James Rollins - Sigma Force and other stuff
James Rollins Sigma Force other stuff recommendation from Quicktidal after spotting them various bestseller lists while picked couple
On a recommendation from Quicktidal and after spotting them on various bestseller lists for a while,  i picked up a couple of James Rollins' Sigm...
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On a recommendation from Quicktidal and after spotting them on various bestseller lists for a while, i picked up a couple of James Rollins' Sigma Force books a while back and finally got on with reading them recently.

First up was SANDSTORM. I liked this, i didn't love it.

A ball of lightning detonates an old mummy's coffin which leads to america's commando scientists Sigma Force and a few involved bystanders chasing around the world to solve the mystery. Naturally there's an evil force competing with them in a race to find the widgit stuff. Yes, it's as trite as that but Rollins writes a REALLY great action scene and does the exotic locale very well and that carried me along even when I felt like I had read this before. It's kind of a mash up of Dan Brown and Clive Cussler at their respective bests (as opposed to at their latter day 'you idiots will buy any crap i write stages, but i digress...).

The characters were fairly archetypical but well done enough.

My only real complaint SPOILER SPOILER

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WILL RUIN THE BOOK SPOILER

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was that Rollins basically retreated to 'magic' to explain everything the Sisterhood did, and in a series that purports to be based in science this was just lame. There was some vague attempt to sciencify the 'sperm-free reporduction', the teleporting and whatever else but really it read thin. Not enough to put me off the book, but weak.

Which brings us to MAP OF BONES. The second Sigma novel and the one i just finished...

Damn fun book. Better characters, crazy action scenes (seriously - there's a gunfight/chase through a cathedral involving a flamethrower that's just nuts and I grinned every time a certain character sat down to drive something), overall better widget search with a lot of very very neat history and conspiracy theory thrown in.

Gray Pierce succeeds Painter Crow as team leader here and Rollins does a nice job of showing him learning the ropes of leadership without beating the reader senseless with faux emo conflict. the rest of the characters are good fun. Kat in particular steals scene after scene.

SPOILERS SPOILERS WE THREE KINGS WILL BEAT YOU SENSELESS WITH FRANKINSENSE AND MYRRH IF YOU READ THESE SPOILERS HEY WTF IS MYRHH ANYWAYS SPOILERS

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I enjoyed how the Guild, opposition in SANDSTORM, were more ambiguous in this book, working both sides and even helping the good guys at times.

The speculative sciene was in full swing and it never drifted into pure fiction the way it did in the last book.

And seriously, you could almost feel Rollins setting up yet another scene where Kat stabs someone in the face and it was a total kick every time it happened.

Good series in a thinking Hollywood Blockbuster in book form way. people who loved Brown's Angels and Demons but disliked The Lost Symbol, anyone whose enjoyed Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels and anyone who kind of wishes Indiana Jones was a spy should enjoy these.

- Abyss, fan of the killer commando spy scientists.

Commando scientists

i haven't read his rollins pseudonym books.

i read his james clemens books : shadowfall and hinterland.

both great books, very original, great reads for fantasy lovers.

sounds similar to matthew reilly then - i'm thinking Temple rather than the scarecrow books - would that be right?

Matt Reilly is AWFUL compared to Rollins. I avoid him like the plague.

As far as I am concerned, Rollins' Sigma thrillers have become a "buy them in Hardcover the day they come out" now for me. I have them in first editions since The Judas Strain first came out.

Like Abyss said, the characters are super fun....Gray really is a better leader than Painter was (though I find that Painter works well in his *ahem* latter role) and Monk and Kat are great fleshed out characters. The action is well paced and assembled, and Rollins is quite deft at keeping things VERY interesting throughout.

I think part of what lends Rollins his excellent scientific background and credibility is his veterinary practice and medical background. Besides which, he is a spellunker and an avid traveler off the beaten path, which I think lends him far more of an edge in the genre than, let's say Dan Brown (whose last book The Lost symbol made my eyes friggin bleed like Goodkind).

Anyways. Want a good historical/adventure thriller? Read Rollins. The man writes one rollicking adventure after another.

Oh, and Abyss...two words for you for THE JUDAS STRAIN..... Joe Kowalski. Trust me. That is all.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 09 September 2010 - 01:41 AM

I was going to ask how this guy compares to Matthew Reilly as well. Cos Reilly's stuff is pretty bad. I've read several of them against my better judgement, when i didn't have access to anything else, cos at least they were a very quick read.

I may have to check out Rollins as another quick read alternative.

Matthew Reilly's stuff is good for what it is: a quick, easy fun read that hits the spot. Great airport novels. Not in any way literature, but frankly who cares?

Might keep an eye out for the Rollins titles. Looked at the Clemens stuff but it didn't grab me.

This post has been edited by Sombra: 09 September 2010 - 11:21 AM

Sombra, on 09 September 2010 - 11:20 AM, said:

Matthew Reilly's stuff is good for what it is: a quick, easy fun read that hits the spot. Great airport novels. Not in any way literature, but frankly who cares?

Might keep an eye out for the Rollins titles. Looked at the Clemens stuff but it didn't grab me.

Definitely check out Rollins Sigma books. Well worth it.

Yeah, I think my problem with Matt Reilly is about like this: (below is my review of Reilly's book The Seven Deadly Wonders)

Sigh.

150 pages. That's all I could manage. I gave this book every effort. Alas, I could not finish it. This book has an interesting idea for it's plot. Take the Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World, connect them (Giza Pyramid Capstone pieces), and then have teams hunt for these lost wonders one by one. Good idea right? Of course. Sounds amazing. The Seven Wonders themselves are so completely fascinating, how on earth could this book go astray right?

Well, easily. It's unfortunately VERY poorly written. Reilly really DOES make someone like Clive Cussler (who writes middle-of-the-road historical adventure that is SOMETIMES entertaining) look like freakin' Dickens.

Before I go on, let me say that I LOVE historical/adventure books. Love them. James Rollins, Dan Brown, Michael Crichton and Steve Berry even to a certain extent.

Let's be clear, this book is written as if from the perspective of a kid describing his buddy playing a video game. Perhaps an 11 year old kid. I mean, the unnecessary punctuation (!!!!!), the EXCESSIVE diagrams, okay I get that you are trying to show me what you just spent a paragraph describing...but then why did you explain it to me. Why then didn't it just say: Jack West enters the long stone walled room and then (See Diagram 1a). Seriously. Half the book is diagrams. There is zero character development. I don't care even a little bit about anyone in this book. Oh, and as another reviewer said, there is WAY too much implausibility in this book even insofar as the plot. Too many things fit neatly into place. Oh, and don't get me started on apparently immortal crocodiles.

Whereas in contrast someone who is GOOD at this type of genre fiction like James Rollins makes me care even about a girl who dies in the prologue.

Matthew Reilly is NOT an author that I will ever choose to subject myself to again I think. Thankfully his other books don't sound like my cup of tea anyways.

I haven't read Reilly so i can't speak to his work. Dan Brown is all over the place from the brilliant (Angels and Demons) to the bad (Digital Fortress) to the semi-decent (Da Vinci Code, Deception Point) to the eye bleeding (The Lost Marketing Opportunity).

Cussler... Cussler's books, if you read them in the order they were written, they steadily improve until he hits a high point with Sahara and then his later work should really just be ignored.

At this point, i'm enjoying Rollins way more than I did anything by Brown except Angels & Demons) and most of Cussler.

Oh, and Raymond Khoury is another alt-hist-fic-action writer to avoid like the plague. The Last Templar was so bad my brain started to bleed out through my ears.

Okay, this is a heads up for those who read Rollins...so for me and Abyss I guess...LOL

With the release of THE DEVIL COLONY (the latest Sigma Force book) this July on the horizon....Today Rollins has released an eBook short story starring Seichan (THE SKELETON KEY) that includes clues to things that happen in the new book and even an excerpt.

http://www.amazon.co...05310667&sr=8-1

THE DEVIL COLONY is one of the books I am looking fwd to most this summer (since it was delayed by the publisher for optimum release date money-making), and I totally forgot he was writing a short piece starring Seichan, so colour me excited.

Also. The eBook is 99 cents! SOLD!

Just finished BLACK ORDER...

It was fine. At times briefly great, but overall just good. MAP OF BONES was way better.

My problems with this book lie in its predictability (failed to surprise me even once), its falling back on 'isn't that conveeeeeenient' too many times ("We're all dead! wait, who's that suddenly here in time to save us!")and that fact that major point in the climax is resolved, more or less

Spoiler

by the power of love

. As well, a major sideplot that appeared more interesting than the main one -

Spoiler

Kat and Logan at the S/African embassy - after MAP i really really WANT to see more of Kat stabbing people in the faceparts

- takes place entirely offscreen.

I don't mean to be overly negative, because it was good enough to carry me through to the end and the characters were still solid, with one new addition stealing every scene she's in, but compared to the previous two, this book didn't pack the same punch.

Quicktidal assures me that the next one JUDAS STRAIN is vastly superior so no fear, Rollins' next two commando scientist books stay in my TRP to be picked up in the near future.

Abyss, on 21 June 2011 - 02:51 PM, said:

Just finished BLACK ORDER...

It was fine. At times briefly great, but overall just good. MAP OF BONES was way better.

My problems with this book lie in its predictability (failed to surprise me even once), its falling back on 'isn't that conveeeeeenient' too many times ("We're all dead! wait, who's that suddenly here in time to save us!")and that fact that major point in the climax is resolved, more or less

Spoiler

by the power of love

. As well, a major sideplot that appeared more interesting than the main one -

Spoiler

Kat and Logan at the S/African embassy - after MAP i really really WANT to see more of Kat stabbing people in the faceparts

- takes place entirely offscreen.

I don't mean to be overly negative, because it was good enough to carry me through to the end and the characters were still solid, with one new addition stealing every scene she's in, but compared to the previous two, this book didn't pack the same punch.

Quicktidal assures me that the next one JUDAS STRAIN is vastly superior so no fear, Rollins' next two commando scientist books stay in my TRP to be picked up in the near future.

I have three things to say: (other than feeling pretty much the same as you about BLACK ORDER)

One: Huey Lewis & The News said it first.

Two: Re: Kat...oh just you wait sir. You just wait.

Three: Did you know that sporadic Sigma characters have shown up in his other non-sigma work here and there (Susan is in DEEP FATHOM and a character you meet in JUDAS is in ICE HUNT).

Also, today THE DEVIL COLONY is released, and I am so excited that I am starting to wonder if I'll put my current read (LEVIATHAN WAKES) on hold to start it right away or not....

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 21 June 2011 - 03:24 PM

QuickTidal, on 21 June 2011 - 03:23 PM, said:

...Two: Re: Kat...oh just you wait sir. You just wait.

Oh thank god. i would read an entire book by Rollins that amounted to a thinly veiled plot to give Kat excuses to stab people in the face in new and interesting ways. ORDER was poorer for the lack of her.

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Three: Did you know that sporadic Sigma characters have shown up in his other non-sigma work here and there (Susan is in DEEP FATHOM and a character you meet in JUDAS is in ICE HUNT).

Yah, there was a passing ref to DEEP early in ORDER that i caught, tho i think it was Lisa, not Susan. As it happens, under the Sigma books the TRP also has DEEP, SUBTERRANEAN and the ICE book all standing by.

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Also, today THE DEVIL COLONY is released, and I am so excited that I am starting to wonder if I'll put my current read (LEVIATHAN WAKES) on hold to start it right away or not....

Rollins' books appear in rediculous numbers in second hand stores with great frequency, hence why i had about 7 in the TRP by the time i was halfway through SANDSTORM. I still have at least six to get through but no doubt i'll get to COLONY eventually, altho based on your raves he may move up the priority list as i advance through his books if he keeps getting better.

Okay, so I finished the latest one THE DEVIL COLONY last night. I'll be putting a full review up at the site later today, but a few thoughts in the meantime.

It's good. It's thicker than I think all of his other books (clocks in at nearly 480 pages). It's not GREAT, merely good. It's a bit better than BLACK ORDER, but it sadly can't touch stuff like THE JUDAS STRAIN or MAP OF BONES. I think the biggest issue is that he adds a bunch of side-character plots that, while they have do with the Sigma stuff in various ways, kind of take you away from Sigma goodness. So what should be a tight little Sigma book is kind of like a Sigma book with too many characters in disparate places and it all feels more loose and spread out. So whereas one of the best scenes in MAP OF BONES

Spoiler

when the team is going from that speedboat under the water into that tight cramped tomb ect together....

we have nothing like that here sadly, at least not at that level of tension. I never feared for Gray and Co. That's a bad thing. I should FEAR for the commando scientists.

The only other ting I'd like to mention as a failing here is the same non-author complaint I had with THE LOST SYMBOL....America's heritage and founding is just not interesting enough, nor is it ancient enough to really go as deep into the unkown as I'd like. That's a personal complaint though and likely won't bother others like it does me.

Make no mistake though as there is some heavy cool stuff going on in this book, and the pace is as relentless as it is always. The writing is fantastic as per usual and it's still thrilling. I think I just feel a little let down after the last outing THE DOOMSDAY KEY was such a tight little nail biter!

Ranking:

MAP OF BONES

THE JUDAS STRAIN

THE DOOMSDAY KEY

SANDSTORM

THE LAST ORACLE

THE DEVIL COLONY

BLACK ORDER

Noted. On the bright side that leaves me really psyched for JUDAS and DOOSMDAY.

Some of your comments echo some of the things i didn't love about SANDSTORM. The non-Sigma characters were generally less interesting and detracted from what i really wanted to read about.

Curiously, the non-Sigma pov characters in BLACK ORDER were some of the better parts of the book, Fiona in particular.

Abyss, on 24 June 2011 - 02:16 PM, said:

Noted. On the bright side that leaves me really psyched for JUDAS and DOOSMDAY.

Some of your comments echo some of the things i didn't love about SANDSTORM. The non-Sigma characters were generally less interesting and detracted from what i really wanted to read about.

Curiously, the non-Sigma pov characters in BLACK ORDER were some of the better parts of the book, Fiona in particular.

Indeed, and sometimes that happens. Like there is a professor in THE DOOMSDAY KEY who is one of the best parts of the book...but I think those characters only really rock if Rollins really wants them to rock. In DEVIL they are there because they need to be there in one capacity or another and not because they should be...if that makes any sense.

I don't want to put you off it though, as it' still a fun ride. He seems to hit more often than he misses, but he still misses the middle of the target on occasion.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 24 June 2011 - 02:22 PM

Latest Sigma Force title (and synopsis) are out!

BLOODLINE

Synopsis (non-spoiler, don't worry)

Screen shot 2011-12-20 at 11.53.20 AM.png (78.14K)

Number of downloads: 0

Just finished THE JUDAS STRAIN.

WARNING SPOILERS BELOW HERE SPOILERS SPOILERS FOR

THE JUDAS STRAIN SPOILERS CANNIBALLISTIC ZOMBIE RAGE SPOILERS

THAT WILL SPOIL YOU EAT YOU SPIT YOU OUT AND

INFECT YOU WITH THEIR SPOILERY VIRUS

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JUDAS STRAIN

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I hate to send you into paroxysm QT, but i didn't love this book. There were a couple of moments of awesome, mostly by Monk, and one truly great one between Seichen and Grey towards the end, and it was otherwise fairly mediocre. I enjoyed MAP and EVEN SANDSTORM far more, and while ORDER was weak, Fiona was a way more interesting supporting character than Susan or Ryder (or even Lisa). Grey's parents had one moment of awesome, but were also otherwise fairly uninteresting if not trapped in an annoyingly predictable plotline. And Kat didn't stab anyone in the face even once.

A part of my bleh reaction has to do, i suspect, with having read all of Cussler's earlier Dirk Pitt books that pretty much covered all the pieces of this book... cruise ship held hostage, evil bacterial tide thing, long lost ancient explorer mystery, long lost cannibal tribe, pirates... check, check and check. Maybe unfair, but unlike the MAP and SAND, i was grasping to find much novelty here. Aside from the killer squid. Those were fun, if under-used.

The text had too much exposition... too much discussion of codes and history and so on and not enough physically going out there and blowing shit up in order to find answers.

I'm not put off of Rolins at all, but this was far from my fave by him to date. I'll probably read DEEP FATHOM next to get Lisa's backstory before moving on to whatever's next for Sigma.

Abyss, on 24 January 2012 - 05:34 PM, said:

Just finished THE JUDAS STRAIN.

WARNING SPOILERS BELOW HERE SPOILERS SPOILERS FOR

THE JUDAS STRAIN SPOILERS CANNIBALLISTIC ZOMBIE RAGE SPOILERS

THAT WILL SPOIL YOU EAT YOU SPIT YOU OUT AND

INFECT YOU WITH THEIR SPOILERY VIRUS

SPOILERS

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JUDAS STRAIN

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I hate to send you into paroxysm QT, but i didn't love this book. There were a couple of moments of awesome, mostly by Monk, and one truly great one between Seichen and Grey towards the end, and it was otherwise fairly mediocre. I enjoyed MAP and EVEN SANDSTORM far more, and while ORDER was weak, Fiona was a way more interesting supporting character than Susan or Ryder (or even Lisa). Grey's parents had one moment of awesome, but were also otherwise fairly uninteresting if not trapped in an annoyingly predictable plotline. And Kat didn't stab anyone in the face even once.

A part of my bleh reaction has to do, i suspect, with having read all of Cussler's earlier Dirk Pitt books that pretty much covered all the pieces of this book... cruise ship held hostage, evil bacterial tide thing, long lost ancient explorer mystery, long lost cannibal tribe, pirates... check, check and check. Maybe unfair, but unlike the MAP and SAND, i was grasping to find much novelty here. Aside from the killer squid. Those were fun, if under-used.

The text had too much exposition... too much discussion of codes and history and so on and not enough physically going out there and blowing shit up in order to find answers.

I'm not put off of Rolins at all, but this was far from my fave by him to date. I'll probably read DEEP FATHOM next to get Lisa's backstory before moving on to whatever's next for Sigma.

Perhaps it's that I'd never read any of those plot points before that I liked it as much as I do? I liked all that be3cause I'd never read any of that kind of stuff before. I've only read one Dirk Pitt book and it was only so-so.

I also am utterly, endlessly fascinated by Angkor Wat AND the bhagavad gita (the 700-verse Hindu Holy book) and how it ties into ancient Asian societies as well as Indian ones... so that helps with the love.

Sorry you didn't think too much of it man.

Above and beyond that, you should probably know that Kat doesn't do a lot of action anymore as the series progresses. Seichan basically takes that distinction away from her (ass kicking chick in tight pants)...but I like that change personally.

And if you tell me that you didn't think Monk VS island of giant monster crabs wasn't awesome, you are cold and dead inside sir!

Also, giant glowing squids!

QuickTidal, on 24 January 2012 - 05:51 PM, said:

...And if you tell me that you didn't think Monk VS island of giant monster crabs wasn't awesome, you are cold and dead inside sir!

Also, giant glowing squids!

The crabs were hardly giant, altho i grant that was totally one of Monk's moments of awesome.

And the squid were merely 'big'. And glowing.

Cussler's Dirk Pitt stuff is somewhat similar to Rollins' Signma Force. Special semi-secret gov scientist commandos chase ancient clues to save world from evil and sometimes eco-disaster. The first ten or so, from RAISE THE TITANIC up to SAHARA, are brilliant once you gte past Pitt as a thinly veiled author-analogue. After that the series becomes repetitious and then self-satirical. But it does explain to an extent my lack of engagement and I still thought the pacing was slower than previous books. the action was good but there wasn't quite enough of it, perhaps. And Grey's ancient parents running around didn't consitute action, nor did most of Lisa's storyline up until Monk shows up to the rescue.

It wasn't crap, far from it parts were still fun, but not my fave of the series.