Code Zero – Jonathan Maberry

June 10, 2019June 7, 2019 Book Chick1 Comment

19433029 | GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: For years the Department of Military Sciences has fought to stop terrorists from using radical bioweapons—designer plagues, weaponized pathogens, genetically modified viruses, and even the zombie plague that first brought Ledger into the DMS. These terrible weapons have been locked away in the world’s most secure facility. Until now. Joe Ledger and Echo Team are scrambled when a highly elite team of killers breaks the unbreakable security and steals the world’s most dangerous weapons. Within days there are outbreaks of mass slaughter and murderous insanity across the American heartland. Can Joe Ledger stop a brilliant and devious master criminal from turning the Land of the Free into a land of the dead?

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My thoughts:

“Thank you so much for not following those impulses I’m certain you had while writing, and that you gave me an ending which gives me hope for a future.”

I want to use several swearwords right now. All toward Maberry who once again gave me a scare that this will not end as I wish. He is a master with curveballs and surprises. Many of them not that great and I cried. Yes I cried at the end, thinking it would be the end for me, for this series and for Joe Ledger. But thank you! Thank you so much for not following those impulses I’m certain you had while writing, and that you gave me an ending which gives me hope for a future. A future where I feel the will to read more, know more and once again need more.

First off, out of all the six books I have read now, I’m thinking Code Zero to be the weakest of them all. The plot is nice and it ties together nicely with the first book (Patient Zero) but I found it a little boring and it did not keep me captivated and interesting. At 60% I had the desire to put it down.

Second, there is not enough Joe. He is the sole reason I read this series but it is so many POV and Joe is not one of the main ones you get to follow. He has not enough “page time” in my opinion.

And third, there is so much fighting and all the scenes is starting to blend together and are not that interesting anymore. To be hones I have started to skim those parts of the book due to that it no longer interests me.

Overall a strong three star rating and I would love to see this one as a movie. I think it would be perfect for the silver screen. Note that several say that if you don’t want to read book 2 to 5 you don’t have to. I however do not recommend that. There is so much stuff happening that makes a difference and sense to why the plot line is going the way it goes. Maberry does a great job with briefly and concisely explains what have happened in the past, but it is shallow and it will not give you the dept I personally think you need. I, who have read the books, do not need more but I can imagine that if you have not, it would not be sufficiently to the meaning of the plot.

Fire & Ash – Jonathan Maberry

January 22, 2019January 25, 2019 Book Chick1 Comment

13424356 | GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Benny Imura and his friends have found the jet and Sanctuary, but neither is what they expected. Instead of a refuge, Sanctuary is a hospice, and the soldiers who flew the plane seem to be little more than bureaucrats who have given up hope for humanity’s future. With Chong hovering between life and death, clinging to his humanity by a thread, Benny makes a startling discovery: A scientist may have discovered a cure for the zombie plague. Desperate to save Chong, Benny and his friends mount a search and rescue mission. But they’re not the only ones on the hunt. The reapers are after the cure too, and they want to use it turn all the zombies into superfast shock troops and wipe humanity off the face of the earth.

In this riveting conclusion to the Rot & Ruin series, the battle to end all battles is just beginning.

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My thoughts: This was supposed to be the last one in the series about Benny, Chong, Lilah, Nix and all the other characters in USA’s Zombie infested Badlands. And what an end. This is how you end a series in a satisfying manner. Now this is no longer the last book and I’m quite frankly glad for that, because I want, no I NEED to know how the story will continue. It was a perfect ending yes, but I have come to know these characters. They are my friends, my brothers and sisters and I love them. I wish to know that it will be even better for them. How can I not? I’m a reader and no others than other readers understand what I feeling right now. And I need more.

I have more or less loved the books in this series. Some more than others. This fourth book I found better than the third one. The reason for that is because all the religious jabber, was a lot less and therefore not as irritating and Maberry also moved forward from the place I felt he stood still and turned the story in a great direction. It was exiting, interesting and it was hard to put the book down. Joe Ledger (my bookish boyfriend) even got a much bigger part which I off course LOVED. For those who doesn’t know, he is a character from another series by Maberry.

The character development throughout the series has been an magnificent work of art. It happens so slowly that you do not even realize how they grow, change and evolve until the end. Overall a great book. Not a full five star rating however. I felt I missed something, maybe it is the whole deal with Chong, because that was not satisfying enough for me.

Fiction/Science Fiction · Thriller/Horror

Extinction machine – Jonathan Maberry

September 20, 2018September 20, 2018 Book Chick3 Comments

| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: The President of the United States vanishes from the White House.

A top-secret prototype stealth fighter is destroyed during a test flight. Witnesses on the ground say that it was shot down by a craft that immediately vanished at impossible speeds.

All over the world reports of UFOs are increasing at an alarming rate.

And in a remote fossil dig in China dinosaur hunters have found something that is definitely not of this earth. There are rumors of alien-human hybrids living among us.

Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences rush headlong into the heat of the world’s strangest and deadliest arms race, because the global race to recover and retro-engineer alien technologies has just hit a snag. Someone—or something–wants that technology back.

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My thoughts: This is probably the book I like least of the five in the series I have read so far. I love the Joe Ledger character and I love how action packed the books usually are and I love Maberrys talent with building characters and plots. This time however it just didn’t work for me. There was no less action and I did really like the UFO and Alien twist, but there was so much talk and explanations and scientific facts that it totally lost me. I got bored to put it simple and then it was hard for me to come back. If this not was a Ledger book, written by one of my favourite authors, I would probably have ended it long before the last page. It was dull between the fights and no real suspense. The Alien twist was accepted to easy and made the story seem unreal. Almost like a dream and I felt detached from the characters and the story itself.

One of the things I did like is how more “mushy” it is than normal. If you have read this far in the series you know of all the bad sh*t that has happened to Joe, his team, his family and all of DMS. After book two I actually thought that there never would be more happiness. And quite happy with that thought since Maberry totally crushed my heart in the end of book two. And beware, Maberry can do it again. Please don’t. But now it feels lighter and even a little funny and I did like it. I hope it stays in the series.

So over all I give this a week three star rating. Probably deserves two due to my lack of interest in the science mumble jumble, but I give it a three since it is Ledger and Maberry and I did like some of it.

Fiction/Science Fiction · Suspense · Thriller/Horror

Assassin’s code – Jonathan Maberry

February 1, 2018February 1, 2018 Book Chick2 Comments

12024990 | GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: In ASSASSIN’S CODE, the fourth book in New York Timesbestselling author Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger series, Joe Ledger and the DMS go on a relentless chase to stop an ancient order of killers from plunging the entire world into Holy War.

When Joe Ledger and Echo Team rescue a group of American college kids held hostage in Iran,the Iranian government then asks them to help find six nuclear bombs planted in the Mideast oil fields. These stolen WMDs will lead Joe and Echo Team into hidden vaults of forbidden knowledge, mass-murder, betrayal, and a brotherhood of genetically-engineered killers with a thirst for blood.

Accompanied by the beautiful assassin called Violin, Joe follows a series of clues to find the Book of Shadows, which contains a horrifying truth that threatens to shatter his entire worldview.

They say the truth will set you free…
Not this time.

The secrets of the Assassin’s Code will set the world ablaze.

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My thoughts: Dear Mr Maberry.

You broke me! You broke me to the moon and back and then you put me together with scotch tape and hot glue. Blood seeping trough the wounds, glistening in the night as I lay and think about Joe Ledger and his life. And then I read the last sentence in this book and it is all better again. Almost! So please, do not fuck it up. (Yeah I know you already have written like 6 more books after this one but I can still Wish because that guy need some happiness.)

If I ever was one of those people who wrote letters to musicians, actors, authors, serial killers or what not, this is probably how I would start a letter to Jonathan Maberry. After every book about Joe Ledger, I have felt a little broken, a little hurt but at the same time had this good, warm, fuzzy feeling in my chest. Maberry takes his readers on an exquisite ride through out the horrors of real life mix with the horror of the historical, fantasy, conspiracy tales and mad science. As a child I loved books like Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker and every other “supernatural” book my little hands could get. This is just an modern view of old tales in a more exciting form. There to entertain, not to teach and with twist you would not be able to foresee.

I have not written an official review on any of Maberrys books before but they pretty much go the same. The story is phenomenal. The imagination and execution of the story is one of the greatest. This is not generally a genre I read much in and even less if there is not more of an Romantic suspense/horror type of book. Mostly because I often feel a get bored. Long descriptions, not enough dialog and so on is not always the best. But I do not get bored by this books. It is terrifying, exciting and lovable. And you as an reader are there with the characters. There have not yet been a full 5 star rated book (but The King of Plagues was pretty close) and that is because every time I feel i’m missing something. But I cant figure out what.

Jonathan Maberry is also a king on writhing short chapters with a punch and a total effect to wake your curiosity. This picture is the first chapter from the book “The King of Plagues” and I wrote this on my Instagram (this was before I created The Book Chick).

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And it is perfect for those of you who read by chapters and goes like “Just one more chapter” late in the night. 😉