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A review by monty_reads
The King of Plagues: A Joe Ledger Novel by Jonathan Maberry
3.0
3.5 stars. Three volumes in, and Jonathan Maberry's action/horror series continues to be the high-water mark for this kind of thing. This time around, Joe Ledger and his team in the Department of Military Sciences face off (in best James Bond fashion) against a global cabal called the Seven Kings, a collection of prominent world figures set on unleashing the Ten Biblical Plagues on the world. It's preposterous in the best sense of the word, and it's to Maberry's credit that even though disbelief often has to be suspended by an increasingly complicated series of ropes and pulleys, it never teeters over into silliness.
Part of the reason why Maberry's work succeeds as well as it does is that the author frequently taps into the here and now, most importantly a sense of post-9/11 paranoia. Bombings, ebola, military sabotage – nothing is off the table for the Seven Kings, and their seeming invisibility and omnipresence lends a frantic sense of urgency to Ledger's hunt. Maberry leavens the tension with a welcome sense of gallows humor, and this uneasy – but wholly successful – high-wire act is the very definition of a page-turner.
Half a star removed for a "secret" plot twist that gets telegraphed early and often and whose reveal is still treated as a major revelation, and a weird conversation Ledger has with U2's Bono in the closing pages. Because why not.
Part of the reason why Maberry's work succeeds as well as it does is that the author frequently taps into the here and now, most importantly a sense of post-9/11 paranoia. Bombings, ebola, military sabotage – nothing is off the table for the Seven Kings, and their seeming invisibility and omnipresence lends a frantic sense of urgency to Ledger's hunt. Maberry leavens the tension with a welcome sense of gallows humor, and this uneasy – but wholly successful – high-wire act is the very definition of a page-turner.
Half a star removed for a "secret" plot twist that gets telegraphed early and often and whose reveal is still treated as a major revelation, and a weird conversation Ledger has with U2's Bono in the closing pages. Because why not.