Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

After I finished reading Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry I was tempted to edit my summer reading post to include this book... Patient Zero is a summer blockbuster type of book for sure.

What does “summer blockbuster type of book” mean to me? Well, first and foremost it must be fun to read. Patient Zero was incredibly fun to read... a zombie/techno/military thriller which was both scary and refreshing in its genre blurring approach. Secondly, your summer blockbuster needs to move at a quick pace and be compelling. Patient Zero does the job here as well... it kept me turning pages as fast as I could well past the point I planned to put the book down for the night - if you are a relatively quick reader, this is a book you can blow through in an afternoon spent at the beach, on the back porch, or whatever summer reading spot you enjoy best... and better than that, it is not empty calorie kind of read where you wonder where your time went when you have finished - it is a book that will stick with you after you done, leaving you satisfied.

Patient Zero is the story of Joe Ledger and how he becomes part of a secret government organization, the fictional Department of Military Science, fighting terror(ism) in the form of some scary zombies. The book has a nice mix of science, modern technology, crime fighting, international terrorists, action, suspense, a bit of humor, and zombies... and this mix actually works extremely well. The front cover advertises this book as “A Joe Ledger Novel” so I am hoping we will see more of Joe in future books - Joe Ledger is a badass character who deserves some more adventures in print.

When I was preparing to write this review, I was trying to come up with some clever comparison - you know, a “Stephen King meets Tom Clancy” or “Bentley Little meets Michael Crichton” kind of thing - but nothing really worked for me, although “Night of the Living Dead meets 24” comes kind of close. Putting all these comparisons aside and what it comes down to is that Patient Zero is a good fun read. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys zombie books or techno-thrillers and is looking for fresh take on these genres in the form of combining them together.