Better than the first, in my opinion! Directive 51 was about how governments are fragile; this book gets more into how human minds are fragile. The science is established, so we wade deeper into the politics. John does a great job keeping you guessing who the good guys really are.

Need to read this series from the beginning. A lot of characters. Other than that, interesting premise on why the world destructed. Secret organization, madness, religious fanaticism, power conflicts. As a dystopian novel, not bad. Recommend starting from the beginning.

One of those page turning, post apocalyptic novels that took me far too long to read. All my own fault really. Once you start you don't want to put it down unless life interferes. It also makes me want to read Directive 51, the precursor to this novel.Civilization has broken down. The moon is lobbing EMP bombs at surviving radio stations. Daybreak is near...Told in a vast series of quick moving vignettes through the eyes of multiple characters, you never really get a chance to catch up until it'...

These three books by John Barnes, Directive 51, Daybreak Zero and The Last President are a must read. They provide a chilling reason for why SETI may be a bad idea. The writing is excellent. Set in the near future, people all over Earth start working to reverse progress and take us back to the technology level of the early 1800's. The reason why this is so can't really be seen until the last book.I bought the first book based on the cover and the description of the story on the back of the book....

John Barnes sets the stage in Directive 51 by ending the world as we know it, and bringing to life a new, altered one as the diminished population tries to restart civilization. But just when it seems like the right start to getting things back to some semblance of order, people soon find out that the terrifyingly brilliant movement known as “Daybreak” isn’t completely finished yet, plus when its comes right down to it, people overall are just selfish and greedy, especially when their lives are

This sequel concentrates on a matter which was a little undertreated in the first book: What IS Daybreak? And it turns out to be more than a social movement -- it's a virulent mind-control meme with eradication of humans as its goal. Not that the humans that are left need any help with that.

The second installment of John Barnes's "Daybreak" series (begun with "Directive 51). Still want more, and am looking forward to what happens next.What happens to civilization when a mysterious entity known as Daybreak destroys pretty much all technology requiring plastic or petroleum? All kinds of weird stuff.The United States is divided into two separate provisional governments, both of which promise to fulfill their mission to restore the nation under the constitution. But with the country fr...

The second book in a series I started reading during my deployment last year. This book was a bit shorter, but equally as absorbing. I'd expected it to be the final book in the series, but the ending makes clear that there will be at least a third, and I'm happy for that. This is still one of the only science-fiction series I've ever enjoyed, and I enjoy it immensely.My only real concern at the end of the first book was that there were some loose ends, but this book proved that there were none,

The more I read the more confused I am about what Daybreak actually is. To be fair, I think that's the point. Generally speaking, I get annoyed by books where a character is obviously being manipulated by something but that very manipulation means they can't figure out they've been manipulated. If it's subtle and as the reader I don't figure it out that's fine. The problem is in cases like this where the first time Aaron dropped by I was 90% sure what was going on and the second time I was posit...

If you are reading this review you probably already know that this is the middle book of the Daybreak trilogy. As such it both benefits and suffers from that. Mostly it suffers, I think, for reasons I will go into later. On the benefit side the introduction of the characters, setting, and plotline is largely out of the way. Barnes plunges into the post Daybreak conflict. Or rather, the Daybreak War as it should be called, for apparently unleashing petroleum, plastic, and electric destroying nano...

Be careful reading this or you will surely be seduced into Daybreak.

This book started slowly but picked up the pace. It is a must to read volume one first. I liked it but did not love it.

Despite some annoyances, I liked this one better than the first entry in the trilogy. 4 Stars. He kept me on the edge of my seat for the last half of the book. I found myself really caring and pulling for some characters and hating some others. (view spoiler)[Lord Karl did not get what he deserved! (hide spoiler)] On to the third book when I can find a copy.

This is the second book in a series by John Barnes. The first book, Directive 51, was mostly horrible. The world Mr. Barnes creates is quite interesting. It is set in the future where a group called Daybreak has decided to take down the system by infecting the world with things that wipe out plastic, rubber, and nearly all electricity. They also have set off massive nuclear sized bombs around the world. America is reeling and most believe that Daybreak is over. That whatever was going to happen

The premise: what happens when a nano tech is released that dissolves all plastics into a liquid state, and assorted other eco terrorism attacks, with an unnamed group's objective of reducing the world population to 100 million and moving to a hunter gather society. Makes Berkeley look like a John Birch stronghold in comparison. Barnes is a seriously under appreciated writer, but hard science novels in general are out of vogue these days. This is the second in a trilogy.

Middle of the road post apocalyptic novel. There's a previous book, so the stuff I didn't get may have been in there,but nano mawchines that will dissolve plastics should dissolve cellulose, too. Also, The mind control stuff doesn't work the way it does in this book.

This is the sequel to Directive 51, and I think it was even better than the first. It built on the foundation of what happened in the first book, and the people that were the main characters, and delves into why and how it might have happened, adding some twists and turns in that area, and brought the two factions to the brink of war, with other influences and dangers creeping in, such as the castles, and the outsiders. Pueblo remained the center of action, and this one was scarier, a little tor...

I can suspend belief just so far. This goes too far.

Really enjoyed this book. I like the small snippets and continually changing locales and characters. The main viewpoint is of decent people, the kind we'd like to have rebuilding our country in the face of such a disaster. You want everything to be okay and it looks like it would be, if only we'd trust the good guys. Which makes it all that much more surprising and shocking when things don't turn out the way we'd like them to, the way we think they're going to. Case in point: the ultimate fate o...

I read Directive 51 over five years ago and enjoyed it. Don't know why it took me over five years before reading Daybreak Zero but reading it now in our current political environment made it more interesting. I enjoyed this book just as much.