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Tokyo Zero
One man goes to Tokyo to end the world. It goes fairly well.As a Japanese cult gets ready to stage a massive attack, they are forced to recruit a secretive young bio-chemist from the West. They hide out on the fringes of Tokyo, taking care of the daily business of preparing for the apocalypse, until the foreigner's secret past starts to come to light and threaten their future dreams."Horne writes in a lyrically jarring fashion that never quite releases the tension long enough for you to get your footing. Flashbacks and flashforwards zoom past like hurtling Tokyo trains, leaving you agreeably frazzled. " - TeleRead
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
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91 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 5, 2010
One of the most downloaded indie eBooks of all time apparently...this took me a while to get into and I found some parts of it to be a difficult read. However, about two thirds of the way through something just suddenly "clicked" between me and this book and I raced to the end - completely on tenterhooks the whole way. Populated by a cast of bizarre and offbeat characters with completely surreal motivations; locations that hum with the neon buzz of Tokyo life and seem to leap from the page, a what-the-wazoo plot and an enigmatic central character this is a story that never stops moving and the "what" of what this book is never stops shifting. Questions of morality and ethics abound in Tokyo Zero and the fact that it often made me stop and think about completely unrelated issues is both to its credit but also why I found it a difficult read. The plot, too, prompts many questions being as it is a very post-modern take on noir and at times deliberately vague and obfuscating. It isn't until the very end that various snatches of dialogue and flashback finally make sense and the strange philosophy that has been emerging throughout the whole narrative finally comes to fruition.
A strange book but one which I found extremely thought provoking, enjoyable and unlike anything I've read before. Existentialist, nihilist, philosophical science fiction...doesn't come along every day.
A strange book but one which I found extremely thought provoking, enjoyable and unlike anything I've read before. Existentialist, nihilist, philosophical science fiction...doesn't come along every day.
January 26, 2010
Ostensibly a thriller, it starts off feeling more like a travelogue about a westerner's first observations about Tokyo, then starts cooking with a nice, tight little plot about the planning of a terrorist attack - inspired by Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attacks in '95. But the overall structure of the book is like a whirlpool, and soon everything speeds up, frantically and furiously, with crazy shit being tossed at your head around every corner - great big chunks of sci-fi, eastern mysticism, posthumanism, and conspiracy theory.
Seriously, this is the kind of novel that takes you by surprise, sneaks up on you in a dark alley. You're plodding along pleasantly, enjoying some adroit observations on Tokyo that deftly straddle the middle ground between hollow reverentialism and ugly-American criticism, and then BAM - you suddenly realize you're alone in a subway car with a footless cult leader who's telling you the real story behind Judas's betrayal of Jesus.
Because make no mistake about it - this is a novel in every sense of the word. Characters evolve and develop over time, the plot is advanced gradually in hints and teases, and the book that you finish is not the same book you thought it was when you started reading. It's the type of story that you have to set aside your 21st Century Web 2.0 micro- nano- attention span for and let the work take its time revealing its many faces to you.
Seriously, this is the kind of novel that takes you by surprise, sneaks up on you in a dark alley. You're plodding along pleasantly, enjoying some adroit observations on Tokyo that deftly straddle the middle ground between hollow reverentialism and ugly-American criticism, and then BAM - you suddenly realize you're alone in a subway car with a footless cult leader who's telling you the real story behind Judas's betrayal of Jesus.
Because make no mistake about it - this is a novel in every sense of the word. Characters evolve and develop over time, the plot is advanced gradually in hints and teases, and the book that you finish is not the same book you thought it was when you started reading. It's the type of story that you have to set aside your 21st Century Web 2.0 micro- nano- attention span for and let the work take its time revealing its many faces to you.
April 5, 2011
Great book that is occasionally mired in its (admittedly) necessary asides. The narrator retelling frequently drifts off in to observations, musings, and dreams. The narrative defines the character of the book but periodically left me feeling like I was fighting through the prose to get to the story. The progress and intensity is gradually ramped up and, when put next to the asides, can feel incredibly slow at times. It pays off at the end as the chaos, in the story and the storytelling, come together.
If the story and the characters work for you but you find yourself struggling against the actual text consider Horne's This Unhappy Planet.
If the story and the characters work for you but you find yourself struggling against the actual text consider Horne's This Unhappy Planet.
February 28, 2022
This was the last of my free ones I gleaned from, I think, Scribd. I searched for top 10 free eBooks. I'm not sure if I ever finished any of them. You get what you pay for.
This one was no different. It never gets to the plot. It has no characters, no motivations, no clear objective. I think it was supposed to be a cyberpunk/spy novel, but it felt like, if they were playing football, the characters would be running around in a circle instead of heading towards the goal post (and not in a good way).
It was self-published, no one's heard of it, it has no ISBN number. It doesn't show up on searches for GoodReads or LibraryThing, so I thought, why should I bother reading it. The writing is nice, but if not for the placement in Japan, I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did.
This one was no different. It never gets to the plot. It has no characters, no motivations, no clear objective. I think it was supposed to be a cyberpunk/spy novel, but it felt like, if they were playing football, the characters would be running around in a circle instead of heading towards the goal post (and not in a good way).
It was self-published, no one's heard of it, it has no ISBN number. It doesn't show up on searches for GoodReads or LibraryThing, so I thought, why should I bother reading it. The writing is nice, but if not for the placement in Japan, I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did.
May 23, 2018
Confusing but interesting. A bit too fast paced for my taste.
January 5, 2015
Tokyo Zero (My Tokyo Death Cult)
I am sure there are a number of people out there who truly enjoyed Marc Horne’s Tokyo Zero. I am not one of those people. It had its moments, and it kept me involved enough that after start/stopping it over a month, I was able to finish it. I did not really enjoy it though. It was kind of like weak chocolate milk.. it was good, but it did not satisfy.
Essentially, it is about a man who’s father is the head of an anti-humanity cult. they are working to remove the human population of the world, weeding it until the garden is clean of pesky pests. The main character goes to Tokyo, and infiltrates a different cult who has their own agenda. The goal of this group is to release a series of Sarin gas bombs in the Tokyo subway system.
For those who plan to read this, I will save the plot details so you can still be surprised.
The characters in the book were decent (a couple were actually stellar), the story was pretty up my alley, so I guess the key factor that I disliked was the writing style. The story was disjointed in many places to an unrecoverable degree. It seemed as if Horne was trying to hard to write a good novel and got wrapped up in the trying, stifling the book instead.. It also felt over edited, as if he had cut a little here and there to increase the pace, but instead it was nearly unreadable in many places.
Give it a shot if you are interested, it just turned out not to be something I could get behind 100%.
--
xpost RawBlurb.com
I am sure there are a number of people out there who truly enjoyed Marc Horne’s Tokyo Zero. I am not one of those people. It had its moments, and it kept me involved enough that after start/stopping it over a month, I was able to finish it. I did not really enjoy it though. It was kind of like weak chocolate milk.. it was good, but it did not satisfy.
Essentially, it is about a man who’s father is the head of an anti-humanity cult. they are working to remove the human population of the world, weeding it until the garden is clean of pesky pests. The main character goes to Tokyo, and infiltrates a different cult who has their own agenda. The goal of this group is to release a series of Sarin gas bombs in the Tokyo subway system.
For those who plan to read this, I will save the plot details so you can still be surprised.
The characters in the book were decent (a couple were actually stellar), the story was pretty up my alley, so I guess the key factor that I disliked was the writing style. The story was disjointed in many places to an unrecoverable degree. It seemed as if Horne was trying to hard to write a good novel and got wrapped up in the trying, stifling the book instead.. It also felt over edited, as if he had cut a little here and there to increase the pace, but instead it was nearly unreadable in many places.
Give it a shot if you are interested, it just turned out not to be something I could get behind 100%.
--
xpost RawBlurb.com
November 26, 2010
I found this book at random looking for books to read through the Stanza app. It sounded like a decent enough plot. As I started reading it it seemed to me like it was an amateur author. It may be. I honestly didn't do any research. the writing style is a bit difficult to read. I'm not sure what it is about it. Possibly it is the descriptions of feelings at times. I'm not sure how to put it into words myself. There just comes a point where I said to myself, "What?" Then I'd have to reread the part to try to figure out what was meant. That being said, I still enjoyed it. Maybe it even added to it. Gave it a bit of an edgy feel. I like the story line a lot. The ending I wasn't so keen on, but I find I don't like many endings. It just seemed rushed and another "What just happened?" moment. I'd still recommend it.
June 26, 2011
I downloaded this from Feedbooks one day this week, when Feedbooks itself was down. The holding page had links to some of the most popular books on the site (to read while you were waiting for the site to come back up?) and the last one on the list was this. It caught my eye because of the first line of the blurb: "One man goes to Tokyo to end the world. It goes fairly well." It appealed to my sense of humour.
The story is a compelling one - covering apocalyptic cults and the experience of day-to-day life in Japan for a Westerner, which makes for an intriguing mix. It's well written and (despite its fairly grim subject matter) an enjoyable and often funny read. There were some editing issues with the Feedbooks version of the text: nothing major (it's/its and their/there confusion, jut for just), but enough to be a slight distraction when reading.
The story is a compelling one - covering apocalyptic cults and the experience of day-to-day life in Japan for a Westerner, which makes for an intriguing mix. It's well written and (despite its fairly grim subject matter) an enjoyable and often funny read. There were some editing issues with the Feedbooks version of the text: nothing major (it's/its and their/there confusion, jut for just), but enough to be a slight distraction when reading.
September 28, 2008
as previously reviewed at manybooks.net :
"Fun read especially if you're into Japan and related topics. The author seems to have even spent a bit of time in Tokyo for research as he describes how the character reacts to certain situations. Definitely enjoyed the writing style, "what an incredible fucking suit and inside that suit was a man..."
... great plot, nice twists, interesting characters, good descriptions, quick read, loved the book."
-Jessie
"Fun read especially if you're into Japan and related topics. The author seems to have even spent a bit of time in Tokyo for research as he describes how the character reacts to certain situations. Definitely enjoyed the writing style, "what an incredible fucking suit and inside that suit was a man..."
... great plot, nice twists, interesting characters, good descriptions, quick read, loved the book."
-Jessie
October 16, 2009
This book feels like it is going absolutely NOWHERE for a long, long time. Though it gets crazy. And fast. And worth it. :D
Also, it's free!
http://manybooks.net/titles/hornemoth...
Also, it's free!
http://manybooks.net/titles/hornemoth...
February 22, 2015
It was one of those books about a clash of cultures. Finding out how to understand the way the protagonist viewed Japan took some time. It didn't help that the sole viewpoint character is clearly crazy. I liked it.
April 2, 2010
I found the writing terribly distracting, I couldn't get in any flow at all :-(
December 4, 2010
outstanding.
March 24, 2011
Couldn't even finish this one. It was a try-hard, cyberpunk wannabe that fell far short. Despite the fact that I could read this for free, it wasn't worth the price...
Read
January 8, 2013Slow going, only read on Hospital appointments, will I ever finish it?
January 8, 2013
Jerky. Asks questions but no answers or thought provoking leads.
July 11, 2012
The thoughts covered in this book are not fully form. The plot is confused, not in a good way.
September 15, 2012
This is a very strange book for me.
Very interesting but a bit confusing for too much flashbacks and flashforwards.
I like very much the story.
I think I will read more books from Mark Horne.
Very interesting but a bit confusing for too much flashbacks and flashforwards.
I like very much the story.
I think I will read more books from Mark Horne.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews