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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2024
A fast moving tale of genetic research gone wrong. Like all of Scott Sigler's books that I've read to date, it's well researched, believable yet crazy and has relatable characters. It's a fun read.
Bostjan Jarm
Reviewed in Germany on May 8, 2020
Broad and suspenseful story, kept me on the edge until the very end. Convincing and deep enough characters, special forces, evil people and unstoppable monsters. What more could one wish!
Alejandro A. E.
Reviewed in Spain on August 7, 2018
Great book for any fan of jurassic park, alien, The Thing,...The book is easy to read, and fast paced. The story is not unnecessary long, but the main protagonist are well developed through it.I really enjoyed it, so would recommend it even to people new to this kind of book.
Malcador the Sigillite
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2013
My first review here on Amazon, so still finding my style. Apologies in advance for poor flow. WARNING- POTENTIAL SPOILERS!As a biochemistry graduate and a science buff, I have one main handicap with most sci fi- I can't tolerate poorly researched or "plot device mysticism" science. I'm fine with the craziest ideas as long as they can be grounded in some basic scientific principles. Fortunately, "Ancestors" falls into this category.The story centers around the use of genomics and synthetic biology to re-create an ancient mammalian progenitor species as a donor for xeno-transplant organs in humans, with a small team of brilliant researchers being funded by a biotech firm operating under the radar of a US government task force seeking to end said research due to the significant risks involved. The project finally hits upon a success, the result of their -significantly- mentally unbalanced genius, but not what they planned for.Pretty much everything in this book is well fleshed out, the plot has easy real life relevance, the characters are human and interesting, they have their flaws and their strengths, and they fall to convincing character traits, particularly the project head, too mesmerized in the significance of their accomplishment to realize that his people are breeding monsters. The tension during the creature gestation is nerve splitting, the team trading the isolation of a cargo plane come laboratory to an isolated island, faced continuously with the increasing evidence that what they are growing is dangerous beyond comprehension, but too intrigued, cowed by the project leader, and intimidated by the sponsor, to do anything but keep on going, right up until it literally bites them in the ass.Scott Sigler clearly did a lot of research into multiple scientific fields here, from the cutting edge in systems and synthetic biology, genomics and recombinant DNA technology, to vetirinary medicine and zoology, and it pays off. Think of it as the novel equivalent of the film"Splice", but with scientific integrity and likeable characters.
John Milton
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2012
Amazon flagged this up as a book I might like and so, on a whim, I bought it...Black Petals Magazine described Ancestor as "Jurassic Park meets Predator in `a near-perfect blend of hard science and hard-hitting action.'" I would suggest that although this statement is compelling, it is not accurate. There is no doubt in my mind that this book is incredibly well-researched. The science referred to is believable and doesn't go into so much detail so as to deter the casual reader. In fact, all aspects of this book appear to have been incredibly well-researched and Sigler himself has scientists, linguists and military personnel to ensure that his novel is as realistic as possible.My criticism of the Black Petals comment is that at no point did I feel this novel had an echoes of Predator. If I were to draw any comparisons with films, I would say that Ancestor is reminiscent of Jurassic Park, The Thing and Aliens. As is my wont, I don't wish to explain this any further for fear of ruining the novel for any reader of this review but if you take that comment and couple it with the synopsis above, I'm sure you're beginning to get the picture!My worry with this novel was that my impression of it as I was reading was that it was very much a straightforward action-thriller. However, Sigler merely builds his characters and the general situation in the first half of the novel before rocketing off in the second half, deep into gory deaths and a monster created by man that merits mention alongside H.R.Giger's Alien.I was thoroughly impressed with Sigler's characters, both the villains and protagonists. Sigler explores the motives for their actions well and renders their chosen path plausible to the reader, rather than portraying them as simply inherently good or bad.Ancestor is pacy, with interesting and well-developed characters and bad guys both human and beastly that end up turning a pristine Canadian winter setting into a bloodbath. I defy anyone who has read Jurassic Park not to draw comparisons with Crichton's work but I would suggest that Ancestor is a solid work in its own right. My only real caveat to the horror fan would be this might not be quite what you expected but I'd submit that you should give it a try, you might just like it!
Chris Toohey
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2011
Greed, vanity, self-preservation, anger and grief strand a group of ex-military security staff and highly-specialized and world-renowned scientists on a frozen, claustrophobic stage. Their task is to address the organ transplant shortage affecting the global citizenry... and in the process achieve their individual goals. For most, it's the hundreds of billions expected in returns from the governments of the world, while others seek further fame and glory...With a US Government taskforce in pursuit, the now-underground "Ancestor" project is about to birth something wholly the result of each players' missteps and actions.Each character is fleshed out in the page or (and I consider this a strength of any good storyteller) is a shadow of a known archetype, and individual personality traits and various character nuance manifest and are explored where appropriate within the story. Many authors tend to rely on "we're at chapter 3, let's take a break and get to know our cast..." which must have surfaced in some genre workshop or "For Dummies" book, which I'm happy to report that the author shows no signs of having attended/read.Misogynists, moonlighting authors, broken-hearted everymen, headstrong yet open-hearted heroines, underachieving geniuses, overachieving sociopaths, the revenge and justice-driven blind, the physically and mentally-ill, the salt of the earth, potheads, and even curler-haired farmers are all represented, giving this character-driven narrative unique and individual voices which tell a solid story. Additionally, Sigler's ability to narrate the tale from the "Acenstor" [avoiding spoilers here...] is an absolute masterstroke.And with this novel, Sigler has tapped into true horror: not with the "Ancestor", but with the evil that is committed by man. This story at it's best is about the domino-effect failures of the individual, and at it's worse is an enjoyable thrill-ride with "big-monster" gore.Scott Sigler's 2010 release of "Ancestor" addressed many of my [minor] issues with the original story, specifically those with the character of Magnus Paglione. To get into them in this review would be spoiling the story, but this character -- who in his original portrayal was rather "larger than life" -- speaks volumes of the great skill that the author continues to hone story after next. Simply put: I recommend this book not only for genre fans, but also for those previous readers of "Ancestor" as this 2010 release is a major improvement.This book is a genre novel written by a fan of the genre. I was hooked from the first page, and highly recommend a purchase.
Customer
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2007
First, this is a well thought out book. The story is good, and the plot moves along quite well. From a great opening (it's also a very creepy opening) to the conclusion, the pacing of this novel is excellent. I can't think of a single thing in the book that felt like an afterthought, or something that was simply inserted to fill up pages. Make no mistake; Scott Sigler is a good writer.The science (for me) seemed a little fuzzy, and the explanations lacked the level of detail that, say, Michael Crichton would insert. This hurt the believability only a little, as it really isn't that important to the plot IMO. I'm not as concerned with how the creatures got there as I am with the simple fact that they ARE there. And hungry. My God, those things could eat...but I get ahead of myself.There really wasn't a lot of character development, but you don't really expect that in a book like this anyway. Thrillers, traditionally, are thin on character development and thick on plot. And Ancestor is no exception, although Sigler does a good job of making some characters likeable, and others not. Some of the character traits seemed a bit weird (one character had a strange habit of stabbing himself with a Ka Bar to clear his head), and Sigler liked to write the accents of a couple of them. I found this a little distracting but it might not bother anyone else. I'm kinda odd like that.While I found the book very good, and will certainly recommend it, I think it could have benefited from a little more editing. The reason I say this is because there are several places where it seems a thesaurus would have been helpful. Repeated words (especially in the same paragraph) have a tendency to stand out to me, and there were a few such places in this book.Now, on to the best part; The Critters. The "ancestors" are extremely well imagined and quite scary. To me, this is the reason I picked up Ancestor in the first place; to read about the critters, and this is where Scott Sigler excels. His concept is obviously alive and well inside his head, and he does an excellent job of bringing the things to life in print. One scene actually gave me nightmares and woke me up at 3 am (clue - camera and fetus), and while that was the only scene that did, there's still plenty of creep-factor in this book. If you are the kind of person for whom the idea of being torn to bits by a bunch of hungry... er... somethings... is enough to keep you up at night, then do yourself a favor and read this one with the lights on.
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