Assassin's Code: The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 4

Possible spoilers (you've been warned): I don't know how the author, [author:Jonathan Maberry|72451], keeps finding plausible and more evil villains for each subsequent book. The Red Knights ("Ordo Ruber") came out of the Inquisition and the Crusades and were opposed by the Sabbatarians and Arklight. The Upierczi, another name for the Red Knights, brought themselves back from the brink of extinction through genetic engineering.We learn more about Mr. Church and a possible past love interest, Lilith. We learn more about Father Nicodemus and Hugh Vox.Joe and Echo Team (Top, Bunny, Lydia, Kahlid, and John) are all there. Ghost, as a trained military dog, gets cuter. "Ghost, the big furry flirt, wagged his tail."Joe gets a love interest, Violin, a woman as damaged as he is. I am *so* glad that she explicitly reappears at the very end of the book.

Is it even remotely possible that this book could get any better than it's predecessors? Well I can answer that question and it is yes! Although the other 3 were 5 stars and were most excellent, this one went a step further I think. I am not usually one for military, terrorism and the like, so when and author can make me like reading about those things, then he has a great talent! This series revolves around terrorism in one form or another. Each book is a different form and they just keep getting better, rich in imagery and great plot lines.I have to talk about the things I like best about this book, or actually any of the books. First would be the characters. They are all so rich in realism, so believable and brilliantly created. The Echo Team consists of so many great, unforgettable characters. Of course most people who know me would know by now who my favorite character is, but just in case there is a question about it, I will tell you. Joe! He is now my favorite character EVER! And that is saying a lot. Because I have read a lot of books, and met a lot of great characters. Move over Roland, Joe is in the forefront now.What I love most about Joe is his flawed character. It makes him superbly believable and I love that. Joe is the kind of guy that takes all those mistakes, all his fears and all his past failures and triumphs and he uses it to drive him forward. He is the kind of guy that never gives up. And when I say never I mean never. He is also witty and sarcastic and he loves those people in his life like family and would do what it takes to protect them. He lives with 3 personalities in his head, Cop, Warrior, and the Civilized man. And he learned to control them and use them appropriately.The next thing I love about this book/series is the amount of action that is in the book. It was just about non stop through all of them. A lot of what happens you don't quite expect, pair that with the great plot twists and you have an exciting, unforgettable story. I would have to recommend this book to everyone. I think everyone should jump aboard and form their own relationship with Joe. Because once you do, you will never forget the ride.

I think I have written this before but; there are no charming, sexy, Twilight-like vampires in John Maberry narratives. Instead what we get is nasty, hell-bent demons, who keep women in cells and use them as breeding stock to propogate their race.These are the vampires, originally sanctioned by the world's two most prominent warring religions, that Joe Ledger and the DMS encounter in Assasin's Code. The DMS -Department of Military Science- is a Special Ops team whose task it is to eliminate those threats that are so heinous that thy must remain secret. In Code, the action begins with Ledger and his team rescuing three twenty-something hikers who are being held in Iran. Sound familiar? Of course it does. What we, the public don't know however, is that after successfully freeing the three hikers, Ledger encounters an old nemesis who reveals that another, unrelated plot is in the works. Seven stolen nukes are planted at seven sites worldwide and one of those sites is apparently an oil rig off the coast of Louisianna.Sounds like typical Special-Ops plot twist huh? No such thing. You see what Ledger uncovers is a harbinger named Grigor who leads an insurgent group of vampires. These vampires, immune to radiation, could conceivably survive nuclear armagedon, rise up and take over the world. All Grigor and his vampire terrorists are waiting for are the detonation codes. Along the way, Ledger is helped by a sexy near-vampire assasin who is a member of an all women's group of assasins sworn to defeat the nasty vampires who raped them.The plot line gets a little complicated what with various bad guys using and betraying each other, but the sequences of violence are really gripping. In addition, Maberry, unlike most writers of this kind of fiction, draws out really complete, conflicted, and thoughful characters. These are characters that the reader and the villians in the novel can really sink their teeth into.

A return to more like the form of Patient Zero in this latest outing for Joe Ledger & the DMS as opposed to King of Plagues & Dragon Factory. Fast pace, unrelenting action, wierd science, vile villains and goods guys sometimes just as scary. As other reviewers point out, you will get a lot more out of this book if you have read the others in the series, as elements of the plot carry or remain unresolved, and the world view, with science rationalised supernatural elements is the same.Joe Ledger still retains his black sense of humour along with his multiple personalities & devotion to martial arts. The relaionship with Ghost, his canine companion, gives a centre to a charactor that has to endure a lot (again). Plot elements that remain consistent are the deaths of characters we love or hate from previous books, charecter development of the 'regulars' and enough uncertainty to leave you wanting more along with the resolution.You will enjoy this book if you liked the others in the series & enjoy fast paced remotely technically plausble imaginative thrillers where the world is in danger agaist overwhelming odds.

I first caught Jonathan Maberry when I bought Patient Zero on a whim a couple of years back. Basic story was that lunatic terrorists were creating a zombie plague (of sorts), and a hastily-assembled tactical team attempted to take them out. In the course of the book, we were introduced to key characters Joe Ledger (our protagonist), Ghost (his dog), Rudy (his friend and therapist), Echo Team (the hastily-assembled tactical team), DMS (the covert agency responsible for dealing with situations like this), and Mr Church (the boss of DMS).I've never been a huge fan of the military operation books. Andy McNab does not grace my bookshelves (although I have the utmost respect for him). Zombie books do, although I'm not a hardcore obsessive. So, taking a chance, I tried a new author (something I do every now and then, usually when I've exhausted whichever author currently has me hooked. Most recently, Preston and Child. But that's another story). I was, very pleasantly, surprised. Ledger turned out to be an engaging character, with the sense of (often inappropriate) humour which tickled me. That same sense of humour helps drastically in cutting through what could be a fairly ridiculous situation. Thoroughly recommended.Anyway, following the initial Patient Zero came Dragon Factory and The King of Plagues. Each with their own new challenges for the developing Echo Team. Relationships and friendships built. Challenges were faced, adversities overcome, and each would make a fine standalone adventure. But, building behind the scenes, a bigger story started to emerge. A shadowy organisation (of Kings) bent on twisting the world for their own purposes. And lurking in the shadows, given nothing more than a throwaway moment, someone else.Which brings us to Assassin's Code. The theme of each of the books so far has been to take a genetically-modified twist on some classics - zombies, dragons, etc. This time we're treated to vampires, in the name of terrorism. Being only the fourth book in the series, this is still early enough to feel fresh, and gives a nice little take on the vampire mythos. Some familiar characters reappear, to greater and lesser degrees. And there's the usual mix of excitement, adventure, action and suffering. Maberry has a nice touch when writing action and fight scenes - enough technical info to feel interesting, without overloading. Echo Team, at this point, have their core membership and their new members (which seems to be a now standard format in the books), and as with the previous titles, no one is safe. Knowing that Maberry is not afraid to kill off established or new characters lends a nice sense of risk to every scene. (And yes, two of those deaths are brutal and upsetting. I will miss those characters.)Joe continues to evolve, and from the initial Echo Team encounter spends a good half of the book working in isolation from his teammates, accompanied only by Ghost - although relations between the two end up a little strained. Joe's backstory is expanded on a little more - the history of what led to his psyche fracturing a little, and it's nice to see that he hasn't immediately moved on from loves lost. I find Joe to be a surprisingly engaging lead, rooting for him in action, and more than once laughing at his snarkiness. His interactions with his team, Ghost, adversaries, superiors, and a potential new... partner, continue to delight. The overall story contains vamps, genetics, a race to find nuclear bombs, and a few other things which would be implausible in lesser hands (can you tell that I'm trying to avoid spoilers here?). Which makes for an ideal story.However, it's the behind-the-scenes action which raises the interest another notch. After the introduction of the Kings earlier, I suspect a pattern will be to see them returning again and again in different incarnations and/or roles. Assassin's Code uses two Kings to varying effect, and brings in another old character (marking their third, and presumably not last, appearance). Beyond them, another figure starts to move into prominence, and in doing so brings a noticeable and not fully-comfortable shift in the tone of the books. Where previously the zombies and the dragons and the vampires had been genetically modified creatures, with at least some basis in nature and/or science, this figure seems to be fully routed in the supernatural. Certainly his actions and abilities seem immediately unexplainable by conventional methods. How this pans out, we'll have to wait and see.The only other niggle I have is that all four books appear to have taken place in the space of a year. That's a tough year. And I'm not really sure that Joe and his team actually have any time to recover - mentally, emotionally, physically. Other than that, it's a hell of a book. Thoroughly enjoyable - accessible to people new to the series, but you'll benefit far more from having read the first three.

Fans of this series will not be disappointed by this book, which pits the DMS against Hi Tech Vampires (pointy fangs, red eyes and nukes!) anybody else out there, where have you been?The story mainly follows Joe and his dog as he races against time to prevent a truly catastrophic terrorist plot. The rest of Echo team are left in the background for much of the book, and this allows the plot to move quickly to it's (very) violent conclusion.TV may beckon for this series before too much longer, but I'll bet the violence will be toned down for the viewing public.I've already bought the next book in this series and literally can't wait to see what happens next.

I think this is the weakest of the first four books. The first one, Patient Zero, to date has been my favourite, and I've been ploughing through the Joe Ledger series very quickly, but I thought this book was a little weaker. I'm writing this review having read the fifth book in the series, which I can also add is a further step down, but still, I find it overall enjoyable.The introduction of vampires, and the historic Christian/Muslim thing is quite interesting, but I don't think the execution was as well as it was with the Jakotbys in the second book, or the zombies in the first.

I feel bad giving it a 3star, as the writing is superb and I love this series, Joe Ledger is a king among men. However, the physical quality of the book itself is appalling. It feels like something you might get free with a newspaper, nasty and cheap with poorly cut pages and I don't have much hope for the durability of the spine.I feel a tiny bit cheated paying so much for it.