Zero [Paperback]

Eric Van Lustbader (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1989

"[A] rewarding thriller...It contains enough twists and genuine surprises to keep the reader racing toward the satisfying final pages."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Although American painter Michael Doss has been schooled in the ancient ways of the warrior, he leads a quiet life. Until the tragic death of his father ignites the warrior spirit in his blood that will not be quenched until he uncovers the secret of his father's enigmatic life. His journey plunges him into a dangerous underworld, where he finds himself in lethal combat with a sinister Japanese organization that is bent on destroying the United States through global economic chaos. Doss is trapped. His only chance for survival is a final confrontation, face to face, with the vile assassin behind it all, Zero.


From the Paperback edition.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lustbader (The Ninja, Shan) seems here to be attempting a combination of Shogun and The Godfather, with some Ludlum tossed in, but it doesn't work. Philip Doss, assassin for a secret U.S. agency, dies in a car wreck in Hawaii. Top Japanese gangsters, a Japanese business cabal and the U.S. agency all try to discover the culprit. Masashi Taki, head yakuza (Japanese Mafia) has plans to bomb China; the businessmen want to recover a secret diary wthat would expose and ruin them; and the secret agency is trying to find a very high-level mole. Doss's son Michael, painter and martial-arts ace, is recruited by his father's boss to solve the mystery, which, we are told in long flashbacks goes back to 1946 occupied Japan. What seems like a cast of thousands thrashes through 40 years of operatic plot that ends with a plop. We move across the Pacific, the past and the present, but the scenery never changes. Even with all the violence, the cardboard characters and inane plot have as much punch as cotton candy.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

"[A] rewarding thriller...It contains enough twists and genuine surprises to keep the reader racing toward the satisfying final pages."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Although American painter Michael Doss has been schooled in the ancient ways of the warrior, he leads a quiet life. Until the tragic death of his father ignites the warrior spirit in his blood that will not be quenched until he uncovers the secret of his father's enigmatic life. His journey plunges him into a dangerous underworld, where he finds himself in lethal combat with a sinister Japanese organization that is bent on destroying the United States through global economic chaos. Doss is trapped. His only chance for survival is a final confrontation, face to face, with the vile assassin behind it all, Zero.


From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett Books (January 1989)
• ISBN-10: 9992247908
• ISBN-13: 978-9992247907
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,814,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Van Lustbader is the author of more than twenty-five best-selling novels, including The Ninja, a New York Times bestseller for 24 weeks, in which he introduced Nicholas Linnear, one of modern fictions most beloved and enduring heroes. His New York Times bestselling novel, "The Testament," was published in September, 2006 and in paperback in August, 2007.
His novels have been translated into over twenty languages; his books are best-sellers worldwide and are so popular whole sections of bookstores from Bangkok to Dublin are devoted to them. The Ninja was sold to 20th Century-Fox. It is now in pre-production.
Mr. Lustbader is a graduate of Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology. Before turning to writing full time, he enjoyed highly successful careers in the New York City public school system, where he holds licenses in both elementary and early childhood education, and in the music business. He is a second-level Reiki master.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Oh Buddha!", May 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Zero (Hardcover)

I've seen Lustbader's books around, never read one until I got handed a copy - I had known Japan and Asia were the mainstays of his books. "Zero" hasn't aged well, written as it was at the tail-end of the fall of communism, 1988. It reads like one of those run-of-the-mill action movies a la Steven Seagal, super-gaijin-turned-samurai with an unnatural understanding of mysterious eastern ways kicking Yakuza butt. Some of the dialogue is pretty bad, especially the conversations between Japanese people. Whenever a Japanese character is surprised they burst out saying "Buddha"! I'm living in Japan now, and though I'm no authority, I've yet to hear anyone say "Buddha" when surprised - usually they say "kuso!" or "chikusho!" your run-of-the-mill expletives! I thought this was funny. Other than that, I thought the sex scenes were really cool - learned some new words for the female anatomy so this book can't be all bad. If you want a fair, cliched exotic Japan read, this might do the trick on a long trip - otherwise, avoid. Read Alex Kerr for the real deal!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Linnear and Doss, December 13, 2003

By 

Seth A Boggs (Franklin, WV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zero (Hardcover)

I'm a fan of the Ninja books so I might be a little biased but it seems to me that michael Doss is just a samurai version of Nick Linnear.

4.0 out of 5 stars Zero, February 20, 2012

By 

MacConnell Sylvester (Texas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Zero (Hardcover)

This is the best EVL novel I have read. It's an excellent combination, government-business espionage novel centered around cosmopolitan characters and potentially world altering events. This work contain much less eroticism than his others which improves the quality of the read.