Scott Sigler's new book Contagious -- a treasure hunt!
Our pal Scott Sigler -- podcast pioneer and sf writer -- has a new book out, called Contagious. As part of the promo, he's doing a kind of online puzzle that we're happy to help with.
Scott is posting twelve posters, each on a different blog, and each foreshadowing a key plot element. If you get all twelve and put them together in the right pattern, you get a final clue for the book's big finish. this list of other blogs hosting a poster.
Here's the promo stuff for the book: "Contagious is a hard-science horror novel with a popcorn-flick flair. From the book jacket: 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. "
Full-size poster Pre-order Contagious, Contagious, the PDF, Scott's podcast
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With all due respect to a friend of boingboing, I did not much like Infected. I'll leave it at that, out of politeness.
On the other hand, I loved Infected. I think Sigler is doing a great job of using the internet to his advantage. Looking forward to reading Contagious.
I thought Infected rocked. I read it one big gulp. Not high art or anything but very compelling reading.
I liked Infected, read it in one sitting. Not exactly high literature, and some of the gore was obviously for shock value alone, but I liked it!
But whoever wrote the synopsis for Contagious could have done a better job of pointing out how it's different from Infected. The plot description makes it sound like the two books are identical!
I like how Sigler has handled his career. I appreciate how he has used podcasting to promote and has done a great job getting "the word" out by simply giving his books away in audio format...
...that said, I think his books and pod cast readings are terrible. His books come off as really bad sci-fi channel movie scripts. Even worse, his readings are physically painful and the voices he uses when read the dialog parts for his characters are so bad and cliche that your mind wants to crawl out your brain to get away. In a Sigler reading, nothing will make you weep more than to learn that there is a female character or a character from Texas...
...which actually shows you how powerful his marketing methods have been. I think if he had gone down "normal" rout a sci-fi writer takes, he would have been buried because I don't really think he is that good of a writter. Instead, he is doing at least good enough to continue to get more than one book deal. If a really talented writer with a friend or two who were passable voice actors were to use the same method, I imagine that his methods would let them break into the market that is on a normal day extremely fickle and hard to break into.
So, if I can't like Sigler as a writer and a voice actor (oh god... please... no one from Texas), I can call him a visionary for his marketing methods. His method might not work if everyone is doing it, but when he is the only guy promoting the way he does, it is a killer success.
I'm sure I'd probably enjoy this book if I were ever to sit down and give it a read, because I love me a good mindless action novel as much I love a good fun popcorn action summer blockbuster. But how many time are we going to recycle the old "mysterious pathogen/disease/signal/pulse/pollen/whatever sweeps the nation/world turning all those infected into raging killers/zombies and our hero/heroine must race against all odds not only to survive but to find a cure". Good God! I mean I totally dug "28 days later" and it's sequel, and thought Stephen King's "Cell" freakin rocked!! And I highly recommend "World War Z". But man...can we please step away from the Zombie movies and books for a few years. It's all starting to feel so recycled. The only thing that sounds a bit different here is that there might be Aliens involved. Can't think of a recent incarnation of the Zombie genre that had an intelligent alien agenda behind it. It's usually some government screw up or a meteor.
But I'll give Sigler props for being one hell of a marketer though.
I second Rindan's comments. Listening to Sigler read his own writing (or anyone else's, as he's done many times on the Pseudopod horror podcast) is grating in the extreme. Reminds me of every film student I've ever met with a "killer idea for a screenplay". Sigler's ideas are not particularly inventive, though. But he's got the whole self-marketing thing down pat ... which comes as little surprise if you've heard his voice. He's the kind of snarky schmoozer you'd give the deed to your house if he'd just stop talking and leave you alone.
...Ya gotta love that poster!
"Just as soon as I finish this fudgesickle, I'm going to ram the stick so far up your ass *sideways* that they'll need a whole UMW local to dig deep enough to remove the damn thing!"
IGPAJO Lucky for you there are no zombies in it. No virus. No pollen. If you can find another plot that revolves around hijacking cellular reproductive processes to terraform the human body, creating self-assembling bio-machine groupminds, then yeah, it's trite and cliche. I prefer to not give away the actual plot biology in book jackets. It's free, give it a try, you might be surprised. Definitely more inventive than the 28 Days Later pathogen that somehow completely destroys intelligent thought in the span of 60 seconds.
RINDAN When I can afford to hire the professional actors to record an entire book for me, I'll let you know. I'll go ahead and count you as a fan.
Thank God there's that crazy "pause" button for the people who are so traumatized by my voice. And please, imagine me saying that in my voice, that way, it will actually hurt you even though these words are quite neutral.
Sweet, it's the revenge of Scary Perry Daswey!
I'm looking forward to reading this.
er.. Dawsey.
Scott, I am not suggesting you shell out a few thousand for a voice actor. I am saying maybe find a female friend to do the female part, a dude you know to do someone else, and in general avoid trying to do a dozen different voices yourself. Your attempts to do multiple voices, especially when you attempt to slap in accents or do female voices, is epically bad.
Actually, you might even consider roping in a female friend to do the entire thing. Having listened to an absurd amount of pseudopod/escapepod, it seems to me that women, for whatever reason, make vastly superior amateur voice actors.
At the very least, you might just try toning down how hard you try to make people sound like they have different voices. Every discussion of you has someone mentioning the painful voice acting. I think what elevates your voice acting to a higher level of pain than most voice acting are your extreme attempts to add character differentiation. You could perhaps try toning the differences in your characters' voices way down and kill accents. You are not a voice actor, I wouldn't try to be one.
Of course, the painfully bad voice acting could all be a part of the charm. Who am I to advocate messing with success?
Ok, let me imagine you saying that in the voice of a 16 year old girl from Texas. Here I gozklc dvesv43ybvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
At ScottSigler...you've got me intrigued now.
Sounds a bit closer to Greg Bear's short story "Blood Music", which is an amazing story. (Bear expanded it to a novel too, but the short story's better.)
I might just give it a try.