Zero G (The Zero Chronicles, 1)

How can one kid defeat an entire band of space pirates when everyone he knows is asleep? Twelve-year-old Zero is traveling with 20,000 people for 105 years to colonize a new planet. Everyone is in stasis, so they'll be safe during the trip, but when Zero's pod malfunctions it wakes him early, like 105 years early. At first he's excited to be the only one awake - he has the entire ship to himself, so he can go anywhere and see and do and eat anything he wants - but when a family of space pirates show up, trying to hijack the ship and kidnap the colonizers, Zero has to think fast and find a way to stop them all on his own. This is the middle grade debut by New York Times best-selling author Dan Wells, who has written lots of books for adults, as well as movies, television, and plays. He cohosts the Hugo-winning podcast for aspiring writers called Writing Excuses, also writes short fiction and game fiction, and edited the anthology Altered Perceptions to help raise funds for and awareness of mental illness. Dan lives in northern Utah with his wife, six children, and more than 400 board games.