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Zero Day Code: End of Days, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Original recording

John Birmingham (Author), Rupert Degas (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)

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Every modern city has one week’s worth of food to feed itself. Then it will collapse.

Cut off the resources to New York, Sydney, or even a mid-size metropolis, and millions will soon starve. In Zero Day Code we see those immense and open, hyper-complex, networked supercities of the new millennium die. And in the last moments we see their vengeance take form as all the best and worst traits of humanity bubble to the surface.

Zero Day Code is set in a realistic near future with dwindling global food supplies under increasing pressure from worsening droughts, floods and extreme weather events. Written by prolific Australian writer John Birmingham, the thriller follows a handful of survivors from the first day of society’s descent into violent, uncertain futures.

James, a consultant to the US National Security Council, is the first to suspect that the worldwide emergence of a crippling computer virus is actually a cover for something else - a devastating cyber-attack by China on the food distribution system of the United States. The attack is a bid for the Middle Kingdom to distract America as it seizes the food bowl of South East Asia and feeds its starving population. But Beijing has miscalculated.

Follow the missions of an embittered activist chasing salvation, a single mum rescuing her child from a frantic San Francisco and an army veteran who has long retreated from society, as the world they knew crumbles around them.

Please note: this audiobook contains mature content and listener discretion is advised.

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Product details

Listening Length	12 hours and 32 minutes
Author	John Birmingham
Narrator	Rupert Degas
Audible.com.au Release Date	04 July 2019
Publisher	Audible Studios
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Original recording
Language	English
ASIN	B07T25H9YX
Best Sellers Rank	9 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 2 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 2 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews

5 star		73%
4 star		16%
3 star		7%
2 star		1%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Amazon Customer

It's Pearl Harbor sir, .........but with muffins

Reviewed in Australia on 5 July 2019

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This how the world ends, maybe not with a bang, nor a whimper but with plenty of diverse threads woven into an exciting tapestry of geopolitical, nationalist, political, personal conflict with the trademarked john Birmingham exploding goodness.

An exciting cast of characters coming through the unfolding catastrophic circumstances, from the first mild inconveniences that like the recession of water from a beach heralds the tsunami, through the tumultuous 'can things get worse' to the devastation that is, 'things got worse'. The fall begun by an organised attack on the backbone of the internet, that you discover a result of the decades of environmental ignorance finally driving the natural systems to the point of collapse, resulting in economic and social system soon caught in a death spiral which you can view from numerous distinct characters, each with their own unique voice and problems you are sure to find one you cheer for and one you hate.

Dispersed throughout the tale are interludes giving an insight into how the rest of the world is failing.

The excellent vocal choice for the audio format bringing the story a more dramatic feel, it resonates with the terrifying shockwave prescience I have not since experienced since John Brunner's 1972 work The Sheep look Up.

Buy it, listen to it, tremble at its terrifying immediacy, my only caveat it could have used zombies.

6 people found this helpful

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sharyn

Cracking new addition to the Birmingham oeuvre

Reviewed in Australia on 20 February 2021

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This is a brilliant and prescient book:I found the story engrossing, the action and pacing were perfect, and the characters engaging and really well developed. As always, the author’s dry wit and turn of phrase are a particular pleasure. I bolted through this in one very intense day, and plan to read it again... often, while I wait for the next book

3 people found this helpful

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Stephen Collins

End of civilisation funsies

Reviewed in Australia on 22 February 2021

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I followed along on Patreon as JB was writing this. I joined Audible (true story) just to listen to the audiobook. And now I have a readable copy in my hot little hands!

Like a lot of other reviewers here, I'm a John Birmingham fan. Don't let that put you off. JB has done his homework and research. The setup that he puts together is entirely realistic, the societal decay predictable (and only a few steps past the insanity of 2020's COVID pandemic), and the characters - while some are definitely extreme or caricatures - fit the story like a glove.

If you enjoy apocalyptic fiction, this should absolutely be your jam (on delicious sourdough end-of-the-world toast.

2 people found this helpful

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Darren G Tuer

A ripping tale of societal collapse.

Reviewed in Australia on 24 February 2021

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I was able to read an early draft of this book via John Birmingham's Patreon page during the period when the COVID-19 epidemic was starting to affect us in Australia and we were facing chronic shortages of .... toilet paper. Our daily struggles to source enough of this precious commodity added that extra delicious level of spice & realism to the slow, creeping catastrophic collapse of society portrayed in Zero Day Code.

The different character story lines and the gradual escalation from mere inconveniences to greater and greater levels of catastrophe make this book a real page turner. So check your canned soup and toilet paper stocks, charge your powerbank batteries, and settle in for a great read about how a missing muffin can become a portent of doom.

2 people found this helpful

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Matthew J Griffiths

A compelling glimpse into a terrifyingly plausible near future

Reviewed in Australia on 21 February 2021

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Stock up on non-perishable goods and be nice to your neighbours, the end of the world is only a mouse click away. When hostile hackers bring down the food system all hell breaks loose. A diverse cast of characters find themselves thrown into a fight for survival as the world collapses around them, while others decide they’re not going to let a good disaster go to waste. Birmingham’s brilliant dialogue hums throughout. Can’t wait for the next installment.

2 people found this helpful

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Tony N

It's the end of the world as we know it...

Reviewed in Australia on 20 February 2021

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ZDC offers a disturbingly too easy to imagine version of the end of the world - not with a bang, but with the whimper of failing systems that have become essential to how most of us now live. Rather than the four horsemen of the apocalypse, something as innocuous as muffins not being delivered, or having to resort to using a ye olde manual credit card swipe machine could herald the breakdown of society. And then we're off on an exciting ride through a collapsing world, of people just trying to survive. Lots of the usual John Birmingham splodey goodness, a diverse and interesting group of characters, and hints of worse to come. Great page turner, and highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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M. Edwards

I wish I'd read slower

Reviewed in Australia on 18 March 2021

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So I couldn't put this down. Finished it too quickly and now I am deciding whether to get the narrated two and three or wait for the kindle release.

This book is eerily similar to the COVID nightmare many of us have been living through. Panic buying and shelves stripped bare is something we have now all experienced first hand. The only thing that missed the mark was there were no fights over toilet paper. :-)

If you've read any of John's books, rest assured, this one is up there with the rest of them.

Buy it. Read it.

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Sarah Doolan

Couldn’t put it down

Reviewed in Australia on 5 April 2021

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Scariest book I’ve read in a while, a very credible description of the end of western consumer society. The characters are recognisable people, flawed and human (some more flawed and less human than others), responding to a crisis in a familiar world. Sadly the sequel seems to only be available in Audible, not my favourite format, but I’ve downloaded it anyway.

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Top reviews from other countries

johnofcambridge

Destroyer of worlds

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 March 2021

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I'm a big John Birmingham fan, having read almost all of his books. Where does this one rank? Well, he is never bad, and frequently excellent, and this new series has promise, if the first one took a while to get going. The multiple parallel plot lines, some interweaving, is a format that he is good at, and he shows off his skill in many ways here. The narrative sometimes drops into the vernacular and makes you laugh out loud, and he touches on some highly topical themes. Overall, definitely recommended, and more please (although we would all prefer him to get back to the amazing axis of time series asap!).

3 people found this helpful

Hugh

Plausible, and likely, apocalypse

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 February 2021

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This is how the world ends - not with a bang, but with malware.

I've ripped through this book (got it yesterday, finished it today) - I couldn't, to use the hackneyed phrase, put it down.

This book struck home to me how dependent we are on the interconnected systems that now run our businesses/governments/daily lives, and how a cascading malware attack escalates out of control of those who started it.

The book's slow build up gives you time to invest in the various (and varied) characters, with occasional side-trips to see how the world arrived at where it is, by seeing snippets of ordinary people's lives from different parts of the world, and their viewpoints. No one's really a hero, just (mostly) ordinary people responding to extraordinary events beyond their control.

I can't wait for the next book in the series to be published.

One person found this helpful

MarcCarno

JB delivers a richly tapestried introduction into modern day collapse. Excellent.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2021

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Unlike so many tiresome apocalyptic novels, JB has the knack of not only pulling together an original angle (the disappearance series, as just one amazing example) but also relishes the challenge of creating deeply human characters that can both delight and infuriate. In other words - make his characters real.

None of that ‘real’ in the context of ‘gun-tooting prepper geek other authors draw as thinly disguised variants ... the type who spends 75% of ‘its’ narrative doling out schadenfreude-laden expositions (they were RIGHT goddamit and those lefty liberals are ALL sorry now). Tiresome right wing some of it too.

Sadly, I enjoy apocalyptic fiction and have had the trauma of far too many detailed descriptions of the 23 different firearms said eponymous ‘Proud’ central character just happens to own - or the bunker they dug etc Ad-nauseum

No. JB does it right. With this entry into the trilogy he takes the time to notch up the threads, building against a story arc that gradually wraps you up as the tension becomes more taut, page by page.

A great start and I’m already hungry for book 2 (already in audible format but I like to read my books).

If you like JB you will be very happy with this one

Tailspin

Better than the average post-apoc

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 March 2021

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Mixed feelings. I liked the rich writing style and well developed characters, all with a sprinkling of dark humour. I found the relentless street slang hard work (as a Brit) with some of the words seemingly found in Urban Dictionary and nowhere else on the internet. I found it a bit hard to keep track of all the characters and retain interest in so many parallel stories, some of which are just background and never followed up. I particularly didn’t like the fact that the blurb describes it as a book, but when you finally get to page 421 you find it has all just been a scene-setting exercise and you have to wait for the author to write two more books before any of the many threads are resolved. However, overall it feels like a real novel, written by a real author, and a far cry from the one dimensional rubbish that pervades this genre.

Haematoma

Can't wait for books 2 and 3

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2021

Verified Purchase

JB has excelled again. Fast paced and perhaps prescient the story fairly explodes into action and there's plenty of action. There is also a wide cast of well rounded characters each with there own skill set and back stories. Throughout the story the overriding feeling is "this could really happen!" I have a lot of time for apocalypse literature and this is a cut above. Not encumbered by zombie intrusion this gives a realistic view of a society in meltdown. Most chilling is how speedily this can happen with just a few computer keystrokes and the willingness of the many to believe all they see and read online. This book is a stunning introduction to a new trilogy and I look forward with much anticipation to the release of the next book(s) in the series

One person found this helpful

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Zero Day Code: End of Days, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Original recording

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