Daybreak wasn't a one-time event, but is a continuing process of transformation, and a much more malign one than envisioned by the Daybreak idealists who caused the collapse.

Without needing a half book to set up the premise, the novel was more effective than the first volume. Characters are now three-dimensional. Conflicts are more complex. All (three) factions have credible conflicts with each other, and none can be certain how they are being influenced by Daybreak. In my opinion, this is a very compelling thriller, and I'm looking forward to part three, "The Last President."

A few specific pluses and minuses in spoilers.

The revelation of Daybreak as a form of mind control makes some of its actions more believable - although to me it makes it even harder to reconcile as a "system artifact." It's a very effective device in the context of the book, however.

I have serious problems with one aspect of post-Daybreak life: the lack of disease. Especially at one point where a scouting party has to swim through a river of raw sewage and bloated corpses. There's reference to typhoid being a threat, but it doesn't happen, nor cholera, nor any of the diseases that would have become rampant with this level of biological pollution. Even normal infections would be serious without the technology to produce vaccines and drugs.

[Christopher Sewell · Rating 4 out of 5]

like directive 51, its predecessor this book was great and i suggest it to anyone who is a fan of PA/dystopian fiction

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Polished this off in a day and a half. Enthusiasm... fading... rapidly. Learned that this is no longer the second book of a trilogy, but of a longer series. Definitely started losing me when strategies employed by the Daybreak entity/meme/whatever start to look like one big Thanatos Gambit (where every outcome, even defeat or death, is just another step towards a master plan).

Oh, and Daybreak also enables mind control.

Also, radical, Gaia-minded environmentalists (who also desire the elimination of about 99.999% of the human race) think slavery is just peachy.

And the bad guy (which may actually be a meme run rampant) has a moon base.

Fortunately for Earth's survivors, instead of launching pure fusion bombs at the remaining pockets of civilization, the moon base is content to occasionally lob EMP bombs (pure-fusion-powered, mind you) over radio stations.

To me, the only explanation for this restraint (from an entity that has already killed 6 billion people and fired off about 1.5 gigatons worth of fusion explosions) is that Daybreak's political subroutines are having too much fun messing around with the surviving political factions.

[Joe Slavinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been over two years, since I read "Directive 51", which is the first book of this "Daybreak" trilogy. I'm not sure why, as Barnes is a favorite author, and I try to keep up with his work. At any rate, Barnes has followed up well, to his post-apocalyptic world. Unlike S.M. Stirling's "Change" series, in this series some remnants of the Federal government have survived, determined to put the country back together, despite having splintered into liberal, and conservative factions(surprise!), which each claim different parts of the country. A third, relatively non-political group, mediates, narrowly avoiding a civil war. The third group is also attempting to figure out why "Daybreak" is still wreaking havoc with the mass of surviving "tribals", in the "Lost Quarter" of the country, which is still mostly in ruins. Lots of clever ideas, great plot, with lots of twists, and turns. Lust, betrayal, murder, suspense. This book, and series, will keep you on the edge of your seat. I've already got my hands on a copy of "The Last President", the third of the series. I'm looking forward to it, though I have books ahead of it, in my reading queue.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another review used the phrase "middle-book-itis" and that seems to really nail this book. The first book of the trilogy, "Directive 51" was somewhat of a conventional political thriller set at the end of the world as we know it, but this explores what happens in the year after the world ends and most of us go away.

On the bright side, we do a lot better than you'd expect. Despite microbes that eat all sorts of synthetic fibers and destroy gasoline and similar fluids, and nanites that destroy anything electronic, there are planes and trains and radios. Agriculture is moving along and things are rebounding quickly. Which seems maybe a bit ridiculous. But once you accept that, there's an entertaining plunge into what Daybreak is (more than just the end of the world) and travels into the Lost Quarter. And there's a big setup for the last book.

if you've made it through Directive 51 and found it interesting, this is worth reading. Maybe.