Rob Reid takes his cue from The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy in Year Zero, a humorous tale of a galaxy-spanning alien culture hell-bent on securing the rights to all of humanity's music forever. Nick Carter is a junior-level music lawyer in a high-powered firm when he is visited by surprisingly human-looking aliens who arrive via a temporary wrinkle in space-time to plead their case.
Carter is a fast talker--and thinker. He promises the two oddly dressed humanoids that he'll figure it out, and they disappear back to whatever distant star system they came from. What follows next is a satirical look at pop culture, the music industry, science fiction tropes and intellectual property law.
The galaxy has strict rules of ethical behavior; it must honor laws about artworks from the originating planet. Because of Earth-based antipiracy laws, the galaxy owes humanity a ton of money for the music it's been listening to since 1977, the year radio waves carrying pop music were discovered by alien civilizations. (It turns out pop sends every non-human listener into paroxysms of joy and sensory overload.) Some aliens, however, try to exploit a loophole whereby planets that destroy themselves can no longer collect royalties.
The fun in Year Zero comes from the banter among the main characters, all of whom are well drawn and hilarious in their own right. While the novel satirizes the music industry, it's obvious the author feels as passionately as some of the alien characters about the power of pop music. --Rob LeFebvre, freelance writer and editor