The X-Files: Ground Zero [Mass Market Paperback]

Kevin J. Anderson (Author), Chris Carter (Author)

Book Description

Series: The X-Files | Publication Date: June 19, 1996

Dr. Gregory, a renowned nuclear weapons researcher, is not only dead--he's been charred to a radioactive cinder.

Since this is a death on Federal property, Mulder and Scully are hastily called in. As FBI agents who specialize in unexplained phenomena, they are the investigators of The X-Files, strange and inexplicable cases which are also mysteries that the FBI doesn't want solved.

When a second victim, completely unrelated to nuclear science or Dr. Gregory is obliterated in the New Mexico desert, and then a third dies the same way in Washington, DC, Mulder and Scully begin to focus on the frightening dimension of their task. The bizarre deaths cannot be a coincidence. And as they work to uncover the secret unifying element that unites these deaths, it becomes clear that this twisted puzzle has fatal consequences for the entire world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kevin J. Anderson's first X-Files adventure, Ground Zero, became a #1 international bestseller. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed novels Blindfold, Climbing Olympus, and (with coauthor Doug Beason) Virtual Destruction, III Wind, and Assemblers of Infinity. His work has been nominated for the Nebula and Bram Stoker Awards. His current projects include a third X-Files novel, based on characters created by Chris Carter.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: HarperEntertainment (June 19, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061056774
• ISBN-13: 978-0061056772
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,112,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The X-Files Ground Zero by: Kevin J. Anderson, April 12, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The X-Files: Ground Zero (Mass Market Paperback)

Kevin J. Anderson crafted not only an X-Files masterpiece, but also a science-fiction masterpiece. Ground Zero is an action-packed science-fiction thriller. I love it is worth every cent. Kevin J. Anderson wrote both Mulder and Scully perfectly in tune with their TV personalities. Ground Zero really deserved it's number one spot on the London Times Bestseller's List. IF YOU ARE AN X-PHILE, OR YOU JUST LIKE THE X-FILES, THEN YOU HAVE TO GET THIS BOOK! Ground Zero is a book about a typical X-File, people die under mysterious circumstances on federal property so Mulder and Scully are called in. Ground Zero is pretty much about nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon testing, and one man's revenge. It all starts at a nuclear weapons research facility where Dr. Emil Gregory sits down to work. Eventually his secretary brings him a package. In the package is a ziploc baggy containing a strange black ash and a note that says "for your part in the past". A short time after that there is a power shortage in Dr. Gregory's office. After a minute of panicking, a fireball spontaneously appears in the center of the office and engulfs Dr. Gregory.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A review of the abridged audiobook, April 8, 2009

By 

DWD "DWD's Reviews" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The X-Files: Ground Zero (Mass Market Paperback)

So, how can I say this succintly and clearly?

The abridged audiobook is not good. It is bad. It is not well read. It has few of the best qualities of the TV show.

Read by Gillian Anderson, the abrdiged audiobook clocks in at about 3 hours and read unenthusiastically by Gillian Anderson. One of the reasons I picked this one up is that I figured she'd read it well. It says it was recorded in Vancouver in 1995 (where the show was filmed) and it sounds like she read it between takes. She sounds tired and completely uninterested in the text.

Then again, when you look at what she was reading, I cannot blame her for being uninterested. This book has none of the zip of the show. Mulder's lines are almost non-existant. No smart-aleck lines or observation. No wry sense of humor that makes even the weakest of the TV shows watchable (I love the X-Files but let's face it - every episode is not being shipped to the TV Hall of Fame...). This book is a tired and pale imitation of what the show was. You can see the ending coming and you wish it would just hurry up and get here. Perhaps the abridgement gutted the book but I was glad it was abridged.

The science behind this audiobook is laughable. Not the supernatural stuff - that's what the X-Files is all about. I mean the atomic science. Does the author really think that anyone can explode an atomic bomb without radiation detectors picking up on it? Remember Chernobyl? The West knew it had gone wrong long before the Soviets admitted to it because it was detected by Western atomic sensors. Atomic blasts show up on seismographs. That's how we knew India and Pakistan had them. But, let's ignore facts like that and roll right along with a silly premise.

Skip this one.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Supernatural happenings in a nuclear age, November 10, 2005

By 

Kathryn J. Blake "K.J. Blake 2" (Phoenix,AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ground Zero (The X-Files) (Audio Cassette)

This is a review of the audiobook version of Ground Zero by Kevin Anderson read by Gillian Anderson.
Set against the world of government sponsored nuclear weapons research , Ground Zero has agents Mulder and Scully investigating the death of a researcher who is blown to bits - but the rest of his office is intact. There is no known personal sized nuke- so what happened? The audiobook is read by Gillian Anderson , and the abridgement has the focus on Scully's part of the investigation and the unlikely supernatural conclusion that takes the agents to the south pacific and the site of a planned above ground test of a new super weapon.
Anderson's reading is great! I got a good chuckle out of her comments about how that Mulder's theories were bound to be way out there and not grounded in science. Well paced, the book moves along with action and theory and some cool supernatural mysticism concerning a lost tribe , wiped out by an above ground nuclear test in the 50s and their long journey to retribution and vengeance from beyond......