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michaelpatrickhicks 's review for:
Predator One
by Jonathan Maberry
My review of PREDATOR ONE can be found at High Fever Books.
After seven books into Jonathan Maberry’s highly propulsive Joe Ledger series, I’ve become convinced there’s no such thing as a bad Joe Ledger book. That said, it does take some time for Predator One to really pick up a good head of steam and kick into high gear, presenting some unique frustrations along the way.
Over the course of this series we’ve seen zombies, vampires, alien technology, secret cults of villains that would put SPECTRE to shame, and killer diseases genetically modified to become even more potent and horrifying. In Predator One, the big terror is drones and autonomous vehicles — seemingly perfect fodder for the genre mishmash this series has become known for, twisting together horror, science fiction, and military action for a highly kinetic and engaging read.
Don’t get me wrong — Predator One has some seriously wicked action scenes, to be sure, and the threat levels keep getting more and more elevated. Unfortunately, it’s also got some serious lag time as various pieces get moved around and put into place. The inciting incident involving a drone attack on a baseball stadium during opening day is exciting and terrifying in equal measure, but it takes a few odd hours for Maberry to actually get to. It’s also a sequence that puts Ledger out of action for quite a while as he sustains a number of injuries that put in him in the hospital for a long stretch. If a Joe Ledger book with its central protagonist confined to a bed for hours and hours of audiobook story-time sound thrilling to you, well, hey, hats off to you.
There’s also a wholly unnecessary mystery involving the mastermind behind all these drone attacks who, for damn near 16 entire hours of this book, is referred to as the burned man. If you’re a Ledger fan and have been with this series since book one, you’ll have little trouble figuring out who this mystery man is. If you’re brand-new to this series, the big reveal isn’t going to have much impact on you and might even leave you scratching your head thinking, “That’s it? Really? Who?” Hell, even though I figured out who the villain was from the outset and can usually spot a red herring a mile away in these types of books, I was still left scratching my head thinking, “That’s it? Really?” It’s the type of non-twist that has no real reason for being, and if Maberry had just given us the burned man’s name right at the opening, it would have had exactly the same impact as it being denied to us. I kind of suspect the only reason it was kept so hush-hush was simply to annoy the readers…
And I admit, I was kind of annoyed with this book for the first half, particularly as Maberry spent so much time in Interlude Land to try and keep things exciting and action-filled while Ledger was MIA, front-loading this book with all the historical plot points we need to know for the present-day stuff to make sense. Predator One does eventually recover — not completely, but sufficiently enough to leave me satisfied. I’ve compared the Ledger books to 24 in past reviews, and if you’re a Jack Bauer fan you might recall season three, which begins with Bauer stuck in a Mexican telenovela before shifting gears at the half-way mark to deliver one hell of a grand-slam climax. That’s kind of where Predator One is. It takes a long, long, long time for this book to find its footing, but once it does the pieces fall into place nicely, Maberry raises the stakes in ways that both entertain and frustrate, and mostly in a good way! Ledger trying to get the information that will save the day, only to be stymied by bad guys, is always awesome and action packed. Ledger having to talk to an asocial computer guru Yoda, though, is frustrating in a bad way! But, it still has some comedic value, so it’s not a total loss.
And then there’s Ray freaking Porter. Goddamn, can this guy narrate the hell out of a book! It’s cliche, but no kidding, I’d listen to him narrate the freaking phone book just to see how he’d pull that off. In fact, I might even sign all those a-many Internet petitions demanding the release of The Snyder Cut of Justice League just to experience Porter inhabiting the role of Darkseid, because goddamn if that alone won’t be worth it. Hell, it might be the only saving grace that Justice League flick could ever have!
Anyway. Predator One gets a thumbs up, even if it’s not as enthusiastic a thumbs up as past installments have earned. I would not, however, recommend this book as a starting point for the newly initiated. It is book seven, after all, and even though Maberry does try to make each book an easy entry point for newcomers, there is a lot of background you’d be better of knowing before diving headlong into this book. If you haven’t read Ledger yet, you’ll want to go back to the very beginning and get yourself a copy of Patient Zero, then work your way through the rest. You’ll get to this book in short order soon enough, I promise.
After seven books into Jonathan Maberry’s highly propulsive Joe Ledger series, I’ve become convinced there’s no such thing as a bad Joe Ledger book. That said, it does take some time for Predator One to really pick up a good head of steam and kick into high gear, presenting some unique frustrations along the way.
Over the course of this series we’ve seen zombies, vampires, alien technology, secret cults of villains that would put SPECTRE to shame, and killer diseases genetically modified to become even more potent and horrifying. In Predator One, the big terror is drones and autonomous vehicles — seemingly perfect fodder for the genre mishmash this series has become known for, twisting together horror, science fiction, and military action for a highly kinetic and engaging read.
Don’t get me wrong — Predator One has some seriously wicked action scenes, to be sure, and the threat levels keep getting more and more elevated. Unfortunately, it’s also got some serious lag time as various pieces get moved around and put into place. The inciting incident involving a drone attack on a baseball stadium during opening day is exciting and terrifying in equal measure, but it takes a few odd hours for Maberry to actually get to. It’s also a sequence that puts Ledger out of action for quite a while as he sustains a number of injuries that put in him in the hospital for a long stretch. If a Joe Ledger book with its central protagonist confined to a bed for hours and hours of audiobook story-time sound thrilling to you, well, hey, hats off to you.
There’s also a wholly unnecessary mystery involving the mastermind behind all these drone attacks who, for damn near 16 entire hours of this book, is referred to as the burned man. If you’re a Ledger fan and have been with this series since book one, you’ll have little trouble figuring out who this mystery man is. If you’re brand-new to this series, the big reveal isn’t going to have much impact on you and might even leave you scratching your head thinking, “That’s it? Really? Who?” Hell, even though I figured out who the villain was from the outset and can usually spot a red herring a mile away in these types of books, I was still left scratching my head thinking, “That’s it? Really?” It’s the type of non-twist that has no real reason for being, and if Maberry had just given us the burned man’s name right at the opening, it would have had exactly the same impact as it being denied to us. I kind of suspect the only reason it was kept so hush-hush was simply to annoy the readers…
And I admit, I was kind of annoyed with this book for the first half, particularly as Maberry spent so much time in Interlude Land to try and keep things exciting and action-filled while Ledger was MIA, front-loading this book with all the historical plot points we need to know for the present-day stuff to make sense. Predator One does eventually recover — not completely, but sufficiently enough to leave me satisfied. I’ve compared the Ledger books to 24 in past reviews, and if you’re a Jack Bauer fan you might recall season three, which begins with Bauer stuck in a Mexican telenovela before shifting gears at the half-way mark to deliver one hell of a grand-slam climax. That’s kind of where Predator One is. It takes a long, long, long time for this book to find its footing, but once it does the pieces fall into place nicely, Maberry raises the stakes in ways that both entertain and frustrate, and mostly in a good way! Ledger trying to get the information that will save the day, only to be stymied by bad guys, is always awesome and action packed. Ledger having to talk to an asocial computer guru Yoda, though, is frustrating in a bad way! But, it still has some comedic value, so it’s not a total loss.
And then there’s Ray freaking Porter. Goddamn, can this guy narrate the hell out of a book! It’s cliche, but no kidding, I’d listen to him narrate the freaking phone book just to see how he’d pull that off. In fact, I might even sign all those a-many Internet petitions demanding the release of The Snyder Cut of Justice League just to experience Porter inhabiting the role of Darkseid, because goddamn if that alone won’t be worth it. Hell, it might be the only saving grace that Justice League flick could ever have!
Anyway. Predator One gets a thumbs up, even if it’s not as enthusiastic a thumbs up as past installments have earned. I would not, however, recommend this book as a starting point for the newly initiated. It is book seven, after all, and even though Maberry does try to make each book an easy entry point for newcomers, there is a lot of background you’d be better of knowing before diving headlong into this book. If you haven’t read Ledger yet, you’ll want to go back to the very beginning and get yourself a copy of Patient Zero, then work your way through the rest. You’ll get to this book in short order soon enough, I promise.