Zero Sum Game

by S.L. Huang

Zero Sum Game is an awesome, fast-paced, inventive science fiction thriller about a mercenary whose superpower is her ability to do complicated math almost instantly. She uses this to calculate trajectories and angles and so forth in order to navigate both crime scenes and combat sequences with incredible speed and precision.

Cas takes on a simple job which drags her into a conspiracy involving her mysterious childhood, an evil psychic, and a lot of violence. She has to ally with her best friend Rio, a private detective, and a hacker. All of these people have very rigid moral codes, but none of them have the same moral code, which causes no end of conflicts. Additionally, Cas hates having to trust other people (other than Rio) even a little bit. There’s no romance in this book, but there is the beginning of, to paraphrase Casablanca, the start of many beautiful friendships.

Incidentally, most of the characters, including Cas, are characters of color and one character uses a wheelchair. This book is very violent and includes the (off-page) death of a child. I don’t recall any animal deaths but the human bodies pile up all over the place. Many, many vehicles meet crunchy and/or explosive ends, buildings burn up, and a particular office carpet will never be the same, but, refreshingly, there’s no sexual assault. Instead, there are fascinating characters, exciting action sequences, and loads of competence porn. The reason for the B+ is that I didn’t buy the reach of the conspiracy, and the ending, while perfectly poised for a sequel, left me (and Cas) frustrated with a lack of closure.

– Carrie S

A blockbuster, near-future science fiction thriller, S.L. Huang’s Zero Sum Game introduces a math-genius mercenary who finds herself being manipulated by someone possessing unimaginable power…

Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight, and she’ll take any job for the right price.

As far as Cas knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower…until she discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Moebius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master.

Cas should run, like she usually does, but for once she’s involved. There’s only one problem…

She doesn’t know which of her thoughts are her own anymore.

Science Fiction/Fantasy