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A review by trevert
Relentless by Jonathan Maberry
5.0
I've enjoyed every Joe Ledger book so far but this one was a cut above. I was REALLY leery of it, though, because the series has taken a sharp turn toward the grim with the last few books and the ending of the last one was a horrific gut punch, so I was braced for this to be non-stop misery from start to finish. Happily, that was not the case. The quick version -
Joe is back on team but not recovered, which becomes obvious really fast when he goes very rogue and begins a one-man slaughterfest against the organization that did him bad in the previous book. The book is split between Rogue Team chasing Joe, Joe chasing bad guys, Joe struggling with his sanity, and Rogue Team also investigating a new terrorist threat in - for real - armored robot suits. All these plot threads collide in a most entertaining way.
This book has a stronger streak of horror than prior Ledger books. There's a lot more supernatural, some spooky background stuff, Joe's new and Chaotic Evil personality, and some more hints about Church. But all that said, it's also a more cheerful book in some ways than the last one, and I came out of it with a big smile from enjoying it so damn much. With Joe off-grid for big chunks of the book, the supporting characters step more into the limelight and Top and Bunny make for a great buddy cop team. Also, there's Toys, who really comes into his own here.
All told, it was great, and definitely recommended.
Joe is back on team but not recovered, which becomes obvious really fast when he goes very rogue and begins a one-man slaughterfest against the organization that did him bad in the previous book. The book is split between Rogue Team chasing Joe, Joe chasing bad guys, Joe struggling with his sanity, and Rogue Team also investigating a new terrorist threat in - for real - armored robot suits. All these plot threads collide in a most entertaining way.
This book has a stronger streak of horror than prior Ledger books. There's a lot more supernatural, some spooky background stuff, Joe's new and Chaotic Evil personality, and some more hints about Church. But all that said, it's also a more cheerful book in some ways than the last one, and I came out of it with a big smile from enjoying it so damn much. With Joe off-grid for big chunks of the book, the supporting characters step more into the limelight and Top and Bunny make for a great buddy cop team. Also, there's Toys, who really comes into his own here.
All told, it was great, and definitely recommended.