Book Review — Contagious

Title:  Contagious
Author:  Scott Sigler
Genre:  Thriller
Published:  2009
Publisher:  Broadway
ISBN:  978-0307406323
Author Links:  Website ♠ Twitter ♠ Facebook
Rating:

"Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence.

"Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the disease’s hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation’s best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they’re going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors.

"These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that’s not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat — one that comes from a most unexpected source — may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all."

~ Goodreads

Thoughts:  Contagious is the sequel to Infected.  It picks up shortly after the first ends.  Margaret Montoya has patched Perry Dawsey, and he has now become part of their team.  Being the only person who can track down the triangles and the gates, he is a huge asset to the team.  However, after his life altering encounter with the triangles, he is more interested in killing the victims than bringing back a live specimen for Margaret and her team to examine.  The book starts out with Perry pretty much going rogue.

After their adventure with Perry, the triangles are now starting to learn an mutate.  Where first they started out as a rash and formed triangle growths on people that would hatch, they have changed into something that is similar to a neural net.  These latest victims are able to infect people with these similar neural nets, and they are charged with protecting the hatchlings.

As with the previous book, this one is jam packed with violence and action.  Honestly, I don't think there really is any downtime in this book.  Sigler used this book to dig deeper into Dawsey and flesh him out as a character.  In the first book, he see him in the middle of a crisis trying to survive this horrible infection.  In this book, however, the reader is able to see a completely different side.  Further, Sigler was also able to pull in some of the periphery characters and bring them to the forefront.

This book seems to go a lot more into the politics of the situation both inside the US government, Margaret's team, and between the infected.  There are a lot of power struggles and questions of ethics.

Contagious is extremely hard to talk about without giving away spoilers.  There are a lot of twists and turns I didn't see coming and a few I did.  Sigler keeps up the pace from the first book, and it felt like a pretty seamless transition between the two.  If you like the first book, I don't think this one will disappoint.

Upon finding out the "virus'" new method of transition, I am anxiously awaiting the third book in the series!

Currently Reading:  Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
Current Progress:

32/50 books

Book Review — Aliens: Earth Hive

Title:  Aliens: Earth Hive
Author:  Steve Perry
Genre:  Sci-Fi
Pages:  Paperback 278
Published:  1992
Publisher:  Bantam Spectra
ISBN:  0-553-56120-0
Author Links:  Website
Opening Lines:  "Even inside her bulky E-suit, Billie could feel the cold night bite at her."
Rating:

"Wilks was a space marine with a near-fatal flaw:  he had a heart.  Billie was a child, the only survivor of a far-flung colony outpost.  Thrown together in the last hellish night of an alien invasion, Billie and Wilks helped each other get out alive.  Thirteen years later Wilks is in prison, and Billie lives in a mental institution, the nightmare memories of the massacre at Rim seared into her mind.  Now the government has tapped Wilks to lead an expedition to the aliens' home planet to bring back a live alien.  But the competition on Earth to develop the aliens as a new weapons system is brutal.  When Wilks's team departs on their mission, a trained assassin trails them.  And what follows is no less than guerrilla warfare on the aliens' planet--and alien conquest on Earth!"

~ Amazon

Thoughts:  Honestly, I'm not sure why it took me so long to read this book.  I have been in love with the movies since my brother first showed me Alien when I was under 10.  However, after watching Prometheus and re-watching the four movies that came out before it, my brother talked me into reading the series.  Further, he convinced me to read the Predator books as well!

I have never read a series of books based off of a movie, so I was not sure what to expect from this book.  I have always loved Ripley and couldn't imagine the Alien world without her.  This book follows the story of Billie and Wilks—the only survivors of the infestation on the planet Rim.  After returning the Earth, Billie ends up institutionalized and Wilks is in prison.  Trying to reprogram Billie's brain, she is made to believe that her experiences on Rim are some sort of reoccurring nightmare/psychotic delusion.  In an attempt to stop it, they have decided to take drastic measures and preform some sort of lobotomy on her when she starts seeing the Aliens appear in TV.  Wilks, however, is faced with a prison sentence to keep him quiet about his experiences.  After putting him through a battery of tests and determining that he was, in fact, telling the truth, the government locked him away from everyone.  Now, after years in their current conditions, the government has decided to send an expedition to the Alien homeworld in order to turn these monsters into a weapon.  Being the only person with experience with these creatures, Wilks is blackmailed into fronting a team of Marines to the planet.

While Wilks, Billie, and the Marines are taking stock of the Alien homeworld, it is discovered that scientists have an Alien on Earth.  Since it is the only Alien, they find out that a drone can turn into a queen and reproduce without the aid of other drones.  This, as you may have guessed, causes all ends of chaos.

This book was action packed and didn't lack in plot or character development.  In some ways, it could be argued that it is extremely simple.  However, I felt the author did an amazing job adding the Alien genre.  After watching the other four movies again, I found it interesting that Billie and Wilks remind me of Newt and  Hicks in Aliens.  Further, when you finally learn Billie's back story, it is nearly identical to that of Newt.  I am not well versed enough in the Alien sub-culture to know the connection; however, I would be surprised if there wasn't one.

In this book, as well as the four movies, I found it neat the use of Asimov's Laws.  For me, it gave the book a certain level of authority and reputability.  It also gave an interesting launching point for things that happened on the Alien homeworld.

This book is told in several different parts.  Some of them are from Wilks' and Billie's POV, some from the Marines, but the author also has the reader see things from various government officials and the Alien religious fanatics.  Sometimes, if not done correctly, that can drastically muddy a book's plot and bog it down.  However, Perry did an amazing balancing job with this device.  It gave the book more of a three dimensional feel, and it gave the audience a more complete view of everything that was happening.

I ended up really enjoying this book!  Since I liked Newt and Hicks in Aliens, it felt as though they didn't actually die and I was able to see their story continue.  The next book in the series promises to be something awesome.  I look forward to reading it!  If you love the world of the Alien movies, I highly suggest this book.

Currently Reading:  Flesh & Bone by Jonathan Maberry (ARC from publisher)
Pages:  10,020
Current Progress:

31/50 books

Book Review -- Ghost Walk

Title: Ghost Walk
Author: Brian Keene
Genre: Horror
Pages: Paperback, 275
Published: August 2008
Opening Lines: "Mother Nature held her breath. The woods were quiet."

"There are all kinds of legends about LeHorn's Hollow. Everything from ghosts to a goat man are said to haunt the woods. So it's the perfect place for Ken Ripple to set up latest haunted attraction. Halloween is coming and Ripple knows folks will come from miles around to walk down the spooky trail and get scared witless. But there's one thing Ripple hasn't counted on. Those legends aren't just talk. Evil really does wait in the woods. Soon the unsuspecting customers will pay their money and get in line . . . to die."

~ Jacket copy

Thoughts: I really wanted to like this book, but it had too many things working against it. From the back, it sounded like an engaging ghost story. When I first started the book, I was starting to feel the creepy aspect. However, once you mention aliens and different, parallel dimensions, you've completely lost me. If I wanted to read a sci-fi novel, I would have picked one up. Or for that matter, I would have grabbed some King for a supernatural alien thriller. At least he knows how to do it right . . .

I felt that this story at the potential to be extremely creepy and become a classic ghost story. Living in an area with heavily wooded and mountain areas, I loved a good rural ghost story. Going out hiking and having all these ghost stories flit through my mind always scares the shit out of me, and I love it! This book, however, really falls flat.

It is based on the concept that there is this old evil called the Thirteen -- of which one is Leviathan -- and their main goal is to destroy everything God made. This includes all the different parallel Earths. Now, through the act of a broken down fool, they have been released in this dimension. It is up to a lapsed Muslim freelance reporter, a shunned Amish, a criminally insane murderer, and a middle-aged man trying to honour his head wife's memory to stop this universal evil from devouring our world. This, in and of itself, seems a little ramshackle.

Keene spends a lot of time going into folk magic traditions, like powwow. He explains them in rich detail, and it is obvious that he has done his research. Because of the role that Levi plays, powwow is extremely central to the plot. However, it seems to completely take over everything. I felt, that while it was important, the whole book focused on this rather than the growing evil in LeHorn's Hollow.

Keene spends time kind of building this ghost story, but I felt it never really went anywhere. When "all hell breaks loos," the book just kind of falls flat. To me, there is a lot of build up, but no climax. And the ending . . . Oh my, the ending was terrible! I finished the book and kept flipped pages convinced that this couldn't be the end.

While I did learn some interesting things about powwow, this book left me feeling disappointed, unfulfilled, and frustrated. I was looking forward to a scary, keep-me-awake ghost story.

**Note: According to the author's note, this is a follow-up book that does not have to be read after the first one. I am tempted to pick up the first one to see if it makes a difference in my opinion of this book.

Rating: ☆ ☆
Currently: Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn
Current Pages: 17622
Current Progress:

48/50 books