Infected: A Novel by Scott Sigler Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Infected: A Novel
Book Review: Catch the Sigler fever
Summary: 3 Stars
The metamorphosis of spoken word to written text propels Scott Sigler's "Infected" for our visual approval. Sigler pours his heart and mind into his creepy, horror-scifi tale... and adds blood, guts, and psychoses for good measure.
The novel is dynamic, with superb concepts. Sigler confronts the reader with a Kafkaesque nightmare in which humanity and sanity struggle against innate fears, horrific passions and omnipotent evils. The storyline is hair-raising (sic), and itches (sic) the reader on to evermore hatching (sic) plots. Read the book, you'll understand.
The novel does fall short in several respects. Character development sometimes stalls the storyline - at times forced, at times repetitive, at times contradictory. The final chapters are not given the TLC that Sigler devoted to the rest of his book. These passages lack development and appear incomplete.
In all, the book is gripping and a worthwhile read. It could have been better... It Could Have Been Better... IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER.
Read the book, you'll understand.
Book Review: Chilling, disturbing, amazing!
Summary: 5 Stars
Infected is a chillingly scary, intimately disturbing horror novel. Scott Sigler knocked this one out of the park. It is amazing.
Scott Sigler is the next Stephen King.
Book Review: Chilling, terrifying, and impossible to put down
Summary: 5 Stars
Scott Sigler is an enormously popular author whose ability to think outside the box is not limited to his literary work. Tired of collecting rejection slips, he began sharing his novels with the masses by podcasting them, a few chapters at a time, and gaining a following that increased exponentially every week. INFECTED is his debut print novel and is perfect in every way --- cutting across thriller, horror and science fiction genres (and one or two others as well) ---- resulting in a tale that will leave your posterior hanging well beyond the edge of your seat.
At its core, INFECTED concerns a mysterious condition that turns individuals into rampaging, homicidal maniacs who murder their families, strangers and ultimately themselves. The government assigns Dew Phillips, a coldly competent CIA operative, to investigate, pairing him with CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya. It was Montoya who first noticed certain anomalies, if you will, in the corpses of the first rampaging individuals --- anomalies that lead her to believe that the heart of the deadly condition is a new and frightening type of parasite. Thanks to Sigler, the reader is a step or two ahead of Montoya, but I doubt he's been getting any candy for it.
Sigler is a marvel, describing complex biological concepts in a way that those of us who haven't cracked a textbook in decades can understand, and the manner by which the parasites gain entry to, and sustain themselves from, the human body is ingenious. However, I could have happily lived the rest of my natural years in ignorance of the fact that, at this very moment, there are millions of microscopic spiders crawling all over me, eating and evacuating my dead skin cells in a sort of perpetual motion. Sigler describes this process, and others, in graphic detail while never dropping the narrative ball for even one second. Montoya and Phillips form a prickly team, with Phillips involved in the wet work and Montoya doing the somewhat creepy evaluations, attempting to determine the cause of the contagion and, more importantly, stop it before it spreads any further.
As interesting as Montoya and Phillips are, however, the heart of INFECTED is Perry Dawsey, a former pro football player whose career was shattered along with his knee. Performing far from satisfying work as an IT specialist, Dawsey becomes a host to the parasite, and as Sigler gives us a step-by-step, up-close-and-personal view of how the parasite evolves and manifests itself, we get an intimate view not only of the parasite but also of Dawsey. Ex-football players --- even guys who played for the Michigan Wolverines --- don't roll over for a parasite, even a sentient one. To say that Dawsey isn't going down without a fight is inaccurate; he's not going down period, and as INFECTED ultimately demonstrates, Dawsey will do anything to stop the takeover of his body.
And it's a good thing, too. Invading and usurping bodies is only the first step. In a climax that will have you swallowing your hand, your tongue and anything else that's handy, we learn that invasions can come from both within and without.
INFECTED is unforgettable, a classic right out of the gate, and, I suspect, a metaphor of sorts. And yes, when I reached Sigler's account of Dawsey's ultimate sacrifice, I discovered that one can read with one's hands over both eyes. If this book hasn't been optioned for a movie yet, then those in the film industry have no idea what they're doing.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Book Review: Cinema-Ready Blend of Sci/Fi and Horror
Summary: 4 Stars
Scott Sigler is a marketing machine. If you who haven't seen one of the many newspaper articles explaining how he used pod casting to attract a rabid audience for his intense brew of sci/fi and horror, then used that audience to obtain a major publishing deal for his third novel, Infected, I don't know where you've been hiding. The downside to such a marketing blitz is that it sets the novel up for disappointment.
Infected, surprisingly, proves itself worthy of the hype. Written in a style that's as cinema-ready as anything I've encountered, Sigler employs short, punchy chapters to dance back and forth between an ex-football player's struggle to deal with a bizarre infection that is gradually taking over his body and mind, and the CIA's and CDC's desperate measures to track and contain the spread of this bizarre infection without alarming the public. The fact that the infection's victims take on a wild, murderous personality as the infection matures, cranks up the stakes and tension. And as the story unfolds, we learn that the infection has the most serious implications imaginable for humankind.
This is a gory novel, to be avoided by the squeamish reader. It also suffers a bit from the use of clichéd characters, situations, and descriptions. But for those into horrific thrills, Infected provides entertainment in the vein of Stephen King, relying on well-researched, science fiction-based content rather than the fantastical content in King's work.
Book Review: Coming from another Original Junkie
Summary: 5 Stars
I listened to the original FREE podcast of this and all of Scott's current stories and past novels. So trust me when I say this book will have you hooked and looking for all of the rest of his work. One thing that is nice is that Scott keeps all his characters and story set in the same universe. Much like Stephen King he has certain things that carry over or are referenced.
Do yourself a favor and download all his FREE podcasts and pick up this genuinely great story.