The Judas Strain: A Sigma Force Novel, Book 4

This takes over the #1 slot among Rollins novels from Bone Labyrinth with tighter, better focused action and good characterization. If the character work feels just a hair below the excellence of Bone, Rollins more than makes up for it in other ways. As his characters work through their increasingly intertwined business and personal lives, what appears to be a natural phenomenon at Christmas Island in the Pacific turns out to involve the nefarious Guild, a (real) historical mystery going back to Marco Polo, and the quest for the ultimate biological weapon. The sheer amount of action is toned down a notch from Bones, but that lets us understand better what's going on, and the focus on key characters is tighter. The usual coincidences and luck help our heroes out, but this is a thriller and we readers accept his as part of the books' universe. Some of the "wisdom of the ancients" stuff is still farfetched (they knew about DNA how?) but this novel only relies on it enough to make the story work. The biological science is scary, indeed terrifying, and plausible. The technology throughout works fine: a last-chapter connection between continents on a low-power device initially struck me as absurd, but then I started working it out, and realized you could do it, and do it clandestinely, by bypassing the usual military/intel satellites and hiding it in a civilian system like ARGOS. That was reassuring, as I sometimes feel Rollins treats global communications almost as magic. The details of architecture and history are everywhere convincing, and the heroes have to rely heavily on their brains as well as their guns and gadgets to solve the mystery. Some of the heroes (e.g., Lisa, Gray) take the next step in developing as operatives and leaders, and a hunt for a mole (In stories like Midnight Watch, Sigma has a nasty habit of developing security weaknesses when the plot requires it) leads to a jaw-dropping scene about loyalties and who's playing who. Also, one of the early chapters wins some kind of ingenuity award for the cleverest use of a natural "weapon" to take out bad guys.Overall, then, I think this is the best-written of the Sigma series, one I had an easy time following but a hard time putting down. Excellent work, sir.Matt Bille,[...], author The First Space Race,[...]

if you enjoyed the first three Sigma books you'll like this one too. Lots of action, multiple exotic locations, ancient riddles, nefarious bad guys - it's all here. Unfortunately it has very open ending that raises more questions then answers which reduces the rating for me. After getting through almost 700 pages the last thing I want is to deal with is a cliffhanger. Now I feel like I have to buy the next one to get closure, rather then wanting to buy it for another story. Grrrr

I have to admit that I'm a die-hard James Rollins fan. Cracking open his new book is one of the highlights of my summer. Sure his action can be a bit over-the-top and a few details slightly hyperbolic, LOL. I mean, what's a thriller without the thrills? But the books are consistently well-researched, deftly plotted, and very, very smart.Probably my favorite aspect of Rollins' thrillers is their integration of science into the story. After all, his team of protagonists, the Sigma Force, is part of a government agency that recruits former special forces operatives and educates them to the Ph.D. level in scientific disciplines. They've got both the military training and the scientific knowledge to investigate technological and scientific phenomenon around the world on behalf of the US government. Not a bad starting premise.The plots of Rollins' novels tend to be complex, multi-stranded affairs that are difficult to summarize. In Judas Strain, as has been noted by other readers, there is an urgency brought on by a possible pandemic outbreak of bacterial infections. That, in and of itself, is not the most original plot. But in a Rollins novel, it's never that simple. Did you know that only 10 percent of the cells that make up your body are human, and the other 90 percent are alien--bacteria, parasites, etc? It's true, absolutely true. Did you know that the difference between a commonplace, harmless bacteria and a potential killer disease is just the tiniest alteration to its genetic code? What would happen if something altered all the zillions of harmless bacteria we have contact with daily and suddenly they turned on us in the most horrific way imaginable? And I do mean the most horrific way imaginable, because James Rollins is a bit of a sicko, and nothing seems to be off limits for him. What he puts his poor "patient zero" through is--yuck--awful!But what does all this have to do with the travels of Marco Polo? The architecture of Angor Wat? The behavior of red crabs on Christmas Island? The development of "Angelic" text? The religious beliefs of cannibals? How the heck does Rollins COME UP WITH all this stuff? And most impressively, how the heck does he tie all the strands together! Because he does, most satisfyingly. Although, it must be warned that The Judas Strain leaves readers with a simply terrible cliff-hanger that will have us all on tenterhooks until next summer. Waiting for the next book in the series is going to be torture!

I love the suspense and intrigue drilled into each chapter of this book. I could not put down the last 3rd!

I really like this book, I found it eerily close to what is possible if some one were to be willing to release such a thing.

Tiene una buena trama, pero para algunas palabras es necesario tener un diccionario a la mano para entenderlo todo con claridad.

Liked it. Great action. Loved the Marco Polo stuff at the start. I should read more about his travels. Is Monk still alive? On to the next book.

O livro é excelente, mas infelizmente, chegou bastante avariado. Amassados tanto na capa como nas páginas internas, e fora os amassados, as páginas já estavam bem amareladas, parecendo item usado ou de sebo. Se soubesse que viria nestas condições, não teria comprado. Apesar que em relação a trama, o que posso dizer é que o livro é bem acima da média. Para quem curte ficção e aventura, não tem nada melhor!

Well the book only arrived a couple of days ago, but I'm already enthralled with the science involved in this new to me James Rollins. It is interesting to know that hew too is a scientist ( a fully qualified vet no less ). What I like about the first two novels of his that I've read is he justifies what he has said by giving you a detailed explanation of the "science" and it works as he has done all of his research. The only trouble I have with his work is that I bed-time read and the hard backs are too heavy for me to hold for long and getting the paper backs other that from Amazon is extremely difficult. The same has happened to me with another American author.