Infected by Scott Sigler
Are you ready for some more gore? I did a little arm-twisting on Scott Sigler and managed to convince him to give Podiobooks.com the exclusive release of Infected, his re-worked and re-edited serialized free audiobook. Well… exclusive for three days. Then it’s also available on his site.
Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families.
Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common - they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.
Meanwhile Perry Dawsey - a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey - awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected.
The fate of the human race may well depend on the bloody war Perry must wage with his own body, because the parasites want something from him, something that goes beyond mere murder.
This book is a Very Big Deal to not only Scott and Podiobooks.com, but all of the authors who have chosen to give away a serialized audiobook version of their work in the hopes of forwarding their career. The hardcover of Infected hits the bookstores on April 1st. If you are a bookstore-browser, mark the date on your calendar to pickup a copy or twelve. If you are an online book buyer, buy through this link right now to show Crown Publishing (and the rest of the publishing industry) what sort of sales Podiobooks.com and efforts like these can drive.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
The book hasn’t finished loading onto the website yet, i just wanted to be the first one to make a comment.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I just wanted to be the first one to make a comment, even though all the book has not yet been added.
Coooooooool
April 11th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Tina
Why?
April 14th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Soooo good i enjoyed the first two chpters so much i bought the book:-P Hope you all enjoy.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:47 am
I downloaded this for a flight to San Jose and I’m totally into it now. I will am now waiting impatiently for new episodes! Mr Sigler, so far, has set up an exciting foundation for the story in the first 10 chapters and you are now into the heads of the main characters. He also does a good job of the voices with perhaps Ms Montoya being an exception :-).
May 25th, 2008 at 10:12 am
For the most part this podiobook is absolutely stellar. Excellent storyline and premise, interesting characters, and really solid writing. Infected is probably the best podiobook I’ve come across on this site. I give it my highest recommendation.
Now, that said, the voice acting for Margaret drives me absolutely, out of my mind, nuts. A 42 year old hispanic woman, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, SHOULD NOT HAVE AN ACCENT. The voice Sigler uses for her sounds like a Pablo Fransisco stereotype impression. It’s absurd. “Hey! Wat ah you doing, mang?” I can’t stand it! A 42 year old Hispanic woman born and raised in America with a top level American-English education should not sound like she just walked off the set of a low budget Mexican soap show. I have students that have only been in this country for three years that have less of an accent than Margaret does. It’s friggin’ ridiculous, and it really makes me wonder if the author has ever even met a Hispanic American.
Other than that, Infected gets tops marks in every other area from me. The rest of the voice acting is awesome, the writing and story is excellent, and the characters are intriguing.
May 31st, 2008 at 8:06 pm
This book is fantastic! It reads like a young Stephen King, an episode of CSI, and some kind of gory, sci-fi Twilight Zone all rolled into one. The pacing is great, speeding along relentlessly with plenty of action and drama to keep you interested.
I will definitely buy honest to god old school paper books by this author in the future.
June 11th, 2008 at 7:36 am
I read this when it was offered as a free e-book, then downloaded an episode and listened to it to get a feel for the narration.
Sorry if I come off as a book snob, but I am totally baffled by the good press and stellar reviews this book is getting. The premise is absurd and explained at the last moment with a twist that is so ridiculous you only won’t see if coming if you already thought of it and decided it was too stupid to be what was going on. The voice is inconsistent to a point where the first time you really hear a character come through in the narration it’s shockingly offensive. The characters are all ludicrous stereotypes, particularly Margaret; Mat wonders if Sigler ever met a real Hispanic woman, I wonder if he ever met ANY woman. You’ve got all the usual suspects here; the grizzled detective avenging his partner, the witty gay man, the perfect star athlete, the hyper-capable (and hyper-sexual) woman, the gruff military man, the wise-cracking best friend… you’ll know everything you’ll need to about every character within a page of their introduction.
What’s left is a non-sensical story with shallow characters. Basically, a summer movie in text form. For the most part the writing is solid even if the content is not, though there are occasional slip-ups that make me wonder if the book was proof-read. For instance, the exact same metaphor, phrased exactly the same way, can be found three times in one short paragraph. Like a fly stuck between the window and the screen, OK, I got it the first time.
Sigler notes that he’s been trying to get published for years and has had hundreds of rejections. To the casual reader this is an admirable trait. His perseverance and determination paid off and he refused to give up his dream. But the fact of the matter is, it’s really not all that hard to get published and the fact that it’s taken him so long is as much a testament to his mediocre writing as his moxie.
If you’re looking for a popcorn book to listen to during your commute or while you wait for a plane you could do a lot worse than Infected but if you’re looking for a good horror story this won’t scratch that itch.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
almost a month since the last post. What happened?