Joe Ledger and the DMS (Department of Military Sciences) go up against two competing groups of geneticists. One side is creating exotic transgenic monsters .
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The Dragon Factory Joe Ledger, 2 4. One side is creating exotic transgenic monsters and genetically enhanced mercenary armies; the other is using 21st century technology to continue the Nazi Master Race program begun by Josef Mengele. Both sides want to see the DMS destroyed, and they've drawn first blood. Neither side is prepared for Joe Ledger as he leads Echo Team to war under a black flag. Paperback , pages. Published March 2nd by St.
Martin's Griffin first published January 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Dragon Factory , please sign up. Lists with This Book. May 03, Sarah rated it really liked it Shelves: The villains were many and a little more complex so that made it difficult. It started very strong and mysterious. As Church and Ledger are wont to do, they follow the cookie crumbs back to the source and a much larger plot unfolds.
There were some very fun things going on here. No Zombies this go around, but several other mythical creatures pop their heads up actually it was a lot of fun, just a different vibe. I did miss some of the camaraderie between Joe and his team. All in all, a quick fun read. Nov 07, Scott Sigler rated it it was amazing. The second book in the Joe Ledger series. Three parts science, two parts gore, five parts testosterone, all mixed with gasoline and nitro and moonshine and poured into a flask made of dynamite.
This is serious summer blockbuster stuff, folks. Good, but nothing great. It's entertaining quick fun read, but the plot was all over the place, very scattered, which made the book difficult to enjoy properly.
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Without a doubt the most interesting character was Ledger himself and the most fun I was having was following his POV supposedly the main storyline , but even when the series itself is named "Joe Ledger", our hero's appearances were too few and far between among all the hundred other parallel POVs of various villains and flashbacks and Good, but nothing great. Without a doubt the most interesting character was Ledger himself and the most fun I was having was following his POV supposedly the main storyline , but even when the series itself is named "Joe Ledger", our hero's appearances were too few and far between among all the hundred other parallel POVs of various villains and flashbacks and subplots etc etc.
Have to say, jumping through countless characters and plotlines in every short chapters was too distracting and annoying. Also, its just my personal opinion, but Maberry really needs a better editor to throwout all the unnecessary flashbacks and subplots All these made the book unnecessarily bloated it could've easily been atleast pages shorter and the pace sluggish instead of lightning fast which it should've. Yet, the book is not without it's merits, the 2nd half is waaay better than the 1st half of the story and with much faster pace. The action sequences were vivid and breathlessly suspenseful, and finally gave proper legroom to our favorite Echo Team for some truly spectacular missions.
Not to mention the character of Joe Ledger is outstanding with all the great inner monologs and perfect characterization for our damaged brooding hero. Church, Top and Bunny. Seriously I love these guys, specially the various types of relationships they're having with Ledger. But alas, more than half of the book was wasted on the villains and their motivations and their inner relationships, and most of all, their sheer evilness How evil they truly were blah blah blah.
I totally didn't care for them, because quite frankly they were not at all interesting characters with any kind of depths, and the neo-Nazism, dreaming of master race, hating on "mud people" all these things are just cliched and been-there-done-that a thousand times before. Sure, Nazis can be great villains, but they can be quickly turn into boring when getting almost equal spacing with our heroes for painstakingly detailed characterizations, motivations and background.
Plus, the transgenic genetic manipulation plot line was nothing new, I read much better executed techno thrillers with similar genetic manipulation plots from James Rollins which were frankly, more entertaining and way more detailed in their scientific descriptions. All in all, the book is a quick fun read.
The Dragon Factory (Joe Ledger, #2) by Jonathan Maberry
I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars because, even after all the problems, one thing is true: Maberry's writing remains topnotch, and you just can't help but have to keep reading pages after hundreds of pages! View all 8 comments. The triumph is only as big as the villain. Jul 05, Jason rated it really liked it Shelves: This is my type of summer read. Book number 2 in the Joe Ledger series, this one is quite different from the first Patient Zero in that there are no zombies and there is new cast cast of baddies.
Like other Maberry novels this is an ACTION novel first, the horror, science fiction, and thriller elements all come in to add color and flair to 4. Like other Maberry novels this is an ACTION novel first, the horror, science fiction, and thriller elements all come in to add color and flair to them.
Joe Ledger is a former police officer, one bad ass SOB, and the leader of the Echo Team that was created in the first book. He is quite likable, short fused, and a master at hand to hand combat. If you have never read any of Jonathan Maberry books before, he is a master at choreographing the action scenes into juicy snippets of words that will have you hungry for more in a hurry.
There are some very humorous scenes in this one that really balance out the weight of this doomsday scenario. I've got enough baggage to start a luggage store, and I have a whole bunch of buttons that I don't like pushed. Couple this with some dreams of the "Perfect Race", through cloning, killing, and genocide, and buckle up for an action packed thrill ride. Without any spoilers, Maberry fills in every details of the how and the why behind the Extinction Wave, providing us with some interesting choices of world building.
He gives us a full backstory that to some may come off as a bit cliche, but I felt that he was trying to go "Old School". And "Old School" he does with spades. This is an evil, massively daibloical plan that makes most of our historical tragedies seem small in comparison. I found this to be so over the top, that it came across a bit funny to me. But, put it all together, the old school bad guys, the cutting edge genetics, and our cool ass protagonist As I have said before Jonathan Maberry really knows how to put action into words. There is a scene between Ledger and Carteret that will leave you slap cringing as you read it and slap laughing out loud while at the same time slap leaving you breathless as you try to take it all in Nazi's, Russian's, clones, daddy issues, grumpy old men, greed, asshole politicians, genetic freaks, world domination and cool as ice Joe.
This is what Dragon Factory is all about If you want to read a modern day spin on Jack Ryan or , and like your good guy's to be tough and dirty, than be sure to start with Patient Zero and follow it up with this one. As you can already tell I am a huge fan of Jonathan Maberry and think that you should be too View all 4 comments. Honestly, this was a bit of a letdown from Patient Zero. It had plenty of action and suspense, and plot and characters. It just didn't have the bullets-flying kick assery of the first book. Still, pretty good stuff. Some of the villains were stereotypically dastardly, but others were good.
It was jarring for his story to be first person, and then about half the rest of the chapters were third.
I was rather impressed with the way the final shakedown came about. Nice heartstring play there, Mr. Oh yes, at least a half-star must go to Ray Porter for his reading. His character voices were excellent. Jonathan Maberry is a wonderful tale spinner and his character Joe Legend is a definite stand out in the mass pool of save the day, action heroes. In this second addition to the series, crazy genetic scientists create a wild twisted story that is frightening and weirdly believable.
Fast moving and intriguing with a small side of romance. A few of the main and favorite characters return but the end leaves us wondering who will be returning in the next book. Highly reccomend to those who like inte Jonathan Maberry is a wonderful tale spinner and his character Joe Legend is a definite stand out in the mass pool of save the day, action heroes.
Highly reccomend to those who like interesting and exciting mental and physical combat. View all 5 comments. Aug 03, Lou rated it liked it Shelves: Joe Ledger and the DMS on another mission. This time it involves a neo-Nazi, eugenics, pathogen,twins and genetics. As the clock counts down to a deadly weapon being released the team is on the search for the source. The story is well researched with many military specifics.
I preferred Patient Zero the first Ledger book, when it comes to stories involving combat and espionage I tend to struggle in keeping interest. This is not a short read and just found myself wanting it to Joe Ledger and the DMS on another mission. This is not a short read and just found myself wanting it to end if it was shorter I might have liked it even more. Only two books in and the Joe Ledger series has become a fast favorite of mine. Maberry effortlessly entwines a wide range of genres - military thriller, horror, science fiction, comic book action - to create an incredibly entertaining and compulsively listenable story.
In The Dragon Factory the extinction clock is ticking, counting down to global genocide. Cyrus Jakoby is a brilliant geneticist, his research building off the horrific medical tests conducted by Nazi scientists in World War II, an Only two books in and the Joe Ledger series has become a fast favorite of mine. Cyrus Jakoby is a brilliant geneticist, his research building off the horrific medical tests conducted by Nazi scientists in World War II, and he has perfected the ultimate means to deliver the Final Solution and offer the white race complete domination over the Earth.
It's up to Captain Joe Ledger and Echo Team to stop them, but time is running out and the Department of Military Sciences are caught off guard, stuck playing catch-up after inter-agency politics prompts the NSA to curtail their investigations. There's a lot going on in The Dragon Factory and Maberry is an expert wrangler, maintaining almost complete control of the story's various plot threads and its multitude of characters. There's enough 24 and James Bond-style shenanigans and to keep listeners thoroughly engaged.
The Jakoby family themselves are practically plucked right out of a Bond flick, with the incestuous albino assassin twins of Paris and Hecate conducting their own secret science experiments on a secluded island research base. Not every story thread gets wrapped up sufficiently but hey, more fodder for book 3!
Published in , The Dragon Factory feels less outlandish today than it may have at the start of this decade, as some of its more seemingly implausible aspects have been fulfilled in reality in only a handful of years. Take, for instance, the subject of white supremacists manipulating and controlling the White House and various government agencies, plotting to destroy the world by poisoning Earth's waters. Certainly this seemed more far-fetched in , but here we are in with a band of white supremacists in the Oval Office, passing bills allowing our waters to be poisoned by mining waste and appointing the enemies of various government agencies to lead those very same agencies, like the EPA, and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, and placing immigrant children in concentration camps, and on and on and on.
Sadly, the idea of virulently evil racists plotting to destroy the world from within America and through a network of highly-placed and influential government agents isn't quite the extraordinarily imaginative work of fiction it used to be. Besides the white supremacist bad guys, Maberry injects a metric ton of cutting edge science and plausible-enough horrors stemming from transgenic experimentation to create superhuman animal hybrids to give Ledger and company a savagely violent run for their money.
Using the concept of scientific terrorism to fuel a series also gives Maberry a hell of a lot of elasticity in redefining the shape and scope of various horror genre staples. In Patient Zero , Maberry wrote about a militarized unit's response to the zombie plague. Here, we get rogue government operators, assassins, and a bevy of massive, berserker monsters, alongside a spate of other genre concepts. It's clear Maberry is having a ton of fun writing this stuff, and his enthusiasm is infectious.
The Dragon Factory is awful lot of fun to listen to, and Ray Porter delivers another knock-out reading as he firmly settles into these characters and brings them to life and in more than a few instances death as well. He manages to make each of the characters distinct, utilizing tonal ranges, inflections, and accents to differentiate Maberry's large cast, always making it clear which character is speaking at any given moment. His is a pitch perfect narration, hitting the highs of each action scene and the softer lows of emotional reflection and devastation.
Porter further solidifies the simple fact that he is the definitive voice of the Joe Ledger series, and I can't imagine listeners wanting it any other way. Patient Zero instantly hooked me, roping me into the thick of things and making me a Joe Ledger devotee. The Dragon Factory shows that this series most certainly has legs, and that it can run for miles. While the action is fast and fluid, this is a series that is more than just muscular brawn - it has a hell of a lot of smarts, too, both on and off the page.
Apr 03, Merryish rated it did not like it Recommends it for: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. He was fun for the first book, but his perfection is getting a bit wearing. More to the point, the storytelling is even more simplistic than the first outing - all the good guys are Good with a capital "G", and all the bad guys are mustache-twirlingly Evil with a capital "E". The more I read, the more my problem with the writing becomes the utter lack of any shades of grey; even torture be Second book of the Joe Ledger series, and regretfully, I find I've reached my lifetime limit of Joe Ledger.
The more I read, the more my problem with the writing becomes the utter lack of any shades of grey; even torture becomes Good in the ones and zeroes of the story's moral binary, if it's done by a Good guy for Good reasons. Really not my politics, and also really not engaging to read.
The Dragon Factory
There's no challenge in these books, no thought required, just a kind of endless slog through action scenes and one-liners to the predictable ending. The president is trapped aboard as the jet heads toward the heart of New York City. What do you do when the power goes off? Terrorists have acquird a terrible new weapon that can crash the power grid and plunge America into a new dark age. A coordinated attack is planned to shut out all lights and emergency services to ten major cities.
Planes will fall, hospitals will go dark, no help will come. And in that terrible darkness a dreadful plague will be released. If the lights go off, nothing can stop the bioweapon from killing millions. At the same time the intelligence services are being torn apart from within by a plague of betrayal, murder and suicide. Even the Department of Military Sciences is stumbling in its response to the growing threat.
Time is running out. And Joe is being hunted by a terrifying new kind of asassin. Joe Ledger faces his deadliest challenge as friends and allies become enemies and all of the lights begin to go out…. Robots are no longer science fiction. Autonomous, programmed to react like animals: From microscopic nanobots to massive self-guided aircraft.
A freelance terrorist uses the latest generation of robot dogs to deliver WMDs into cities across America. Sophisticated military weapons systems turn on their human masters. A technological apocalypse is coming and we may be too late to stop it. Joe Ledger and a newly rebuilt Department of Military Sciences square off against this new and terrible threat.
Deep Silence - Book 10 in the series. One terrifying side-effect of the weapon is that prior to the devastation, the vibrations drive ordinary people to suicide and violence. A wave of madness begins sweeping the country beginning with a mass shooting in Congress. Joe Ledger and his team go on a wild hunt to stop the terrorists and uncover the global super-power secretly funding them. Available October 30th, Want more Joe Ledger? Fill in the gaps between books with this short story collection! Currently the top-kick of Echo Team, an elite squad of first-class shooters who roll out to face down the world's most dangerous terrorists.
Not fanatics with explosive vests or political hostage takers. Joe and his team square off against terrorists who have the most advanced and exotic weapons of mass destruction. The King of Plagues by Jonathan Maberry". Special Ops' by Jonathan Maberry". Retrieved from " https: Science fiction book series Military science fiction novels Novels about the military American thriller novels American detective novels American spy novels American science fiction novels Novels set in Baltimore Novels set in Maryland American novels by series Terrorism in fiction.
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