James Rollins' Sigma Force Series
Sometimes you have to mix it up. I recently took a break from business books and turned to some action and adventure fiction instead. I picked up the Sigma Force Series by James Rollins. Think the Da Vinci Code meets Indiana Jones meets Michael Crichton. It is a lot of fun and the series is over 12 books, so I have a ways to go. Lost Ancient Civilizations, Secret Societies, Obscure Pseudoscience, Action, Violence, they have all the ingredients every 13 year old boy desires.
Sandstorm, Rating: A
Audiobook:
This is the first book in the Sigma Force Series. You are introduced to the main character Painter Crowe, who is an agent of Sigma Force, a covert arm of the US Defense Department tasked with keeping dangerous scientific discoveries out of our enemies’ hands.
When an ancient artifact points the way toward the legendary “Atlantis of the Sands,” Painter must travel across the world in search of the lost city and a destructive power beyond imagining.
But Painter has competition. A band of ruthless mercenaries, led by a former friend and ally, are also intent on claiming the prize, and they will destroy anyone who gets in their way.
Ancient history collides with cutting-edge science-with the safety of the world at stake!
My favorite parts of his books are at the end when he explains what scientific discoveries or ancient civilizations are actually real and which are fiction and then gives you references if you want to read further.
Map of Bones, Rating: A
Audiobook:
During a crowded service at a cathedral in Germany, armed intruders in monks' robes unleash a nightmare of blood and destruction. But the killers have not come for gold; they seek a more valuable prize: the bones of the Magi who once paid homage to a newborn savior . . . a treasure that could reshape the world.
With the Vatican in turmoil, Sigma Force under the command of Grayson Pierce leaps into action, pursuing a deadly mystery that weaves through sites of the Seven Wonders of the World and ends at the doorstep of an ancient, mystical, and terrifying secret order. For there are those with dark plans for the stolen sacred remains that will alter the future of humankind . . . when science and religion unite to unleash a horror not seen since the beginning of time.
This one referenced scripture and extra-biblical texts. It was such a fun read.
Amazonia, Rating: A+
Audiobook:
The Rand scientific expedition entered the lush wilderness of the Amazon and never returned. Years later, one of its members has stumbled out of the world’s most inhospitable rainforest: a former Special Forces soldier – scarred, mutilated, terrified, and mere hours from death – who went in with one arm missing…and came out with both intact.
Unable to comprehend this inexplicable event, the government sends Nathan Rand into this impenetrable secret world of undreamed-of perils to follow the trail of his vanished father…toward mysteries that must be solved at any cost. But the nightmare that is awaiting Nate and his team of scientists and seasoned U.S. Army Rangers dwarfs any danger they anticipated…an ancient, unspoken terror – a power beyond human imagining-that can forever alter the world beyond the dark, lethal confines of the Amazon rainforest for better… and for worse.
This was separate from the Sigma Force Series but was my favorite so far. In the same vein as Michael Crichton’s Congo and David Grann’s The Lost City of Z. The Amazon and the lost civilizations of the Amazon are super fascinating to me.
I recommend this series if you are into that sort of thing.
