Infected: A Novel by Scott Sigler Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Infected: A Novel
Book Review: A Mixed Bag
Summary: 4 Stars
The writer is very talented, yet seems to be searching for in identity in this work. The novel is most suspenseful and grips the reader from the initial chapter. The problem that I found was that this work seemed to be a mixture of suspense, horror, science fiction and mystery. Although many reviewers have likened Sigler to a Steven King, I found it to be more along the lines of a Michael Crichton. The characters are not as well developed as I would have cared for, although this does not detract from the story that has been written. This reviewer found the book to be a rapid reaed, even though it was nothing really special. In many ways, it seemed like an episode of The Twilight Zone.Book Review: A Suspenseful journey through horror
Summary: 5 Stars
Scott Sigler is a guy to watch out for, this book quickly sinks it's hooks into you and doesn't let go. It's definitely not for the squeamish, this is a taunt, high octane ride through a landscape littered with thrills and horror that will make your skin crawl.Book Review: A budding master of the macabre
Summary: 5 Stars
Sigler's hardcover debut is a chimaeric marvel, equal parts an introspective tale of madness and a profoundly disturbing, private war with alien horror. Infected is Sigler at his astonishingly addictive best - marvelously paced, it builds to one of the most memorable climaxes I've ever read. Further, much has been made of the intriguing, almost-plausible science behind Infected's plague. Full disclosure: I am a biologist, and find Infected both more creative and less dubious than some of Crichton's recent works. Good on you, Scott.
You will never look at chicken scissors the same way. My highest recommendation.
Book Review: A complusive read
Summary: 5 Stars
Sigler's conversational style of telling stories of science gone off the rails has reached a new high. He keeps his promise of taking it to the next brutal step and then some.Book Review: A fast paced, gory thrill ride
Summary: 4 Stars
I picked up this book with some pretty high expectations. I'd listened to two of Sigler's podcast novels, Earthcore and Ancestor, and thoroughly enjoyed them both. They made my daily commute not just tolerable, but something I actually looked forward to. I knew that actually reading Infected rather than listening to it in podcast form would be a different experience, and it was. For one thing, I pretty much devoured it, reading it in a few hours, while listening to it in podcast form would have taken several days.
In Infected, a mysterious disease has cropped up in the town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Victims become psychotic and exhibit strange growths on their bodies. As the CIA and the CDC rush to bring the plague under control and keep it from becoming general knowledge, former college football player Perry Dawson becomes its latest victim. We get to go deep into Dawson's head as he comes to grips with a disease that seems to be trying to control him, and witness his genuinely frightening slide into insanity.
On the whole, I enjoyed Infected. Its fast pace and graphic descriptions are almost cinematic. Sigler has a gift for conveying paranoia in a way that from within the character's head seems very genuine, but his strength really lies in his effective portrayal of gore. Make no mistake, Sigler is a very gory writer; the other novels of his that I've read have been full of violence, graphically described. The level of gore, compared with the high concepts that Sigler employs, have earned him comparisons with Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk.
Nevertheless, there were some weaknesses to this novel. Many characters felt like stock material, almost trite: the coldly efficient CIA operative, the methodical and overworked government scientist, and so on. This contributed to the fast pace of the book, though, which is part of its appeal. These characters have easily understood motives and behavior patterns. On the other hand, they won't necessarily stand out as identifiable and sympathetic.
In short: if you want a quick, bloody read full of violence and gore, with plenty of science on the side, I would strongly recommend Infected. It's a fun read, and there are plenty of times when that's exactly what you need.