I really despise American Football, but this story used the season only as an outline for the story delivery. Most of the work revolved around Quinton's conflicts as he evolved from a mutard to somebody using more than 6 brain cells. I must have some kind of reptilian brain joy in the game, though, because I did find myself screaming encouragement at the radio during the final "game"... messed up... ------- Whole Lot of Nonsense PodCast - http://www.wholelotofnonsense.org UUCSH Sunday Services - http://uucsh.libsyn.com Follow Me - http://www.twitter.com/bpende Pownce on Me - http://www.pownce.com/bpende

i'm an american male therefore am obligated to like football....and i do. i posted like this exact thread a couple days ago but. yeah i really wasnt sure about the whole sci fi football thing didnt think it could really work...boy was i wrong 4 episodes in i was hooked. i dont know how scott does it but he does.it was just such a departure from what i was used too but after i finished infection i wass jonsen for a fix so bad i had to at least give it a shot due to the fact that scott had never steered me wrong before. and of course as always im left wanting more of somthing i didnt even know i wanted! ~Do You Know How Many Birthdays There Are In a Year?.......Hundreads....Litearly..Hundreads,~

I was really not into football myself, so I resisted listening to The Rookie for quite some time despite the rave reviews I heard. When I finally did listen, I was pleasantly surprised to find that football was the setting rather than the story, and that the story rolled right along on its own merits. Try listening to the first four episodes and see if it works for you. I was hooked much earlier. -- The ways of the Lord are often dark but never pleasant.

Hey Im from the UK. The only thing I know about American Football is theres someone called the Fridge and they dress with more pads than a KFC Bargain (Butt Nugget) Bucket. I practically skipped all of Scotts explanations of how it all plays as it just went over my head. I still REALLY REALLY enjoyed The Rookie. Didnt think I was going to, but Im glad that I took the plunge and trusted in Mr Wiggler :-)

I am a US-based listener, but do not really feel any real excitement about football. That being said, I actually LOVED the Rookie and got some people hooked. Don't get me wrong, Scott's other books were amazing too, but I was very impressed with the excitement and energy of the Rookie.

Though I am a Canadain and therefore expected to like Hockey and CFL football I am fan of niether, due largely to my family having imigrated to the americas in the late 1960's or early 70's so I failed to take on an north american sports obsessions. That said I did listen to the Rookie. I did enjoy it even though I did get lost in some of the game sequences. Thankfully Sigler was able to tell a story that was rich enough in a world rich enough that getting lost in some action seguences is forgiveble. Now I do find myself paying a little more attention to the game, but I only have the patience for the high lights reels. Naturaly I think, Its beter with aliens, and I am disapoined with the lack of Deaths on the stats boards.

MMachi, how DARE you ever doubt my mad skillz. If write a story about, oh, I don't know, some stupid sport where wizard children fly around on mops, or whatever, you can BET that shit will be entertaining!

I am from the Us but my lack of sight has not made it verry easy to follow football (it does not help when the anouncers go on long tangents instead of talking about the game) But I got the first 4 and was hooked. The segmints about how the game is played and what everyone does helped me understand it a lot better then I could ever have done by trying to follow it on tv and piece it all into a form I could comprehend.

I just had this bizarre image of some Sigler-authored Harry Potter fanfic. The trauma you'd inflict upon legions of Potterheads would be legendary. -- The ways of the Lord are often dark but never pleasant.

You could get lynched for those sentiments in some backwoods areas of southern America!!! Mutards, military, football... Tssk, tssk... However, I agree, I hate football. BUT, the Rookie worked. Why? Because Sigler is a mad prophet with skillz to predict the future. The Rookie was not a SciFi novel, but a documentary, of epic proportions. Also, I want to see some Harry Potter VS. Sklorno hot action!!!!!!!!!! Get on it Siggy.

At first I didn't like rookie either but a couple of months latter I fell in love with it.

You have just painted an image of Baby Mcbutters eating the still warm flesh or Ron Weisley, his wand broken and his red hair even redder with all the extra blood in it. We might just be the sickest people on the internet, at least does not doing anything illigal.

I'll chime in on this. I am an American, but I hate American Football. It is so friggn boring.... or at least that is what I used to think. Simply, I enjoyed the Rookie eventhough it was about Football. In fact, the Rookie was so fantastic that I started watching a bit of the AFL. Sometimes I could almost see the Sklorno running across the field. ----------- 01000011011010000110100101100011011010110110010101101110001000000101001101100011011010010111001101110011011011110111001001110011

And I love the rookie it was awsome the best stuff was the mob stuff. this story got me into Am football which is saying something .before i listened to the rookie i couldn't follow the game at all now i love the violence of it all. p.s. (Scott you better make Nocturnal Fuckin Great or i will crucify u with steak knifes) P.P.S. rugby is the tougher game just look at the blokes who play it. Am foorballers are fat

I'm from Canada and I dont get the whole obsession with football. I don't even watch hockey..lol However I found that Sigler made the whole football thing work. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the rookie. I found the football was more secondary in the story and the emphasis was put more on what personal and moral struggles that Quinton Barnes was going through.

I like to think of American Football as "Sissy Rugby". American Football is slower, played with pads, and the game gets stopped if somebody gets hurt... pheh. ------- Whole Lot of Nonsense PodCast - http://www.wholelotofnonsense.org UUCSH Sunday Services - http://uucsh.libsyn.com Follow Me - http://www.twitter.com/bpende Pownce on Me - http://www.pownce.com/bpende

See, now there's a story I can get behind. I can just imagine a smackdown between the Siggie-alien-verse and the Whomping Willow... The tree is going down. Voldemort... More like "Magnus-nose-snort". I sense some dark fanfic here... who's up to the task? ------- Whole Lot of Nonsense PodCast - http://www.wholelotofnonsense.org UUCSH Sunday Services - http://uucsh.libsyn.com Follow Me - http://www.twitter.com/bpende Pownce on Me - http://www.pownce.com/bpende

I love American football. I have been a fan from when I was a small child. I was concerned myself that you couldn't write a good book about it, but I love this book and the American culture references. I've seen a kid taken off the field in a stretcher DEAD from football so please don't tell me it's a wimp sport. The fact that you wear pads gives you a sense of invulnerability and makes it more likely that you will do something more extreme (Read: stupid) with your body. And did anyone else notice that the season after Scott abandoned the Lions, they are 3-2 and they beat the Bears! Maybe all the Lions needed was for Scott to get off the bandwagon to start winning. Oooo... maybe he's the one that cursed them by being a fan.

I watch the SuperBowl for the commercials, and thats about it. I played for 3 games in highschool and left after being reprimanded for breaking somones rib. They put me at linebacker ( a position they had to tell when to stand) and told me to nail anyone that came through with the ball. I did, he was a quarterback, I got yelled at. F that. The Rookie is more than a football story though. Thats why I like it so much. Aliens, gambling, Mob ties, all that fun stuff you dont get to see on those weak games on sundays.

I've always hated all types of football, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I was first introduced to "The Man" Sigler while the Rookie was being put out! I loved it...not only because I love Football...yes you across the pond, crepe eating, bad smelling Euro trash...I called the sport Football! Not American Football, just FOOTBALL! You all play and watch soccer..when you going to learn that! I also loved it because it was a great fucking story! Who cares what the story's about, hell it could be about Olympic "curling" if the Sig man writes it its going to be Fucking great. Never doubt the sick twisted mind of the Sig! If the next book after Nocturnal is a story about evil knitting grandmas...listen to it...don't question it...just listen! When Scott rules the world there will be a quiz people...if you don't pass you get...discarded! So whatever he writes you'd best know and love! Whining bitches! I don't try anything...I just do it...Wanna try me!?!

I HATE FOOTBALL. Really, I hate that stupid sport with a passion. I'm sorry, but I just do. That being said, the Rookie was quite good. The fact that I even LISTENED to it (because normally when I see something even remotely football-related, I pass it by) says a lot for how good it was. Although, I found myself wishing it had been just a sci-fi story rather than a sci-fi football story, because the sci-fi bits were fantastic.

Well, being a black woman who really loves my football and a lifelong scifi geek, I already feel like something of an anomaly. But I absolutely loved The Rookie! For me, "The Rookie" was a dream come true - a sweet combination of footbal and scifi with the signature Sigler doses of violence!!! After hearing about Scott's passion for football, I really looked forward to it and was not disappointed. The perspective of the quarterback and all that happens in the course of just one play simply rocked! It also gave me a great opportunity to introduce Scott's writing to the band buddies that gather every Sunday to party & watch football. Most of them were already scifi/horror fans to varying degrees but with the arrival of football season this year, I've been able to turn some more folks onto it. I got my hubby and his fishing partner hooked when I made them listen on our way to go ice fishing last winter. Since the Broncos are stinking it up so far this season I'll be downloading the episodes to my hubby's MP3 player so he can catch it all from the beginning while he works. I've been loving the short stories on teh Bloodcast and can't wait to get my hands on "Rookie" in print and get into hearing "The Starter" after Nocturnal... KnitWitch

I am from the uk and the rookie started my addiction to sigler and i was hooked from the start i think it helped that it was about american football as it is something i know about i cant wait for nocturnal but i am even more excited about the starter i cant wait to see what happens to the krakens next.

I was also initially feeling disappointed when Scott announced an American Football based story. (I most enjoyed the fairly scientific / plausible realistic aspects of his first three novels. Ancestor being my favourite because of that.) Anyway, I must say that the Rookie was a pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed the story. Not that it matters what I think, but I hope Scott continues to do more of the non-space, future sci-fi / horror. Therefore, really looking forward to Nocturnal. Heard Scott interviewed on another podcast ages ago (? Skepticality ?), and was interesting to see how science news and developments stimulate that warped brain of his. Keep it up!