Code to Zero is a book with a fascinating premise – Luke has lost his memory of his entire life, and has to piece it together. Meanwhile, the United States is launching Explorer 1, their first satellite into space, to try to catch up to the Soviet Union in the space race. The thriller promises to explore two fascinating ideas in one: the critical importance of the space race to the United States in 1958 and the possible implications of Explorer 1 failing to launch; and what it means to be yourself after you have lost all memory. A further theme is promised. Set in the first days of the CIA, Code to Zero had the potential to explore what the creation of a government spying agency did to America after World War 2, and what implications that may have had.
But Follett doesn’t manage this. Instead, the amnesia, the CIA and the rocket launch are exploited solely to create a thrilling plot. It is stuffed full of characters with conflicts that feel manufactured and separate from their personalities. The result is Follett at his most frustrating: endlessly entertaining but also shallow and melodramatic. It is so frustrating to have the CIA abuse its power endlessly and not to have that explored at all as a theme. And in the end, although the book says that if Explorer 1 doesn’t launch, the US is out of the space race, I somehow find that hard to believe. Can’t they try again? And as for the amnesia, there are a few observations about how Luke is afforded a chance to reset his life, but to be honest, for plot reasons, he has to piece together his life in a very short space of time, so we don’t have much time to dwell on it.
And worse still, there are a whole cast of characters who have personalities and backgrounds, as well as motives and roles, but these don’t match up in any way. There is a huge plot twist at the end that comes out of nowhere, and in the end is really quite impossible to foresee. Another woman, a former love interest of Luke’s, seems to be there to create the mandatory love story in a thriller, but her love for Luke and his for her doesn’t seem to be built on anything. It’s difficult to believe and therefore hard to root for. All we get is a series of action scenes and chases. That it is brilliant for tension that Luke can’t remember much is hard to deny, but even that is slightly ruined by the fact that we get told Luke’s story in flashbacks before he figures it out. We don’t even get to experience him rediscovering his life story properly.
I guess, for me, a book is only good if it holds potential to be reread. Code to Zero fails this test: it entertains, then leaves you to shrug. A pity, as it held so much promise in its premise, and in the hands of another author this story might have been a classic.
Wet Broken Things 