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! 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 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. 7 ‘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. 8 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