Ancestor: A Novel

Written by Scott Sigler

Narrated by Scott Sigler

“The ancestors are out there…you have to believe me.”

From acclaimed author Scott Sigler—New York Times bestselling creator of Infected and Contagious—comes a tale of genetic experimentation’s worst nightmare come true.
 
Every five minutes, a transplant candidate dies while waiting for a heart, a liver, a kidney.  Imagine a technology that could provide those life-saving transplant organs for a nominal fee ... and imagine what a company would do to get a monopoly on that technology.
 
On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, PJ Colding leads a group of geneticists who have discovered this holy grail of medicine. By reverse-engineering the genomes of thousands of mammals, Colding's team has dialed back the evolutionary clock to re-create humankind’s common ancestor. The method? Illegal. The result? A computer-engineered living creature, an animal whose organs can be implanted in any person, and with no chance of transplant rejection.
 
There's just one problem: these ancestors are not the docile herd animals that Colding's team envisioned. Instead, Colding’s work has given birth to something big, something evil.
 
With these killer creatures on the prowl, Colding and the woman he loves must fight to survive — even as government agents close in to shut the project down, and the deep-pocketed company backing this research proves to have its own cold-blooded agenda.  
 
As the creators become the prey in the ultimate battle for survival, Scott Sigler takes readers on the ultimate thrill-ride—and offers a chilling cautionary account of what can happen when hubris, greed, and madness drive scientific experimentation past the brink of reason.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 22, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307705457

Scott Sigler

Scott Sigler is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of sixteen novels, six novellas and dozens of short stories. He serializes his fiction in a weekly podcast, with more than 40 million episodes downloaded. He is a co-founder of Empty Set Entertainment, which publishes his Galactic Football League series. He lives in San Diego, CA, with his wee little dog Reesie.

Reviews for Ancestor

[zot79-720973 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Don't take that two star rating as a harsh judgment on this book. Goodread's description for two stars is "It was OK." (vs. "I liked it" for three stars). "It was OK" sums up my reaction pretty well.

I started out listening to the free audio version of the book, based on interviews with the author and enthusiasm for his work from others. But after making it through fifteen parts (about 1/3 of the story), I was interested in seeing if the blandness in the prose and the lack of depth in the characters was due to the reading or the writing. I guess it was both.

The author obviously put in a tremendous amount of work to get the technology and biology to a believable state. And it all makes a certain amount of sense within the world of the book. The problem is that it never came alive for me (ironic for a story about creating life). Everything and everyone is described in cold, calculating terms. The settings come across as laundry lists of geography, structures, or items, as appropriate. Likewise, each character comes with their list of identifiers and quirks, but they never quite make it off of the page. One interesting conundrum is that there are really two few characters involved in the plot to pull off the science being described, but almost all of the characters (and creatures) are used as a viewpoint at one point or other, making the story seem too crowded and jumpy.

I will give Mr. Sigler credit for creating a pretty slam-bang plot. There are plenty of thrills and the promised violence. Although I was skimming many pages, I did push through to the end to find out how things would get wrapped up.

[pamkaye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While trying to make a human transplant breakthrough, geneticists create a new animal. The "ancestor" to all mammals on earth. The ancestor is not as safe and docile as expected. Add in a psychopath boss who wants anybody involved in the project dead.
It takes a little while for the action to start, but it is non stop once it starts.

I listened to this book on audiobook read by Scott Sigler himself. He used a different voice/accent for each character, and really lets you see their personalities.

[henrimoreaux · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another excellent book by Scott Sigler.

Ancestor involves genetic experimentation gone wrong where a group of scientists were trying to great better human transplant candidates however one of the group is a little unbalanced. Coupled with a millionaire company co-owner who tries to cover up what they're doing by building a mobile lab in an aeroplane things start going wrong when egos clash and the co-owner decides to try an destroy everything thereby releasing all their creations.

[cherylk_44 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I can still remember the first book I read from this author, Infected. I would say that book did what the movie, Arachnophobia did to people watching it. It gave me the chills and creeps all at the same time. Thus, I really thought that I was going to be in for a treat and get the same experience with this book. I would say that the last third of the book was just what I was looking forward too but I wanted to whole book to be that way.

The characters were fine. None that really stood out for me. Yet, some of them kept things interesting. I just kept waiting to see what the creature was that was going to possibly save humankind. Again, I was left hanging until the last third of the story. At that point I could not stop reading fast enough. Even some of your worst nightmares could not compare to what was born. This book may not have been one of my favorites but Mr. Sigler is still a top favorite author of mine.

[sondr3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't remember where I got it from, but at least I had it and needed something to read on vacation.

I liked it. What can I say? The book isn't amazing, it certainly isn't something I'd read again. But for what it is worth I really enjoyed reading it. The story is original enough, although I found the plot to be hard to grasp, the red line sort of slipped everywhere, but only for the first half. The writing is good, short, but succinct. The characters feels genuine enough, but mostly because you are left a lot of blank spots to fill out which makes them more imaginable. For me, the biggest thing was that the plot felt original, even though you are sort of left puzzled in the beginning as to what the plot is really about.

I would describe it as an action novel, maybe slightly on the horror side of stuff. Short, lots of action but not that much depth. For entertainment, it's really good. For depth, not so much. However, if you need something to read while on vacation I would very much so recommend it.

[sonicquack · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sigler's writing style is developing at a rapid pace. He's leaving behind the more pulpy and simple horror fiction and is producing more complex narrative and character interaction. Ancestor feels like a screenplay with heroes and villains, some high octane action sequences and many scenes of suspense, utilising technology vs. nature to create thrills.

However, even with all these requisite building blocks the outcome is not the engaging sci-fi/action/horror novel it could and should have been. Sigler somehow misses the hook. Although the two likeable characters have a certain amount of pull upon the reader, they don't stand out enough. This is key in a novel which plays out a power struggle between humans, the ancestors are a catalyst for the this conflict. Ancestor drags its heels at times, some of the action seems run-of-the-mill, almost as if Sigler is trying to be more verbose than his previous books, although their off-kilter narrative worked. Ancestor is a good read and you will want to see it through until the end, it's just not as much fun as his previous two books.

[irunsjh · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was alright Scott Sigler, not great Scott Sigler. The story was pretty good, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had not listened to the podcast of the book in the past. I think it is great that he got to go back and update the book, and enjoyed the science aspects of the book. Overall I was just left with a Meh feeling overall. A recommendation, not just a high recommendation.

[kmaziarz_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Biotech firm Genada is after the Holy Grail of genetic research…transplantable organs with no chance of rejection. All of the other firms have had their research shut down over fears of uncontrollable zoonotic diseases ravaging the world, but one of the brothers running Genada is a former special ops soldier and had laid careful plans for whisking their researchers out of reach of the government.

Exiled and isolated on a small island in Canada in the dead of an icy winter, the research continues. Rather than engineering animals to produce human organs, as most firms were attempting, Genada’s researchers are attempting to use reverse bio-engineering to produce what they are calling an “ancestor;” that is, the first common mammalian ancestor of all species alive today. The organs would be resistent to zoonotic diseases and would be compatible with all humans. Unfortunately for them, their most brilliant researcher, a Chinese woman named Liu Jian Den, is schizophrenic. She’s well-controlled on medications, but the project lead has been deliberately shorting her meds in order to promote her leaps of intuitive brillance. And in one of those leaps, she succeeds in creating viable ancestor embryos—but she has added traits none of the others expected. Traits that create, not the docile, cow-like creatures they expected, but huge, ravening, frighteningly intelligent predators. Now trapped in the snow and ice, hunted by both creatures out of prehistoric nightmares AND the psychotic special ops colleagues of their twisted patron, the researchers must fight for survival.

Fast-paced, taut, and exciting, Sigler’s thriller is marred only slightly by some clunky dialogue and an abundance of genre cliches. But for those looking for Crichton-esque excitement are sure to be delighted.

[dennisgibson_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Don't get how this book gets reviewed so well. Its "The Thing" with man-made monsters instead of aliens. Didn't like the characters, didn't like the dialogue. Just had too much of the "oh, don't go down in the basement" feel to it.

[dcoward_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book. It's fairly fluffy and a bit of a bloodbath, but certainly fast paced and entertaining. The science was interesting too.

[doc_spatial · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bought this at a convention, having never heard of Mr. Sigler before, and enjoyed the hell out of it.

It's a fun read. There's enough science to make the story work without devolving into technobabble. There's a good balance between interesting characters & interesting events, and there are one or two who you'll actively dislike, which I find adds to a story.

Worth a read, or at least a listen.

[horacespatoot · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Here's something cool. I was reading the journal Science while ignoring the speaker at a meeting today and I came across a paper by Ortland et al., 317, 1544-8, 2007 in which the authors do a very small part of what is described in Scott Sigler's book Ancestor -- they deduce from modern sequences of proteins what the sequence must have been in a 450 million year old common ancestor.

This piece of scientific realism is not all that make Sigler's work exciting -- he knows how to develop characters, build suspense, and generally draw the reader for a time into a frightening but believable world.

I'd like to make one other plug. Sigler is a great reader, and you can listen to him reading the entire Ancestor book free of charge as a podcast.