Book info

• Title Code to Zero
• Author Ken Follett
• Year 2000
• Genre Thriller

A Man with No Memory. A man wakes up to find himself lying on the ground in a railway station, his mind stripped bare of all recollection. He has no idea how he got there; he does not even know his own name. Convinced he is a drunken down and out, it isn’t until a newspaper report about a satellite launch catches his eye, that he suspects all is not what it seems... A Race for the Future. The year is 1958, and America is about to launch its first satellite in a desperate attempt to match the Soviet Sputnik and regain the lead in the space race. As Luke Lucas gradually unravels the mystery of his amnesia, he realizes that his fate is bound up with that of the rocket that stands ready on launch pad 26B at Cape Canaveral. A World on the Brink. As he relearns the story of his life, he uncovers long-kept secrets about his wife, his best friend and the woman he once loved more than life itself. But even more terrifying is the dark secret they tried to make him forget, a secret that threatens America’s survival.

Thoughts

I love a good Ken Follett thriller, and this was one of those - not only a great spy chase but centred around getting a rocket up into space as well! Set in the heart of the space race, this book aims to tell the fictionalised behind the scenes story of why the Explorer 1 rocket launch was delayed twice, because of the weather (even though it was a sunny day in Florida).

Flipping between the present, in which our hero has lost his memory and is trying to figure out who he is and what conspiracy he’s got himself involved in, and the past, wherein four university students try to figure out their place in the world and with each other, it’s a serious pageturner.

I really liked the twist of Luke not only having to unravel the twisted plot of what was happening around the launch of the rocket, but also having to work out who on earth he was. It’s a unique take on the spy genre, and it worked really well. Great read.

Rating: 4 / 5