Year Zero
Year Zero is Rob Reid's 2012 comic science-fiction novel, written shortly after he sold the music-streaming startup Listen.com (which became Rhapsody) to RealNetworks. The premise is straightforward and lethal. In the wider galaxy, almost every advanced species creates dreadful music. In 1977, signals from a small backwater planet called Earth reached the Refined League and triggered a civilization-wide aesthetic revelation: Welcome Back, Kotter's theme song was the most beautiful thing the entire galaxy had ever heard. Within months, every alien with access to a transmitter had been pirating Earth's music continuously. Under the Refined League's own treaty law, this means the Refined League now owes Earth's music industry, by current statutory damages, every dollar of value in the galaxy. Nick Carter, a baby-lawyer at a Manhattan music-licensing firm, becomes the unlikely Earth contact who must keep the assassination squads at bay while a settlement is negotiated.
Where Year Zero keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
What you might want to know about Year Zero
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Manhattan music-rights lawyer Nick Carter answers his office door to two aliens dressed as a parrot-headed man and a pop star.
Yes. It is a comedic alien-contact novel built around the premise that aliens are obsessed with Earth music and have copyright law trouble.
It leans heavily into humor. Reviews compare it to Hitchhiker's Guide and Ready Player One in tone.
Year Zero was written by Rob Reid, published in 2013 by Random House Publishing Group.
Year Zero is 368 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Year Zero takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
Year Zero is a standalone novel by Rob Reid, not part of a series.
Year Zero is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
