I LOVED “Infected”. of all the stuff I have listened to by Scott Sigler Infected is my favorite. I held off listening to Contagious until after the whole thing was finished. I had high expectations from the book. I was a little let down. Don’t get me wrong I like the book. The problem is I’m not in love with it like I was with Infected. I think it might have to do with Perry Dawsey. He is a hunter killer role due to the mesh that is still in his head. His character carried Infected but seems to drag on Contagious. In Infected Dew Phillips and Dr. Montoya were one side of the story and Perry the other. In Contagoius they are all on the same side of the storytelling frame while a new character takes the role Perry did in the other novel. What I liked was the pacing, Scott had something to ration out for every episode. The later episodes were a little long to contain all the action of the climax. Since I was listening all at once that didn’t really effect me. What I didn’t like was Perry’s plot arc. Not that it didn’t ring true, the scary thing just wasn’t there for me. It was there for the other characters, and he was quite screwy before he came around. But I wasn’t frightened of Perry. Mostly because I don’t have an alien infection in me. If I continue to itch I might be more inclined to be frightened of him. Some of the other supporting characters in the last book get a bigger treatment in this book. I’m thinking in particular the soldiers tasked with fighting the hatchings.

Is there a a real Scram jet airplane? I know the science Scott put in to it is real enough and I saw the laser plane on the news. The really cool things about the book I will not disclose. But the gadgets and “Less Lethals” are worth listening for.