Being pressed for time at first I thought to wind up this review with a one liner like "Brilliant, Imaginative and a Compelling Read" but the more I thought about it the more I realized this book deserved more than that. We all learn history, some in school and some just because we want to learn but to fabricate a story this brilliant from such information requires a special type of talent. James Rollin is an absolute inspiration on that front. The amount of research that went into this book itself is mind boggling and to twist them around into the mould of a thriller. The book is not a boring history lesson but a full on adventure where you have to meet every turn with guns blazing. The plot of this book can be inferred to a certain extent from the title itself "The Map of Bones". In fact the entire story begins with a set of bones, not just any bones but the bones of the biblical Magi or more commonly known as the three wise men who came to visit the saviour led there by the a shining star. In the modern day world these bones are kept in a gold sarcophagus in a German cathedral the very theft of which along with brutal mass murder prompts the SIGMA force and the Vatican to investigate further into the motives of this mysterious underground organisation behind it. But what they find are more shocking than they could ever imagine. As the trail left by the bones takes them deeper and deeper into the depths of Gnostic Beliefs in the Christian fate and shocking revelations that may even date back to the time of Alexander the great the SIGMA has more than just the secret organisation to deal with. Fighting for the lives with traitors among their midst SIGMA must manage to come out on top for the fate of the whole world might rest on their shoulders. Being my first SIGMA force novel and with a set of recommendation to its name I was prepared to be blow over. True the book does not disappoint you in the least but there were times I felt totally at loss not being able to comprehend what was being said. For the major part you are able to follow the conversation and understand the story behind it. But at some parts I found the descriptions a bit overwhelming and had to reread a couple of times to get the right picture. Other than this the book is an entertainer that should not be missed.
Another smart action-adventure in this, the second in the Sigma Force series from James Rollins. This time the Sigma team tracks down a group of thieves who steal the bones of the Three Wise Men from a cathedral in Germany, killing those at the service using a mysterious weapon that burns some of the service attendees from the inside out. Commander Grayson Pierce of the Sigma team joins up with a pair of Vatican operatives in order to look into the theft and the weapon. They uncover a conspiracy going back hundreds if not thousands of years and explore hidden mysteries that have puzzled scholars for generations, all the while racing to stop a strange separatist organization that wants nothing less than control of the world.Now, I've read Tom Clancy, Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, and Michael Crichton. Rollins certainly belongs in that list, and he seems to surpass them all in most respects. If any of those authors interest you at all, then try James Rollins. His pacing is excellent, his action is easily envisioned and cinematic, his characters and their relationships are more developed, and I actually feel that I learned something that wasn't made up by the end. Rollins is always very clear about what's real and what is fictional, and it's hard not to respect that. Any novel that can inspire me to look deeper into the real world past impresses me. If Sandstorm echoed Raiders of the Lost Ark, then Map of Bones definitely has a bit of a Last Crusade feel, based on the subject matter and the settings the team finds themselves in. There are a few satisfying twists, some of them coming within a few pages of each other. There is a slight lack of levity and some of the guessed-at puzzle solutions that turn out to be correct are a little hard to swallow, but Rollins more than compensates for these minor issues.If the quality of the Sigma Force series holds up, I'm definitely looking forward to reading them all.
Made me a James Rollins' fan!!Certain books definitely catch my eye as I am zooming past them on the shelves. Often times a book's cover may indicate to me whether it is something I might be interested in - I stress might. I read the story summary & loved the sounds of it. I am happy to say that the book did not disappoint. Instead it has made me a huge fan of James Rollins, and I have continued to pick up his books (I have almost all of them now) and I have loved every one I've read. Map of Bones is a smart, complex thriller with more fascinating, mysterious action than you can shake a stick at. As a writer myself, Rollins' books inspire me with their technical wizardry and obvious research that goes into them. The best part is that he doesn't leave the characters out. They are likable and full of personality & depth all of their own, the characters own journeys keep weaving throughout the non-stop, heart-pounding pace of the story. I loved this book, I learned some interesting things and was taken to some interesting places around the world through its pages. An excellent read for the thriller lover. Rai Aren, co-author of Secret of the Sands
—Rai
The plot was entertaining and moved quickly though a bit far fetched, and for me failed to generate a "willing suspension of disbelief" or to create the fascination with its subject matter or characters that have to be present to make such a story impressive. The whole story line about monatomic gold, m state superconductors, alchemy, etc., is otherwise just a little too "out there."Throughout the book I was constantly reminded of Lester Dent & Co.'s pulp magazine Doc Savage stories. And not of their best features.I thought the book was fun reading but not worth hanging on to. I'm not especially likely to pick up another James Robbins work unless it's free.
—Galen
I want to like this kind of thriller, I really do, but I just can't suspend disbelief enough. This is a Dan Brown or National Treasure-style adventure with a modern mercenary team battling a secret order and a team of evil mercenaries in a race to find treasures and scientific discoveries. The globe-trotting is fun, but the characters are wooden, and the plot, involving alchemical gold, a secret order descended from the magi, Alexander the Great, and adventures in Rome, Alexandria, Avignon, and other places, is a just too hard to swallow. I listened to this on audiobook, and I always find that when clunky prose is spoken out loud, it's weaknesses become even more obvious than when you're reading it on the page. I didn't hate this book, sometimes it was fun, but I also laughed out loud a few times at some of the dumber bits of dialog or the scientific leaps that some of the "genius" characters make.It's kind of funny, because in my experience as a librarian, I find that lots of thriller readers won't read fantasy or science fiction, but they accept fantastic leaps in "realistic" books like thrillers or romances that I personally think are a lot harder to believe because they pretend to be real world and obviously are not. Give me a secondary world story any day.I'd like to believe this kind of fiction can be done better than this. Any Rollins fans out there who want to comment? Are some of his other books
—Neil
