The Rookie by Scott Sigler
The podiobooking machine that is Scott Sigler has managed to (with a little help from his friends) get us all the files from his futuristic football tale, The Rookie:
Imagine a story that combines the intense football action of “Any Given Sunday” with the space opera style of “Star Wars” and the criminal underworld of “The Godfather.”
“The Rookie” is set amongst a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future. Aliens play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that — literally — want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed and rival players are assasinated.
Follow the story of Quentin Barnes, a 19-year-old quarterback prodigy that has been raised all his life to hate, and kill, those aliens. Quentin must deal with his racism and learn to lead, or hell wind up just another stat in the column marked “killed on the field.”
December 15th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I love this podcast. One of the best ever!!!! Definitely the greatest football pod-novel out there.
December 16th, 2007 at 4:45 am
Heard the Rookie from Sigler’s site and it is his best audio novel. Well worth listening to.
December 16th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
The Rookie is a fantastic story. It is great fun – even if you aren’t a football fan.
December 17th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Sigler might be a little girl–but he did hit it out of the park with the Rookie. Great stuff. One of his best.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Is it just me or was there a voiceover issue in the middle of the final episode(ep. 27)? Sounded like one of the announcer guys doing several takes of intros for the weekly recaps.
February 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Great story! One of Sigler’s best. This is a very entertaining listen. My only complaint is the overly L O N G interludes between episodes. The interludes themselves were not the problem, it was the fact that they were repeated two or three times (extreamly annoying) and the fact the audio level was higher than the episode audio level.
Tom G.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
More football bring us more. Speaking of publishing, you need to get a print version of this one. I have a friend who doesn’t do horror and who loves football. I want to share this with her but she won’t listen, she will however read.
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Yes, there *was* a problem with episode 27. It has since been corrected. If you have the old episode, download the new one.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:31 am
This is a fantastic listen! I don’t know j*ck about american football, but having listened to this – I now want to get to know the sport…
I don’t – however – think it would work in print without significant re-writing. As it is – it’s pure gold… My second Sigler-book, and definately not my last…
November 19th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Scott Siger aka the FDO is a master when it comes to voices. Some titles force you to rely on the narrator to tell you who or what is talking, but with Scott each race and character has a distinct sound.
When I listened to the Rookie, I could picture the aliens trying to enunciate english words around the pair 6 foot long tongues that dangled to the floor. I can’t wait for the sequel!
Junkies Unite!
December 6th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Wow. Considering I’m really actually too young to listen to stuff like this.
THIS BOOK WAS FREAKING AMAZING!! I loved it. Keep up the good work Scott.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:30 am
This is a Sci-Fi Sports novel that is really about overcoming fear and prejudice. I’m not a huge sports fan and when it comes to football 3 downs are needed to make it real
Regardless, this novel pulled me in completely.
Once again Scott comes up with engaging characters that come off as real, sometimes your rooting for the protagonist and sometimes you want to string him up! To me thats real, not every hero in every novel can be infallible, thats just impossible and Scott seems to understand this.
Being a sports based novel I was hesitant, now I can’t wait for the sequal. If your on the bubble on this one due to the fact that its central to football, don’t hesitate as you will be missing out.
June 6th, 2009 at 6:51 am
This is perhaps my favorite Scott Sigler story to date though it is one of his earlier works. My only complaint is the use of foul language where it is not absolutely necessary. Anyway, I can get around that and enjoy the depths of the story.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:04 am
I’m afraid I have to disagree with Rick Stringer; the amount of football detail in the first few episodes were enough to put me off the book. Sigler is a storyteller, definitely, but this one took me deep into a blow-by-blow gameplay which I am in total incomprehension of. Many other sport non-fans seem to have liked the work; I must tally my deviancy to being non-USAtian and completely ignorant of the game.
August 14th, 2009 at 4:30 am
I have to agree with Juuro, I just couldn’t get into this one. I have listened to, and enjoyed all of Scott’s other podcasts, but just couldn’t get through the first chapter of The Rookie. I also agree with Jennifer that the use of foul language is excessive especially in a book that is touted as being for young adults. A lot of other people seem to have enjoyed it though, so I am definitely in the minority here. I’m considering giving it another try for that very reason.
Regardless, any success for Sigler is well earned and I wish him all the best.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:51 am
My Favorite work from Scott, however I also love footabll and Starwars. The foul language in my opinion makes the story humorous. More than once did my government co-workers chuckle out loud while listening to The Rookie in the background.
Cant wait for the sequel.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:20 am
Ditto on TheDeanoRama’s comments. I was going to write something that would have been verbatim. I’m not a huge sports fan, but I can’t wait for Rookie II (Rookie Deux ?, Rookie B ?) Whatevah.