Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for The King of Plagues by Jonathan Maberry starting on September 7, 2025.


Happy Reading!

Thank you!

Here goes... working off of the list on Maberry's website:
https://www.jonathanmaberry.com/joele...

Joe Ledger DMS main series [link]
1. Patient Zero (Jul 7)
0. Short: Countdown in Joe Ledger: Special Ops collection)
1.1 Short: Zero Tolerance (in Special Ops)
1.2 Short: Deep, Dark (in Special Ops)
1.3 Short: Material Witness
2. The Dragon Factory (Aug 7) [link]
2.1 Short: Dog Days (in print versions of Dragon Factory)
2.2 Short: Changeling (in Special Ops)

3. The King of Plagues (Sept 7)

====Requests made to here====

4. Assassin's Code (Oct? Dec?)
4.1 Short: A Footnote in the Black Budget in The Madness of Cthulhu collection
4.2 Short: Mad Science (in Special Ops)
4.3 Short: Borrowed Power (in Special Ops)
5. Extinction Machine
6. Code Zero
6.1 Novella: Three Guys Walk Into a Bar in Limbus, Inc.: Book II
6.2 Short: Artifact (in Special Ops)
6.3 Short: The Handyman Gets Out (in Special Ops)
7. Predator One
8. Kill Switch
9. Dogs of War
10. Deep Silence
10.1 Short: Atoll in Joe Ledger: Unstoppable collection
10.2 Novella: All the Devils are Here in Hellhole: An Anthology of Subterranean Terror

Joe Ledger: Rogue Team International
1. Rage
2. Relentless
3. Cave 13
4. Burn to Shine
5. Red Empire

Joe Ledger Collections
Joe Ledger: Special Ops (all shorts listed above)
Joe Ledger: Unstoppable (various authors playing in Maberry's sandbox)
Joe Ledger: Unbreakable (2nd Multi-author collection)
Joe Ledger: Secret Missions Volume One and Two (crossover collection)
Maberry's reading order puts Unstoppable here--but he also stopped updating after 2015

Dead of Night
Picks up a few years or so after the Rogue Team books. Some cameos by Ledger.
1. Dead of Night
1.1 Short: Jack and Jill in 21st Century Dead collection
1.2 Short: Chokepoint in Hungry Tales collection
1.5 Short The Wind Through the Fence in Wind Through the Fence: And Other Stories
2. Fall of Night
2.1 Short: Lone Gunman in Nights of the Living Dead: An Anthology
2.2 Short: Not This War, Not My World in Wastelands: The New Apocalypse collection
3. Dark of Night - Flesh and Fire
4. Still of Night

Rot & Ruin
Picks up a decade or so after Dead of Night series. Joe becomes a regular by #3. Younger protagonists.
0.5
1. Rot & Ruin
1.5 vingettes In the Land of the Dead Bonus on Maberry's Website: (https://www.jonathanmaberry.com/files...)
2. Dust & Decay
2.3 Novella: Dead & Gone in Tales of the Rot & Ruin: Rot & Ruin; Dust & Decay; Dead & Gone; Flesh & Bone or solo Kindle ebook
2.5 Graphic Novel: Rot & Ruin Warrior Smart #1-5
3. Flesh & Bone
3.5 Novella: Tooth & Nail Kindle ebook?
4. Fire & Ash
5. Bits & Pieces

Broken Lands
Direct continuation of Rot & Ruin--#1 of Broken Lands is #6 of Rot & Ruin
1. Broken Lands
2. Lost Roads

V-Wars
A series of Graphic Novels with Ledger cameos

OK folks, when do we want the next one? Keep barrelling through Spooky/Cozy season, or pick up in Dec or Jan?

Y'all should look at the [list] for Spooky/Cozy before making a decision... it's pretty massive. Comment 22.

I can't answer that but I'll join in starting at book 7 :D Your Oct and Nov is pretty booked though.

Assassin's Code is vampires... sounds like Spooktober to me... up to you guys about November...

Reading this today...

In my head, I thought big world-changing events didn't start happening in the series until #7 Predator One, which I think is the drone book...

But here we are in book 4, and I'm noting (view spoiler)[the oldest hospital in London/UK blown up... Area 51 destroyed (and we're not even to the alien book yet)... the list goes on, really, big things keep getting destroyed... (hide spoiler)]

This is also a great entry, introducing a number of iconic villains... The Seven Kings really ARE like the Sinister SIx of the Ledgerverse... some themed after Four Horsemen like Plagues and War, etc...

Also the first book (of multiple) to bring back surviving villains from previous books (Toys & his boss from book 1, billionaire healthcare guy making zombies and curable bioagents)

I think I spoiled some stuff about one of the new villains here in previous threads/general Joe Ledger discussions... I forgot how he was introduced here... I think he went by other names in times past, but he's always referred to by his name here from here on when he shows up...

That scene with Topps' wife (view spoiler)[really scared me, since I know nobody is safe in this series, and it could have been another death I forgot about, when the car was attacked/bombed/whatever (hide spoiler)]

It feels like a recurring issue in the main books of this series, that the villains know way too much about the DMS, causing alot of collateral damage...

They only really get to cleanly kick ass and take names in the short story anthologies...

All this, and I'm only 30% into my re-read...

I read this yesterday and enjoyed it. Glad to see Iain's post confirmed one of the questions I had--(view spoiler)[Sebastian & ... Toys? were indeed the zombie plague people from book 1...

So, is Toys the one who was Sebastian's sidekick and turned on him, or the mole in Church's organization who was a father-figure to Cersei? I didn't catch names for either, but I thought that name was the second. I was referring to the first. It took me a while to figure out who the mole/father-figure was... for a while I thought he was Church when talking to Cersei and saying things like "you probably don't want to hear this but your father would be proud of you." Having Church turn out to BE her father was not that big of a surprise at the end. I really have to wonder about the father figure/mole's reasons though. He seemed to really care about Cersei at least... yet he's also taking out world infrastructure and being party to killing millions of people. WTF dude? The crazy ones I get. What's his deal?

I felt so bad for the poor guy in the prologue, and when they finally found him, he'd had to infect a boy (his son? I thought he only had a daughter?) and himself with ebola... they'd broken him so bad that he thought killing that boy this way was better than the alternative...

So I was SO HAPPY when the mother who worked in a lab with bubonic-carrying fleas saw the video announcement and decided to call for help. Thank goodness!! After all the people who died, being able to save someone was a big relief. And seeing the bad guys' panties in a bunch over it afterwards was satisfying too.

I can see what Iain's talking about, with world escalation already starting, and setting up major bad guys... will we be seeing the Dragon Factory folks again too? This entry was better than that one... I keep thinking in comparisons. #2 felt like a common #2 book... more detached from #1 and #3, characters less competent, just a step down in general... then we get #3 and it connects back to #1, and the characters are in good form, actually getting hits in on the bad guys even as they take losses... (hide spoiler)]

This is also the last book we have scheduled so far this year. When do people want to continue? I'll post in the previous book too, just in case folks aren't looking here for fear of spoilers... Who else was reading with us again...

I read this earlier this month and I agree this was a great entry to the series, exciting and suspenseful and no one is safe. (view spoiler)[The daughter thing? (hide spoiler)] I am really enjoying this series! I am fine continuing in October if you want :)

I'd rather skip spooky & cozy and pick up in December (or Jan, as Iain keeps reminding me) but I will abide by whatever everyone else decides. Narilka joined us too, for #2.

But, like I said last time the topic of continuing was mentioned, this IS spooky... Assassin's Code even has vampires...

So, I think we should continue in October, even if we skip November/December...

I don't think Narilka is reading with us, until we reach #7... just joining the discussion while newbies catch up and I re-read...

I'm good with whatever. I finally got the spreadsheet mostly updated, I am ahead of schedule for this month and I am planning October to ensure I can fir as much horror in as I possibly can :)

Nirkatze wrote: "I read this yesterday and enjoyed it. Glad to see Iain's post confirmed one of the questions I had--..."

(view spoiler)[Toys was Sebastien's sidekick in book 1 who slapped him to give him a wake up call when he had a breakdown...

This is the beginning of Toys' redemption arc, altho for now he's with the King of Fear, I think?... son of The Goddess, and the guy who did all the background checks for the DMS and was Church's friend and Cersei's boss...

I'm forgetting his name now, except that it starts with an H I think?... he'll be back once or twice... and his weapons, since he's basically an arms dealer... they come back so many times... (hide spoiler)]

My favorite scene of the book tho, is when the team is spiraling a bit about zombies and nazi clones and stuff being real, and someone is like "what else? vampires? aliens? kaiju/Godzilla?"... and Church and the other person in the room give the side eye... (view spoiler)[vampires are the next book... aliens come up in a few books... kaiju are the only things that haven't come up so far, but they may as well at some point... they kinda do, if you include Kagen the Damned trilogy, which is set 40,000 years in the future and features Nicodemus (hide spoiler)]

I guess we're skipping October... we're 2 days from October, and Nirkatze never responded to my responses on September 1st or September 14th, regarding skipping or continuing...

I was trying to let y'all decide... y'all know my preference but I'll abide with whatever y'all want to do... was hoping Narilka would pitch in too...

Like I said above, I don't think she's paying that close attention to the discussion, since she's not reading with us until #7, as per message 8 in the book 1 thread... she's just following our discussions of the books she read in the past in the Vagabond thread:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

So, do you want to do an October BR then?... like I said, it's vampires, which is very spooktober, and Ann-Marie is open to it...

I'm mostly leaving it to you, as the one feeling the most swamped in BRs...

Ann-Marie is caught up, and I have 3 BRs left in September and 48hrs to read them if I wanted to, EZPZ... planning to start exploring October and side reads instead...

Just loaded up my phone for the month with my handful of sideload BRs and the Kate Daniels books I don't own on Audible, yet, to get back to that re-read... a few early Kate Daniels books are the only things I don't own on Audible yet from Ilona Andrews, at this point... and 2 Hidden Legacy books... I've managed to get everything else on sitewide sales the past few years, to fill in my Audible server collection... where it's protected from PC/HDD failure...

I'm at 13 books to read still for Sept. Still pretty swamped. I'd rather wait, but I don't feel like my one self should hold y'all back when you're all caught up.

Lets do Joe Ledger in October, then we can skip November/December if you guys want, then...

Requested Assassin's Code October 7th

Added to my list for October <3

Thank you!!!