Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

A With Both Hands Mini-Review

The initial Joe Ledger novel stuck out to me in 2009 as an interesting combination of Islamic millennialism and the zombie genre. Fourteen years later, one of the most interesting theories I have come across for why shambling hordes took over popular entertainment in the late 2000s was that zombie stories helped express a sublimated fear of Islamic extremism.

Zombies in popular entertainment of course long predated the Global War on Terror, but that period of time saw an explosion in the number of books, movies, and videogames featuring zombies. It seemed inescapable at the time, which really fits with the theory for why that particular thing became so prevalent.

I wouldn't claim this is the only plausible theory for why zombies took over everything in fiction for a while, but if it it was even part of the reason, Patient Zero may have been the ultimate expression of that tendency. Now that the GWOT is over, I can't imagine ever wanting to go back and re-read this particular story, as its moment is gone and otherwise it was unremarkable. It wasn't bad, but it certainly doesn't stand out to me either.

I received this book for free from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program

Read the full 2009 review

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