Alive
Book One of the Generations Trilogy
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • For fans of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Red Rising comes a gripping sci-fi adventure in which a group of teenagers wake up in a mysterious corridor with no knowledge of who they are or how they got trapped. Their only hope lies with an indomitable young woman who must lead them not only to answers but to survival.
“I open my eyes to darkness. Total darkness. I hear my own breathing, but nothing else. I lift my head . . . it thumps against something solid and unmoving. There is a board right in front of my face. No, not a board . . . a lid.”
A teenage girl awakens to find herself trapped in a coffin. She has no idea who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Fighting her way free brings little relief—she discovers only a room lined with caskets and a handful of equally mystified survivors. Beyond their room lies a corridor filled with bones and dust, but no people . . . and no answers.
She knows only one thing about herself—her name, M. Savage, which was engraved on the foot of her coffin—yet she finds herself in charge. She is not the biggest among them, or the boldest, but for some reason the others trust her. Now, if they’re to have any chance, she must get them to trust one another.
Whatever the truth is, she is determined to find it and confront it. If she has to lead, she will make sure they survive. Maybe there’s a way out, a rational explanation, and a fighting chance against the dangers to come. Or maybe a reality they cannot comprehend lies just beyond the next turn.
Praise for Alive
“Suspenseful . . . [Alive] lives up to its hype, packing plenty of thrills.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Fascinating and intriguing . . . a cross between Lord of the Flies and The Maze Runner and yet . . . so much more.”—Fresh Fiction
“A ripping, claustrophobic thunderbolt of a novel, Scott Sigler’s Alive gives us an unforgettable young hero who must find the inner strength to lead without knowing where she is, who she is, and how bitterly the odds are stacked against her.”—Pierce Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising
“Sigler has created a wonderful and engrossing character in M. Savage. Strong and smart, but with the naïveté and misgivings of any teenage girl, she’s someone you’ll definitely want on your side when s*** hits the fan, which it most certainly does.”—Veronica Belmont, host of Sword & Laser
“A tense, unsettling page-turner of a story—both deeply strange and wildly compelling.”—Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker and Maplecroft
“From the first page I was hooked. The puzzle unfolds masterfully, right down to the last page.”—Dr. Phil Plait, author of Bad Astronomy
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sigler opens his Generations trilogy with a wallop: Em wakes up trapped in a coffin and must break out from the inside. Once free, she discovers others like her, all believing they are 12 years old, despite bodies that suggest otherwise and strange circular markings on their foreheads. Elected as leader of the confused and amnesic group, Em tries to keep the peace in the face of hallways that lead nowhere, flesh-eating pigs, corpses by the dozen, and charred, red-eyed monsters. As the group disintegrates into warring factions, Sigler (the Infected trilogy) shifts gears into science fiction, a jarring move that leaves many unanswered questions, such as why only certain individuals have the power to open rooms, in addition to confusing glimpses of the crisis that led to the teens' entombment. Grotesque scenes abound, as does the author's tendency to recapitulate plot points through Em's interior thoughts. Still, the burgeoning love triangle between single-circle Em, half-dark circle O'Malley, and circle-star Bishop offers intrigue, as does Em's tortured consciousness over her "savage" self. Ages 14 up.
Customer Reviews
BRUTAL ☠️
Alive is beautifully brutal, and gorgeously graphic. There’s blood, murder, gore, the rotted flesh from human remains, bones used as weapons, and a particular scene describing... well, read for yourself:
“Babies.
Hundreds of little corpses dangle from the ceiling, so thick I almost can’t see the ceiling itself. They hang from chains that end in metal hooks slid through their rib cages. Cracked, dry skin has peeled away from their bodies, showing the bones beneath. Clumps of fallen flesh cover the floor like some horrid scattering of snow.”
😵🤢🤮(Ok, so that just happened)
On its own the scene isn’t that bad, but come on man, did they have to be babies?
Suspense is the name of the game here, and it rarely lets up. The entire time you're wondering where these characters are and how they ended up in such a nightmarish place. And adding to the mystery of it, I love how this series doesn't follow what is commonly believed to be the best way to tell a story: starting at the end, then going back to the beginning, and then jumping back and forth throughout the story. (I don't hate this format, but I do hate that it's often considered the best format).
But Scott Sigler doesn't do that here. Instead, it starts at the end and then just keeps going forward. There's no flashbacks or anything showing you how the characters got there. You discover and learn the backstory as the characters do, as they explore the world, find clues, and join other survivors hoping they might know something you don't. And I say "you" because Alive utilizes a seemingly forgotten, but age-old practice, of connecting the reader to characters that are otherwise unrelatable: You never know more than the characters do. Allowing you, the reader, to be just as engaged as the characters themselves.
Listened first, reading now
I first heard the podcast using my Aha Radio app and listen while on my bimonthly 4.5 hour drive (x2). I actually enjoyed driving while listening to the podcast. I was not able to download the other two books in the series. I saw this on Apple Books and thought I would give the book a try. I downloaded the sample and it was a no brained to buy the set. The book, in my humble opinion, is great. I am looking forward to reading the book ,even though I heard it once before, and reading the other two books for the first time.
Edge of your seat
Thrilling for teens to adults. Truly a must read.