Ancestor by Scott Sigler, author of Infected and the New York Times best-selling novel Contagious, is a 2010 reimagining of Sigler's wildly successful bestselling 2007 novel of the same name. Ancestor tells the story of Genada, a Canadian biotechnology company on the cutting edge in the field of Xenotransplantation. Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of living cells, tissues, or organs from one species to another, such as from pigs to humans. A potentially trillion dollar industry, Genada's owners Dante and Magnus Paglione see their project as cornering the market on life itself.

There are however risks: when an accident at one of Genada's competitors releases a potentially devastating cross-species plague which is only barely contained, Genada forces their xenotransplantation project, Project Ancestor, underground to avoid being shut down by the world's governments. Now on the frozen island of Black Manitou in the middle of Lake Superior, Genada scientists have brought back an animal from the past, an Ancestor to all mammals. The hopes of millions requiring organ transplant are realized; years of research are triumphant.

But there is one problem: while they thought they were creating a docile herd creature, a cow with human organs, they got something...else, something evil, something....hungry. And it sure as f*ck ain't no Cow!

Reminiscent of novels like Jurassic Park, Sigler builds the tension of the story to page-turning fear raising heights such that when you're done you'll already be begging for the eventual sequel. The scenes in the novel are so well described you'll feel the chill whether it be from the cold of Black Manitou's raging winter or from the hungry, watchful, gaze of an Ancestor ready to pounce. In fact it is the ancestors themselves, the lab-created beasts of the novel, which will leave you scrambling to turn on the life switch and fear the dark and cold; the ancestor is now the new monster of fear.

With Ancestor Sigler once again proves himself to be a force to be reckoned with in the sci-fi/horror genre. More than just a simple re-write, the 2010 version of Ancestor ties the novel to the overall Sigler universe and sets the stage for future novels. What sets Ancestor apart from other at times dubious retellings is not only does Sigler stay true to the original tale, but he genuinely improves the quality of the novel by fleshing out his characters and adding a few surprises; whether you are a longtime Sigler junkie or new to the Siglerverse, Ancestor has something for every reader.