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Black Order (Sigma Force Novels)

by James Rollins

Black Order (Sigma Force Novels) Cover

ISBN13: 9780060765378
ISBN10: 0060765372
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In Copenhagen...a suspicious bookstore fire propels Commander Gray Pierce on a relentless hunt across four continents — and into a terrifying mystery surrounding horrific experiments once performed in a now-abandoned laboratory buried in a hollowed-out mountain in Poland.

In the mountains of Nepal...in a remote monastery, Buddhist monks inexplicably turn to cannibalism and torture — while Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force, begins to show signs of the same baffling, mind-destroying malady...and Lisa Cummings, a dedicated American doctor, becomes the target of a brutal clandestine assassin.

Now only Gray Pierce and Sigma Force can save a world suddenly in terrible jeopardy. Because a new order is on the rise — an annihilating nightmare growing at the heart of the greatest mystery of all: the origin of life.

Review:

"What would thriller writers do without the Nazis? At the start of Rollins's inventive eighth Sigma Force novel, a secret experiment is smuggled out of Berlin in the waning days of WWII. While the Americans have been working on the atomic bomb, the Nazis were delving into the paradoxical tenets of quantum mechanics. In the present day, descendants of Heinrich Himmler are trying to create a new race of Aryan supermen. Last seen in 2005's Map of Bones, Painter Crowe and Grayson Pierce, employees of Sigma Force, a secret arm of the U.S. military, venture to the brink of death to puzzle out mysteries that encompass the theories of evolution, intelligent design, and the physical and spiritual nature of love and God. It's a tall order, but every time the author appears to have stretched too far, he saves the read by throwing in a fascinating scientific or historical fact, plus a scene of heart-pumping action. This is Cussler and Ludlum territory with a dash of Dan Brown, sure to please devotees of any of these authors." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"[A] high-powered thriller....Rollins keeps getting better with every novel, and his fast-paced thrillers are feasts for the imagination....If you like all-stops-out, high-concept adventure, this one's for you." Booklist

Review:

"All of these diverse elements blend seamlessly in Rollins's hands. Readers will eagerly await the fourth Sigma Force installment." Library Journal

Synopsis:

From the frozen peaks of the Himalayas to the diamond fields of the Congo, the SIGMA Force races to unlock a riddle locked amid cryptic runes and expose a century-old plot that threatens to destroy the current world order and alter the destiny of humankind forever.

About the Author

James Rollins is the bestselling author of seven previous novels: Subterranean, Excavation, Deep Fathom, Amazonia, Ice Hunt, Sandstorm, and Map of Bones. He has a doctorate in veterinary medicine and his own practice in Sacramento, California. An amateur spelunker and a certified SCUBA enthusiast, he can often be found either underground or underwater.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
kevinrubin, May 21, 2009 (view all comments by kevinrubin)
Sort of a James Bond meets Angels and Demons thing here... But faster paced than either of them.

Some of this is straight from James Bond... We have the bad guys in their mountain fortress, including its own internal railway system. We have the hero at an auction for a rare item, although in this case it's his companion who, with nimble fingers, swaps the real item for a fake and tells the hero that if he'd won it "I would've said it was a fake".

Another scene right out of Star Wars. Our captured hero tries to save his friends' lives by telling the supreme evil bad guy the secret information and the bad guy says "I believe you're right. Now kill his friends." A little later there's "Open the blast shield!" too...

And we've got the fantastic, futuristic energy source that can be used for many things, including supplying power, genetic manipulation and mass destruction, depending who controls it. And by the end this gets combined with prayer and mysticism... Whoah!

And why, oh why, are the heros so dumb? In Rollins' Sigma Force, they're all ex-special forces operators who got recruited by DARPA for it's super elite team, sent back to college to earn multiple PhD's each as part of their training. Why do they keep making stupid mistakes? How can they keep letting a fifteen year old runaway girl outsmart them, steal their wallets and continually make them do what she wants?

This book follows after "Map of Bones" and makes some references to events in that story, Gray's relationship with Rachel, Monk's loss of a hand, Monk and Kat's relationship (bearing fruit in this book). Mostly it could probably be read without having read "Map of Bones" which I read without having read any previous Sigma Force novels.

Overall, it's fast, action-packed and entertaining, as long as you can suspend disbelief in a few places and don't expect anything deep...
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780060765378
Author:
Rollins, James
Publisher:
HarperTorch
Author:
by James Rollins
Subject:
Thrillers
Subject:
Conspiracies
Subject:
Europe
Copyright:
Large Print:
Y
Series:
Sigma Force Novels
Publication Date:
June 2007
Binding:
Mass Market Paperbound
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
509
Dimensions:
6.74x4.26x1.21 in. .58 lbs.

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