Patient Zero

The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 1

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

Critic Reviews

“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)

Ruined by a petulant, omnipotent central character

Joe Ledger is a superhuman, both with his impossibly efficient, cool headed fighting skills, and his extraordinary snarky attitude, The way the writer presents these qualities drag down what I hoped to be a fast and fun zombie thriller.

Joe can singlehandedly take out a room full of combat veterans without taking a hit. He is gifted at martial arts, and knows how great he is. This is just too easy and unrealistic. It's not my major gripe with this book, but this scene in particular stood out because it made Joe seem too capable, just beyond belief, and this kind of thing makes it hard for a listener to get their footing in the story world. There are sections where Joe's hands shake, or he gets a stomach ache, but it's not enough to make him human.

Joe also has a problem with authority, as is made clear with much too much of his "smart mouth" comments over cookies with Mr. Church, a high level "Geek squad" commander who picks Joe to lead his task force against the terrorist engineered zombie apocalypse.

Joe is mouthy, in the worst way, and his frequent sarcastic remarks and petulant attitude destroy his likability and make listening to the book a chore. This book needs an editor to cut down expository scenes where two characters, especially if one of them is Joe, are having heated discussions. There are at least two occasions where Joe and Church sit across from each other and not much happens for several minutes. What we get is that Church hints that Joe has the right stuff and he tries to get Joe on his side, and Joe just replies in an extremely disrespectful way, by muttering comebacks and harsh remarks. We get that Joe's angry--he didn't volunteer for this--but the level of his discourse seems too childish, especially since he observes early on that Mr. Church is a respectable, capable man. It just doesn't seem believable that he would talk this way to someone like Mr. Church.

A fan of all things zombie, I saw the title and read through the premise of this book and decided to take a chance on it. Unfortunately, there isn't much zombie action in the first 31 chapters. I''m not sure I'll make it much further. The whole terrorist/ super scientist plot is also a bit tough to follow, and the unpleasant Mr. Galt and hyper sexualized scientist Amira seem to be given too much "screen" time.

The love triangle between Galt and Amira, and Amira's husband, the terrorist leader, distracts from the book's draw for me, which is the zombie stuff. Instead of zombie action we get cringeworthy passages that include plenty of dull expository scenes between Galt and Amira, and an odd love making scene early on when we are just meeting Amira, which doesn't seem necessary to describe in such detail.

So the main gripes I have are:
1.The super unlikeable main character Joe, who the writer has made into a superhero and who, to me, makes too many "clever" and snotty comments that make me cringe.
2. Too much time spent with characters talking about stuff rather than stuff actually happening, and very little zombie action in the first 30 chapters. Much of the first 30 chapters features two or three characters sitting around having heated conversations.
3. The female characters are a sexualized a bit too much for my taste, it just seems like the writer is too focused on their appearance. Amira's eyes and the British operative's hardness and softness in the right places, it's a bit too much from the male gaze.

I'm going to try and finish this one. The scariest thing about this book is the 4 + star audible rating. I'm baffled that so many people have enjoyed this book. With so many positive reviews, I hope the book takes a turn for the better, so I can adjust my review accordingly.

Yes! It IS that good. Five stars and more.

Lots of people have reviewed this book already so I will just aim my comments to those (like me) who hesitate to get this because of the cartoonish cover art and well the whole zombies thing. I like zombie fiction but eventually it does get pretty predictable. This book is not your typical run and shoot zombies take over the world tale. It is not a gratuitous gore-fest. The story has multiple layers, science, mysteries within mysteries, strong characters, and intrigue that will keep you guessing and glued to your earphones to the last word. Yes, it is that good. And Ray Porter’s performance is flawless perfection.

Great Story. Horrible Characters

What disappointed you about Patient Zero?

My disappointment came from the story's characters. The protaganist Joe Ledger comes off like a high school brat with a smart mouth. Maberry fails when he tries to make this guy humorus. Joe Ledger's backstory is somewhat compelling but thats about it. Efrain Goodweather in Del Toro's The Strain series made for a much better and compelling character because it didn't seem as though Del Toro was trying too hard to make this guy a hero. Maberry just takes the easy way out and oversells this Ledger as a prototypical rebel hero.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

The plot was good. But I was not on the edge of my seat with it. Again the characters just didn't move the plot along well.

Which character – as performed by Ray Porter – was your favorite?

Ray Porter seems to have a great range of ability. However Maberry did not give him very much to work with as far as characters. Porter's performance was great but I didn't like any other characters

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It's a cool take on the zombie genre. I like what the story attempted to do.

Any additional comments?

I wish I hadn't paid for this audiobook. The Strain is superior in everyway to Patient Zero. Don't waste your time with this audiobook.

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.

Only book I've ever returned

I tried. I really tried to like this book. When I realized it wasn't what I was expecting I gave it another shit and pretended it was a comedy, but it was no use. Picture Chevy Chase in the role of an over the top Supercop in a cheesy 80's action flick populated by predictable 2-dimensional characters. The world is trying so hard to be a serious espionage/zombie drama, but he keeps trying to make it. comedy with snappy one liners and sarcasm. I git about halfway through, but was rolling my eyes so much I just couldn't stand it anymore. I traded it in for something well written and better voice acted.

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.

I liked the premise..

Cool idea, but poor execution. Joe Ledger was a bit too perfect. He came across as corny. A few too many wise cracks coupled with a few too many perfect fighting / knowledge moments. I really like the Grey Man series. This is very much the opposite as far as the lead character goes.

cheesy as a bag of cheetos

silly story. guy beats up his team before leading them into combat. this beating was done to save time, it worked for me too because i stopped listening then. if your over 15 years old this is not for you.

I enjoyed it but . . .

Would you consider the audio edition of Patient Zero to be better than the print version?

I've never read the print version

Any additional comments?

I am not a big zombie fiction fan. I bought this book based upon reviews that indicated it wasn't a typical zombie book. It wasn't, but that doesn't change that there are many, many zombie interactions.

I liked the plot aspects of the book very much. I think the storyline was well thought out with a plot that had some scientific basis. The problem I have is that I don't need to hear about repeated tedious battles with overwhelming hordes of zombies where our heroes manage to never get killed despite all odds. It gets tedious. Don't get me wrong, there were good ideas here and good writing. The narration by Ray Porter was wonderful. But even in the fictional world of the hero who can do it all no matter what, this got to be a little too much for me.

First rate zombie fiction!

This is just an absolutely great action/adventure/zombie tale. Fun, fast paced, and even funny this novel marks the first in what is the Joe Ledger series - I really enjoyed this one and can't wait for the next. As icing on the cake Ray Porters narration is perfect, and I mean perfect. Every character has their very distict voice, there is never any question of who is speaking and he moves seemlessly between them. Of the thousands of audio books I've listened to this is one of the best performances I have heard. I will be looking for more books narrated by him simply because they ARE narrated by him.