It’s been awhile, but I’m catching up my reviews for the latest techno-thrillers from James Rollins (pen name of former veterinarian James Paul Czajkowski). Most of these deal with his fictional Sigma Force (a secret part of DARPA), but he has other works.
Sigma Force
The more recent Sigma novels have been The Seventh Plague (2016), The Demon Crown (2017), Crucible (2018), and now The Last Odyssey (2019). As always, these works have a wonky combination of science and history, and there is always a section at the end that delves into the ideas in the book.
For those not familiar, Sigma is an action arm of DARPA, made up (largely) of soldier-scientists. After the ending of their long-time foe, the Guild, they’ve instead been going up against an array of one-off villains. Plus, a former Guild assassin has been helping them out, though not officially.
The folks of Sigma Force are fairly diverse. Painter Crowe is the current director, taking over from the prior one who was killed in an early novel. Cmd. Gray Pierce is the current field leader. He has started a relationship with Seichen (that’s the assassin), and by the latest novel they have a son. Capt. Katherine Bryant and Dr. Monk Kokkalis are married and have two daughters. The only non-scientist is Joe Kowalski, a Navy seaman and demolitions expert who is dating a primalogist who is not part of Sigma, but has been involved in some stories. He’s actually from one of Rollins’ stand-alone novels.
In The Seventh Plague, the team has to deal with a deadly disease from the Bible, and must travel down the Nile to find the cure.
In The Demon Crown, the head of the Japanese branch of the now-defunct Guild decides to strike against the U.S. (and the world) with prehistoric murder hornets (actually prehistoric wasps). So the team must figure out a way to stop them that is tied to James Smithson, the founder of the Smithsonian. Also, Gray and Seichen’s relationship develops as well as being put to the test.
In Crucible, the action starts with Seichen missing and Kat in a coma. This leads to a conspiracy of modern witches that the team must stop. Monk’s high-tech mechanical hand (he lost his hand in an early novel) plays an interesting part in this one.
The latest novel, The Last Odyssey, I recently read. It deals with Homer‘s Odyssey, and we learn it’s based on actual events and that the underground world of Tartarus is real. Sadly a group of doom cultists from various religions wish to exploit this to bring about the end of the world and the Sigma team needs to work out clues to find it before the cultists, while also dealing with spies and double-crosses.
Kingdom of Bones is the next Sigma Force novel coming in 2021.
Tucker Wayne
Rollins had started a spin-off series from Sigma Force with former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his military dog Kane. After being introduced in a Sigma Force novel, we had two solo novels, co-written with Grant Blackwood. And then nothing.
Now will be getting a new novella, “Sun Dogs,” which will appear in a collection of others stories, Unrestricted Access. The rest consists of most (but not the more recent) Sigma Force e-books, and some of Rollin’s other such shorter works. Will be nice to see these in book form.
As I’ve noted, I’ve enjoyed these novels overall. As someone with a technical background and an interest in history, the mix of both I find enjoyable among the several techno-thrillers I read. Most of the ones I read either focus on one or the other, and seldom both. So if you haven’t checked these out, do so.
