Oh my wow, after reading these two novels by Scott Sigler, I swear every time I have so much as a mosquito bite or a zit, I get a little creeped out and wonder if it's really just an innocent skin problem. I recently finished the second novel in this two part series about alien invasion. It's one part sci-fi and one part horror. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The first novel, Infected starts off with people getting these weird blue triangles on their bodies that screw with your mind and make you afraid of authority and then kill your whole damn family in the most violent way ever. One guy cuts his legs off with a hatchet. If you somehow make it past the initial crazy phase, you end up like Perry Dawsey, where the blue triangles turn into EYES!! If I recall, because it's been awhile since I read book #1, I think he has 7 of them, on his back, neck, arms, and, my favorite, his penis. Not only are they eyes, but they communicate telepathically with you to get to other people with the blue triangles and to get to this place out in the middle of nowhere to build something spectacular to create a wormhole of sorts to bring the aliens here. After finding another infected person in his apartment building, he figures out that the "eyes" will hatch out of you and become hatchlings. There is also CDC and FBI people trying to contain this outbreak of sorts before it becomes public. It's a fast paced thrilled that you don't want to put down.
Part 2 of this horror story is Contagious. It continues the story after the military has stopped the first wormhole from opening. They have now recruited Perry Dawsey because he can "hear" the communication between the hatchlings and something else to figure out where more of these gates are being built by these hatchlings. In this book, I enjoyed that it gave some back story into the how to of the blue triangles and hatchlings, etc. Basically, there is a very complex satellite, of sorts, that is creating these spores to infect people, but it's smart and can try other methods to be successful. So...since the infection of people with hatchlings isn't working out too well and Dawsey can "hear" them and figure out where the gates are being built, this satellite thing changes things up and decides to create soldiers to protect the hatchlings. In doing so, it creates a "general" out of a 6 year old girl to control all the hatchlings and soldiers. The satellite communicates with her convincing her the aliens are angels to be loved...until she becomes a bit too big for her britches and tells the satellite to take a flying leap.
While I loved the flow of the novel, this was my one bone to pick. Maybe it's because I have a 6 year old myself, and he happens to not be a sociopath, but I found Chelsea, the 6 year old sociopathic general of the "army of apocalypse" to be somewhat unbelievable. She had no concept of right or wrong. Now I could see how a 3 or 4 year old child could be like that, but a 6 year old? We're talking 1st graders. My 6 year old is probably too honest, but children his age know right and wrong and understand you don't torture people into submission. I just find it hard to believe this girl was turned into an alien soldier and suddenly lost all concepts of right and wrong. She still could crave ice cream and McDonalds, but beating her mother or killing a 9 year old were concepts she thought were fine and dandy.
Other than this one issue, it's a great story. It switches back and forth between the satellite's plans, the FBI/CDC chasing the "infection," and the Chelsea army of crazies. If you love sci fi and thrillers, this is a great two part series to read. It will scare the crap out of you. Like I said, I've found myself checking out bumps I find on my body a little more closely lately.
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