"The Dragon Factory" by Jonathan Maberry

"The Dragon Factory"
by Jonathan Maberry
Read by Ray Porter
Produced by Blackstone Audio
16 hours and 11 minutes

I love it when an author creates a character that is so strong that it constitutes a revisit or even a series based on the character.  But only when it is a Strong Character.  Jonathan Maberry has created a Strong Character in Joe Ledger.  In the first book, "Patient Zero," Ledger is a Detective wanting to get into the FBI, what happens is Ledger is recruited to join a new branch of law enforcement called the DMS (Department of Military Science) in which he leads a team to fight off terrorists who have devised a disease that creates zombies.  The DMS is the branch that keeps the country and the world safe from evil that is beyond the scope of reality.  

The second novel in Maberry's Joe Ledger series starts very soon after "Patient Zero" left off, with Joe visiting the gravesite of one of his oldest and dearest friends. The problem is, the DMS has suddenly been targeted by all the other alphabet soup agencies with the search and seizure order issued by the Vice President of the United States. All the DMS offices and teams soon find themselves under attack from their own government.  Forced to fend off NSA and CIA agents alone, ledger escapes and eventually regroups with the DMS to find that while the President is getting open heart surgery the Vice President is officially in charge and has taken this time to shut down the DMS.  The V.P. as it turns is really a puppet and a mysterious group pulling the strings wants 2 things, 1.) The DMS shut down long enough to institute their plan to destroy the world, and 2.) Mindreader, the DMS computer system that can find anything anywhere. 

The DMS soon learns that the evil afoot is 2 groups of genetic scientists that have genetically created mythical creatures, Dragons, unicorns, centaurs and more.  One of the 2 groups creations are a fighting force which are called Berserkers due to their complete loss of control and destructive chaos the creatures go into when a battle begins.  The Berserkers are super strong, and have a very unique body armor that just cannot be real.  The real threat runs throughout the book in the form of a countdown clock known as the Extinction clock which counts down to when a group of genetic diseases which are prevailent in certain races have been turned into viruses which when released will destroy 6/7ths of the world population leaving most of the Earth's inhabitants to be whites only.

From the first word spoken in this book the action begins and never lets up creating a super action story mixed with some horror and some psychological horror.  For the most part the book is told in First person and Ray Porter owns the role of Joe Ledger.  He also creates the voices of the other characters that not only keeps it clear who is talking but he is able to create through superb voice acting a complete persona for each person capturing perfectly their personality and history.  Porter rocks this book, as he did in the first book, "Patient Zero."  I don't think I could listen to these books read by anyone else.

Maberry writes the perfect action/horror novel.  Really! with Nazi clones, genetically created mythical beasts, the perfect evil mad scientist and his 2 mad scientist children (albino twins) (who are pretty creepy in their own right), ethnic cleansing and a race against time this novel will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout every second of the book.  On the good side a team of soldiers that are too cool for words and a young boy hero that shows what pure goodness is all about.

Now let's see if I can find the next book in the series "The King of Plagues."

"The Power of One" by Bryce Courtenay

"The Power of One"
by Bryce Courtenay
read by Humphrey Bower
Published by Bolinda Publishing (2006)
approx 21 hours

I think I have just listened to one of the most fun and inspirational books of all time. I've always been a slight fan of boxing, okay rather used to be a fan of boxing, mainly a fan of Muhammed Ali. Tyson intrigued me but later in his career he turned out to be pretty much a thug and I lost interest in the sport altogether. What does this have to do with this book? Well this is the story of PK, a young white boy growing up in South Africa, during the 30s and 40s and ends up having the goal of becoming the World Welter-weight champion.

The book is written beautifully in first person and the author even does a few tricks with the storytelling that allows the reader/listener to hear the book from PK's point of view with the view changing as he ages. When he is young all the older characters are exagerated and larger than life and as he matures, his views of the adults becomes more introspective.

He first goes through the ridicule of being an English boy (a rooinek, Afrikaans for redneck). Only being 5 years old the book opens when he is at a boarding school. He was sent away to this school after his mother was sent to a "nervous hospital."

PK gets his name from this boarding school, in that he is called by the other children and staff, pisskop (Afrikaans for "piss head") because he wets the bed. The opening of the book finds PK being tortured in the school's showers for wetting his bed, by the Judge, an older kid and bully, and the jury, the Judge's followers. That christmas PK goes home to his nanny a tribeswoman who was first his wet nurse then his nanny. She calls in the tribal chief (a witchdoctor) to cure him of his night water. The chief cures him and in turn gives PK a chicken as a pet and calls him Grandpa Chook. PK trains the chicken and the chicken becomes inseparable from PK. When he goes back to school, the chicken earns his keep by eating cockroaches in the school's kitchen.

The Judge begins this new term showing off his home made tattoo of a swastika. The Judge as well as the school support Adolph Hitler in this world war. PK is the only rooinek and becomes the subject of all their torment. The Judge makes PK march, hold up an iron bar for hours on end and various other tortures as a prisoner of war. PK eases this by lowering his “camouflage” and telling the Judge he can help him pass his classes. PK being smarter than most of the other boys does the Judge's homework and gets less torture. But when the term ends and the Judge passes, PK gets the worst torture ever. In one of the saddest scenes of the book PK gets the worst humiliation and loses Grandpa Chook.

At the end of the year, traumatized from his experiences, PK is informed that he will not be returning to the farm, rather, he will be going to the East Transvaal town of Barberton, where his grandfather lives after the outbreak of Newcastle disease on his previous home.

On the train to Barberton, PK befriends Hoppie Groenewald, a guard. Groenewald shares his love of boxing with PK. After seeing him win a boxing match, PK is mesmerised with the sport and vows to become the welterweight champion of the world. However, the next day Hoppie departs to fight in a war, and Hoppie's friend Hetty dies on the train PK is travelling on. "First with your head and then with your heart." So says Hoppie Groenewald, boxing champion, to a seven-year-old boy who dreams of being the welterweight champion of the world. For the young PK, it is a piece of advice he will carry with him throughout his life.

When PK arrives in Barberton, he realizes both his academic and physical potential. He excels in his grades and fights the children of the school. He trains with the local Prison Boxing team and proves his ability and becomes a frequent winner, never losing a match. PK encounters numerous friends in Barberton, including a professor of music, Prof. Karl von Vollesteen who is placed in prison as a prisoner of war (being German in an anti-nazi town), and a black prisoner, Geel Piet, who coaches him in boxing. They form alliances, and each believe that all humans have equal rights. Along with the librarian, Mrs. Boxall, they establish the 'Sandwich Fund', which helps to supply the families of people in the Barberton prison.

Over the course of his childhood and young adulthood, PK builds confidence in his boxing. He also learns that racism is the primary force of evil and builds compassion and empathy for the mistreated blacks of apartheid South Africa. PK meets Geel Piet while spending time with Doc in prison, who teaches PK several new boxing techniques, furthering his talent. The black prisoners believe PK is a chief, the "Onoshobishobi Ingelosi" or "Tadpole Angel." One night PK discovers Geel Piet has been murdered in the boxing gym by the warder and soon that warder dies of a disease the resembles the injuries inflicted upon Geel Piet.

Book Two of the novel describes PK's experiences at the Prince of Wales school. He quickly partners up with the son of a Jewish multimillionaire, Morrie Levy. PK and Morrie take the school by storm - PK's boxing talent reforms the pathetic Prince of Wales boxing team, and Morrie becomes PK's manager. Soon the two boys have a lucrative gambling business set up, as well as all kinds of other "scams" which bring in enough money for PK to begin boxing lessons with South Africa's top coach, Solly Goldman. PK becomes a stranger to failure, excelling at boxing, rugby, and academics. PK's victory over a distinguished black boxer, who happens to be the son of his Nanny, this furthers the belief that he is the "Tadpole Angel." However, he must face Doc's death towards the end of his school career as well as the disappointment of not winning a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford University.

Book Three traces PK's life in Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) where he takes on a dangerous job as a "grizzly man" in the mines in order to build up his body for his boxing, and to earn enough money to pay his way through three years at Oxford. He forms a close friendship with a Russian miner, named Rasputin, who eventually saves PK during a mining catastrophe, dying in the process. PK recovers but, before leaving the mines, he discovers that he has been working for his old nemesis, Jaapie Botha, previously known as "the Judge". PK fights Jaapie and fights for justice.

This book points out the unfairness in the world from a child's point of view developing into a voyage of hope for mankind. Share this one with your family. I would highly recommend this to anyone over the age of 10. Also, the reader, Humphry Bower does a superb job of creating the atmosphere of this book through his voice.

"Sabotage in the Sky" by L. Ron Hubbard

"Sabotage in the Sky"
by L. Ron Hubbard
Multi-cast performance
produced by Galaxy Audio
2009
Approx 2 hours

It's time once again to go on an air adventure with the master of story-telling, L. Ron Hubbard. As always make sure you're strapped in because this one will keep you on th edge of your seat. (Or as the the old monster truck rally commercials used to say, "You'll pay for the whole seat but you'll only need the edge, edge, edge.")

Hubbard wrote many stories for the pulps in the mid 20th century and every one was meant to captivate the reader in only a few pages. His writing achieved this but Galaxy Audio's production of these stories into audiobooks pushes this audience captivation further. Each of these books released by Galaxy Press and Galaxy Audio are produced with excellent character acting, realistic sound effects and original music to fit the genre to transition between chapters.

This time around I listened to "Sabotage in the Sky." This story was originally published in "Five Novels Monthly" August, 1940 and tells the story of test pilot Bill Trevillian. None of the fighter planes test pilot Bill Trevillian flies are hotter than the BCA 41 pursuit ship, so he takes it up. But someone has deliberately rigged it for failure and destruction—and for Trevillian's death.
France and Great Britain are looking for the best fighters to use in the war against the Nazis and they must choose between different American plane designs to outfly the newest and deadliest Nazi fighters, the competing companies send their two best test pilots . . . Kip and Bill. Kip turns out to be an old friend of Bill's but not one he remembers at first. Kip is a dame, and according to Bill, "Dames can't fly." But Kip is out to set him straight.

Kip and Bill grew up together, Bill was always the best pilot, and Kip looked up to him. But when Bill ridicules her on her crash landing she sets out to get back at him. But what is worse is that the Nazis have sent a saboteur to Bill's crew in order to keep the Europeans from gaining the air advantage.

Soon Kip and Bill suspect the other of sabotage, problem that not only threatens their already electric relationship but their very lives. The contract is to be decided in a mock air battle, but soon turns deadly when the Nazis sneak a saboteur onto each plane and plan to highjack the planes for their own use. What soon turns out to be a sea and air battle the two pilots' skills are put to the test.