REVIEW: Assassin's Code

PLOT: When Joe Ledger and Echo Team rescue a group of American college kids held hostage in Iran,the Iranian government then asks them to help find six nuclear bombs planted in the Mideast oil fields. These stolen WMDs will lead Joe and Echo Team into hidden vaults of forbidden knowledge, mass-murder, betrayal, and a brotherhood of genetically-engineered killers with a thirst for blood. Accompanied by the beautiful assassin called Violin, Joe follows a series of clues to find the Book of Shadows, which contains a horrifying truth that threatens to shatter his entire worldview. They say the truth will set you free… Not this time. The secrets of the Assassin’s Code will set the world ablaze.

REVIEW: This series continues to amaze me. After dealing with Nazi scientists, zombies, and weaponized plague I figured all of the conventional science fiction plots turned non-fiction were all used up. Maberry takes what is a seemingly unrealistic story line and puts the realistic twist on it, as he has done with the rest of the series prior to Assassin's Code. I have to say I was blown away by this fourth entry in the Joe Ledger series, because not only did I not expect vampires when I first picked this book up, but I expected certain villains to play a crucial role in this novel. I haven't read vampires done this well since I read Guilermo del Toro's The Strain and two follow-up novels, and I was highly impressed with the mythos that Maberry weaves for his own vampires in the Joe Ledger series. I don't know if this is the first time he's tackled vampires, but he went about it really well and created them in a realistic world. The most important thing about this book is that it could have gone either way depending on how the vampires were viewed by the reader, and I saw some of the most inventive vampires that aren't particularly scary but you can almost relate to their story, you can understand them. That can be scary all on its own I suppose, and to see a vampire story written with some creativity and uniqueness to it is great in these trying vampire literature times.

Joe Ledger is his usual self, but it's really his disbelief in everything that is going on throughout the book that really sells it in the end. He has the reaction that most of us probably would, to the statement that vampires are not imaginary. When Ledger discovers that vampires may be a threat, even then he doesn't believe it, until he's pretty well convinced by his team members that what he's seeing is true. He even encounters a vampire early on in the book, and comes up with about every excuse possible to believe that he didn't just fight a supernatural being. I love Joe's mindset throughout Assassin's Code and it really fits and helps the reader relate and believe that this is plausible because Joe has so much trouble accepting his mission this time around. Of course, Joe's trusty sidekick Ghost is back and better than ever. Ghost has a rough go of it this time around and gets plenty beat up and it's kind of hard to read in certain moments, but he does get his ultimate revenge on the bad guys so don't worry about that.

This book sees the loss of a few characters, but addition of a couple others that may be future side characters from here on out. Joe meets the deadly, but beautiful assassin who calls herself Violin and almost falls in love with her before they ever even meet. I liked Violin because she is kind of like Joe, in terms of personality, but she belongs to a different secret task force that is directed by the Mother, Lilith. I liked the addition of all these different groups this time around, that show that the DMS is not the only one out there fighting evil in the world. Also a lot of historical mythology is added to the Joe Ledger series, that pertains to The Red Order and the vampires and how it all came to be with the Inquisition and holy wars of the past. I really liked Maberry's use of interludes to go back and show the past of these groups of both people, and vampire, and also go more in depth for Nicodemus. I have to say that Nicodemus literally gives me the creeps, and I love that he's still pretty well present and scheming in the background of the books. This book again, is probably the best one since The Dragon Factory, and that's not to say The King of Plagues sucked. My favorite is probably now this one, because the blend of realism that Maberry brings to the Joe Ledger stories, combined with something completely supernatural had me turning pages faster than ever before with Joe Ledger. Thank you Mr. Maberry, oh thank you and now to read Extinction Machine next, the most current Joe Ledger novel!

RATED : ( R )

WRITING : ( 10 / 10 )

STORY : ( 10 / 10 )

COVER : ( 7 / 10 )

AWESOME : ( 10 / 10 )

FINAL RATING : ( 10 / 10 )