Review: An unusually outstanding opening chapter
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2013
I stumbled on this book by chance and I’m happy I did. I was trying to help a friend who is working on her first novel—an ecological GMO thriller. I was using Amazon to find other books in that genre and reading opening chapters using their marvelous “Look Inside the Book” feature. My goal was to try to find an ecological thriller with an outstanding and unusually inviting opening…something I could show my friend as an example. “Population Zero” had an opening chapter that blew me away. Not only was I impressed, I was mesmerized! I just had to buy the book and read it immediately. As an eBook, it was inexpensive. Within moments it was uploaded to my Kindle, and I finished it comfortably in less then 36 hours.As a whole, the novel did not live up to its exceptional opening, but it wasn’t that bad either. In fact, I rather enjoyed it…and that is the reason why I am taking the time to write this review.L. M. Mallery can write and she can certainly keep a thriller well paced. What I missed was a believable story and better three-dimensional characters. But aren’t a lot of successful popular thrillers hard to believe and have stereotypical characters? There were times while I was reading this novel when I kept telling myself that the plot was ludicrous, and riddled with scientific impossibilities and psychological improbabilities. But I still kept reading. Why? I learned a lesson about how important pacing is to the overall success of a work of fiction, in particular a thriller.The story concerns a time in the not-too-distant future when people all over the world seem to be unable to have children. Scientists trace the problem to common GMO foods. In this case, the GMO foods have taken two generations for the human sterility issues to emerge. The world is quickly approaching absolute zero population growth and societal collapse is inevitable. There’s a conspiracy. There are dedicated research scientists working on a cure. There are huge underground isolation and survival cities. There’s a love story. And, unfortunately, a very predictable ending. But through all of it, I kept turning the pages. That’s the importance of pacing.“Population Zero” is a good strong debut novel and the author deserves a solid three-star rating. If you want a lesson on pacing, this novel deserves at least a three-point-five, or perhaps even a full four-star rating.