Joe Ledger has been delivering action with an attitude for a while now and Dogs of War marks the 9th full novel in this action packed series. Joe Ledger and the DMS have faced quite a diverse set of adversaries along the way including the likes of zombies, aliens, vampires, super soldiers, and even some yet to be explained phenomena, yes I am looking at you Nicodemus. Of course if you are considering reading book 9 then you likely know all of that already and you also know that those encounters have taken their toll on the DMS with most surviving members of Echo team carrying around some serious emotional baggage. What manner of madness has Jonathan Maberry cooked up this time and will the DMS even be able to find their "A" game to deal with it?
Kudos to Maberry for managing to evolve his overall story arc across so many books while keeping keep each and every one fresh along the way; however, that streak comes to end with Dogs of War. Unfortunately this book marks the first time that the story just wasn't very unique. Engineered plagues, drones/robots built by our military that can be controlled by the bad guys, and attacks upon the family members of the DMS have all been done before and they are done here yet again. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad book, it just isn't anything special and for Joe Ledger fans that takes a bit of the fun out of it. Nobody beats Joe Ledger when it comes to serving up a cold dish of vengeance on someone who truly deserves it, but this time around it just feels very "been there, done that." Of course that didn't stop me from rooting for the killer inside Joe Ledger to come and play out when the time was right for a little payback.
Luckily a mediocre Joe Ledger novel is still better than a lot of what is out there and with Ray Porter being his usual excellent self for the audiobook this one is still worth your time especially if you are listening. Just keep your expectations in check and know that by the time this one is over the story arc will be set up nicely for a fresh story to be told in the next book.