The Devil Colony - James Rollins

   1982; 605 pages (or 647 pages if the short story is included).  New Author? : No.  Book 7 (out of 18) in the “Sigma Force” series.  Genres: Thriller-Suspense; Action-Adventure.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    It’s a major archaeological discovery!  An Indian burial site, hidden away in a cave in the mountains of Utah.

 

    Maggie Grantham and Hank Kanosh, a pair of professors from nearby Brigham Young University, have been dispatched to do the first inspection of the burial ground.  Professor Kanosh is a historian and a member of the Shoshone tribe.  Including him in the excavation will hopefully quell any protests by Native Americans in the area about desecrating their dead.  So will assigning a detachment from the National Guard to the group.

 

    Cross your fingers, guys.  WAHYA, a militant Native American rights group and already known for carrying out headline-grabbing acts of defiance, will almost certainly have something planned against those who would violate a Native American graveyard.  Plus there’s the Ute curse.

 

    That tribe has a legend which says that if anyone enters a sacred burial area in these parts, they must be killed immediately.  Because if they somehow manage to leave the chamber, the world will come to an end.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Devil Colony is a “save the world” thriller that finds Painter Crowe’s Sigma team traipsing all over the globe trying to figure out what’s going on geologically, while at the same time trying not to get killed by the potently secretive group of bad guys known as "The Guild".  Painter himself gets more involved than usual in the case when he learns that his niece Kai is one of the WAHYA operatives.  Meanwhile, Sigma’s operations chief, Grayson Pierce, finds it difficult to focus on saving the Earth while simultaneously attending to his parents’ plight: his father is succumbing to dementia.

 

    Once again, I was in awe of the number of disparate topics that James Rollins weaves into the complex-yet-coherent storyline: the Anasazi, Iceland, Meriwether Lewis, Mormon historical lore, nanotechnology, Yellowstone, Solomon’s Temple, Fort Knox, the Great Seal of the United States, and many more.  I also liked very much that the main baddie is suitably resourceful when carrying out skullduggery against our heroes.

 

    It was fun to learn about a skeleton called “the Kennewick Man”, since I’ve made several business trips to that town in Washington.  There’s a bunch of French phrases in the text which is always a treat for me, and a smidgen of Native American dialects to boot.  The reader even learns a bit of mild Icelandic cussing (see below).

 

    The pacing is fast and furious, like every Action-Thriller should be.  The basic story is 597 pages long, and is divided into 44 chapters plus a prologue.  The chapters usually are introduced with locations, dates, and times, which is useful when trying to remember who is where and doing what.

 

    There’s a bonus short story, 38 pages long, tacked on at the back of the book, and featuring Seichan, a professional assassin and recent addition to the Sigma Force group.  Both tales also come with James Rollins’ trademark “Truth or Fiction” afterword, which I very much appreciate.

 

    The ending is spectacular with a favorable outcome in doubt down to literally the last second.  Humanity is saved (well, you knew that would happen), although The Guild is still alive and well.  The last chapter is an Epilogue with a couple of heartwarming revelations about some of the presumed dead.  Things close with a dazzling Plot Reveal in a six-word last sentence.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 4,011 ratings and 974 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.86*/5, based on 26,982 ratings and 1,329 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Fjandinn (n.) : the devil (Icelandic).

    Others: “what the fjandanum” (phrase, half Icelandic).

 

Excerpts...

    Ryan now understood why they were called lava bombs.

    One sailed past overhead, raining flaming ash.  Cinders burned his cheeks, his exposed arms, reminding Ryan all too well that his vehicle had no roof.

    He ignored the pain and focused on the road ahead.  The Jeep bucked and rocked down the steep, rocky trail.  His left fender crumpled against an outcropping, shattering the headlamp on that side.  The Jeep lifted.  For a moment he swore he was driving on a single wheel, like a half-ton ballerina.  (pg. 207)

 

    Kai stared at a thin pall of dust retreating across the badlands.  Painter and the others had wasted no time, gathering gear and flying off in the rented SUV, even taking the dog.

    But not her.

    Earlier, she’d reined in her anger, knowing it would do her no good.  Bitterness still burned like coal in her gut.  She’d been here at the start of all this mess.  She deserved to see it through to the end.  They kept saying that she had to bear the consequences of her actions like a woman, yet still treated her like a child.  (pg. 276)

 

Kowalski plus fireworks.  Not a good combination.  (pg. 563)

    There’s very little to gripe about in The Devil Colony.  The cussing is surprisingly sparse; I counted just six instances in the first 20% of the book.  Later, several f-bombs appear, plus a pair of references to genitalia.

 

    I only noted one miscue: sheered/sheared, which mean someone did a topnotch job of editing.  And some of the “Mormon history beliefs” used as keys to solving various conundrums in the tale are shaky at best, with the author admitting that in the Afterword.  But they contribute to the fascinating storyline, so all’s well that ends well.

 

    This was the seventh book I’ve read in the Sigma Force series.  I have high expectations each time I begin one, and I’ve never yet been disappointed.  The plotlines are complex, the world-building and character development are great, and the storytelling is outstanding.  No wonder James Rollins is my favorite Action-Thriller writer.

 

    9 Stars.  Oh yeah, one last thing.  When’s the last time you read a story where a pod of killer whales (orcas) had a life-saving experience?

Subterranean - James Rollins

   1999; 410 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Thriller & Suspense; Action-Adventure.  Overall Rating: 8½*/10.

 

    Antarctica.  The only continent that doesn’t support native life.  Animals like penguins and walruses may live there; but they have to get their sustenance from the surrounding oceans.

 

    It’s been that way for millions of years, but not forever.  Earth’s tectonic plates shift slowly but inexorably.  Antarctica wasn’t always stuck at the South Pole.  Theoretically, someday we will dig down through all that ice and look for traces of plant life in the form of fossils.  Maybe even animal life.

 

    But that’s somewhere in the future.  At least that’s what paleoanthropologist Ashley Carter thinks.  Until someone contacts her and wants her to travel down to Antarctica to check out a recently discovered underground cavern.

 

    Which was found to have abandoned cliff dwellings in its walls.

 

What’s To Like...

    Subterranean is an early book by one of my favorite Thriller authors, James Rollins.  It predates his more famous Sigma Force series, and utilizes his standard, and satisfying, plot structure:

    Assemble a team of heroes and send them off on an adventure,

    Scatter them, put them all in peril, and make one or more of them a baddie,

    Keep the storyline interesting by jumping from one hero to another,

    Toss plot twists aplenty into the tale,

    Use incredible timing to get the gang back together for an over-the-top ending.

 

    In addition to lots of thrills and spills, Rollins examines what might occur if an isolated landmass, in this case Antarctica, is given millions of years to follow its own separate path of evolution.  In the real world, the Galapagos Islands give us a glimpse of what can happen, so does the second excerpt, below.

 

    There are a bunch of creatures for our adventurers to meet and flee from, usually unsuccessfully.  Listing them here would be a spoiler, but my favorite one was nicknamed “Tiny Tim” and is very definitely not the urchin from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

 

    Both the good guys and the baddies suffer some casualties along the way, and everything builds to an over-the-top, boffo ending.  All the plotlines get tied up, and there’s even some literary space for a sequel although I don’t think James Rollins ever penned one.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.3/5 based on 3,429 ratings and 767 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.02/5 based on 26,250 ratings and 946 reviews.

Excerpts...

    “I have a proposal to—”

    “Not interested.”  She pointed to the door.  “You and your entourage can hit the trail now.  Thanks anyway.”

    “If you’ll only lis—”

    “Don’t make me toss your butt outta here.”  She snapped her arms toward the screen door.

    “It pays a hundred grand for two months’ work.”

    “Just get your—”  Her arm dropped to her side.  Clearing her throat, she stared at Dr. Blakely, then raised an eyebrow.  “Now I’m listening.”  (pg. 10)

 

    She helped him sit up and raised a cup to his lips.  With shaky hands, he collected the cup and managed himself.

    “What happened?” he asked, glancing at Khalid, who now snored quietly from under the wet cloth.

    She explained the story of poisonous fungal spores while he finished his water.

    He handed her the cup.  “Is there anything down here that doesn’t want to eat us?”

    She grinned at him.  “This is a hostile environment.  I think for anything to survive it must learn to utilize the scarce resources to the fullest.  That means intense competition and varied modes of attack.”

    “Great.   What’s next?  Carnivorous butterflies?”  (pg. 206)

 

“Great, we’ve been captured by a bunch of kangaroos.”  (pg. 246)

    There’s not much to nitpick about in Subterranean.  I counted 21 instances of profanity in the first 10% of the book, and there were a couple of rolls-in-the-hay later on.  That’s pretty normal for a thriller novel.  I only caught one typo, breech/breach, so the editing was very good.

 

    The timing of some of the action scenes and heroes reuniting with each other seemed incredibly coincidental at times; such as Tiny Tim’s ultimate contribution to the action.  But hey, if it heightens the excitement, I’m all for it.  My biggest quibble concerns the stereotypical portrayal of one of the bad guys.  Just for once, can we please build a character from the Middle East who isn’t a brainwashed, murderous, zealot based on his religion and ethnicity?

 

    But I quibble.  Overall, I thought this was a solid debut Action-Adventure novel by James Rollins which showcases his literary and storytelling talents and hints at more exciting novels being penned by this author as he gets comfortable in this genre.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last thing.  I liked that the outcome of Subterranean would have a permanent impact on our world.  Creatures and beings we didn’t know are about to emerge  from the depths of Antarctica, and the only event to compare it to would be the (re)-discovery of the New World by Europeans in 1492.  I for one would love see what James Rollins could do with such a scenario.

The Judas Strain - James Rollins

   2007; 668 pages.  Book 4 (out of 16) in the Sigma Force series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Action-Adventure; Save The World.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Off the Sumatran coast, an oceanographic team, trying to figure out why eighty dolphins recently beached themselves on nearby Java, suddenly finds the sea around them has turned milky.  It dawns on the scientists that this could be a sign of a plague starting to emerge, but they realize this just a little bit too slowly.

 

    In Venice, certain people are willing to pay a large amount of money for a small Egyptian obelisk currently residing in a Vatican vault.  Sadly, for the local petty thief who swipes it for them, they’re also willing to kill for it.

 

    In Washington DC, the black-ops organization, Sigma Force, has just become aware that they may be suffering internal security leaks.  It falls to Director Painter Crowe to go mole-hunting, and we’re not talking about the four-footed variety.

 

    Director Crowe elects to have Sigma Force investigate the  Sumatran and Venetian incidents as well.  The manpower available for this is limited, but it should be sufficient as long as things don’t get out of hand at any of the three locations.

 

    But what happens, though, if things get out of hand at all three locations?

 

What’s To Like...

    In The Judas Strain, Sigma Force once again finds itself pitted against the shadowy, ultra-evil, ultra-effective bad guys known as “The Guild”.  The book follows the three storylines listed above, the main one being the threat of a worldwide plague, but somehow, this jumping from one storyline to another does not get confusing and allows James Rollins to spin a tale that has oodles of action and no slow spots.

 

    We visit a bunch of exotic settings throughout Asia and Europe, and James Rollins makes it feel like you’re right there alongside our heroes.  There’s a neat “is it natural or supernatural” aspect to the quest, a riddle-solving scavenger hunt, and of course, a “save-the-world” challenge to overcome, plus a tie-in to the historical past, in this case, Marco Polo's journey to the Far East and back again.  Sigma Force team members Monk and Kowalski both play major roles here; they’re probably my favorite characters in this series, due to their wit and snarkiness.

 

    A number of language snippets get worked into the text; so we treated to a smattering of Malaysian (including “Iblis” which is apparently a cussword), Hindi (Namaste!), Italian, Turkish, and Cambodian.  The book’s title is what the newly-emerging plague is dubbed.  I liked the brief mention of “durian” fruit; I had an opportunity to taste one on a business trip to the Far East long ago.  Tuk-tuks are also present; I encountered those on the same trip.

 

    The ending is exciting, over-the-top (which is okay in an Action-Adventure tale), and replete with convenient timing and clever twists.  The plague threat is dealt with and the Guild’s evil plans are thwarted.  One plot thread remains open – Monk’s whereabouts – but since I’m not reading this series in order, I know how that turns out.  The final scene in the book left a lump in my throat.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 1,397 ratings and 578 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.16/5 based on 31,535 ratings and 1,332 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “Inside the ant, the fluke controls the insect’s nerve centers, changes its behavior.  Specifically, whenever the sun sets, the fluke compels the ant to climb a blade of grass, lock its mandible, and wait to be eaten by a grazing cow.  If not eaten, the ant returns to its nest at sunrise—only to repeat the same thing again the next night.  The fluke literally drives the ant like its own little car.”  (pg. 256)

 

    “Is that soft-shell crab?” he asked, leaning closer for a whiff.  The skewer speared something meaty with jointed legs, blackened and curled by fire.

    The woman nodded her head vigorously, smiling broadly at his interest.  She spoke rapidly in Khmer.

    Seichan stepped to Kowalski’s side, placing a hand on his shoulder.  “It’s fried tarantula. Very popular for breakfast in Cambodia.”

    Kowalski shuddered and backed away.  “Thanks.  I’ll stick with an Egg McMuffin.”  (pg. 531)

 

“Why do people keep trying to blow me up?”  (pg. 624)

    There are a couple nits to pick.  I noted two typos in the book: aid/aide and course/coarse.  That would be quite good for a self-published effort by an Indie author, but hey, this was a mass-market paperback.

 

    There’s a moderate amount of cussing (18 in the first 20%), including at least one f-bomb.  That’s acceptable for a gritty thriller like this, and that was about it for R-rated stuff.  Also, I’ve been trying to avoid pandemic-themed novels during this Covid crisis, and it really should've dawned on me that the book's title is plague-related.  Lastly, and leastly, the tiger shark dies.  Yeah, they’re not as cute and cuddly as a kitten, but still...

 

    Overall, I found this book to be a long, quick, easy-to-follow page-turning read.  I expect any Sigma Force book to keep me entertained with lots of thrills and spills, and that’s exactly what The Judas Strain did.

 

    8 Stars.  Be sure to read the “Author’s Note” at the very end of the book.  In it, James Rollins goes over the Marco Polo, Angelic Script, Plagues, Fauna, Cannibals & Pirates, Angkor, and Bacteria aspects of the story, revealing which parts are real and which are fictional.  Hint: almost all of it is factual.

The Last Oracle - James Rollins

    2008; 577 pages.  Book 5 (out of 14) in the “Sigma Force” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Suspense; Thriller; Action-Adventure; Save-the-World.  Overall Rating : 10 */10.

    Someone just tried to kill Gray Pierce, the commander of the black ops unit “Sigma Force”.  In broad daylight.  In the middle of Washington D.C.  Right outside the Sigma Force headquarters, no less.

    It was only by an extraordinary stroke of luck that Gray survived.  Some homeless guy had just wandered up to him, looking for a handout, no doubt.  The sniper’s bullet wiped him out instead of Gray.  I suppose it’s theoretically possible the vagrant was the intended target, but why would a professional hitman have any reason to take out a homeless person?

    Nah, that's not very likely.  Somehow Gray’s cover has been blown and that needs to be fixed, and fast.  Just as soon as he attends to one small detail.

    Why was the panhandler carrying around a 2,000-year-old coin?

What’s To Like...

    The action starts immediately as The Last Oracle opens with a prologue set in 398 A.D. Greece during the final days of the famed Oracle at Delphi.  It never lets up after that as various members of Sigma Force combat the bad guys on a variety of fronts: Washington D.C., India, the Ural Mountains in Russia, and Pripyat, Ukraine, the latter being the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster better known as “Chernobyl”.

    As with any Sigma Force novel, there are multiple plotlines to follow.  Here, at least at the beginning, they are:  1.) Who shot the panhandler?  2.) Why was the panhandler trying to reach Gray?  3.) What’s with the skull?  4.) What’s so special about Sasha?  5.) Where’s Monk?  6.) What are the nefarious plans (dubbed “Operation Saturn” and “Operation Uranus”) that Savina and Nicolas have concocted?

    There's lots of intrigue, plenty of shooting, chases galore, and enough wit to keep things from getting too somber.  Monk, a Sigma Force member and apparently MIA at the end of the previous novel (I’m not reading this series in order), is initially way out in the boonies, and it was fun to watch how James Rollins works him back towards reuniting with his wife and old SF buddies.  I liked also that not all the Russian characters are “pure black”, nor are all of the Americans “pure white”.  Other writers of Thrillers should take heed of this.

    The book is well-researched.  I learned about Russia’s struggles with maintaining the safety of its nuclear power program.  I’d never heard of the Russian city of Chelyabinsk (just pronounce it “jellybeans”), despite it being Russia’s 9^th-largest city, and the sad fate of the nearby Lake Karachay.  There was an autism angle as well, including something called  “Autistic Savant Syndrome” which figured prominently in the tale.

    You’ll learn one or two Russian cuss phrases, plus a few snippets of the Romani (Gypsy) tongue.  There's only a few cases of cussing in English, and there are some neat drawings that are critical to the storyline.  James Rollins keeps meticulous track of the timing of each scene (down to the exact minute) , which really helped since the action is worldwide and the plot threads are often occurring simultaneously.  The 22 chapters, plus a Prologue and an Epilogue, average out to about 24 pages each, but those chapters have lots of scene shifts, so you’re never far from a good place to stop for the night.

Excerpts...

    Elizabeth fled with Kowalski down a crooked alley.  A sewage trench lined one side, reeking and foul.

    “Do you have another gun?” she asked.

    “You shoot?”

    “Skeet.  In college.”

    “Not much difference.  Targets just scream a bit more.”  (pg. 299)

    “She might survive, but in what state?  The augment, besides heightening her savant talent, also minimizes the symptoms of her autism.  Take the augment away, and you’ll be left with a child disconnected from the world.”

    “That’s better than being in the grave,” Kat said.

    “Is it?” McBride challenged her.  “Who are you to judge?  With the augment, she has a full life, as short as that might be.  Many children are born doomed from the start, given life sentences by medical conditions.  Leukemia, AIDS, birth defects.  Shouldn’t we seek to give them the best quality of life, rather than quantity?”

    Kat scowled.  “You only want to use her.”

    “Since when is mutual benefit such a bad thing?”  (pg. 376)

“Kowalski, help her.”  “But she shot me!”  (pg. 449)

        The ending is fantastic, climactic, twisty, and bittersweet.  The good guys may prevail, but it comes at a cost.  Chapter 22 is a general epilogue for the survivors of the adventure, and it’s followed by a shorter, more-focused “Epilogue” section that’ll leave a lump in your throat.  You don't see that often in an Action-Adventure story.

    Be sure to read the “Author’s Note To Readers: Truth or Fiction” (pgs. 573-577) at the end to learn what parts of the story are true and what parts were dreamed up by James Rollins.   You will be astounded.

    There’s not really anything to quibble about in The Last Oracle.  My expectations for any James Rollins book are high, and this one fully met them.

    10 Stars.  You can double-check some of the startling claims in the Truth-or-Fiction section  by going out to Wikipedia and reading about Chelyabinsk, Lake Karachay, and Chernobyl.  Wiki’s section about the latter was particularly eye-opening for me.  Yes, Chernobyl is today a ghost town  due to the radiation levels.  But a few people still live there, and, besides two general stores for those diehards, there's even (get this!) a hotel catering to tourists.

The Seventh Plague - James Rollins

   2016; 425 pages.  Book #12 (out of 12, but #13 is due out in December) in the Sigma Force series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Action-Thriller; Save-the-World (several times over).  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

    After two years of being missing and presumed dead, Professor Harold McCabe, an archaeologist with an obsession with Moses and the ten plagues, has suddenly wandered out of the Sudanese desert and back into civilization.

    Well, “civilization” was in this case a small village on the edge of the desert, and Professor McCabe was at death’s door when the villagers found him.  They cared for him as best they could, but he died soon afterward.  His body was then shipped to Cairo and that’s when things turn strange.

    For starters, the cadaver is showing signs of partial mummification.  Even weirder is that the process appears to have been initiated by Professor McCabe himself.  Why in the world would he do such a thing?

    Then comes the final surprise.  The opening of the body is suspected of triggering some sort of outbreak of a lethal and unknown disease.  Everyone on the Egyptian forensics team who's been exposed to Professor McCabe's body is falling victim to some sort of virus, and a majority of them are dying from it.

     You could almost call it a plague.

What’s To Like...

    The Seventh Plague is your typical James Rollins “Sigma Force” tale. The action starts right away and really never lets up.  All your favorite Sigma Force peeps are here, plus some cameo appearances in one of the prologues by Mark Twain, Nikola Tesla, and Stanley, he of the famous “Dr. Livingstone, I presume": quote.  The settings are great, and run a climatic gamut: cold and wet England, cold and dry northern Canada (Ellesmere Island, and when's the last time you read a book with that setting?), hot and dry Sahara desert, and hot and wet Rwandan jungle.

    I liked the clever blend of religion with science, even if it did strain the limits of my believability at times.  And FWIW, the titular “Seventh Plague” is not of any particularly greater importance than the other nine; James Rollins attempts to explain all ten of them via naturally-occurring phenomena.  Michael Crichton would be proud.

    There are a bunch of neat drawings in the book; those were an unexpected treat and help the reader with the puzzle-solving.  The self-mummification is a nice twist, and I enjoyed the “elephant painters”.  Overall, The Seventh Plague felt more “sciency” than usual for a Sigma Force novel, and that’s a plus for me.

    The baddies aren’t exactly “gray”, but neither are any of them pitch black.  All of the main ones have a redeeming quality or two, and some of them live to fight another day.

    Everything builds to an exciting, if somewhat un-twisty, two-location ending,  I liked the accompanying double (or even triple) epilogue(s) as well.  And the “Truth or Fiction” afterword by James Rollins is way-kewl.  This is a standalone novel, as well as part of a series

Excerpts...

    “If nothing else,” she said, “I could use a tall pint.  Maybe two.  To help settle the nerves.”

    She offered him a small smile, which he matched.

    “Since it’s for medicinal purposes,” he said, “the first round’s on me.  I am a doctor after all.”

    She looked askance at him.  “Of archaeology.”

    “Of bio-archaeology,” he reminded her.  “That’s almost as good as a medical doctor.”  (pg. 46)

    “Which path do we take? Esophagus or trachea?”

    Derek shifted his beam to the damaged left tonsil.  “It looks like there was more traffic in and out of the airway.”  He pointed out the evident trampling in the trachea compared to the esophagus.  “So I say we ignore Robert Frost and take the road most traveled.”

    Gray nodded.  “Let’s move out.”

    Only Kowalski seemed disgruntled by this decision.  ”Yeah, let’s go deeper into the belly of a demon-wrestling god.  How could that possibly go wrong?”  (pg. 201)

 “Elephants didn’t build this. … I don’t care how good they are at tool use.”  (pg. 341)

    There are a couple quibbles.  Once again, the puzzles to be solved are incredible abstruse, but our Mensa-minded heroes seem to easily cut through them.  I kept rolling my eyes each time they sussed out another conundrum, but it has to be said, it’s entertaining as all get out.

    Ditto for the ending.  It’s very exciting, yet somewhat predictable.  I mean, really now, what do you expect will happen when you have a herd of wild elephants standing around, at your beck and call?

    But I pick at nits.  James Rollins writes action-thrillers, not police procedurals.  The Seventh Plague delivers exactly what one expects from Rollins, and there's no indication that he’s getting tired of researching and writing these Sigma Force novels.  That means I’ll be on the look-out for the next one in the series, The Demon Crown, due out on December 5^th.

    8½ Stars.  Subtract ½ Star if you’re the type of reader who just has to solve the puzzles in books like this before the heroes do.  You won’t.

Map Of Bones - James Rollins

   2009; 715 pages.  Book #2 (out of 12) in the Sigma Force series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Action-Thriller.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

    It was an outright massacre that took place during the midnight High Mass at the main cathedral in Cologne, Germany.  Parishioners and priests alike were slaughtered, down to almost the last man.

    The motive seemed obvious – there’s a gold sarcophagus in the cathedral, worth millions, and it was the goal of the assassins.  What doesn’t make sense is why they chose to go after it when the place was packed.  It would’ve been a much easier heist if they had waited until no one was at the church.

    It was even stranger when the robbers/killers didn’t even try to carry off the sarcophagus.  They just opened it up and stole its contents – a few ancient bones.  Tradition says they were from the three wise men that journeyed to visit the Christ child in the Bible.  It’s a quaint legend, but probably fiction.  How in the heck would you track down those wise men, let alone stick around until they died and then make off with a couple of their bones?  Most likely these relics are medieval forgeries.

    But then why would somebody be willing to kill hundreds of people just to steal them?

What’s To Like...

    The action in Map Of Bones begins immediately (there’s a Prologue), and continues non-stop until the final page.  There are two sets of bad guys (The Guild and the Dragon Court) and two sets of good guys (the Vatican and our Sigma Force heroes), but the lines of trust and loyalty among those four groups can best be described as “fluid”.

    Based on previous books, I thought Sigma Force was just a special-ops unit, but apparently they are picked for their assorted technological and scientific backgrounds.  Indeed, science plays a prominent part here – weird things like superconductors, Meissner fields, and m-state elements.

    The puzzle-solving has a decidedly historical flavor to it, with special emphasis on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  So if you like topics such as Alexander the Great, the Library at Alexandria, Sphinxes, and the Magi, you’re in for a treat.  Even one of my personal historical heroes, Eratosthenes, gets a brief mention.  If history isn’t your shtick, no problem.  The underground city in Seattle gets cited (there really is such a thing), as do the music groups Godsmack and the Pixies.

    The settings are great – Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, and Egypt, and they had the “feel” of James Rollins spending time in each place to make them realistic to readers and locals alike.  Rollins throws in some snippets of foreign languages here and there – French, German, Latin, Italian and Portuguese, and I always like that.  My Gnostics get some major ink here, and I like that they were evenly presented as the early opposition to the Orthodox Church.  Most authors make it a good-vs-evil sort of thing, favoring one side or the other.  Here, both theological stances are presented as having their pluses and minuses.

    There are a bunch of plot twists to keep you on your toes.  Have fun trying to guess who the Imperator is.  I bet you’ll guess wrong.  Hey, so did I.  Everything builds to a great climactic showdown.  Some good guys and bad guys die; some of each also get away.

    There is some cussing and adult situation, and of course, lots of violence.  If this offends you, you’re reading the wrong genre.  There’s also a smidgen of Romance here, but not enough to frighten away the male readers.  Map Of Bones is a standalone novel, as well as part of a series.  It was also surprisingly quick-reading, which was a plus for its 700+-page length.

Kewlest New Word ...

Corbeled (v.) : (something) supported by a projection jutting out from a wall (i.e., a corbel).

Kindle Details...

    Map Of Bones sells for $3.99 at Amazon.  The other Sigma Force e-books are in the $2.99-$9.99 range, but if you have patience, you will find some of the older ones occasionally discounted to $1.99.   Rollins’s non-Sigma-Force novels are similarly priced.  All in all, I find his e-book rates quite reasonable.

Excerpts...

    Gray remembered her eyes upon him and her dark curiosity.  But he also remembered Painter’s earlier warning about her.  It must have been plain on his face.

    “Yes, I am going to betray you,” Seichan had said plainly as she pulled on her shirt.  “But only after this is over.  You will attempt the same.  We both know this.  Mutual distrust.  Is there a better form of honesty?”  (loc. 6161)

    She heard a satisfying grunt and the clatter of a gun to stone.  Something heavy followed with a thud.

    Rolling across the floor, she reached Vigor.  The monsignor crouched near the top of the firepit tunnel.  She handed him her gun.  “Down,” she ordered.  “Shoot anybody that comes into view.”

    “What about you?”

    “No, don’t shoot me.”

    “I mean where are you going?”  (loc. 7252)

 Why steal the bones of the Magi?  (loc. 301)

    The negatives are minor.  Parts of Map Of Bones are a bit over-the-top.  Meissner fields and m-state elements are real (Wiki them), but levitation is not.  You will find the puzzles indecipherable here, but our plucky heroes solve each one in no time flat.  And every time someone points a gun at Grayson Pierce’s head, you just know something will go awry for the baddies.

    Still, this is like quibbling over the action details in an Indiana Jones movie.  It may be over-the-top, but good golly, Miz Molly, it sure is entertaining.

    This was my fifth James Rollins novel, and my third of his Sigma Force series.  Three more are sitting on my Kindle, waiting to be read.  James Rollins is gradually replacing Steve Berry as my favorite historical-themed action-thriller author. 

    8½ Stars.  The midnight High Mass scene brought back memories of my freshman year in college,, when my RA was a priest-in-training.  He would occasionally take part in the service, usually sprinkling the incense around.  We freshmen usually had nothing better to do – we were required to live in dorms and forbidden to have cars..  So we would sometimes attend the service, albeit generally in an inebriated state.

    If you’ve never attending a High Mass, I highly recommend the experience, no matter what your religious views are.   Just remember to be respectful, and if you’re not a Catholic (and I’m not), do NOT partake of the wafers and wine.  Who knows, it could be a matter of life and death.

Excavation - James Rollins

   2000; 416 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Thriller; Action-Adventure.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    Professor Henry Conklin has mummy issues, especially with the one he’s recently unearthed high in the Peruvian Andes.  He’s convinced it predates the Incas, and has flown back with it to the United States to have tests run that will prove his hypothesis, leaving his student archaeologists to carry on with the excavation.

    Alas, the test results are not what the professor was hoping for – the mummy is actually a Dominican priest from the conquistador days.  But what is found inside his cranium more than compensates for the archaeological disappointment.

    Meanwhile, his crew of interns are making some amazing discoveries themselves.  Unfortunately, their finds have attracted the attention of the local thieves, who think those things are worth killing for.  And when it comes down to a fight between college students versus hardened bandits, put your money on the latter.

What’s To Like...

    The story is fast-paced with non-stop action that is at times over-the-top.  The temple travails in particular will remind you of Indiana Jones.  The combination of Archaeology, Ancient History, and Science makes it my kind of book.  The Historical Fiction portions felt quite believable and well-researched.  I particularly enjoyed the “is it natural or is it supernatural?” motif.  Preston & Child would give it four thumbs up.

    There are some kewl beasts and critters to contend with.  Anyone up for taking on the albino tarantulas?  Nah, didn’t think so.  The “native tribe” is well-crafted.  They may seem primitive, but you don’t want to get on their bad side.

    The rest of the characters are rather stereotyped, especially the professor’s student interns.  You have the black athletic jock, the glasses-wearing nerd, and the spoiled, rich-kid a**hole.  There's a pair of love interests, but both are obvious and predictable.

    There are some cusswords, but no sex or drugs or rock-&-roll.  This is a standalone novel, and AFAIK none of the characters appear in any other books by James Rollins.  Oh yeah, the (mass paperback) book cover is way kewl.

Excerpts...

    “What now?” Maggie asked.

    Sam glanced forward and backward.  Everyone began talking at once.  Sam raised the light to get everyone’s attention.  “Stay calm!  It won’t do us any good to panic!”

    At that moment, Sam’s flashlight flickered and died.  Darkness swallowed them up, a blackness so deep it seemed as if the world had completely vanished.  Voices immediately dropped silent.

    After a long held breath, Norma spoke from the darkness.  “Okay, now can we panic?”  (pg. 155)

    Ralph stood with his head cocked, listening to the growing howls.  “Whatever we decide, we’d better hurry.”

    “Like I said before, they’re growing more confident because we aren’t doing anything,” Maggie said.  But if we began moving, taking the fire with us, that ought to spook them again.  Also, maybe this cavern is their home.  If it’s a territorial thing, by moving, showing them that we’re leaving, they may not attack.”

    “That’s a lot of maybes,” Ralph countered.  (pg. 210)

 “It is only ordinary gold.  Worthless.”  (pg. 90)

    Excavation is an early effort by James Rollins, his second published novel to be exact.  It felt a little “rough around the edges”.  Although there are an ample number of plot twists, their resolutions seemed predictable (was there ever any doubt about how Joan was going to escape?) and clichéd.

   This book is not part of his “Sigma Force” series, which will turn off some prospective readers.  I’ve now read four of his books – 2 featuring the Sigma Force troupe, 2 not.  I find I prefer the “non-Sigmas” by a slight margin.

    Excavation may not go down as Rollins’ masterpiece, but I didn’t find any plot holes and/or scientific/historical implausibilities.  It was an entertaining read, and sometimes that’s all you’re looking for.

    8 Stars.  Add 1 star if you prefer your Action-Adventure reads to be over-the-top.

The Eye of God - James Rollins

   2013; 530 pages. Book #9 (out of 9, but soon to be 10) in the Sigma Force series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Acton-Adventure.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    The end of the world is coming!  Okay, Doomsday prophets have been saying that for years.  But this time, Quantum Mechanics is saying it, so I guess we’d better take it seriously.

    Oh yeah, QM has set a very definite “When” and “How” for the catastrophe.  Four days from now, via a comet.  So you might want to use up as much of your vacation time as you can.  Alternatively, we can call in Sigma Force to take save the world.

What’s To Like...

    The Eye of God is the latest book in James Rollins’ “Sigma Force” series, and if you’re looking for fast-paced non-stop action, you won’t be disappointed.  If you like exotic settings, this is also your kind of book.  Our heroes hop all over the place – Rome, Macao, North Korea, the Aral Sea, Mongolia, and Lake Baikal.  Rollins doesn’t skimp of geographical details, so all these places have a “real feel” to them.

    If history is your shtick, you’ve still come to the right place.  Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, and Hungarian witch trials are all here.  And last but not least, Quantum Physics buffs will also be amused to find Dark Matter, Multiverses, the Geodetic Effect, and the dimension of Time woven into the storyline.

    Everything builds to an exciting, if somewhat predictable, climax.  The good guys win, the bad guys get their just desserts, and civilization is saved.  But there is a way-kewl Epilogue that you’ll not see coming.

    Action trumps believability quite often in TEoG, which for me is a drawback.  There are way too many incredible coincidences.  One hero gets himself “magnetic finger implants” right before entering into the fray, for no special reason.  Of course these become key tools in the quest.  Another hero splits from his commander during a firefight, only to end up in just the right spot, with just the right RPG-29  (rocket) launcher in his hands, just in time to save the day.  NSA apparently has the blueprints of every warehouse in Ulan Bator at their fingertips.  And don’t get me started on conveniently-placed crowbars and savior seals.

Kewlest New Word. . .

Haptic (adj.)  :  of or relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulation of objects by using the sense of touch.

Excerpts...

    “Time is not a linear function,” she continued, almost as if she were working something out in her head.  “Time is just another dimension.  Like up-down or left-right.  The flow of time can also be affected by gravity or by velocity.  So when space-time got ripped or wrinkled, it could have made time skip a beat, like the needle of a record player hitting a scratch in the vinyl.”

    The fear in her eyes brightened.

    Painter tried to stave off that panic.  “Since when do you kids still listen to vinyl?”  (pg. 59)

    “And why this continuing fascination with wolves?” Seichan asked, clearly noting the same.  She stirred and stretched a long leg, baring her ankle.

    “They are a good luck symbol here, especially for males.”  He had to clearly pull his gaze from her leg.  “Wolves also represent a lusty overabundant appetite.”

    “How so?” Seichan asked, crossing her other leg, keeping the guy distracted.

    “A wolf kills more than he can eat.  According to our stories, God told the wolf that he could eat one out of every thousand sheep.  The wolf misheard him.  He ate one out of every thousand sheep he killed.  (pg. 344)

 “We’ve done stupider things.”  (pg.  476)

    There is a fine-but-definite right-wing bent to Rollins’ books, particularly the Sigma Force ones.  The horrors of the North Korean episode will stoke wing-nut passions, but of course it could have been set anywhere.  However the basic premise here has an even more subtle slant to it.

    The end of the world is threatened, and Sigma Force faces incredible odds of beating the 4-day deadline.  Those odds could improve significantly by contacting the Chinese government, since we’ll be traipsing through their backyard.  But hey, then they might gain access to the secrets of our (crashed) satellite, and we can’t allow that.  Small matter that if we don’t “change future history” in the next few hours, there will be no one left alive to give a sh*t about that satellite. Better Dead than Red.

    To be fair, Rollins does a much better job of keeping his right-winginess low key than, say, Tom Clancy.  But coupled with the WTF believability issues, this made The Eye of God merely a good read, instead of an excellent one.  Still, “good” is better than “meh”, and Rollins can spin an action-packed story as skillfully as anybody.

    8 Stars.  Add one star if you prefer Dirk Pitt to Cotton Malone. And another half-star if you happen to be of the politically right-wing persuasion.