Dogs of War (Joe Ledger, #9) By Jonathan Maberry

Jonathan Maberry Ü 5 review

Dogs of War: Robots are no longer science fiction. Autonomous, programmed to react like animals: fast, relentless, deadly. From microscopic nanobots to massive self-guided aircraft. This technology is here, it’s assessable, and it’s dangerous. What’s even scarier is that almost anyone can get their hands on it.

A freelance terrorist uses the latest generation of robot dogs to deliver WMDs into cities across America. Ultra-realistic robots in the sex industry are used to spread designer plagues. Sophisticated military weapons systems turn on their human masters. A technological apocalypse is coming and we may be too late to stop it.

Joe Ledger and a newly rebuilt Department of Military Sciences square off against this new and terrible threat. Dogs of War pits Joe against a merciless new enemy and an army of techno-terrorists in a race to prevent a global destruction.

Let loose the Dogs of War. Dogs of War (Joe Ledger, #9)

Before releasing:

Just read the plot summary.
Looks like this time, its Robopocalypse vs Joe Ledger and his Department of Military Sciences.
Hands down my most awaited novel this year (unless Jim Butcher finally decides to release Dresden#16 Peace Talks, for which I'm done waiting).
Today is April 2nd, 23 more long days to go (release April 25).
CAN'T. WAIT.
(insert hyperventilating emoji here).

After finishing:

Looks like I have to update the review so that it actually reads like a review, don't I? English This is a review from 2017.
I've been thinking about this review for a month now, and for some reason I'm just befuddled by the whole thing. I'm not usually at a loss for words when it comes to Jonathan Maberry and his Joe Ledger series. Ledger and his team are always fighting the big bad, but this book ended up scaring me in another way. A.I., robotics, and nanotechnology is not my idea of great things to look forward to! But, the way Mr. Maberry has come up with the destruction of humanity in this book is truly terrifying. To say that I'm looking forward to the next few books in this series would be a vast understatement! Yep, I'd recommend this book and author. Thanks to St. Martin's and Netgalley for supplying me with an early e-arc. English The ninth book of the Joe Ledger series does not disappoint this long time reader, that's for damn sure! And it get's all the stars! Every damn day of the week. Stars for days!

Sure, it follows what has worked for past novels in the series by using a very well known formula (if you read these books). Something horrific is happening, Joe and the DMS come to the party late, shit gets crazy, shit goes down, and it feels like there's just no way the good guys will win.

In DOGS OF WAR, the reader get to see some of the worst technology yet. I didn't think we could see much worse than what went down in The Dragon Factory (which until this book, I believed had the scariest technology/science), but DOGS OF WAR takes the cake. I think what makes this book so much more frightening is how believable all the technology really is (and how much is already out/in development/in process of going live).

And no matter how terrifying it all was, it was awesome to read about. I think that's just how I view technology and new scientific discoveries in general. Terrifying but awe-inspiring. So much good comes out of both fields, that even when the bad stuff hits the market, it's hard to argue against. I mean, just look at all the good it does too? Ya know?

Anyway, the technology is just one of the elements I thoroughly love about the Joe Ledger series, and this one in particular.

The other of course, is our wonderfully damaged main character Joe. From his fucked up humor to his relentless drive to solve any mystery, to his ruthlessness when it comes to the bad guys, I just can't get enough of him. A lot went down in the last book (Kill Switch) that I didn't know if Joe and the Echo team would recover. It's one thing I really appreciate in these books too, the consequences from previous books are not only prevalent in the next book, but part of the larger plot/world building/character development of the next book. It all ties in together.

DOGS OF WAR is no different in that realm, of course. I will say where past books have felt like team books, DOGS OF WAR felt mostly like a Joe story. We got to see some character development for my two favorite members of Echo Team (Bunny and Top), but for the most part, Joe was center stage. Not that I minded. We also got to see Joe at what may have been his most vulnerable in any novel to date.

It did make for a sometimes awkwardly paced book though, because of it. While we got to see what Bunny and Top were doing (plus of course, seeing into the past and present of the big bads), when those have happened in past books, it didn't feel like such a pace destroyer, as it did in this one.

Maybe it was just how I was reading it, and needing to stay in Joe's POV because so much was going down, but this time around when those chapters/interludes happened, the pace of my reading and my enjoyment glitched for a moment. And, I'd have to take a moment to adjust from the edge of my seat to a more comfy position.

Even with that though, it's not enough to knock this down to 4 stars at all. DOGS OF WAR has become my favorite Joe Ledger book to date, and I love that fact!

If you haven't tried this series yet, I really highly recommend it! While I'm sure it's not a perfect series by any means, it's as close to a perfect series as I've ever read. English Wow.....

Just wow....

I'll post a full review once I process everything that happened in this book. Actually I'll read this again & then post a review...

Wow.....
English My review of DOGS OF WAR can be found at High Fever Books.

One of the hardest parts about reviewing Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger series is finding (hopefully) new and compelling ways to illustrate what makes them so damn good. Maberry’s been at this a while now and although he’s got the formula down pat, the series as a whole has been too entertaining to feel overly formulaic. Yes, I do get a bit tired of all the interludes and Ledger’s recapping of his mental state and the divisions in his personality as The Cop, The Warrior, and The Modern Man, and his backstory as a teenager, but nine books in, I’ve also come to accept that these things are all just part of the formula. It’s tiresome info for the dedicated reader, perhaps, but easily overlooked if you’re willing, and it’s necessary info for new readers who might enter this series at any point. So, that all said, what can I say about Dogs of War?

Well, for starters, Maberry doesn’t do small scale. I noted in my review for Kill Switch that Maberry has an uncanny knack for making each new threat in these subsequent books the biggest and baddest dangers the world has ever faced. I wasn’t sure he could out-size himself anymore, but somehow he’s managed and the problems faced in Dogs of War are even bigger than the last go-round in terms of potential lethality for the world at large. Maberry uses those past threats faced by Joe Ledger and his team at the DMS to build toward something huge and nigh unstoppable, so here we have the dangers of military drones as glimpsed in Predator One but more personally and harshly realized, artificial intelligence, and, as is a prerequisite in these books, a super wealthy megalomaniac who wants to destroy the world.

Also building on those threads from prior novels is the current state of operations of the DMS. Ledger’s Echo Team has taken a pounding over the last several books, leaving what’s left of his heavy hitters with PTSD, and certain issues arising from Kill Switch have left the Department of Military Sciences on the outs with a lot of its sister agencies in the US government. DMS is at the lowest point we’ve seen thus far, having suffered numerous defeats and with so much of the world having grown wise to Mr. Church’s Mindreader super-software that has, for so long, given them an edge in their war on terror.

One particular point of interest I’ve found as I play catch-up with the Joe Ledger series is how it plays given the foreknowledge that the tenth book, Deep Silence, is the last DMS novel as Maberry launches his series character into a new on-going Rogue Team International series. Over the course of the last few books, it’s felt like Maberry has been on a path toward winding down the DMS books and wrapping up loose ends as he revisits past threats and cases. It’s particularly telling that, at one point, Church tells Ledger that the current state of the DMS is not what it was nor what it will become. I can’t help but wonder at the foreshadowing in that and what it means for the future of Joe Ledger to come.

Another neat thing I found in Dogs of War was Maberry’s shout out to other big genre thriller series in the vein of his DMS books. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that DMS exists and operates alongside James Rollins’s Sigma Force, Weston Ochse’s Seal Team 666, and Jeremy Robinson’s Chess Team. They’re fun call-outs for genre fans, and I had a good time catching these little Easter Eggs. I can’t imagine the publishing logistics that would go into it, but how cool would it be have Joe Ledger and Gray Pierce team up for some international, supernatural-laced counter-terrorism hi-jinks?

The biggest win here, though, came from the philosophical discussions surrounding the rise of artificial intelligence and the impending technological singularity. I really love the next-gen science that goes into these Ledger books, and Maberry is right on top of current trends, crafting some believable and all too-real scares about nanotechnology, plague threats, and military applications for robotic dogs. This last aspect was particularly prescient of Maberry in 2017, given that just a few weeks ago news broke that the Massachusetts State Police have already begun testing the use of Boston Dynamics’s autonomous robot dogs. Pardon me if I’m a bit leery at this news…

Maberry is scarily on the cusp of potential threats in our near-future world, and his books leave me hoping that there is somebody like Mr. Church and Joe Ledger out there helping to keep a lid on all the truly weird science and apocalyptic designs of the world’s various misfits and demagogues. Especially since, on this last point in particular, we seem to be losing and could really, really, really use somebody like Joe Ledger to rake up some wins for the good guys here. English

Another great action packed book in this excellent adventure series. Very intense plots and great characters that you can get into the story with. Very recommended English DOGS OF WAR was another hit with me!

Ray Porter gives Joe Ledger heart. When Joe is worried about his family or about completing a mission, I worry right there along with him. Porter brings life to Maberry's work and they both have made Joe Ledger part of MY family.

I would never have thought that this series would work so well. Action and military type stuff is not my bag. Maberry and Porter have MADE it my bag and I'm happy and grateful for that. They have provided a wonderful distraction from real life these last few months. It was just what I needed.

Highly recommended!

*I rejoined Audible so that I wouldn't have to wait on the library's list anymore.*

English Joe Ledger always gets 5 stars English This review is going to break my heart.
This is the first book in the Ledger series that I was bored for long periods. It is the first one where I cringed at some of the dialogue and thought a lot of parts were corny.
Maberry is awesome. The Pine Deep trilogy is pimptastic, his zombie books are killer, and 1-8 Ledger are all great too. This one though... eh not so much.
There were glimpses of awsomeness and some action scenes were really cool but for the most part it was just average, sub-par Maberry IMO.
2.7 or 2.8 generously rounded up to 3 stars. English Maberry is like a reverse George RR Martin. Every time I look to see if there's a new book out by him, I discover in the past 10 months that he's written three new books, and a short story collection, and edited/contributed to a half dozen anthology volumes. And I only slightly exaggerate.

This got me thinking that huh, yes, I have read a ton of his books too after all these years (for some reason he always seems new to me). 20+ and counting and I'm glad he's so prolific. And beyond just the AMOUNT of material he puts out, I give Maberry even more credit. None of his books are what I'd call slim or patch job padding nor do I sense the author having more in mind their bank balance over the quality of the work. I don't really see his work declining in quality at all--even if I still think the Pine Deep trilogy is his best work--these Ledger series merrily romp on. Really, the usual bane of a Maberry book--insane amount of misspellings and printing errors--was noticeably absent in my edition of Dogs of War--so good job this time whoever was in charge of quality control for this book!

One of the best things about his books is the continuity. I know I have gotten angry about timelines and parallel universes and some easy McGuffins, but the ancillary characters still get a lot of attention. They're not there just to reflect Ledger's glory back at him. Bunny, Lydia, Church, the Arclight gang--events in book 2 still highly figure in all the later ones. He's got 4 distinct different series, all set in different times, with random characters intersecting. Heck, as a Rollins fan, he even has appearances and mentions by Sigma Force (so for Rollins fans, the universe crosses over here too). I still think this would make it difficult to pick up any of his books midway.

Especially since he has a tendency to build on past books, to an almost Jenga like degree. The bad guys in his books--The Seven Kings, the creepy Nazi twins, Mother Night, Hugo Vox--are all formidable, but all completely intertwined with a nasty habit of leaving all their evil research and money to some shadowy apprentice in the wings, which repeats the process. The villain in this one, aided by another villain we've seen for several books, just happens to be Hugo Vox's favorite niece, bought stuff from Night & the Jackobys, and has been dreaming of her very own apocalypse since childhood.

No zombies or beserkers in this one--instead weaponized rabies, which got me looking up rabies info on the internet for a few hours, because I had sooo many rabies questions by the midpoint of this book. So it turns out that no, while thousands die from rabies each year, it does not make you attack or bite other humans. Dogs and other animals yes, go through a biting stage, a la Cujo, but no verified reports in human. Apparently it's also a thing now, where people are anti-vaxxers about having their animals get rabies shots and it's leaving the US vulnerable to rabies again--so yeah, vaccinate your pets. Rabies is awful (though it does not turn you into bath salt maniac--just insanely painful and almost incurable).

Even though the villain seemed a bit recycled, still a great series. Also, like the new addition to the team and more Church backstory revealed! English