Chadzilla ROARS!!! (The Official Blog of Chadwick H. Saxelid, Writer)

Ancestor - by Scott Sigler

Kick-ass trailer, eh?  Even better, some of that stuff in the trailer is even in the actual book.

But let me tell you, the book is better than the trailer.  Much better.

Yes, the book has a trailer.  And no, there is NOT an Ancestor movie.  Although by the time that I had finished reading it, I was hoping for one.  Scott Sigler's novel would make for one exciting thrill ride of a monster flick.

As the trailer tells you, several different companies are in a race to create and patent a method of xenotransplantation, which is the use of genetically altered non-human organs in life saving organ transplant surgeries.  While numerous companies are using existing animals for their research, the Genada Corporation is attempting to create an all new creature.  One based on the reversed engineering of all animal genomes, both alive and extinct.  

The scientists on the project call their Frankenstein creation the Ancestor.

I enjoyed Scott Sigler's first two books, the alien invasion monster thriller Infected and its sequel, Contagious, so I had high hopes for Ancestor.  But, while I do love monster novels, and will read any book that promises to have some kind of giant mutant killer whatever tear through it, I was also eager to see what kind of story Sigler would write when he was not shackled by the restraints of an ongoing story line.

Short answer: a damn fun one.  I burned through the last hundred or so pages of this book, eager to find out who lived and who died and whether or not any of the ancestors would escape the frozen confines of Black Manitou Island and make it to the mainland. 

But I do have to whine about how Sigler almost lost me when, in an early section of the novel, two characters from Infected and Contagious appear on the scene and a certain event from Contagious is alluded to.  Why Sigler felt the need to do that, I do not know, but it was a huge distraction and, since those characters and that particular event have nothing whatsoever to do with any of the characters or events in Ancestor, I wonder if he made the connection at the request of the publisher.  Perhaps someone had the bright idea that, since the first two books where connected, the third novel should also be connected.  The readers will expect it and might get confused if there is not one.  Well, I got confused because there was one.

But as the Ancestors came into being and grew into a far more lethal threat than the ruthless sociopaths in charge of the project, I forgot all about my confusion and just enjoyed all of the action.  Scott Sigler delivered another fun and exciting read.

Contagious - by Scott Sigler

The battle may have been won in Infected, but the war wages on in Contagious...and it is getting nastier by the hour.

A great judge of a book for me is its "nibble" factor.  Do I find myself cracking it open to nip at a paragraph here, or a page there, whenever the slightest opportunity to do so presents itself?  Those are the best kinds of reads.  The ones that demand that I finish them ASAP.

Scott Sigler's Infected was just such a book.  I cannot say the same for Contagious, Sigler's gruesome sequel to his first published, and every bit as gruesome, novel.  In fact, I put the book down and read several others before picking it back up and finishing it.  That is not a good thing, obviously.

As I strolled through horrifying set piece after horrifying set piece (and believe me, some very nasty action is splashed across the book's pages) with a strange sense of detachment, I kept wondering what was wrong.  Why wasn't Contagious grabbing me the way Infected had?

The reason turned out to be a simple one.  Sigler rides shotgun with his characters, and there are a lot of them this time around, but he very rarely crawled into their hearts and minds the way he did with "Scary" Perry Dawsey, the tormented anti-hero of Infected.  Even worse, Dawsey, who has survived his infection, but with psychosis inducing scars, is pushed into the background of the story.  Sigler also makes the mistake of telling the reader of the father/son bond the develops between CIA operative Dew Phillips and Perry, rather than showing it.

Those interested in a strictly visceral reading experience should enjoy Contagious.  The alien threat morphs into an entirely different kind of beast.  One that peppers the book with some truly disgusting (albeit fascinating and entertaining) set pieces.  But those hoping for a more emotionally resonate reading experience will, more than likely, set the book down disappointed.

Infected - by Scott Sigler

A bizarre and deadly new disease - one that is turning average citizens into delusional, paranoid, and homicidal psychotics - has caught the attention of the CIA.  While a small, but brutally efficient team of field agents and scientists struggle to put the clues confusing together, Perry Dawsey, a former football star with a pronounced violent streak, becomes infected.  But Perry's illness is no ordinary disease, nor is it the bio-engineered weapon that the CIA suspects it to be.  It is the mere beginning of a much larger, far greater threat to all of humanity.

Although I had heard Scott Sigler's name mentioned once or twice on the Slice of Sci-Fi podcast, it wasn't enough to get me interested in listening to his podcasted novels.  At this point in my life I have the luxury of being able to kick back and actually read a book rather than having to listen to one get read to me.  But things change and, if I find myself trapped in a car for long drives, or spending more time working out at the gym (yeah, right) then I might start plugging in, down loading and listening to Sigler's books.  But until then, I will just be content in reading what he has to offer the old fashioned way.

Right now the only old fashioned way offering that Sigler has is Infected, a nasty little bio-nightmare that would make for an utterly kick ass David Cronenberg movie.  One that could be nicely sandwiched between his two classic transformation nightmares, Videodrome and The Fly.  While Sigler is nowhere near Cronenberg's level (yet) his debut novel is a solid enough effort to have gotten me looking forward to the day when he gets there.  But he still has a ways to go.

The book's strong points are in its blunt force trauma approach to horror (squeamish readers beware, Sigler pulls not a single punch and is really eager to go for the throat) and a fast paced narrative that had my eyes burning across the page.  The weak points are Sigler's narrative voice, which cracks with distracting and unnecessary folksy vernacular descriptive phrases, and his thinly developed supporting cast of characters.  He does such a good job developing Perry Dawsey, who comes truly alive as the story unfolds, that the sketchy nature of the other characters becomes painfully noticeable.  But don't let that discourage you from picking up a copy and reading it.  It delivers more than enough chills and thrills to justify the cover price.

A word of warning though, you just might find yourself becoming Infected with an addiction to Sigler's fast paced storytelling style.  Good thing then that Contagious, a sequel to Infected, will be hitting bookstores at the end of December.