Finished: "The Dragon Factory" by Jonathan Maberyy

Finished: The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry, 2010, 9780312382490 (paper).

James Bond versus Dr. Moreau.

Second Maberry novel I have read and also the second novel in Maberry's Joe Ledger series. I read the first, Patient Zero, after a plug by JD Rhoades. There are already three in the series.

Joe Ledger still works for the Department of Military Sciences (DMS) run by Mr. Church. The DMS and it's boss are very shadowy but have enormous pull within the Fed government. Ledger is a former Baltimore police detective, martial arts expert, and former Army commando. The rest of DMS's staff are all experts within their fields and super-commandos recruited from SEALs, Special Forces, and elsewhere.

This is set only a couple months or so after the first book. DMS is under assault by the NSA under orders of the Vice President who is in charge while the President is under surgery and in recovery. VP and a weaselly Senator want to shut down DMS. blah blah blah. Everything ties into Cyrus Jakoby's plan to use orally taken gene therapy that will take recessive genes common in certain human races and bring out those diseases. For example: Sickle cell for black people, Tay Sachs for Jewish people.

Ledger investigates. Ledger gets in many gunfights. Ledger punches and kicks. Ledger uses his knife. Ledger bangs Major WhatsHerFace. Bad guys have Nazi ties and are very wealthy and mysterious. Bad guys are genetically engineering animals and people. Bad guys are evil. Ledger and company attack the bad guys. Mysterious hitman appears. Mysterious background and powers of Mr. Church slightly revealed. Ledger and company attack more bad guys. Bad guys have massive underground complexes staffed with scientists and private army. Main bad guy is actually Josef Mengele. Many people die. Bizarre animals - mastiffs with scorpion tales - are defeated. Major WhatsHerFace is killed. Recurring characters in Ledger's DMS unit return, fight the bad guys, are wounded, survive. Open ended ending.

Comments:

1. A fun read but a couple gun errors annoyed me.

2. This is part sci-fi and therefore suffers from sci-fi bloat at close to 500 pages long.

3. This is not a book you take too seriously and apply logic to. The hero is incredibly capable and durable. The DMS has unlimited capabilities for science, travel, and other resources. Things always go right with technology.