Scott Sigler
I've been an audiobook fan for nearly twenty years. I listened to all of Stephen King's releases as they hit and whatever I could get my hands on that wouldn't break my bank account. I had stopped trying to find affordable audio-fiction for a long time when I stumbled across a new phenomenon people were calling "podio-books." The originator and BMOC of pod-casting novels at the time (and currently) was Scott Sigler.
I started listening to his original novel, "Earthcore" after it had already been released in serial form. I was shocked to find that not only was the material top-notch, but that the production value of the audio and voice-acting was very good. It was not exactly what I had come to expect from the studios but it was more than sufficient to draw me in and get me hooked on the new medium.
At first I would skip through what the author calls the "jibber-jabber" portion of the episodes and just stick with the story, but as I continued to listen and pick up bits and pieces of the jabber I realized I was getting interested in the process and hooked on Sigler's brand of megalomaniacal humor. I finished listening to Earthcore all to quickly and moved on to his next work-in-progress, "Ancestor." Ancestor had already accumulated many episodes to listen to and I was happy to find that the story was tighter and the production quality even better than Earthcore. I got hooked again and life was good until I reached the last recorded episode. I had smirked at Scott would refer to his subscribers as "Junkies." It really never hit home until I reached the end of an episode and realized that that was it. No more downloads available. The story wasn't over yet, but I didn't get to hear the next chapter until Scott-"I'm never late"-fucking-Sigler got around to posting it. I found out the hard way that I had become a junkie without ever knowing it. Of course by that time it was far too late to do anything about it except wait.
So I waited. And waited. And waited... and lo and behold a new episode! I now listened to all of the jibber-jab faithfully for hints about future episodes and just to make sure that Sigler would continue to hook us junkies up with our weekly fix. It turned out that the weekly process was actually more fun than blasting through all the episodes at once. I felt caught up in a community of people who were listening, and contributing to the telling of a kick-ass story. Ancestor flew by too quickly and in the doldrums following I went back and re-listened to Earthcore with a greater appreciation for the original junkies.
Along comes Infection like the proverbial spider and changes the game a bit. Infection is palpably darker and a bit slower paced than his first to broadcasts. The protagonist (if you can call him that) is Perry Dawsey and he is not a very sympathetic guy. The theme and the setting start out just grim but delve into some really gory depths before the end. I don't post spoilers so I can't say much, but it suffices to say that there really aren't any options for a happy ending in Infection.
So, Earthcore and Ancestor are very good horror-fiction. They are scientifically grounded and at least reasonably plausible which I think makes them appeal to a broader audience than something that forces you to suspend your disbelief without giving you an explanation. Infected is along the same lines except it is even nastier and more disturbing. I thought I had a bead on where the author was coming from and how he worked. I was a bit surprised when his next project was titled, "The Rookie" and he announced it would be about football of all things. Even several episodes into what was clearly not a horror novel I kept expecting the bogey-man to arrive and start eating people. By the time I had completely accepted that this was to be a very different kind of story, I had already gotten hooked on what was going to happen to the anti-heroic protagonist and the under-dog team he'd joined. In The Rookie, Scott raised the level of his audio game several notches. High quality voice effects and production values made this my favorite story yet. I was able to lose myself completely in the story and actually got into the coming-of-age shtick. The Rookie flew by all-too-quickly and I had to wait for his next project, "Nocturnal" to begin sometime later. I re-listened to much of his stuff during the waiting periods and picked up some podiobooks from his fellow podcasting novelists, Tee Morris and Mike Bartlett.
I'm now a huge fan of the podcasting community and look forward to my weekly fixes of his latest project, "Nocturnal." Nocturnal is a return to his horror roots and it's mixed up with some really fantastic lore and murky, mafia style intrigue. I'm a member of his website and proudly bear the title of an ODJ (original dirty junkie). I have hooked the-love-of-my-life on his stuff and she's a bigger podcast novel consumer than I am now.
The culmination of all of this stuff was last night. I made it to a book-signing and reading in Hollywood to kick off his hardback release of "Infected." Infected is the re-named, re-written hardback release of the podcasted "Infection." The name change was for a variety of reasons but the release is a triumph for Scott Sigler, really marking his debut as a widely published author by a major publishing house. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a big fan of anything or anyone. I appreciate the product more than the person who makes it. This is the first time I have every gone to a book-signing. I don't go to live concerts or go celebrity watching. I hate walking around and I'm not a big fan of crowds. But I had a blast seeing Sigler give a reading in person and crowding around with all the other junkies firing off questions and giving praise and criticisms about Nocturnal and his previous works. I was really happy to just get to meet this enterprising guy who makes my commute a whole lot more bearable every week. We bought books and got signature and walked over to the Rainbow Room and just shot the shit with him until nearly Midnight. I really appreciated the time he took to make everyone there feel welcomed and thanked and how much he seems like the guy you hear on the podcast. He's a very down-to-Earth, no bullshit future Dark-Overlord and he outlasted nearly all of his fans despite having to be on a plane at 10AM heading to the next city to start the whole thing over again.
I highly recommend that you take the time to check his stuff out. The website to start at is definitely, http://www.scottsigler.com You will find links to all of his works and tons of material to play around with.
And lastly I wanted to post photographic evidence of the event:
I started listening to his original novel, "Earthcore" after it had already been released in serial form. I was shocked to find that not only was the material top-notch, but that the production value of the audio and voice-acting was very good. It was not exactly what I had come to expect from the studios but it was more than sufficient to draw me in and get me hooked on the new medium.
At first I would skip through what the author calls the "jibber-jabber" portion of the episodes and just stick with the story, but as I continued to listen and pick up bits and pieces of the jabber I realized I was getting interested in the process and hooked on Sigler's brand of megalomaniacal humor. I finished listening to Earthcore all to quickly and moved on to his next work-in-progress, "Ancestor." Ancestor had already accumulated many episodes to listen to and I was happy to find that the story was tighter and the production quality even better than Earthcore. I got hooked again and life was good until I reached the last recorded episode. I had smirked at Scott would refer to his subscribers as "Junkies." It really never hit home until I reached the end of an episode and realized that that was it. No more downloads available. The story wasn't over yet, but I didn't get to hear the next chapter until Scott-"I'm never late"-fucking-Sigler got around to posting it. I found out the hard way that I had become a junkie without ever knowing it. Of course by that time it was far too late to do anything about it except wait.
So I waited. And waited. And waited... and lo and behold a new episode! I now listened to all of the jibber-jab faithfully for hints about future episodes and just to make sure that Sigler would continue to hook us junkies up with our weekly fix. It turned out that the weekly process was actually more fun than blasting through all the episodes at once. I felt caught up in a community of people who were listening, and contributing to the telling of a kick-ass story. Ancestor flew by too quickly and in the doldrums following I went back and re-listened to Earthcore with a greater appreciation for the original junkies.
Along comes Infection like the proverbial spider and changes the game a bit. Infection is palpably darker and a bit slower paced than his first to broadcasts. The protagonist (if you can call him that) is Perry Dawsey and he is not a very sympathetic guy. The theme and the setting start out just grim but delve into some really gory depths before the end. I don't post spoilers so I can't say much, but it suffices to say that there really aren't any options for a happy ending in Infection.
So, Earthcore and Ancestor are very good horror-fiction. They are scientifically grounded and at least reasonably plausible which I think makes them appeal to a broader audience than something that forces you to suspend your disbelief without giving you an explanation. Infected is along the same lines except it is even nastier and more disturbing. I thought I had a bead on where the author was coming from and how he worked. I was a bit surprised when his next project was titled, "The Rookie" and he announced it would be about football of all things. Even several episodes into what was clearly not a horror novel I kept expecting the bogey-man to arrive and start eating people. By the time I had completely accepted that this was to be a very different kind of story, I had already gotten hooked on what was going to happen to the anti-heroic protagonist and the under-dog team he'd joined. In The Rookie, Scott raised the level of his audio game several notches. High quality voice effects and production values made this my favorite story yet. I was able to lose myself completely in the story and actually got into the coming-of-age shtick. The Rookie flew by all-too-quickly and I had to wait for his next project, "Nocturnal" to begin sometime later. I re-listened to much of his stuff during the waiting periods and picked up some podiobooks from his fellow podcasting novelists, Tee Morris and Mike Bartlett.
I'm now a huge fan of the podcasting community and look forward to my weekly fixes of his latest project, "Nocturnal." Nocturnal is a return to his horror roots and it's mixed up with some really fantastic lore and murky, mafia style intrigue. I'm a member of his website and proudly bear the title of an ODJ (original dirty junkie). I have hooked the-love-of-my-life on his stuff and she's a bigger podcast novel consumer than I am now.
The culmination of all of this stuff was last night. I made it to a book-signing and reading in Hollywood to kick off his hardback release of "Infected." Infected is the re-named, re-written hardback release of the podcasted "Infection." The name change was for a variety of reasons but the release is a triumph for Scott Sigler, really marking his debut as a widely published author by a major publishing house. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a big fan of anything or anyone. I appreciate the product more than the person who makes it. This is the first time I have every gone to a book-signing. I don't go to live concerts or go celebrity watching. I hate walking around and I'm not a big fan of crowds. But I had a blast seeing Sigler give a reading in person and crowding around with all the other junkies firing off questions and giving praise and criticisms about Nocturnal and his previous works. I was really happy to just get to meet this enterprising guy who makes my commute a whole lot more bearable every week. We bought books and got signature and walked over to the Rainbow Room and just shot the shit with him until nearly Midnight. I really appreciated the time he took to make everyone there feel welcomed and thanked and how much he seems like the guy you hear on the podcast. He's a very down-to-Earth, no bullshit future Dark-Overlord and he outlasted nearly all of his fans despite having to be on a plane at 10AM heading to the next city to start the whole thing over again.
I highly recommend that you take the time to check his stuff out. The website to start at is definitely, http://www.scottsigler.com You will find links to all of his works and tons of material to play around with.
And lastly I wanted to post photographic evidence of the event: