Houston And NYCC, I Am Coming For You (And Other Newsbits)

This Saturday, I will be tunneling into Murder By The Book in Houston, TX along with fellow deviants Richard Kadrey and Beth Cato! I’ll be there talking about and signing ZER0ES — event starts at 4:30 and you find find the other event details here at the bookseller’s website.

I’m also at NYCC in a couple weeks, and my schedule is there on the website — though that may be evolving? I don’t really know, yet, but I’ll post a final schedule here in a week or so.

Oh, also, I’m told AFTERMATH will once again be on the NYT Bestseller list, so, please excuse me while my molecules vibrate so aggressively I phase through the floor.

What else?

Zer0es Reviews

– Lightspeed talks about Zer0es a little:

“Five hackers—of different backgrounds, ages, and vastly different temperaments and motivations—are hunted down by the US government and forcibly persuaded to work on a secret project for the NSA, testing the electronic defenses of myriad corporations and nations to undisclosed purpose. But over the course of their strange work—already fraught because of the personalities at play, white and black hats clashing, trolls trolling—one question above all preoccupies them: What is Typhon? The need to find out goes from casual curiosity to imperative urgency as the stakes rise and the pace goes into overdrive in this tightly plotted, character-driven thriller.

I am out of practice with this kind of book. My heart could hardly take it. Halfway through, I was so tense and the threat level was already so high that I couldn’t fathom how there could still be two hundred pages to go. It also broke my narrative expectation: Three full acts take place within that first half, and it’s amazing to realize that there can be more, and fascinating to take stock of how conditioned I am by films in this respect. Here’s how you assemble the team; here’s how they learn to work together; here’s how they obtain their objective. But there’s a lot more going on here.”

– Crimespree’s review (where they grok that the book is kinda THE HACKER A-TEAM):

“It’s been my experience that when you start to read a book written by Chuck Wendig, you’re going to get a fast-paced, in your face story. ZER0ES is no exception to this. Here he quickly lays out why the hackers are being sought out by the government. Then he lets everything about Typhon slowly unravel and you can’t help but continue turning the pages to learn more about the AI code and what is really going on with it. The suspense about Typhon makes the book an excellent government conspiracy theory thriller.”

– A nice review of Zer0es at The Reader In The Tower —

“If you’re baffled and sometimes bored with long descriptive paragraphs or pages of explanatory backstory, never fear. Wendig is the writer for you. You’ll find yourself whipped along by the pace of his writing, without feeling like he’s skipping anything important… As someone who struggles with pacing in action sequences, I am deeply and profoundly jealous.”

– And one from SQ Mag…

“Zer0es is a worth addition to the ‘To Read’ pile of any fan of cyberpunk, any conspiracy nut, or anyone who wants to be immersed in a great action/suspense/horror plot without all that tedious business of messing around with the TV. Be warned though: the language and violence might be a bit much for some, although any fan of Wendig’s work will not be surprised by any of it. You may even find yourself contemplating going off the grid once you’re done reading.”

– Bev Vincent has some thoughts on Zer0es:

“It’s a thrilling seat-of-the-pants ride that alternates between some sophisticated hacking and brutal hand-to-hand combat. The enemy has tentacles that quite literally reach into a dizzying array of people, and the Zeroes are forced to seek assistance from other covert organizations to pull off their mission. Fans of the recent TV series Mr. Robot will find similar themes at play.”

– You can grab Zer0es where books are sold: Indiebound | Amazon | B&N — you can also add it on Goodreads, and if you liked the book, I’d sure appreciate a review.

Aftermathy Stuff

– Me and Alexandra Bracken show up for Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy and talk about Star Wars and fandom (both the awesome side and the, erm, less awesome side). Check it out.

– Donna from HitFix interviewed me at DragonCon and the result is: Imperial Sexuality, Murder Droids and Fan Rage. So, go and make with the clicky clicky.

– Moviepilot offers a lovely review:

“Although, towering above all else in this is Wendig’s incredible written voice carrying the entire novel. This was my first experience of the author in his natural habitat (not including his writing books and the Terrible Minds blog) and I can safely say that he has not let me down. Managing to balance a decent plot, fantastic characters and have space to piss off the galaxy’s loudest bigots while staying true to the essence of Star Wars is quite an achievement and I wholeheartedly recommend Aftermath to any Star Wars or just pure Sci Fi fan.”

The Shield

You know what comes out next month? Dark Circle’s THE SHIELD, written by Adam Christopher and myself, and drawn by Drew Johnson. We’ve done some interviews recently which you can find at HitFix, Comics Beat and Comicsosity, with more to come. And at the HitFix link you’ll find a number of inked and colored pages, such as this beauty right here: