Ancestor

276 Pages·2007·3.75 MB·English

by  Scott Sigler

Extinction isn’t always a bad thing...
Reviews for Ancestor
“The future of gene manipulation is already here, and this ancestor may well be one
of its outcomes. Be very, very afraid … or be extinct.”
~A.M. Stickel, BLACK PETALS MAGAZIN E
“Sigler hits the rewind on evolution — and the fast-forward on action! Sigler’s beasties
get their chomp on early and don’t let go: you can just feel the little Ancestors wriggling
in the shadows of today’s biotech news stories, waiting to sink their primordial incisors
deep into your spine.”
~Mark Jeffrey, author of THE POCKET & THE PENDANT
“We’ve been told time and time again that it’s bad to play God. If Frankenstein and
The Island of Dr. Moreau isn’t enough to convince you, then read Scott Sigler’s
ANCESTOR. This is Robin Cook rewriting ALIENS. Strap yourself in for this intense
warning of what genetic science can unleash. Prepare yourself for the ancestors.”
~Tee Morris, author of THE MOREVI SAGA
“Scott Sigler writes like Michael Crichton in his prime, but edgier. Intensely addictive,
ANCESTORinfects the imagination and races forward through a tail of genetic manipu-
lation gone awry. As our primitive and savage ancestors are reborn, the body count rises
and the pages keep turning. Intelligent, witty and scary as hell!”
~Jeremy Robinson, bestselling author of RAISING THE PAST
“From ultra high-tech labs of bleeding edge biotech to snow-blinded islands haunted
by our own genetic past, Scott Sigler takes you for a page-turning ride into real fear and
adventure. ANCESTOR starts with a literal bang and builds to a desperate climax that
will keep you guessing.”
~David Wellington, author of MONSTER ISLAND and 13 BULLETS
“This book shows how the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And the entrails
of the scientists who had those intentions.”
~Mur Lafferty, author of HEAVEN
“ANCESTOR is a standout bloodbath adventure; a continuous assault on the senses
that leaves you breathless from riding each wave of action as it swells into the next.”
~Summer Brooks - Producer for SLICE OF SCIFI
and FARPOINT MEDIA
Order your copy from Amazon.com on April 1: Noon Eastern Time, 9AM Pacicific
http://www.amazon.com/Ancestor-Scott-Sigler/dp/1896944736
Ancestor ~ Scott Sigler
Publisher’s Note:
Number ONE on the podcast feeds... make it number ONE on Amazon too!
You are invited to send this file out to friends, to post it on MySpace, your Blogs, put
it a link to it on your website, email it, whatever you can do to help us spread the word.
This electronic version is to free to promote Scott and his works. Scott has worked
really, really hard to become a writer that readers want to read, and a podcaster that
listeners want to listen to. It’s hard for a small press to spread the word, so we are asking
for your help.
You may not sell this file, modify it or otherwise change it. And to help Scott support
his writing habit, please purchase a print copy, since he doesn’t get paid for these free
copies.
Read it, post a review on Amazon. Do something creative to help spread the word,
and send us an email at [email protected] telling us what
you’ve done and one lucky reader will receive a prize pack worth at least $100.
2
This file has been reformatted to look pretty on your screen.
Because we are giving it away for free, it isn’t designed to print pretty, nor does it
actually look like the book... which you could enjoy at the beach, in bed or in the tub.
Reading loose 8.5x11 pages is no fun on the beach (we know - it’s how manuscripts come
in to us, so we do it all the time - well not the beach part, but the 8.5x11 part).
So, we’ve given you a link on each page to make it easy to go to Amazon and buy a copy.
Please do!
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Ancestor
Scott Sigler
Dragon Moon Press
Ancestor ~ Scott Sigler
Copyright © 2007 Scott Sigler
Cover Art © 2007 Kevin Capizzi
Interior Art © 2007 Mark Hester
All rights reserved. Reproduction or utilization of this work in
any form, by any means now known or hereinafter invented,
including, but not limited to, xerography, photocopying and
recording, and in any known storage and retrieval system, is
forbidden without permission from the copyright holder. Please
respect the rights of the author.
ISBN 1-896944-73-6 Printed Version
ISBN 1-896944-75-2 Electronic Version
CIP Data on file with the National Library of Canada
Dragon Moon Press
www.dragonmoonpress.com
4
CONTACT THE AUTHOR
www.scottsigler.net
Email: [email protected]
Skype: scottsigler
AIM: scottcsigler
Yahoo: scottcarlsigler
Order your copy from Amazon.com on April 1: Noon Eastern Time, 9AM Pacicific
http://www.amazon.com/Ancestor-Scott-Sigler/dp/1896944736
Ancestor ~ Scott Sigler
DEDICATION
Scott Christian — Specialist, United States Army
Robert Gilliland — Captain, United States Air Force
Jeff Rapleje — Corporal, US Marine Corp
The gentlemen above are three of my high school friends who served in America’s
armed forces. I dedicate this book to them, and to all of the servicemen and service
women who are directly responsible for the freedoms that we all take for granted.
To every soldier that served or is serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Forget politics,
ideology or personal definitions of right-and-wrong —when you got the call, you did your
job, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
THE SIGLER SYNDICATE
Ancestor was originally released as a “podcast only” novel. You couldn’t buy it in
stores, and you couldn’t peek at the end. To hear the whole story, you had to tune in
every week for another 45-minute dose of science fictiony horror goodness.
I followed the same delivery process for my first novel, EarthCore. The fans thought
it was so addictive, they dubbed the novel “EarthCrack,” and themselves as strung-out
junkies waiting for their weekly fix. The term “Junkie” stuck fast, a favorite term for
describing my insane fans. And you are. Insane, that is. Your emails, voicemails, audio
bits, video bits, IMs and blog posts make me extraordinarily happy, even when you’re 5
insulting me (which, oddly enough is exactly 92.4 percent of the time —yes, I kept stats).
So here’s to you, you Damn Dirty Junkies!
Pushers
Some of those fans wanted to go beyond just being strung out on podcast fiction;
they wanted to help in my quest for world domination. Hence, the “Pushers” were born
— why just be a Junkie, when you can help create other addicts, right?
“Well sheee-it,” I thought to myself, “if I’m the dealer, and I’ve got Junkies and
Pushers, I basically have my own crime organization.”
Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted a criminal organization of my very
own. I’d be a good criminal, I think, except for that whole bit about potentially doing time
and being someone’s bitch —not my cup of tea. Score one for the pre-emptive threat of
the prison system.
So the Pushers were born, great people who volunteer to help me with various tasks.
Yes, volunteer —oh, you thought I was getting rich off of podcasting? Yes, filthy rich, and
I can barely bolt my diamond-encrusted front door against the column of Hollywood
starlets wanting to bed me in hopes of sharing my red-carpet spotlight.
Sorry, I digress. Pushers volunteer to help me out, and I want to thank them right in
these here pages.
Order your copy from Amazon.com on April 1: Noon Eastern Time, 9AM Pacicific
http://www.amazon.com/Ancestor-Scott-Sigler/dp/1896944736
Ancestor ~ Scott Sigler
Pushers
Annathy & Chuck Baker — Radio
Jeremy E. Ellis — Science Consultant
Lorraine Felt — Editor
Andre Gilbert — Creature Design
Mark Hester — Comic Book Art
J.C. Hutchins — Arch-Nemesis & Trusted Consultant
Bill Kenway — Project Management
Sigrid Macdonald — Editor
Daniel Morgan — Chinese Translations
Lindsay Steele — MySpace
Jeff Steele — SciFi will rue the day!
Aaron Wormus — Search Engine Optimization
I may have missed some Pushers. If so, I blame J.C. Hutchins. I really don’t know how
that would be his fault, but I’ll state it now, and figure out the logic later.
So Junkies consume and Pushers push. Then there are people who take over entire
divisions of the Sigler Syndicate (often without telling me, or giving me the opportunity
to say “no,” I might add – it’s a rather cut-throat organization). These folks know more
than I do. Way more. Granted, that ain’t saying much, but still, they make me look good.
These folks attain “capo” status in the Syndicate, and are known as the “MastaPimps.”
MastaPimps put in a LOT of time, and provide a LOT of talent, and I do not have words 6
to thank them enough.
MastaPimps
Kevin Capizzi — Graphics
Jeff Sass — Movies, TV, Marketing
Kerim Satirli — Marketing
Robbie Trencheny — SecondLife
Robert “Smegster” White — Video
Junkies, Pushers, MastaPimps — add to the mix the Podshow Crew. Podshow.com is
a fantastic site dedicated to gathering digital entertainment and spreading it to the
world. My fiction podcasts run on Podshow. The company makes sure all I have to do is
create great content — they handle everything else, and they do it well. There are many
people at Podshow, but I just wanted to take a little space to thank those I dealt with
on a daily basis during the Ancestor podcast. And if you don’t like this book, blame
Adam Curry — this whole “podcasting” fad is his fault anyway.
Order your copy from Amazon.com on April 1: Noon Eastern Time, 9AM Pacicific
http://www.amazon.com/Ancestor-Scott-Sigler/dp/1896944736
Ancestor ~ Scott Sigler
Podshow Crew
Ron Bloom, Richard Brewer-Hay, Aaron Burcell,
Joe Carpenter, Adam Curry, Marcus Mauller
Chris McIntyre, Matt Oliver
PODCASTER THANKS
The podcasting community is a big part of the success of Ancestor. As in, “huge.” I’d
like to thank them all individually, but there are just too many. So thanks to you all, you
know who you are.
ABUSED READER THANKS
To my wife Jody. I hope the world will someday know the “joy” of being the first to
read one of my books. Or should I say, the first to read a rough draft. Wait, perhaps it’s
better said, “the first to slog through a poorly-crafted, error-prone grammatical
nightmare that will one day become a good story after seventeen re-writes, but it all
starts with this steaming pile of poo your husband just set before you with bright-eyed
glee of a child on Christmas morning.”
Thanks, Peanut.
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‘CHECK-MARK “YES” FOR THANK-YOU’ THANKS
Mike, Evo and the crew. Everything started with you guys. I haven’t forgotten that. But
then again, I haven’t made any money at this yet … when I do, I’m sure I’ll relegate you
to the Land of Little People and block out the fact that you got the ball rolling. You can
go ahead and push the Hollywood starlets aside so you can knock on my diamond-
encrusted door, but I probably won’t answer.
Order your copy from Amazon.com on April 1: Noon Eastern Time, 9AM Pacicific
http://www.amazon.com/Ancestor-Scott-Sigler/dp/1896944736
Ancestor ~ Scott Sigler
HISTORY OF ANCESTOR
I started writing Ancestor in 1998, and finished it in 2001. In 2002, my agent submitted
it to all the big publishing houses. Around 20 rejections later, I gave it a big re-write.
While I moved more action up to the front, the basic plot and scientific premise of the
book remains the same as my first draft. We went through another round of
submissions, with much the same result. All in all, Ancestor was rejected around 35
times. Fortunately, that last rejection landed right about the time I finished up the
EarthCore podcast. I had all these insane fans (see “Junkies,” above) harassing me for
more fiction, so I decided it was better to keep the Junkies happy than to sit around
bitching that no one recognizes my brilliance. Hence, I released Ancestor as a podcast,
to the titillation and thrills of thousands and thousands of fans (and yeah, it was a little
messed up to know that I did, indeed, have “thousands and thousands” of fans when I
had yet to see a book in print). The Junkies seemed to like it, more Junkies showed up,
Gwen at Dragon Moon Press wanted to print it, and you get what you’ve got in your
hands right now.
Which, I hope, is a tad better than said steaming pile of poo my wife first read back
in 2001.
Enjoy.
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Order your copy from Amazon.com on April 1: Noon Eastern Time, 9AM Pacicific
http://www.amazon.com/Ancestor-Scott-Sigler/dp/1896944736
Ancestor ~ Scott Sigler
ANCESTOR PATRONS
The following are some of the people the patrons of the Ancestor podcast. Thank
you!
Austin Weisgrau, Leonid Dragan, Renaud Belanger, David Millar, Gregg Darson,
Douglas Bowers, David McClellan, Stephen Drury, Henrik Angetun, Eric Hale, Sander
Scheepens, Robert White, Kevin McCormick, Nathan Harding, David McCoy, Herschel
Ramsey, Garth Sweet, Robert Fink, Joseph Scharfenberg, Russell Turley, Joseph
Krackeler, Martha Cox, The Daemon Network, Costyn van Dongen, Stephen Farthing,
Jeff Friedman, Maria L Golson, scott lewis, Michael Taylor, Ilta Adler, Paul Fischer,
Yvonne Bolden, Stuart J. Sato, Christopher Isip, Robert Webb, Chris Chambers, Harley
Freeman, Daniel Gurzynski, Theresa Stites, Orange 42, Inc., Doug Kerr, Steven Rausch,
Daniel Clark, T David Drake, Joel Mullins, Alex Wiser, William Crane, Mary Armstrong,
James Ogden, Paul Turnbull, Michael Procopio, Todd Phillips, Dennis Moore, Alan
Stevenson, Andrew Edwards, Christian Kringstad Kielland, Mark Friedman, Jason
Gaudard, Eric Woodford, David Reed, Tim Kaye, Christopher Rowe, Adam Davis, Dustin
Roberts, Craig Lessor, Jamie Seely, Stepahnie Malfoy, Roger Bass, Paul Branum, Joe
Jennings, Albert West, C.C. Chapman, Robert Weber, Matthew Bell, Gregory Lewis,
David Hess, Laura Waniuk, Aleksandr Laznik, Kyle Nishioka, Jim McGarr, John Hagley,
The Carney Group, Brad Pendergraph, Hameed Alkhersan, Zack McQueen, Emil
Gudfinnsson, Hari Wiguna, Deborah Pugh, Nigel Radestock, C Sebastian Massey, Steven
Kolstad, Joe LaMontagne, Ken Stewart, Perry Thompson, Jeffrey Schultz, Michael 9
Machi, Dwight Illk, Roberta Anslow-Staszewski, David Wangrow, Jonathan Keener, Mark
Zaricor, Andrew Clark, Carl Bowman, Natalie Perron, Graeme Byfield, Mathew
Roberson, Jason Teasdale, Therese Costello, Thomas Philbrick, Alejandro J Malo
Tamayo, Rodney Parks, Peter Sleet, Clayton Fife, Thomas Kier, Mary Orrock, Brett
Bishop, Peter Hardy, Danny Willison, Gary Tate, Douglas Pilgrim, David Crawford,
Winton Davies, Scott Garrett, Duane Dutson, Allan Byxbe, Stanley Gaglione, Karl Smith,
R.J. Anderson, Donald Stein, Joseph Saitta, Randy Helms, TacticalCamo.com, Bill
Keithler, Fred Milano, Adrian Howie, Wendy Groff, Paula Graham, John VanSeters, Brian
Ruppert, Dale Kredatus, Shafayet Imam, Austin Pitts, Hank Barber, John Mosman,
Douglas Kosty, Pekka Oikarainen, Robert Yuan, David Paul, Dana Smith, Nick Gassman,
Eric Skiff, Patrick Pass and Leighsah Jones.
Order your copy from Amazon.com on April 1: Noon Eastern Time, 9AM Pacicific
http://www.amazon.com/Ancestor-Scott-Sigler/dp/1896944736