The Dragon Factory

The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 2

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Ex-Baltimore cop turned special-ops shooter Joe Ledger is back in action.

In The Dragon Factory, Ledger and his team from the Department of Military Sciences square off against two separate groups of corrupt scientists. The beautiful but twisted Jakoby Twins are creating transgenic monsters and genetically enhanced mercenaries for sale to the highest bidder. Their father, who takes evil to an entirely new level, is using cutting-edge science to complete the Nazi master-race program.

Joe must elude the NSA who are gunning for him, fight his way past rogue Spetsnaz teams, and stop these madmen before the Extinction Clock runs out. And when the bloodbath claims one of his own, Joe Ledger declares total war on those people who would burn down the world in order to reshape it in their own dark image.

Take another thrill ride with Joe Ledger.

©2010 Jonathan Maberry (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“In Stoker-winner Maberry’s wild second Joe Ledger novel, Joe and his comrades from the Department of Military Science take on enough villains and their world-threatening plots to fill half a dozen ordinary thrillers.” ( Publishers Weekly)

Growing on me

I didn't like the series when I started listening to it. As I listened to more, I grew to like the characters and the story line.

OMG

This series is so addictive, and tempting. I highly recommend it. It could almost be true the way it is written and read.

Go Joe!

Great story. Ray Porter’s narration of Mayberry’s story makes this so riveting. Yeah, check your brain at the door but this is fiction at its best. Can’t wait to listen to the next one!

why didn't I start this series sooner?

I kept passing it by.. I think it was the cover of book 1, it looks ridiculous to me so I judged and that was my fault because this series is amazing and I'm about to start the next book ! don't be like me, stop passing it by, get it from your wish list and start this series now! you won't regret it. ps. narration is wonderful, love Ray Porter's work ❤

So good

Not many audiobooks are good enough to make me keep listening when I get out of the car, but this series does it. What's the audio version of a page-turner? Ear-turner?

Men Are All The Same, Show Them A Little Clevage &

They Lose All Sense.

Another Five Star Novel, with a Five Star Performance by Ray Porter.

I will be the first to admit that this not as good as Patient Zero the first book in this series and even though you could read this book without reading that book, I believe you would be happier to read PZ first. PZ introduces you to Joe Ledger and to the Department of Military Sciences (X-Files on steroids). Some have given this less the five stars, the trap they have fallen into is that they are comparing Maberry to Maberry. That's like giving your second favorite book in the world three or four stars, cause it ain't as good as your favorite. Meaning only one book you have ever read could earn five stars. This book is still better then most of what is out there.

This is a Mad Scientist Novel (Mevil), no Zombies, but lots of genetic monsters.

Pro: Like a Koontz novel this filled with all kinds of creatures and bad guys. Here is a sample of what you will come across; Centaurs, Scorpion Dogs, Elves, The Chamber of Myths, Quetzalcoatl, Chinese Dragons, European Dragons, Sea Serpents, Gargoyles, The Hive, anti-aging gene, White Angel, mudpeople, transgenic soldiers, albino twins, life unworthy of life, extinction clock, Tigerhounds, clones, Neanderthals, New Men, unicorns, faith gene, and The Island of Dr. Moreau. The bad guys are cliche, Nazi's, Albinos and Russians, but in a book like this sometimes cliche is good. I lived for almost a year as a kid in Germany and went on vacation there almost two years ago and I love the German people, but you have to admit they make great bad guys. You may say that is politically incorrect, but you know you agree.

Con: I got sick and tired of the Extinction Clock. Every one of the 133 chapters starts with the Extinction Clock Countdown. It seemed to me that they kind of Wussied Ledger a little. He falls in love in this, he gets touchy feelie in parts, he less of a smart a@@ and he thinks before acting, something he didn't do in book 1. There are a couple of points where the book gets real patriotic in a patronizing way. There are a couple of duller then usual parts and the book seems a little unnecessarily stretched out. The epilogue is kind of stupid. Keep in mind we are comparing Ledger to Ledger, which sets the bar pretty high.

Ray Porter is great. I did notice in this book that Ray sounds an awful lot like Tom Hanks. I like Tom Hanks, so that is not a problem with me, it just seemed weird.

Extinction coutndown

Joe Ledger is the supernatural Jack Bauer. The Dragon Factory even has a countdown clock. So, I wasn't totally sold on book one, but it was good enough for me to give book two a spin and I'm glad that I did. How can AIDS, Nazis, clones, unicorns, and a potential ethnic cleansing on a massive scale all be tied together? The answer: apparently seamlessly if you are Jonathan Maberry. I will fully admit that I went into this with heavy skepticism. I'm still not ready to call this "horror" per se, but it is certainly a thriller. You owe it to yourself to give it a spin.

Fantastical and Fun

The second book in what is (at the time of this writing) a three book series was a strong follow-up to it's predecessor, Patient Zero. Joe Ledger, now a bit more settled in with his new job, finds new battles to fight and new threats to the continuation of the human race.

This whole series is worth listening to just to hear Ray Porter's performance, possibly the best I've ever heard. I'll be on the lookout for any new books he does and would have no hesitation basing a selection solely on the merits that Ray Porter had narrated.

My only problem with The Dragon Factory was the "flavor" of villain. Jonathan Maberry has brought Nazi's into present day, and as you can imagine, the dialogue of these villains is ugly, offensive, and off-putting. While I fully recognize the fact that if these characters had been less hateful they wouldn't have been the level of villain the story was working towards, I can't pretend that there weren't times that I wished we could fast forward through some of the hate speech. I could have done without it, and feel I still would have been able to understand that these were the "bad guys". I'm sure there's an argument to be made in the other direction, but it's not one I choose to make at this time.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book for a good thriller, performed by a really top rate narrator.

soooooo good!

this story is even better than patient zero!!! seriously,I can't even..... awesome, amazing, and crazy good!

Exciting but very harsh

Very fast paced action involving Mr. Church, Joe Ledger and his team. Some very evil men want to bring about world wide destruction. They have set the dooms day clock and it counts down during the book, starting at 79 hours. The evil leader is crazy but brilliant. He rules his dominion, the Deck, with an iron and lethal fist. He and his albino twin children, a male and a female, are into genetics and creating new or extinct species. The twins live in the compound called the Dragon Factory. They experiment and torture as they create. There are many supporting characters, some good and some horrible. I was fascinated by the young boy called Sam, or number 82. The action jumps around from Washington D.C., to Denver, to Europe, to Africa and other places. The torture and killing is very harsh and is often hard to listen to. The story is also very sad - overall nail biting and interesting. The narrator is excellent.

If you want to know what happens in Ledger's hunt for the assassin, and I can't tell you who the person assassinated, go to book 2.5, Dog Days before you go to the third book, King of Plagues. If you don't listen to Dog Days you will feel as if you are missing something when you start King of Plagues. For instance, you will find out in book 2.5 how Ghost the white dog comes into the picture.