Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Impacted on the surface

I had seen a lot of Internet buzz about Scott Sigler's Infected, so I put a library hold on it. Sigler started as a horror story pod cast author and Infected is his first dead tree book. While I will give a book I purchased or was given about 100 pages to prove itself, library holds get 50 pages at best. I gave Infected about 50 and put it in the back to the library pile. While it has some inventive and gag-inducing gore scenes, the writing is middling (which puts it ahead of most horror, admittedly) and the characters are uninteresting. This one may please gore-hounds, but others should look elsewhere.

Another reason I put this one down is that among the opportunity costs was holding off on reading the second half of Steven Erikson's mammoth Reaper's Gale. If you have been anxiously checking the Web for updates on the next George R.R. Martin, you should give Erikson a look. While his books lack the characterization of Martin and the byzantine political machinations, they are better on exploring the role and uses of power. And there is lots more ass-kicking.

2 comments:

Scott Sigler said...

That's a bummer INFECTED didn't hold you past 50 pages. If you think the middling writing is better than most horror novels, when you get to the actual reveals I think you'd find that a bit different as well. No zombies, no vampires, no pansy-ass magic outs in the story -- a horror plot based in real science, baby.

Tripp said...

Alright, I'll give it another chance, since you asked you so nicely. And promise a lack of pansy-ass magic outs at that.