I’ve talked about the Weaponized Hell a little bit before. It is a team up story where my Agent Franks teams up with Jonathan Maberry’s Captain Joe Ledger. And then lots of stuff gets murdered.
Weaponized Hell is available in the Urban Allies anthology. The idea behind Urban Allies is team ups between various characters with their own urban fantasy series. When Joe Nassie, the editor, first contacted me about this and was listing off other authors who had agreed to be in it, I stopped him at Maberry, and was like whoa… He got a partner yet? Then I immediately called Jonathan and said dude, bring Ledger? And he responded with sure, if you bring Franks.
Jonathan is a Franks fan, and has written a Franks story for the upcoming MHI anthology too (Franks vs. Nazis in WW2, though in a totally unexpected way). I think the Ledger DMS novels are fantastic reads. And I wrote a Rudy story for the upcoming Ledger anthology. (he does a psych eval that gets really weird). Yeah, that professional writer thing where you keep seeing recognizable names in other authors’ various anthologies? It is because we are all big dorky fans at heart.
I haven’t gotten to read the other stories in this anthology yet, but considering the characters we brought together, I bet ours is the most violent. 🙂
Read it this morning!
The Story was great, being told from the Point of view of both protagonists….
And yes lots of blood and mayhem! And working for both universes.
Btw. Larry, I had to curse you a couple of times… Seeing you announce Urban allies sometime ago, I felt compelled to buy Patient Zero and err well, just got done with Kill Switch in Time for the Urban Allies anthology….
And yes, the DMS books are well worth reading… Really, really well worth reading.
I have to admit, I got a little burnt out on the DMS books. I think I got through 4 or 5 before I started skimming the new ones. Mostly because of 1) the liberal political commentary that kept creeping in, 2) the relentless death (I don’t like good guys getting killed; it’s one of my things; admittedly this makes certain genres difficult for me), and 3) the extreme explanations/info-dumps that kept happening.
That said, I think Church is very entertaining to read about, Bunny and Top are cool and I like reading about them too, and Toys is a freaking fantastic character who I just want all of. Just all the books should be Toys in my opinion. There is never enough of Toys. (I’m a total sucker for bad guys turned good guys but still being angsty about their evil past.)
Yeah, I feel you – the quality is really uneven in the DMS books – e.g., Ghost appears out of nowhere, retconned in – and Joe is a little too much of a Marty Stu (policeman! secret agent! deadly unarmed killer! expert dog handler!). I haven’t grabbed Kill Switch yet but, all that aside, he’ll end up with my money eventually, since even at their worst they’re still pretty good.
Our gracious host, on the other hand, seems incapable of writing poorly planned-out books – everything hangs together, always. I’ll be picking up Urban Allies for his contribution alone.
Haha, Ghost himself is a Gary Stu. I mean, fun dog, sure, but do a little research on white shepherds and you quickly see he’s not a very accurate portrayal. My dad, who’s trained German shepherds his whole life, just shook his head at that part. (I could rant a little about this, but I’ll refrain.) Personally, I’m just a little offended on behalf of Joe Ledger’s cat, who was apparently tossed to the side entirely when Ghost came in. As a reader, I kinda think it would have been awesome if Joe’s cat had morphed into his combat sidekick instead. Unrealistic? Sure. But come on, it’s not like Ghost’s behavior is all that much more realistic. Besides, there are zombies all over the place. Why not combat cats?
But yeah, I’m always impressed with how Larry’s plots come together. Plus the great, well-developed characters. Whenever I see bad reviews for his book, I want to yell at the person, “WHY YOU NO LIKE EXCELLENT THINGS?”
Heh, yeah, I neglected to mention the Ghost issues – attack dog! cadaver dog! drug-sniffing dog, maybe? Emotional support animal, no doubt. As a lay person my very first thought was “I’m pretty sure you can’t train a single dog in all those disparate jobs”.
I agree. I have them all but Kill Switch seems sort of a letdown compared to Patient Zero.
(Franks vs. Nazis in WW2, though in a totally unexpected way)
Dance contest? Limbo contest? 😉
Dance contest? Limbo contest?
Care Bear stare.
Hug-a-thon.
Flex-a-thon! (Oh wait, that’s if Franks teams up with Major Alex Louis Armstrong…)
I’d had this preordered, but I was not expecting this to arrive in the mail on release day. (Usually Amazon ships stuff on release day and I have to wait to get it.)
Haven’t read it yet, but my initial thoughts are:
1) Wow, this book, physically, is my absolute favorite size/shape/weight/etc. Yes, I’m a book nerd and I like physical books and I have preferences. And this book hits all the sweet spots. Just the right size for my hands, nice and lightweight, not overly thick, and a smooth matte finish. So whoever designed the physical book, I kinda want to give them a hug.
2) I adore crossovers, so it makes me sad that I’m only very familiar with (meaning I’ve read all or at least several of their books) with three of the authors, which means I will not appreciate these stories as well as if I’d read all of them. On the other hand, this makes me kinda want to go find those other series and read some of them so that I can better appreciate the crossover.
I hope this book sells well because I think author crossovers like this are amazing and need to happen more often.
I know how you feel. I’m not a big Urban Fantasy reader because a lot of “Modern” Urban Fantasy is way too candy-assed for my taste (Larry Correia’s books are obviously NOT included in that group). Because of this, the ONLY author I had read before was Larry. Because of this, a few of the stories didn’t really work for me because I had no frame of reference for the characters.
Over all, it was an interesting read. I had hoped to find some new authors to try out and I guess I did find a couple, just not as many and not as “OMG! I WANT!!!” as I had hoped.
As long as there’s enough violence, we’ll be all set, Larry. Can’t wait to get a copy!
Oh, there is plenty of violence. This is Franks and Ledger we’re talking about. It’s a bloodbath ballet. It’s also amazingly true to both characters and worlds and way too fun.
I went out and got the audiobook of “Patient Zero” because you mentioned how much you like Ledger and I thought maybe if you liked the stories, I would, too. I did, so I expect I’ll be buying others, off and on. Thank you for the recommendation.
I’ll be getting this one, by and by. It’s on my wishlist.
Please God if there is a audio version that they can have both Oliver Wyman and Ray Porter do the narration.
I’m HOPING that the audio is in the works, and that they are getting the readers for each of the series featured to do the relevant parts. Wyman / Porter reading Weaponized Hell would EPIC!
That would be very cool, but a LOT of narrators. My guess is they’d do two narrators: one for the male POV stories and one for the female POV stories, like I’ve seen them do for other anthologies.
That IS more likely, but I have seen `em do the lotsa readers thing with other anthologies, so I’m holding on to the idea ; )
I think Weaponized Hell sounds like a great title for an anthology.
Have to admit, I am not a huge Ledger fan. He’s a bit too emotive and weepy for my tastes. Franks, though…
Gotta get this! Ledger and Franks? DMS and MHI? Christmas in July!!
My copy will arrive tomorrow. This should allow Franks to tune up for the next MH novel.
I thought I’d read a few pages of Weaponized Hell while I took a dump this afternoon. I didn’t move until I finished it. I’m lucky I didn’t get a thrombosis and die. Are you actively trying to kill me, Larry?
Mr. Correia, I wish to lodge a complaint.
As a matter of fact, several things were still alive at the end of the story. This was not at all what I was led to believe and forced me to read the rest of the book in compensation. For shame, sir.
I read the Ledger series after your mentioning of it when you first brought up Urban Allies.
Dang good reads. Enjoyed them lotsly.
So thanks for that.
Now, gotta buy the antho.