Zero Sum Game is a fast, hard-hitting, gonzo superpowered thriller. Huang builds tension scene-on-scene, skillfully manipulating the pace, and every second chapter feels like a cliffhanger ... Zero Sum Game is enormously fun, with vivid, visceral action scenes and a main character who’s definitely on the darker, more scuffed end of the 'moral shades of grey' spectrum. Huang’s taken liberal inspiration from old-fashioned noir as well as from superhero stories and the modern high-octane Hollywood-esque thriller to create a novel that’s a souped-up blend of all three. I really enjoyed it. I recommend it, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more of Huang’s work reach a wider audience.
In Zero Sum Game, we have a selection of main characters who are not easily defined as 'good' or 'bad.' In fact, that’s why they are so interesting. Cas makes decisions based on self preservation and getting out of bad situations that often end in collateral damage. She’s also a fun character to follow. Her quips, mostly internal, are humorous ... I had my doubts when I started, but after reading through Cas’s high-energy, pulse-pounding adventures, I became a believer. Zero Sum Game delivers a smart, calculated action thriller that keeps the reader guessing.
The novel pushes a relentless pace, with countless well-executed action scenes and an impressive body count ... Zero Sum Game's pleasures lie in the protagonist's repeated ability to extricate herself from seemingly impossible predicaments, whipping up math-based solutions to gunfights on the fly. In one memorable scene, Russell makes a number of small adjustments, one involving an umbrella, that allow her to eavesdrop on a distant conversation. How? It involves sound waves and, of course, math. In Cas Russell, Huang has created a protagonist with a distinctive hook.
Originally self-published in 2014, Huang’s series starter will have readers anxiously awaiting the next four entries. Her efficient writing makes the concept of a math-based superpower seem both understandable and extremely useful. A fast-paced, darkly humorous read with a lot of heart for fans of action and urban fantasy, as well as lovers of Wolverine and other morally ambiguous, gritty superheroes with a mysterious past.
... fast-paced, gripping and sometimes gruesomely violent story ... As Zero Sum Game unfolds in a maze of unbalancing twists and turns, the reader, along with Huang’s increasingly frustrated characters, begins to question the basic principles of good, bad, right, wrong, moral, amoral and so on ... As Huang brilliantly conveys in the unsettling open-endedness of Zero Sum Game, [the story's] no-win outcome is not a return to the status quo for either side.
This frustrating debut SF action-thriller introduces plenty of cool ideas but never fleshes them out ... Readers get no insight into Cass’s history, so a late twist involving past events falls completely flat ... Huang’s adventure story is certainly cheesy, but its fatal flaw is that it never manages to be fun.
This debut is a paranormal thriller in which both the action and the questions don’t stop ... Cas is an awesome antiheroine, sympathetic despite her practical approach to violence, and her abilities make this book exciting, nasty fun, compensating in great part for the open-endedness of the plot, which raises more questions than it answers, both about who Cas and Rio truly are and about whether Pithica’s motives are as sincere as it claims. This is obviously the initial book in a series, establishing our cast and the mysteries we need to solve. If not entirely satisfying on its own, an excellent harbinger for books to come.
