• Zero Sum

  • A John Rain Novel
  • By: Barry Eisler
  • Narrated by: Barry Eisler
  • Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,591 ratings)

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Zero Sum  By  cover art

Zero Sum

By: Barry Eisler
Narrated by: Barry Eisler
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Publisher's summary

Returning to Tokyo in 1982 after a decade of mercenary work in the Philippines, a young John Rain learns that the killing business is now controlled by Victor, a half-Russian, half-Japanese sociopath who has ruthlessly eliminated all potential challengers. Victor gives Rain a choice: kill a government minister or die a grisly death. But the best route to the minister is through his gorgeous Italian wife, Maria, a route that puts Rain on a collision course not only with Victor but with the shadowy forces behind the Russian's rise to dominance - and the longings of Rain's own conflicted heart.

It's a battle between kingpin and newcomer, master and apprentice, a zero-sum contest that can only end with one man dead and the other the world's foremost assassin.

©2017 Barry Eisler (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

What listeners say about Zero Sum

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Welcome back John Rain!

Oh Thank You Barry Eisler! I've been hoping that John Rain would make an appearance at some point and that the author hadn't given him up. Since he has been writing some other really good stand alone books I was curious if Rain had been retired.
Anyway back to this book. Basically this book is about John Rain being set up. He's given a difficult assignment of killing a politician by an unbalanced Russian ex spetznaz who is being used by an ex CIA honcho working the wrong side now. The plan is to have Rain complete the job based on intelligence provided by them and they will kill him afterward.
It's very interesting to listen to his introspective examination of his situation and his calculations of how he he will counterattack and his anxiety over whether he can pull it off. This being a much younger John Rain, he has not yet honed his skills to the lethal weapon he will become.
I think Eisler does a fantastic job narrating his own books.
This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent John Rain suspense thriller!

Listening to Zero Sum just after completing Brad Thor's newest novel in his Scot Harvath series may have affected my rating of this John Rain novel. Although Zero Sum is Book 9 in Barry Eisler's John Rain series, it is the first in the series chronologically; it goes back to 1982 when Rain was around 30 years old. He grew up in both Japan and the US and is very fluent in both languages. Rain dropped out of high school at age 17 to join the US Army and he served in Vietnam. After that he joined the CIA briefly and then moved on to become a contract killer is Japan until he made a major error and was forced to leave the country. He moved to the Philippines for almost a decade before he became persona non grata there so he moved back to Japan in 1982 hoping he would be welcome there. That is the point that this novel starts.

I am a longtime fan of author Barry Eisler and his John Rain series. I rate most of his novels 5 star. Eisler along with his long time friend JA (Joe) Konrath are two of few well established authors with major publishing houses who moved early on to self publishing and they deserves substantial credit along with Amazon and others for bringing down the price of books. He also republished all of first six John Rain novels with new titles and with Eisler himself narrating. I've been very critical of such authors such as Lee Child and Brad Thor for republishing some of their audio novels when I already had copies of the original publication. That criticism does not apply to Barry Eisler although I already owned the original publication of his first six John Rain novels because the narration was much improved and the new versions were inexpensive. Zero Sum for example cost me only $1.99 rather than a full credit.

Eisler has been experimenting with other types of novels for several years. I am very pleased with him returning to his John Rain series. Zero Sum is an excellent addition to the John Rain series, but in my opinion it does not quite deserve 5 star rating for the story itself. Eisler demonstrates again that he is an outstanding narrator. Narration is so good that it brings the overall rating up to 5 stars.

I recommend all novels in the John Rain series because all are worthwhile and because Barry Eisler more than any other established author deserves credit for speeding the acceptance of self publishing.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Eisler is the Best Narrator for hosting Books

Eisler's pronunciation of Japanese (maybe with a hint of American accent) is certainly a plus. It's nice to have Rain as. "player" again instead of wanting to quit all of the time. It gives the books that take place later in time more depth.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

You don’t take a knife to a sword fight

This was an entertaining, stand-alone flashback story within the John Rain series. However, there were a few things ranking this on the lower end of the series for me.

Uncontrollable, psychotic bad guys also tend to be unbelievable bad guys and Viktor was no exception. This author is usually better at writing above B movie characters.

Although this is still a flashback, and John Rain is still working out his code, it felt tonally off for him to have an affair. Even in the previous book (set in the 70s), he had a respect for women that should have prevented him from engaging with the married woman in this book in the manner that he did.

Which brings me to the biggest downside. The author is a phenomenal narrator, whom I’ve ranked five stars across the series until now. But here he narrates with the worst Italian accent ever.
Part of me died inside each time I heard it.

“At some point …we’ll see we can’t have shiny without enduring what’s sharp.”
Flaws aside, this is still an excellent story with credibly developed spycraft, clever plot-melding with real-world events, and nuanced human relationships. The bedroom scenes were better written here than in previous books, either because the author is more seasoned or because the interludes here are more rough, almost like choreographed fight scenes (and boy does this author write a good fight scene).

I also give mad respect to the author for his amazing (and effortless) portrayal of women and individuals with disabilities in his books. In other books, we’ve been treated to a deaf hitman, a Korean love interest in a wheelchair, a black spy, and a femme fatale. Here, we have Maria, an older woman who is nonetheless beautiful, but also smart, sophisticated and wise. All these strong characters who aren’t white men or mere caricatures. All of his books and series exist in the same world, but I sincerely hope the author puts his considerable writing/narration skills into new worlds or books as he has become one of my few auto-click authors.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Have I mentioned I love Eisler?

Okay, I actually search for and buy every book Eisler releases. I particularly like the John Rain series... every one of them. This was no exception. It is a prequel and shows us a John Rain near the start of his career/learning curve.

The drawback to a prequel is that we lose the suspense of knowing if Rain will 'survive'. But the advantage of it is learning more about him and his character/skills development. And, of course, Eisler has just the right mix of suspense and vigilantism so we do want to see it through to the end to make sure the bad guys got what they deserved.

There is no graphic violence or detailed sex. I think there might have been a handful of swear words, but... maybe not, it was pretty unobtrusive if so. The narration is very good. Eisler has taken to narrating his own books and each one of them is actually better narrated that the one before.

As usual, I will buy any new Rain book, or any book by Eisler, as soon as it is released. (oh, FYI, his Livia Lone is also very good)

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

the bad thing about this series?

it’s over! i don’t even know what to do with myself now! i guess check to see if there are any more of his books that i’ve missed, right?! cause otherwise, super sad face!=(((

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Stinker.

This felt juvenile. Thin characters. Amateur plot. The romance was surface. The author has clearly never been to japan, but only read about it or if he did it was just to tourist traps. He missed any of the feel for it. Could not get through it.

His reading was rough. Especially his italian woman voice.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I've read every one of these books and found this one lacking. It feels as if this is a precursor to another book or Mr Eisler was off his game with this one. The story felt contrived.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I love these J Rain books.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes

What did you like best about this story?

Interaction with the characters.

Which character – as performed by Barry Eisler – was your favorite?

Tots, and his other government contact.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It makes me wonder about myself. I wonder why I enjoy and look forward to these John Rain books.

Any additional comments?

More Doc, the musician girl that went to New York, and Delia.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

And yet another excellent one

I liked everything about this book. Now going to listen to the next one in the series

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