Short description
24 meets 28 Days Later - a fast moving, hyper-violent techo-thriller with horror overtones
Long description
'When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, then there's either something wrong with your skills or something wrong with your world. And there's nothing wrong with my skills.' Police officer Joe Ledger, martial arts expert, ex-army, self-confessed brutal warrior is scared. The man he's just killed is the same man he killed a week ago. He never expected to see the man again, definitely not alive, and definitely not as part of the recruitment process for the hyper-secret government agency the Department for Military Sciences. But the DMS are scared too - they have word of a terrorist plot straight from a nightmare - a bid to spread a plague through America - a plague that kills its victims and turns them into zombies. Time is running out and Joe has shown he has the abilities they need to lead one of their field teams. And so begins a desperate three mission - to contain the zombie outbreaks, to break the terrorist cell responsible and to find the man in their own team who is selling them out to the terrorists. Patient Zero is astonishingly fast moving, incredibily violent and down-right terrifying thriller - a new breed of thriller of techo-thriller that plays on our fears of mad science.
Review
24-with-Zombies. The plot is simple but completely gripping. The pace breakneck. One of the most exciting thrillers we've read in years and arguably the greatest zombie novel. -- Sam Ashurst SFX A well written, often insanely paced and utterly compelling piece of entertainment. But the real joy of this novel is the plot: occasionally implausible, but unfailingly gripping, it makes for the same sort of breathless guilty pleasure as reading a James Patterson novel. -- Steve Robinson DEATHRAY To state that, with Patient Zero, Jonathan Maberry has written an excellent thriller with horror trappings is misleading. On the other hand, to say he's composed a fine horror novel with thriller aspects isn't quite right, either. Perhaps, it is most appropriate to simply conclude: The man has succeeded in his goal. FANGORIA Patient Zero is a terrific action/horror novel that effortlessly and absolutely satisfies the requirements of both genres. It's also, and I say this without making light of the fact, a truly post 9/11 zombie novel, and all the more terrifying for it. HORRORSCOPE Patient Zero is definitely a zombie story for the twenty first century, it has big ideas and it's right there in your face (trying to bite it off). If you like zombie fiction then I reckon you'll enjoy this. GRAEME'S FANTASY BOOK REVIEW An accomplished thriller which overcomes its dafter aspects to become an enjoyable novel. SFF CHRONICLES Patient Zero ticks all the turn-the-page buttons with action blasting into being at exactly the right junctures. Patient Zero does feel like something new, but in reality it's a hybrid that revolves around Maberry's ability to successfully incorporate horror elements into a contemporary post 9/11 hotbed of political intrigue, global corporate aspirations and military/national wills. BOOK GEEKS Fits well into the Tom Clancy techno thriller world: it just happens to be zombies not terrorists who are the enemy! The action is well written, with some very tense sequences that don't stint on the necessary gore. If you're after a fast-paced action thriller with a high violence quotient, Patient Zero fits the bill. DREAMWATCH TOTAL SCI-FI Patient Zero is a fast-paced thriller that's amongst the best of its genre, and which will win the writer many new readers, plaudits and perhaps awards - and deservedly so. STRANGE HORIZONS