Review: Pandemic (Infected #3) by Scott Sigler (Prequel/Sequel Challenge)

First, thanks to Crown Publishing and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  And extra thanks to whatever kept it from expiring on the date I had written, January 21st, since I wasn't able to get all the way through it until the 24th.  I was a little daunted at first because it was over 400 pages, and it had been awhile, since 2009, that I'd read the 2nd book in the series.  I am pleased to say that the way they did the kind of "review" mixed in at the beginning of the story was perfect for reminding me pretty much of all of it.  Not only that, the author's writing once again captured and pulled me right into the story.  And that many pages?  You might think it would be a ton of description and character building, boring stuff, and you'd be wrong.  Yes, all that description and character building is there, it is just done in such a way that it happens during exciting, edge of the seat action scenes.  I feel like this series is one that could make a few good movies, or even better, a tv series on the SyFy channel.

I'll try not to give too many spoilers out, but there are a few of course since this is the final book in a trilogy.  In the first two books, there was an alien virus/organism that was causing people to die, or even to change in ways that they would cause others to catch the same thing and then change to pass it on, or again, die.  The alien organism was sent by a society that sent them out to get rid of other life forms that might one day come back and kill them or cause them harm.  It sent several different parts, and each one could learn from the losses of the one before if something happened, as had happened in the last two books.  It got so bad in the last one that the government nuked Detroit to end it.  Which did mostly end it, other than one last part from the original machine which sunk to the bottom of Lake Michigan.  The government is searching for any last bits that may have made it out of the blast.  And they've found one.  They take all the precautions they think are necessary to try to safely get it into a submarine, and then back to a lab to test it/destroy it if needed.  Unfortunately, something goes wrong on the sub, it is obvious somehow the people get infected.  Clarence Otto, and Margaret Montoya, experts and heroes from last books, are called back in to try to stop it, and determine what is going on.  What they find is a much evolved organism, some of the ways it has changed they won't even notice, until it may be too late, and someone very important is infected.

And it's not just the alien organism they must deal with now, it seems another country has their eyes on getting ahold of this alien technology and using it for themselves.  Not realizing just how bad it can be for them if they don't follow all the protocols that even our heroes are using, at times unsuccessfully.

Such a great way that it all plays out, to the point that I was just figuring there was no way left to save the human race.  But the scientists must determine if there is any way to use the aliens' own technology against them in order to save ourselves.

Again, a great conclusion to the story, so glad I got to read it!  For my 2014 Prequel and Sequel Challenge, I will be able to count this as 2 points.  Unfortunately, since I didn't review the first two anywhere that I can find at the moment, I can't get the 10 points for completing the series.  Hopefully I will soon get my MySpace blogs sent to me from the past, and it will be there I hope.