Patient Zero

The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 1

De: Jonathan Maberry

Narrado por: Ray Porter

From multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry comes a major new thriller that combines the best of the New York Times best-selling books World War Z by Max Brooks and James Rollins’ Sigma Force Series to kick off the start of a new series featuring Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences.

When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there’s either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills - and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Ledger’s skills. And that’s both a good and a bad thing. It’s good because he’s a Baltimore detective who has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new task force created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can’t handle. This rapid-response group is called the Department of Military Sciences, or the DMS for short. It’s bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bioweapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Jonathan Maberry is the New York Times best-selling and multiple Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Ghost Road Blues, the first of a trilogy of thrillers with a supernatural bite. A professional writer and writing teacher, he has sold more than 1.000 articles, 17 nonfiction books, six novels, and two plays.

©2009 Jonathan Maberry (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Brilliant, shocking, horrifying, it puts the terror back in terrorist.” (James Rollins, New York Times best-selling author)

“Plenty of man-to-zombie combat, a team traitor and a doomsday scenario add up to a fast and furious read.” ( Publishers Weekly)

"Jonathan Maberry has found a delightful voice for this adventure of Joe Ledger and his crew: while the action is heated, violent, and furious, the writing remains cool, steady, and low-key, framing all the wildness and exuberance in a calm rationality (given an almost comic edge) that renders it as palatable as your favorite flavor of ice cream." (Peter Straub)

Drop Dead and get back up great.

While others are thinking about what to do, Joe Ledger is getting it done. If you take a second to think, Joe will kick your ass, he pulls no punches, he is balls out all the way.

The book is funnier then a John Scalzi novel, Scarier then Stephen King and weirder then Dean Koontz.

The Department of Military Science, seems to be the action side of the X-Files. It is run by Mr Church, but who is Mr. Church? People used to say Who is John Gault, but now they will be saying Who is Mr. Church?

Don't get me wrong this is no comic book fluff, this is well-written stuff. Some say it is not literature, but I dare you to say that in front of John Maberry. He even knows how to use chapters, something that seems to confuse most modern Science Fiction writers.

This is the best book I have listened to since I started listening and that is hundreds of books.

Ray Porter does an excellent, excellent job. If I could give Seven Stars I would give it to him.

My vote for narrator of the year.

This book is (at the time of this review) the first of three books in "Joe Ledger" series. For fellow fans of Lee Child, Joe Ledger can be described as Jack Reacher, with less of a vigilante bend, and far more high tech toys.

This is not, in my opinion, a bad thing.

In my experience it's rare to find a "hero" of a thriller that still expresses disbelief and horror at the things he sees and does, and I found it refreshing. The pace was very good, and the short chapters and constant countdown kept it moving along swimmingly. I appreciated that the various villains had varying levels of "evilness", and the humor inserted regularly kept me chuckling to myself.

The real hero of these books (both this and the following two in the series, which I read in quick succession) was Ray Porter, the narrator. He's absolutely amazing in his delivery, and his performance alone makes this book more than worthwhile. It really amazed me. He lent a depth to the character that really put the book on a whole other level.

I recommend this book, and overall I recommend the following two books as well.

Pretty Good

What did you like best about Patient Zero? What did you like least?

I liked the premise of the story. The different settings & characters at play all seemed believable. What I like least is how the build up for the lead character Joe Ledger painted him as this unrelenting killer, this all time, unfeeling kick butt of a guy. This dude turned out to be the biggest wus ever. He hesitated when having to shoot children that were 'undead' & trying to kill him - musing that 'it shouldn't be this way'. Feeling sorry for everyone around him & doubting his life choices while he should be KICKIN BUTT - I don't want to hear about his FEELINGS. What happened to great build up about this untouchable man? I guess he moved on to a different story. At what I like least is that HE FALLS IN LOVE! Give me a break. While fighting off the undead he's thinking about some chick. 'I wonder if she's ok. I don't want to lose her'. Blah blah blah. How friggin sickening. Ledgers whole persona just pissed me off. And the sneak peak it gave into the next book in this saga is that Ledger & this chick will lead together - oh brother! More of Mr. Wus & his feelings. I hate it when authors introduce chicks that become a 'love interest'. If Mayberry wanted to write a love story this wasn't the place to do it.

Has Patient Zero turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I've read some other zombie books that I like very much.

Which scene was your favorite?

All the scenes that had to do w/ Mr. Church. He never wavered, he remained KICK BUTT. He remained mysterious & didn't sit down to have a friggin heart to heart with his team. He stayed true & was the only character I really liked.

Did Patient Zero inspire you to do anything?

Like what? Protect myself against a plague that turns people into zombies? No.

Any additional comments?

I'm reluctant to read anymore of this series because I know Ledger is a wus & now he's in love. Gag me with a spoon.

Poorly written

Any additional comments?

The book is a quasi-original take on the zombie genre, but it's inundated with poorly drawn stereotypes, token characters, and shallow relationships. The grammar is beyond horrendous and it's attempts at using Arabic are laughable. I wouldn't recommend wasting your money.

Sledge Hammer Vs a Zombie Al Qaeda and you have..!

Man, this new Joe Ledger series I found is awesome!! Joe Ledger is a smart ass, top U.S. Military leader, who is smart and a bad ass. This is like no other zombie book character out there. Storyline kinda follows the same path as the book "Day by Day Armageddon" where it is a daily/hourly/minutes chronicle of what is going on but with in its own style. You get so involved in all the different characters. The narrator did such an amazing job. I thought that Oliver Wyman from "The Morningstar Strain series" was the best zombie narrator but Ray Porter killed it! Not alot of "Zombies" as you would expect but the zombies in this story did not become the undead organically and it makes sense for the set up in this book 1.
I highly recommend this book 1 and my book 2 is downloading as i'm writing this review!!

-Big Art

A Very Fun Story

Any additional comments?

It seems like Joe Ledger is the Doppelganger for the the character John Corey by Nelson DeMille. Both are ex-cops that got sucked into working for the government. Even Ray Porter's narration often times reminded me a lot of Scott Brick.

Despite this, I did really enjoy this book. The action and choreographed fight scenes were perfect. I personally like the books where the protagonist is a bit of a smart ass bad-ass (Such as John Corey). The idea behind the story is a rather scary one and although we don't necessarily have the technology now (at least in the public's eye), I wonder when and if it will come.

This book was recommended to me after I postulated on Facebook about the two events that occurred recently in the news. One was the Miami Face Eater and the second was a man in New Jersey who was cutting himself open and throwing his intestines at the cops. These two events are being blamed on the use of Bath Salts. However, after reading up on Bath Salts, I've learned there is no test that can be administered to determine if someone is on the designer drug. In fact, one ER doc said they only could know if the person who came into the ER told them that's what it was. Consequently, the question arises, how did they know. I began to wonder if it was something viral, after all it is the CDC and not FEMA who has the new advertising gimmick about preparing for a zombie apocalypse. That's when a cousin told me about this book. One that makes my postulation possible.

In summation, I enjoyed this book. I don't really think something like this is truly possible but it was a fun story and I really hope it gets made into a movie.

Very Pleasantly Surprised

This story is not an apocalyptic novel or supernatural. It revolves around anti-terrorism and is almost believable. Maberry does a great job making it seem scientifically plausible to the average reader. I like that. Ray porter does a magnificent job telling the story. His Jack Ledger is awesome and much better than I was reading him when I started reading it on my own on the Kindle. I highly recommend this series. Later books aren't quite as good, but Ray Porter's delivery saves the day.

Good story, corny dialog

story was entertaining but the dialog was very corny. If you can get past that, it's not a bad read.

WOW

Held my breath for the last 20 minutes or so. Excited to see where the next stories take me.

Good Medical ScFi

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

It was entertaining and kept me involved

What did you like best about this story?

I simply like sci fi stories and the medical side was pretty interesting