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)

Very, very good.

This was my first "zombie" novel. I had expectations of something decent, something to please the zombie fanatic out there and not much else. Well, it did please me as a zombie fanatic. It not only pleased me as a fan of the zombie genre but it thrilled me as a reader. This was an over all very good book. If I were reading the physical book itself I would call it a "page turner". This is not only for the zombie fan but also for the action fan, the covert ops fan and even the conspiracy theory fan. No, it's not Dickens, but it is fun, fast paced and not dumbed down. Really it was a treat. Very well written and boy, the narrator was superb. I could re-listen immediately. I certainly hope there is a follow-up.

A good book spoiled - too inconsistent

The story, less the science and technical detail, is quite engaging as zombie books go. The whole science of zombies is ridiculous, but this is fiction so who cares.

The plot is reasonably complex and involved. The timing of events is reasonably well thought out, but the interactions with various military groups were rather far fetched. How much disbelief do you suspend?

Ah, the reading. As an English man I found the 'English' accents terrible. Can he only do an English that sounds like a brain damaged Cockney? This is the sort of 'English' accent that Americans use when they don't know they are being offensive. The bad accents were too much of the story to ignore. Other than that, and some weird pronunciation, Aden is Ayden not Ahden, the reading was OK. He was, at least, consistent. But really, not good.

It is a mistake to spend too much time explaining your fictional science, as an author you may be impressed with what you have learned, but it just provides more danger of revealing the holes. Prions are not indestructible, enzymes crack up proteins, even prions. They can be burned too. Reaction and action times probably come in this area too. The fastest anyone can react to a simple stimulus is around 100 milliseconds, typical is around 200. So NOBODY can react to a change and implement an alternate attack in 30ms. That's utterly ridiculous.

He really needs to find a better firearms instructor. That thing about 22s rattling around in the head and mushing the brain... did he learn that at a bar? It is rubbish. No professional chooses to take a hand gun to a battle as their primary weapon. No professional enters a combat situation without body armor. Nobody can tell the difference between a 9mm or 40S&W Glock without picking it up and reading it, they are virtually identical. A heart shot with a firearm will still take 20 seconds to incapacitate someone. The things you stick in semi automatic handguns are magazines, gang bangers use clips because they know no better. A clip is a device for holding loose rounds for loading in to a magazine.

People with a history involving the military don't go discarding advice to stay out of secure matters and go on to discuss what they have been told is secret with civilians. People who do do that sort of thing don't get hired, they get visits from

Then there's the weird love of therapists and apparent disdain for scientists. His therapist is a giant of a man who is so vastly impressive that he gets instantly hired by the secret agency and gets taken along on missions. Err. No. You see the shrink when it is all over. But our hero is so offended with the tame scientist that he wants to smash his face in for not being broken up by the reality of zombie involved slaughter. And yet he makes a big thing of not being too concerned himself later. I have worked with a lot of military types and that sort of expectation, even demand, for an emotional response is very artsy American, this modern emotional IQ notion perhaps. It is funny that on the one hand the author has to have had to talk to some fairly educated people about the science, and yet he needs to show disdain in his writing.
Over it all there was this weak minded pap about how damaged we were by 9/11 but that we didn't let the terrorists win by that and 7/7 and yet the US did let the terrorists win. The British, on the other hand, after 7/7, showed the US how it should be done. Life returned to normal the next day because you give terrorists their victory by changing how you live your life and spending trillions to attack uninvolved countries in a fit of teenage temper. That sort of attitude is not the attitude of special forces types who actually get the job done.

In the end the credibility gap in the zombie storyline if fine, because that's the fantasy of the book, but the ignorance of the people portrayed is the death of this book.

Okay story, excellent narrator

I'm not too into zombie stories but this one had an interesting twist in the reasons why. I won't be continuing on with this series but I will listen to a few of the Walking Dead audio books to see how they compare. Also, the narrator for this book is excellent, one of the best I've ever listened to at Audible and I will certainly look into other books he did.

Awesome!!!

First zombie book... It was great though. Really loved the characters. Narrator was great, very entertaining. Once you start the book, it's hard to stop listening!!!

Awesome!!!!!

If you like zombies, criminal thrillers, or government conspiracy, this series is for you! Skip the prequel, as it's a 19 minute spread out of the preface to book one. That said, I'm reading all of the LONG stories in the series, and they are excellent!

Give me more of Joe Ledger!!

What a fascinating character, Joe is. I won't stop with him, this book is full of great characters, that I want to hear more and more about. It's a non-stop story, full of action, and suspense right up til the ending.
I thought this was going to be a bizarre sci-fi story,(judging from the picture) but it turns out to be an anti-terrorism tale, with a new secret branch of the government out to foil the bad guys. Full of espionage, mystery, suspense, gun battles, humor, with a touch of love interest. Everything's there for a non-stop page turner, and it keeps your right on the edge of your seat. If you like Lucas Davenport, Harry Bosch, Jack Reacher, and even Harry Dresden, you will probably want to hear more from Joe Ledger.

Loved it!!!

Where does Patient Zero rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This would make a great movie, lots of action and a great story.

What other book might you compare Patient Zero to and why?

Don't know what to compare it to.

What about Ray Porter’s performance did you like?

His ability to change his voice, you forget it's just one person.

If you could rename Patient Zero, what would you call it?

The Legend of Joe Ledger: U.S.A Undead Sureal Anti-Humans.... LOL

Any additional comments?

Great book and glad it was recommended to me.

A tremendously unlikeable hero!

_Patient Zero_ by Jonathan Maberry receives three stars from me. I found the novel unsatisfying personally.

First, the cover is awful and doesn’t reflect the novel well. This is not a zombie story; it is not a zombie apocalypse. It is a thriller, and there are some zombies.

What I found unsatisfying? The main character, the hero. For me, he is a poor leader. And all the posturing, god it was annoying.

And the sexism was annoying too. What was sexist about it? There are only two major female characters. I’m only going to deal with the Major because I felt my eyes rolling in my head many times regarding her. She’s a major in the military, trained well, yet she cries and runs to be held by the hero after a battle. Additionally, she cries a few times.

For the most port the plot is solid and suspenseful. They do seem to do a lot in 24 hours, but that isn’t such a stretch of the imagination.

I enjoyed that narration dealing with the terrorist more than the first-person narrative of Joe. Mostly because Joe is not the kind of guy I’d hang out with. He’s full of himself, and during the narration he would give little bits of advice ‘cause you know, he knows we are reading the book to learn about what to do in a fight. Example, middle of hand to hand combat, he narrates: using the opponents rage is a very useful tool. Eye rolling!

Look, I found the novel unsatisfying, but that I clearly saw this guy as a dick says something about the writing. I usually enjoy a thriller, but this isn’t one of my favorites. However, it might be for you.

Lastly, it was an audio book read by Ray Porter. I’ve encountered him before. I felt that his voice fit this novel well. His interpretation of the first-person narration may have contributed to my dislike of the character. He read the arrogance well. I recommend Porter.

Recommended: Sure. While I didn’t find the book satisfying, it isn’t horrible.

I'll definitely be ordering the next one!

Looking forward to this series. Great characters, cool tech, and awesome fight scenes. The end was perfect for a nice transition to the next installation. Highly recommended!

terrific reading, somewhat corny story

i enjoyed this but it was a little corny and predictable at times. the main character comes off way too cocky to be likeable, but otherwise i enjoyed it very much.