The Rookie: Book 1

Galactic Football League

By: Scott Sigler

Narrated by: Scott Sigler

Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future, The Rookie is a story that combines the intense gridiron action of Any Given Sunday with the space opera style of Star Wars and the criminal underworld of The Godfather. Aliens and humans alike play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that literally want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed, and rival players are assassinated. Follow the story of Quentin Barnes, a nineteen-year-old quarterback prodigy that has been raised all his life to hate, and kill, those aliens. Quentin must deal with his racism and learn to lead, or he'll wind up just another stat in the column marked "killed on the field."

©2009 Empty Set Entertainment (P)2014 Empty Set Entertainment

You don't follow sports? You'll still like this.

I do not follow sports. I dislike American football (despite playing it two years as a teenager). I don't understand why people read the newspaper sports page. I still recommend you listen to this book. I admit the first chapter had me wondering if I made a mistake purchasing this audiobook. Then I realized that not only did I not need to pay attention to the details vis-a-vis football minutiae but ignoring it allowed me to appreciate the broader story. And that story is classic Scott Sigler. If you're a sports fan who knows what a "argle bargle pass long" play means you're likely to rate this even higher than I did.

The production values are the best of any audiobook I've listened to (more than 700 as I type this) till now. It's usually a mistake for an author to read their prose. Scott Sigler is the exception to the rule. Not to mention the background sounds help you feel you're actually at the events being described. Now that I've listened to the book I would have been happy to pay full list price.

So surprised that I LOVED this

Someone I know who is an internet fan of Scott Sigler suggested I read this so I checked it out and have now listened to all 5 books currently available in the series. This is not the best writing in the world and I am not a football fan, but this is so entertaining, that I was really sorry to get to the end. (More, please ASAP Audible!)

I grew up in West Texas (Friday Night Lights) and was in high school marching band. I then went off to Texas A&M (home of the Fighting Texas Aggies - Gig Em'!) so of course I was a complete football fanatic in my younger years. However, as age and a little wisdom crept into my life I was more and more disturbed by the level of violence in football on and off the field (Michael Vick) and the serious injuries that resulted and have lost my taste for the game. However, I have to admit, that if I had a chance to see a Galactic Football game (can you imagine seeing a player leap 20 feet in the air to catch a pass?), I would be there with bells on!

The basic premise is simple if a bit silly - far in the future an alien race has conquered most of colonized space which includes 5 different sentient beings (including humans). They want to find a way to unite these varied groups of sentients, many of whom hate each other, and they do it through a Galactic Football League. The story is about the League, these many types of "people", a coming threat to all the sentients, and most especially it is a great coming of age story of one boy, Quentin Barnes.

If you only like "hard" science fiction, if your religious/political views tend to be fundamentalist, or you can't handle any violence in your books, you won't like this series. If you like soft sci-fi with some great aliens, lots of action, and some great characters, you're probably going to really enjoy The Rookie. Kind of goes without saying that if you love football, you will probably get a kick out of this book, but you really don't have to be a fan to enjoy the story. (It does help a little if you know the basics of football, but that probably isn't really necessary to enjoy the story.)

I had only two problems with the series:
1. Quentin Barnes is presented with many opportunities to expand his mind and make choices. He doesn't always make the right choices, but he eventually grows in ways that make him easy to like and understand. However, I draw the line at having to accept that other people's cultures are always OK. One group of aliens in the book eats live animals - not because their biology requires that just because that's what they like. I'm NEVER going to say that it is OK to inflict pain and agony on another living being just because that's what you like to do. I think the book takes accepting other cultures maybe a step too far - some cultures include child slavery, no education for girls, caste systems and that's just not OK in my book. Our own culture encourages eating and drinking to excess along with a lot of other ugly things and that's not OK either. I just don't think open-mindedness means you have to turn a blind eye to cruelty or stupidity or discrimination.

2. The books start out saying that they are "suitable for readers 10 and up" and I TOTALLY disagree. While the value systems portrayed are mostly quite positive and most parents would be happy with "moral messages" woven into the narrative, there is a LOT of violence both on and off the field in these books. Players are maimed (a guy has his leg bit off!) and killed during the games and there are murders, torture, and executions that take place off the field. I would never recommend the books for someone as young as 10 - I think older teens would be OK.

With those two issues said, the series is extremely entertaining, really funny (some great satire on sports journalism), and the audio presentation is wonderful - totally pulls you into the story. I was surprised how much I enjoyed The Rookie and all of its sequels.

SLAP MY FACE AND CALL ME SALLY

ENGLISH IS THE LANGUAGE OF FOOTBALL
I have been a fan of science fiction books for over 35 years, but a football fan for over 45 years. This is one great book for people like me. In the future the galaxy along with Earth will be conquered by three different races. They discover American Football and they love it. Scott Sigler has come up with a great three tier league which keeps football going all year around (talk about a utopia). The are a bunch of tier three teams which are farm teams. The two teams that go to the tier 2 championship game go on to the tier one league. The two bottom tier one teams drop to tier 2.

TENTACLES ON MY TESTICLES
Football is the perfect sport for different species to play, when you consider all the different sizes and shapes it takes to play the different positions. It is also a perfect platform for demonstrating racism without long lectures. Sigler shows without telling. One species' dominate gender is female which calls for WOMAN TO WOMAN COVERAGE in the game.

BACKWATER
The main character is a 7 foot tall human quarterback. He has been playing tier 3 ball since he was 16. He is your typical arrogant jock. Once again Scott does an excellent job of showing without telling. He captures the true personality of a jock, who has had his way all his life. With the help of Aliens, he becomes a better human, but it takes a long time.

PUREST NATION
The main character was born and raised in the Purest Nation. The Purest Nation is a racist fundamentalist religious society. They preach that they are pure and everyone else is evil. They, of course are shown to be the evil racist ones and religion takes a hard hit in this. If your a fundamentalist of any religion you will not enjoy this book. I wanted to write a short glowing review in hopes of being picked as one of the five star reviews of the week, but one aspect of the book bothered me and I felt compelled to mention it. The author mentions that the book is okay for ten and up. At one point the main character who has now turned good guy, chooses to get a team mate out of a jam by smuggling drugs and forcing his team mates to do so also. I have seen what drugs do to people and this really bothered me. Early in the book the main character shows disgust at such an act, but when in money trouble turns to it with a flourish. Other reviewers have mentioned the violence and it is very violent. Deaths and maiming are a big part of galactic football. I guess I should also mention that Sigler seems to think of all the beers in the world that Miller High Life will be the beer of choice in the galactic future. Just joking Miller fans, I hear it taste good with food.


JUST GIVE ME THE BALL COACH
Sigler does a great job narrating. He does all the voices well. While not doing the actual voices he does capture the speaking styles of How Ward Co Sell and Don Meredith. The production quality is top notch and help bring the story to life. Crowd noises and sound effects for sport shows etc. I really enjoyed this book and will be getting the sequels.

Outstanding Book

If you love football and enjoy futurist fiction then this book is for you. The author really knows football and explains it well. He makes it easy to read and understand even if you are not a football fan. This book is action packed taking you through a roller coaster ride. I suggest this book to anyone!!!

Really Good

The story itself is entertaining, it follows a self centered football rookie who through the course of the season pulls his out of the sand to become a leader for his team. What makes this book even better is the level of production that was put into the audiobook. The performance of the Narrator is fantastic, the different voices are great, the additional music wonderful and the sound effects make you feel like your in the story itself. I've listened to a lot of audio books and this was one of the better performed stories.

The quality of the audio book was fantastic

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got offered to review The Rookie for Audiobookreviewer dot com. I have only heard one other story by him, HIPPO from V-Wars: Blood and Fire, and I can honestly say that I’ve never read anything like it. I’m a huge fan of football and Sci-Fi both. Galactic Football? During off season? Yes please!

Scott Sigler tells the story of Quentin Barnes, a rookie from the PNFL, a Tier 3 team…There is a really cool set up for Sigler’s 3-Tier Galactic Football League, but I think it would be better left discovered on your own… At 19 years of age he is a prodigy who can throw the ball over 80 yards, and is faster and stronger than any other human QB. He was raised in the Purist Nation, a radical religious group of humans known for their racism and fear of all other races. Quentin’s dreams start to become reality when his contract is bought out by a Tier 2 Team, the Ionath Krakens. In a league where players death is a regular occurrence, he must battle his ingrown prejudice with his need to win. In a league filled with races that can jump 3 times as high as humans and bench press over 1000 pounds, Barnes may find it better to stop thinking himself infallible, sooner rather than later, if he hopes to make it to Tier 1.

In a story self-described as “…a story that combines the intense gridiron action of Any Given Sunday with the space opera style of Star Wars and the criminal underworld of The Godfather.”, Quentin goes up against threats on his life, personal strife, and crime lords. There is so much more than great football here, and there is a lot of great football. It’s packed full of story, from death threats on the field, to crime lords running the GFL, and a trip through personal discovery that was brought to life by Scott Sigler himself.

The quality of the audio book was fantastic. I had never heard Mr. Sigler’s narration and was a little surprised, and extremely pleased. Complete with fantastic character voices, all identifiable, and sounds effects that fit the story perfectly, this is a must listen.

Audiobook provided for review by the publisher.

Please find this complete review and many others at audiobookreviewer dot com

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Great series.

I don't follow football at all. At all. Despite that this series is really good. I have one problem though. You may want to turn your volume down. The whistles. Holy crap. While the games are happening the referees whistles are the worst. They're being blown right in to your brain. Otherwise these books are really great.

Supurb reading - Highly recommended

Where does The Rookie rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The Rookie is one of the best audiobooks I have listened to period.

What did you like best about this story?

There are too many highlights to list. Basically I am a Sigler junkie and love this series. As someone who isn't from the US it also has me hooked on the NFL now too.

Any additional comments?

This sci-fi novel is "Even Given Sunday" meets "The Godfather" meets "Aliens". It's a fabulous romp which I first listened to as a podcast. Since then I have bought the hardcover and the audiobook.

So good!

I struggle to finish audiobooks sometimes because of the narrator but Scott Sigler is amazing. This book was great and his energy that he put into reading this made it even better i would highly recommend this to anyone looking for something to read or listen to.

I didn't think that I liked football

I'm not really a #sports fan, but someone told me that the #GFL books would be good regardless. #TrueStory.
I think I related too much to the protagonist, the #torturedhero, the #chosenone. In a weird way, I think my background was similar, and I had the same sort of #comingofage.
Anyway, this is an awesome book and I downloaded the best one right away!

superb.

story of a secular man thrown into his worst nightmare to get what he wants. amazing.

Phenomenal start

This is a great start to an awesome series, you do not need to be a fan of football you just need to be a fan of interesting characters and lots and lots of violence.

On the edge about this but intetesting

If you can get over the American football theme and the almost retarded hillbilly main character it does have interesting SciFi.
I finished about 4 books in the series and am still intending to listen to the rest.
Also the narrator/author thinks he can act... This is not so. There are a lot of cringe moments that i really wished I could skip.
I, like the most of the world, do not know or care about American football but i did get to appreciate it a little at the end.
Just think of England and get through the gibberish related to the game.

Awesome, awesome, awesome!!

I've never been a sports fan but this series of books is the best I've ever listened to.
Being British I had no idea about American Football. I listened because it was, originally free as a podcast.
I'd had a serious operation on my chest and medication after made it really difficult to do the one thing I loved, read.
The GFL series was a god send and the way they are recorded and read is amazing. I found myself really engrossed in every aspect of the game and all the characters.
A big thanks to Scott Sigler. Your stories and reading of those stories is awesome.
I've listened to all of your other stories too. Again, thank you for these amazingly read audio books!

Very enjoyable.

I enjoyed this science fiction story a lot. The characters are interesting and develop well during the story. I like the production style too. I still haven't a clue about how American football works.
I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Great book

Loved this book and I have never watched American football before but it did not mater. Worth listening to

Nice!

Really good audio book I really like the narration of Scott Sigler on his own books.
Also really liked the details of the football. can't wait for book 2.

Sigler certainly likes his American throw ball

Really great, story, characters, depth and often comedic interludes. As I'm british I'm certainly not very clued up on Football, but having spent some time in New Orleans, I'm a part time saints fan.Sigler has done a better job of explaining the game (despite the gore) than most other americans I've met. Having randomly picked this up in a bookshop that didnt have the book I want I am now a big fan of Scott, the the Contagious trilogy and his short stories books. Thoroughly recommend wether you like throwball or not.

great book for people that like sports an SyFy

it's great, you can see how much the author cares about football and has a great message

STILL love it

This is literally my only source of anything related to Gridiron! But I actually want to watch a superbowl now!

I listened to this way back when it was on a weekly podcast. I did all pf his other books first, trying to ignore this one because it was about football. I ended up loving it perhaps best of all (its between this and the infected trilogy).

Though narrating sound effects is not Siglers forte - everything else is SO good. Love it and recommend it