A Book Review: The Demon Crown by James Rollins (Sigma Force #13)

Every year I look forward to reading a new Sigma Force novel. What are these books about? It is a series of thrillers written by best-selling author, James Rollins, featuring a fictional task force within the US DARPA program, named Sigma Force. The primary functions of Sigma Force are: counter-terrorism, research, and covert operations. The operatives in the team are scientists with highly trained military skills. In other words, each and everyone in Sigma Force can fight like James Bond and think like Stephen Hawkings. Storywise, every Sigma Force novel blended science and history into the storytelling, and these books feel like combinations of Isaac Asimov novels, Indiana Jones, and Mission Impossible movies. This series is damn good, and it is the reason why I started reading thrillers. If you have yet to read a Sigma Force novel, then you really have to read one of them.

Last December saw the release for the 13^th installment in the series, titled, The Demon Crown. This book has a very interesting premise. Not only did it entertain me for hours but I also learned a thing or two I didn't know about wasps.

Synopsis:

In 1903, Alexander Graham Bell led an expedition in Italy. The team uncovered a cahe of bones preserved in ember. The artifact's inscrptions warned of a horror, a secret, that if released into the world, may doom humanity. The team decided to hide the artifact away, but they did not wish not to destroy it; for the strange relic also contained the secret of life after death.

More than 100 years later, during a research trip on an island off coast of Brazil, a team of scientists encountered a terrifying nightmare – all life on the island was extinguished by an unknown species. As the scientists were preparing to report the strange discovery, a shadowed agency attacked them with brute force, killing them all. Only one scientist, an entomologist, Professor Ken Matsui from the Cornell University, survived the armed attack.

Meanwhile, during his career break on the island of Maui, Commander Grayson Pierce of Sigma Force faced an assassination attempt. Between Alexander Graham Bell's discovery, the attack in Brazil, and the plot to kill commander Grayson Pierce, could there be a link between these events? Sigma Force is tasked to solve this lethal mystery, and their only clue is that all three events can be traced back to the founding of the Smithsonian Institute. This time, Sigma Force is racing against the clock to prevent a global catastrophe...

My thoughts on this book:

It was fun to read The Demon Crown, but this book also made me re-evaluate my perspective, about humanity's position on earth. I mean, we (the homo sapiens) often think we are the biggest deal on earth. We think everything on this planet exists for our benefits so we can do whatever we want with it. The fact is, when you look at the data for the distribution of biomass across different organisms, or, survival/dependability between species, then we discover that we are not the biggest deal on earth at all. I mean, for example, insects, not humans, is the group with the largest biomass out of all terrestrial organisms (not to mention there exists 900,000 known types of insects too). We live on a planet of insects, not a planet of humans. And the truth is, if some types of insects become extinct (such as bees), we will die out too. On the other hand, the survival of some insects may not depend on our existence. For example, it is said that cockroaches can out survive us following a nuclear apocalypse. After I read this book, I was reminded that we (the humans) need to respect our surroundings more, because we are not the masters, but only co-inhabitants, with other organisms on this planet, where our very own survivals are depending on them. I don't like to talk about politics, but I am becoming increasingly aware, of the importance on making decisions based on scientific data and facts instead of on ideological camps, this is becoming more important especially in this era where cultural and ideological wars run rampart in the media and social media to cloud our judgements.

Ok, enough of my ramblings about the environment, back to the book review. The Demon Crown, like every Sigma Force preceding it, is a fast-paced, thrilling ride. This book is addictive, with many twists and turns that warrant a roller coaster ride. Certain themes in this book reminded me of Jurassic Park. The book mentioned some interesting sciences (but some of it borderline science fiction). I especially enjoyed the well written, and fascinating chapters describing the behaviors of the wasps and swarms; if James Rollins had written my biology textbooks from back in the days then I would have been a much better student in the biology classes.

In terms of the book's characters, from Gray, Seichan, Monk, Kowalski, Kat, and Painter Crowe, all of our beloved characters from Sigma Force returned in The Demon Crown with styles. This book followed the structures from previous books, with two parallel story arcs. The first story arc consists of the non-stop actions from Gray, Seichan, and Kowalski in the Pacific Islands. The second story arc relates the adventures of Monk and Kat in central Europe. There is a good sense of character progression here, as the story explored how the past events are continuing to affect our heroes' emotions and relationships. Furthermore, the story gave me a sense of dread. It felt like the characters were immersed in terrible dangers, where we can never tell if these heroes can survive their adventures unscathed.

I am very happy with The Demon Crown. I am a long time fan of Sigma Force series, and I think this book is a worthy addition to the series. I have no idea how James Rollins is able to publish these amazing thrillers, year after year. This man's creative powers must be immense. Currently, there is no news for the next Sigma Force novel. But judging from James Rollins' publishing records, a new Sigma Force novel should (hopefully) arrive near the end of 2018, and so I am eagerly anticipating for Mr. Rollins' next Sigma Force novel to come knocking on my door.