First, I have an admission to make. I don’t really listen to audiobooks or podcasts. The kind of work I do can’t really be done while listening to them and the only good time seems to be when I’m walking the dog and honestly, I prefer listening to music because most of the time when I’m walking the dog I’m actually working out some kind of story-related problem. And when it comes down to it, I much prefer reading a book and ingesting it at my own pace with no distractions. Call me a purist.

So the honest truth is that I’ve barely listened to any of Scott’s podcasts. (an embarassing admission I made to Scott in an email after reading the book) So, I had zero idea what to expect from CONTAGIOUS other than the concept of being infected with something that makes you want to kill seemed pretty cool.

I have to say that I got hooked on CONTAGIOUS very quickly. Yes, it’s a sequel but I can tell you that not having read INFECTED, I had zero problem picking up what was going on (though now I do plan to read INFECTED as soon as I have time). I’m not going to bore you with details but let’s just say that the story in CONTAGIOUS really works great. The characters are perfect for it and the way some of the scenes are crafted are plain genius. I won’t ruin it for you but there is one scene where a marked confrontation develops between two badasses, Perry and Dew that really made me realize what a great writer Scott is. For realz.

Add to that the deft way he handled doling all the technical stuff, the great levels of continuing suspense and horror and I have to say that Scott Sigler is the perfect blend of Stephen King meets Michael Crichton for my tastes and by far, CONTAGIOUS is better than anything either of them had put out over the last decade. (Yes, CELL is pretty damned close to vintage King and AIRFRAME didn’t totally suck but I stick to my words)

So if you haven’t read CONTAGIOUS and you’re looking for a very satisfying, very well-written thriller with strong elements of horror and techology–a book that really plays out like a big budget Hollywood summer action movie, you cannot go wrong by picking up a copy of CONTAGIOUS.