Code Zero

Code Zero wasn’t as good as Patient Zero, but it’s pretty close. I’d not read anything by Maberry since Patient Zero and when I saw that Code Zero was a “sequel,” I jumped at the book. Unfortunately, there have been many Joe Ledger novels in between and a good bit of Code Zero references what must be missions from those previous books. Now, that’s my fault. But I say this to encourage others that if you’ve not read those other books (which I’ll now go back and do, frustratingly after the fact), you might want to.

While reading Code Zero, I kept getting the feeling I was reading Matthew Reilly. And that’s a big compliment. (If you’ve not read Reilly, give him a try; his books are VERY fast-paced and a lot of fun!)

In Code Zero, we see a terrorist named Mother Night and her minions creating chaos all over the US. As readers, we soon learn who she is, although the rest of the DMS crew don’t figure it out until much later. This is somewhat anticlimactic for the reader. I would also like to have gotten a little more character development from another antagonist as he was a little to cookie-cutter and shallow. Still, Code Zero is full of over-the-top action with scary, genetically-altered monsters in it.

This is book #6 in the Joe Ledger series and a change up from the previous novels.

There’s a new villainess, Mother Night, and the book does a good job of describing how she became the way she is. There’s a new henchman, Ludo Monk, who is a twisted person in his own right.

Alexander (“Toys”) Chismer seems to have turned over a new leaf and is working for the organization that Junie Flynn is leading. Will he stay on this side of the fence?

There’s no new biochemical or genetically modified weapons (this time) but it won’t make it any easier.

Vice President William Collins is back with his crooked Cybercrimes Task Force doing everything he can to undermine the DMS.

There’s a new supercomputer, Haruspex, to compete with Mindreader and Pangaea.

Joe’s Echo team, Top, Bunny, Lydia, Ivan, and Sam are back together with some new members and every time they engage a new baddie, you just hope that they all come through okay. Yes, a few new scars, but no mortal wounds.

Oh, and Violin. She’s backed off from Joe because of Junie but has her own significant role to play.

It’s a good read and I’m looking forward to the next novel because Jonathan Maberry keeps raising the stakes.

As usual I discovered them (the books) through Amazon Daily Offers. I think the first one I read was number three. Oh my. I was hooked. I looked for more and of course started with the first book and proceeded to the next. Code Zero is actually a sequel to the first book. Contentwise.
Protagonists, fighters, computers experts, scifi, all mixed together in such a compelling and exciting mix that it is compulsively readable.
Recommend the short stories too – I have read 6 out of the 7 books in the series and “Joe Ledger ; Special OPs”. The short stories. Enjoy

The adrenaline rush this series creates is just off the charts. I tried to describe the genre of this series to my husband last night and I said it’s action. Then I paused and said well it’s kind of horror too. At that point I got caught up in my own head trying to figure out how to really describe it. I ended up throwing my hands up and saying it’s a whole bunch of things but basically it’s amazing. Seeing all of the pathogens and the history of the DMS come back to bite it in the ass was revisiting a horrible, painful past. I thought the plot of this one forced me to suspend disbelief a bit more than usual but I gamely went along. I think the inherent terror I get with this series is the possibility, the plausibility, of “what if”. What if someone did these things? It’s far too easy to believe there’s a disenfranchised part of the population who would be easy to manipulate into acting in depraved ways under the right circumstances and leadership. It’s far too easy to imagine corruption at the top levels of government. It’s far too easy to imagine organizations and governments working to create pathogens and financing scientific feats of genius and evil which could take out millions in the wrong hands. This may not be my favorite book in the series, Patient Zero holds that title, but it never disappointed. At times I wanted to put it down to take a breath but still kept turning pages as fast as I could read. This is a series where I buy and read each new book the week it comes out. Wouldn’t miss it!

Another great read by Mayberry. Spoiler alert for those who believe in spoilers.

This one starts with Captain Joe Ledger and Ghost, his Military War Dog, in the home of one Reginald Boyd.

Boyd works for DARPA and has been selling secrets. Vaultbreaker among them.

Ledger and Boyd come to an understanding after Ledger shows him the bodies in his closet. Two North Koreans and an Iranian who were sent for Boyd. Of course they weren’t prepared for Joe Ledger. Too bad. Dead is dead.

Reggie tells him about Mother Nights cyberteam. A team of super hackers. Mother Night is a person who will almost bring the country down.

Ledger and Junie Flynn are living together. The sex is great and Joe finds himself and the L word getting closer. Junie has cancer and is in remission right now. Joe is worried sick about his gal and is hoping they can beat the cancer.

Violin, Ledgers sometime girlfriend, isn’t happy but finds she likes Junie Flynn.

Five years ago Artimisia Bliss joined the DMS. She’s brilliant. She’s also a thief who was caught by DMS and landed in jail. She was killed there. Or so everyone thinks.

So begins another damned fine read.

This one has Joe, Ghost, Church, Bliss, Rudy, Circe, team Echo, the DMS, death, Violin, a man named Monk, the hooded youth who believe in Mother Night, a Mother Night with a plan, power, the VP, misconceptions, a subway tunnel, the Ark, a convention, the infected and Joe Ledger and DMS doing its best to save the country one more time.

Five Stars.

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