Heard: "Predator One" by Jonathan Maberry

Heard: Predator One by Jonathan Maberry, 2015, overdrive.com download. More narration by Ray Porter.

Another novel in the Joe Ledger series.

A recap: Joe Ledger works for the Department of Military Sciences (DMS) which is a secret federal agency tasked with all sorts of derring-do. Joe Ledger and the DMS are a mix of James Bond and Agents of S.H.I.EL.D. and a comic book heroes. High tech gizmos and science.  Globe-trotting bad guys. Big conspiracies to destroy the USA or the world. Fist fights. Gun Fights. Supernatural evil. Bad guys that survive disaster and live for revenge.

This novel has the last of The Seven Kings - super conspiracy Bad Guys from previous novels - fulfilling his long term plan to wreak vengeance on Ledger and make a mint manipulating the market. Bad Guys kidnapped Brilliant Scientist to torture him into writing software. Bad Guys have both developed and hacked into autonomous software designed for both military and civilian applications. Military drone aircraft, submarines, missile launch software, surface ships, tanks, etc. can be hacked into and remotely controlled. Civilian airliners, drones, and automobiles can be hacked into whenever and driven wherever.

Ledger and his fellow super commandos survive bloody attacks on civilian and military targets. The Bad Guys are super bad by attacking a baseball stadium with tens of drones on opening day. Bad Guys test their tech with murder. Good Guys are honest and outraged at the depravity of bad guys. Ledger wears his emotions on his sleeves. Pregnant woman in peril. Good Guy Dogs are vicious to Bad Guys. Ledger talks heroically and pep talks his team.

Maberry gives us over-the-top shootouts, chases, continental travel, Presidential drama, civilian massacres. There are mysterious and spooky Good Guys. There are mysterious and spooky Bad Guys. There are super high-tech SUVs for the Good Guys. There are super- motivated Bad Guys. Massive gunfights in hospitals. Good Guys are tragically killed. Bad Guys are slowing and vengefully killed.

Comments:
1. Fun stuff with lots of emotion. Very hoo-rah but not political.
2. Maberry keeps things chugging right along with short chapters, flashbacks, and changing setting. He'll stack cliff hangers against each other and switch the story lines back and forth.
3. Porter chews the material up and spits it out. He puts a lot into the dialogue and the reading.