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Three Reasons You Should Read This Science Fiction Football Novel:

  1. The Rookie by Scott Sigler is fast-paced galactic-wide football season with far more than just human players.
  2. Scott Sigler maintains the delicate balance between team, personal, and galactic rivalries quite brilliantly – each playing their own part in the larger story.
  3. You don’t have to be a football expert to enjoy The Rookie! You may not be imagining every move on the field 100% correct, but that won’t take away from the overall enjoyment of the story.

About The Rookie Scott Sigler

Title: The Rookie
Author: Scott Sigler
Series: The Galactic Football League #1
Genre: Science Fiction

The Rookie by Scott Sigler

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 19-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.”

My review of The Rookie:

The Rookie by Scott Sigler is a great mix of science fiction, mafia story, and football. And it all starts with Quentin Barnes, who plays better football than any human has a right to. When he finds himself playing for the Galactic Football League – but this isn’t football as we know it. The teams are a mix of alien races with extreme strengths and what appears to be no weaknesses. And while the story at first seems to revolve around the game of football, there’s a lot more to it. (And don’t worry if you don’t understand football – plays and tactics are explained quite well – enough detail for people unfamiliar to understand, and not so in-depth that football aficionados will be bored.)

The science-fiction aspects of the book are phenomenal. The universe is well-developed and diverse. You just have to take one look at the football teams to see a variety of alien species interacting together – although not everyone is happy about that. There are plenty of humans (and aliens) that have some serious species hang-ups, and those play into several of the underlying (and maybe overlying) plotlines that weave through the story.

So for those non-sports fans out there, we also have the mob in space. They are fixing games, placing bets, and generally causing a lot of mischief. The mob bosses are all out to get their own wins and money, and that causes some problems that lead to some interesting (if violent) solutions.

I really enjoyed this story – and it was far different than anything I have ever read before. I’m curious to see where it goes as the series continues.

Pick up your copy today!

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