Joe Ledger: Unstoppable

by Jonathan Maberry, Jonathan Maberry (Editor), Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Editor)

Overview

Joe Ledger Fans Rejoice!

Everyone’s favorite snarky, dangerous, idealistic, relentless covert operative is back, and this time he’s brought friends. Joe Ledger: Unstoppable presents original short stories about Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences by some of New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry’s "friends in the industry." Buckle up for powerful, exciting, and nail-biting adventures by Seanan McGuire, Scott Sigler, Larry Correia, Weston Ochse, Steve Alten, David Farland, Aaron Rosenberg, James A. Moore, James Ray Tuck, Javier Grillo Marxuach, Jennifer Campbell-Hicks, Jeremy Robinson, Joe McKinney, Jon McGoran, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Nicholas Seven, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, P.G. Charles, and Dana Fredsti!

Joe Ledger is a former Baltimore cop who was recruited into a secret government agency tasked with stopping terrorists who are using bleeding-edge science weapons. The stakes are always high. If you have to call Joe Ledger, it’s already hit the fan!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250090805
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/31/2017
Series:	Joe Ledger Series
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

JONATHAN MABERRY (he/him) is a New York Times bestselling, Inkpot winner, five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Relentless, Ink, Patient Zero, Rot & Ruin, Dead of Night, the Pine Deep Trilogy, The Wolfman, Zombie CSU, and They Bite, among others. His V-Wars series has been adapted by Netflix, and his work for Marvel Comics includes The Punisher, Wolverine, DoomWar, Marvel Zombie Return and Black Panther. He is the editor of Weird Tales Magazine and also edits anthologies such as Aliens vs Predator, Nights of the Living Dead (with George A. Romero), Don’t Turn out the Lights, and others.

JONATHAN MABERRY (he/him) is a New York Times bestselling, Inkpot winner, five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Relentless, Ink, Patient Zero, Rot & Ruin, Dead of Night, the Pine Deep Trilogy, The Wolfman, Zombie CSU, and They Bite, among others. His V-Wars series has been adapted by Netflix, and his work for Marvel Comics includes The Punisher, Wolverine, DoomWar, Marvel Zombie Return and Black Panther. He is the editor of Weird Tales Magazine and also edits anthologies such as Aliens vs Predator, Nights of the Living Dead (with George A. Romero), Don’t Turn out the Lights, and others.

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and Hugo-nominated editor of adult and children's speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club's Year's Best Science Fiction Releases. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online and include stories in The X-Files and Decipher’s WARS. As a book editor working for Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta's WordFire Press, he has edited books by such luminaries as Alan Dean Foster, Tracy Hickman, Frank Herbert, Mike Resnick, Jean Rabe and more. He was also the first editor on Andy Weir's bestseller The Martian. His anthologies as editor include Shattered Shields with co-editor Jennifer Brozek, Mission:Tomorrow, and Galactic Games for Baen, Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6, Beyond The Sun, andRaygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age. He is also coediting anthologies with Larry Correia and Jonathan Maberry set in their New York Times Bestselling Monster Hunter and Joe Ledger universes. From December 2010 to June 2015, he hosted #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer's Chat) Wednesdays at9 pm ET on Twitter as @SFFWRTCHT. Find him on Twitter and Facebook as @BryanThomasS or at his website: www.bryanthomasschmidt.net.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Foreword Tony Eldridge xiii

Introduction: The World of Joe Ledger Jonathan Maberry xvii

"The Honey Pot" Steve Alten 1

"Confusion" Nicholas Steven 21

"Target Acquired" Christopher Golden Tim Lebbon 43

"Vacation" Scott Sigler 57

"Banshee" James A. Moore 75

"Red Dirt" Mira Grant 89

"Black Water" Weston Ochse 109

"Instinct (A Ghost Story)" Bryan Thomas Schmidt G. P. Charles 127

"No Guns at the Bar" Aaron Rosenberg 143

"Strange Harvest" Jon McGoran 163

"No Business at All" Javier Grillo-Marxuach 185

"Ganbatte" Keith R. A. DeCandido 205

"White Flame on a Sunday" James R. Tuck 225

"Wet Tuesday" David Farland 241

"Prince of Peace" Jeremy Robinson 257

"Rookie" Joe McKinney 279

"Three Times" Jennifer Campbell-Hicks 295

"Psych Eval" Larry Correia 311

"Crash Course" Dana Fredsti 325

"Atoll" Jonathan Maberry 351

Editorial Reviews

08/14/2017
The 20 stories in this uneven thriller anthology set in Stoker Award–winner Maberry’s alternate universe all feature Joe Ledger, a former Baltimore cop who now defends America from threats both natural and supernatural for the Department of Military Sciences. The series’s premise, as stated in movie producer Tony Eldridge’s foreword, is certainly promising: “Drop John McClane from Die Hard into an episode of Fringe and you’ve entered the world of Joe Ledger.” Jon McGoran’s “Strange Harvest” and Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s “No Business at All,” both clever tales, live up to this challenge. Unfortunately, other entries make the suspension of disbelief an uphill struggle, such as James Ray Tuck’s “White Flame on a Sunday,” in which Ledger and his occult bounty hunter friend, Deacon Chalk, encounter a sigil to summon a Sumerian “elephantine god who will one day destroy the world by stampeding across it, using its immensity to press humanity into a sweet wine for its consumption.” Other contributors include such notable genre authors as Steve Alten, Scott Sigler, Christopher Golden, and Tim Lebbon. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Top grade horror fiction.” —Booklist, (Starred Review) on Code Zero

"A fast-paced, brilliantly written novel. The hottest thriller of the New Year!" —Brad Thor on The King of Plagues

“Wow! From the first page of Patient Zero you know you're in the hands of a master.” —M.J. Rose - bestselling author of The Reincarnationist

“The Ledger novels are exciting sf thrillers that just happen to involve stuff that's a little out there.” —Booklist, starred review on Extinction Machine

"With too many memorable tales to name in a review, let us just say that Ledger is a 'star' no matter where he appears in this antholog, and will have fans and future-fans lining up to learn even more about what Joe Ledger's world has to offer." —Amy Lignor for Suspense Magazine

From the Publisher

10/15/2017
Maberry's series protagonist, ex-Baltimore cop Joe Ledger, is now a senior field agent for the Department of Military Sciences, a shadowy government agency that fights terrorists who threaten America with cutting-edge technology, along with a range of monsters, zombies, robots, and aliens. With this volume, Maberry and Schmidt recruited some of the best writers in speculative fiction to spin 20 tales that revolve around Ledger and his team. A revenge-bent woman confronts Ledger in "Target Acquired" by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon. In "Vacation," an excerpt from Scott Sigler's novel Nocturnal, San Francisco cops Pookie Chang and Bryan Clauser give carte blanche to Ledger during a murder investigation. VERDICT Ledger fans will find plenty to enjoy in this anthology as their enigmatic hero goes from playing a central role to becoming a side character to finding himself in intriguing meet-ups with the contributors' own series protagonists.—KC

Library Journal