The Doomsday Key

I’m not sure why I waited so long to read this book. Normally when a new Rollins is released I’m at the store the same day. Perhaps it was because I was afraid the goodness couldn’t last forever, but I should have had better faith in Mr. Rollins. The Doomsday Key was fabulous. It contains all the necessary ingredients for a successful smörgåsbord of action-adventure-thriller-suspense entertainment. There are certain criteria you need for an endeavor like this: the good guys, the bad guys, comedic relief (oh, Kowalski), conspiracy rooted in historical truth (popes and prophecies), gunfights and explosions, caves, caves that cave in, a deadly disease, a finger in a leather bag with ancient symbols burned on the outside, a good show more dosing of betrayal, some stone circles and smelly peat bogs, oh and a few cliffhangers thrown in for good measure. It’s all here!

This time around, Sigma is back to work with a shadowy double agent operative named Seichan who also works with the Guild (see: bad guys). We still don’t know if Seichan is true to us (and by us I mean Sigma, of course) or if she’s just out for her own benefit. Either way, if Commander Gray Pierce doesn’t work with her, the whole world could be taken over by a nasty spore; a fungus that grows mushrooms inside of you.

Yeah, gross.

Doomsday is the sixth Sigma novel, and it could be my favorite. Sometimes after the first few books in a series an author teeters out, the books become formulaic and predictable, but Doomsday is none of these. This one is more mature than its predecessors; I even got teary at one point toward the end. Not to mention there was so much information related to true historical facts that my head was spinning, and I came out the other side smarter for it. Google Saint Malachy and his prophecies, or the legend of the Black Madonna, or colony collapse disorder, and you’ll see what I mean; but you won’t understand how they all go together until you read this book. It really makes you think… if the facts and details used to make a plot are real, what if Rollins’ theories as put down in fiction are actually true? And that, that right there, is why I love his books. I suggest you run your person out to the closest book store and start with Sandstorm (Sigma prequel) and work your way up from there.

5 stars. His next book is not Sigma, but I love his individual adventures too, so I can’t wait for the Altar of Eden on December 29. show less

It's always nice to revisit the Sigma Force gang, and this was a solid outing with some pretty cool scientific and historical underpinnings. And while I know that it's practically a requirement for a thriller to have some crazy and over-the-top plot elements, I wish that this series would fight the trend a bit more, as Rollins's work is far more than just mindless fluff, and I hate to see him giving any ammo (pun sort of intended) to those who live to denigrate the genre. In fact, the crazy (and entirely unnecessary) plot elements had ensured a three-star rating until the very nice twist at the end, which took me completely by surprise and served as a game changer for one of the characters. And yes, someone really needs to get Kowalski show more a teddy bear. show less

The Doomsday Key is a down-and-dirty thriller. Part religious mystery, part end-of-mankind warning, it utilizes an uber-secret military agency and modern issues to attract readers across multiple genres. It is similar to a Dan Brown/Tom Clancy mash-up, and it works very well.

Like most modern thrillers, The Doomsday Key isn't award-winning literature. However, this does not stop the reader from frantically turning pages, anxious to find out what happens next. At the same time, Mr. Rollins creates a forum by which he can present the very real possibility of food shortages due to a burgeoning global population and the power plays that have already started as a result of such shortages. He presents these modern issues in a way that is show more thrilling, fun, and yet fairly realistic.

What adds to the story the most is the fact that Mr. Rollins takes the time to delineate the truth and the fiction in his novel. The fact that there really was a Domesday book with mysterious underpinnings and a Doomsday vault heightens the tension. More importantly, Mr. Rollins highlights the religious mysteries, what is real and what is speculation. Mr. Rollins' research, and his sharing of this research makes the entire story that much more credible and subsequently more thrilling.

As the sixth book of the Sigma Force series, I am definitely interested in reading more of the series, although for those who have not yet started the series will be happy to know that reading the previous novels is not necessary to enjoy this one. The Doomsday Key is fun, escapist literature that will be sure to please thriller lovers everywhere. show less

Another winner--why do I even doubt?

Yes, I doubted, very briefly. I'm ashamed. It's not that The Doomsday Key doesn't start off in a readable and totally entertaining manner. It really does. Rollins has what he does down to a science by now. He quickly reintroduces the main players (a few of whom we haven't seen in a while: Rachel Verona and Seichan) and establishes their relationships with each other. In addition to the ladies above, all the main Sigma players make their appearance, but as usual not all of them are heavily featured on this adventure. Seichan fans rejoice, she has a major role and experiences tremendous character development in this novel.

After the characters are reestablished, (again, as you'd expect) the action show more starts. A motorcycle chase here, a shootout there, a dash of international travel. Now, I love James Rollins with all my heart, but these opening salvos--while very well-written--felt a little... generic. My moment of doubt.

Happily, it didn't last long. Once Rollins set the main plot in motion, all such thoughts vanished. Seriously, WHAT was I thinking? For me, things really kicked into high gear with the introduction of a new character, Professor Wallace Boyle, whose lecture on peat bogs thrilled me to my soul. I know, peat bogs, who'd a thunk it? But again, that's Rollins' gift. He must look at the world through curiosity-colored glasses; he can find the wonder in the most unlikely of places and subjects. And even more brilliantly, he manages to string together a laundry list of disparate fascinating topics into the plot of a tight, tense thriller. And he does it again and again.

I know I'm being very, very vague about the plot. It would be a shame to give too much away. The central plot revolves around a plague from the past and a plague of the future: hunger. As characters in the novel expound, there will soon be a tipping point where there are far too many people on this planet to feed. Who gets to choose who lives or who dies? If you had the power and resources to make the hard choices, what would you do "to save the world?" And would you be a hero or a villain?

It is the exploring of the above questions that entails ancient artifacts, hidden rooms, booby traps, prophecies come true, missing bumble bees, miracle-performing saints, love triangles, the final resting place of Merlin the wizard, polar bears, teddy bears, and the world's healthiest apple. And I didn't even give you a hint of the real shocker!

A lot of thrillers make the goal, save the world, whatever, and end abruptly. Not so here. There was a nice... cooling down period after the action ended. It's a chance to check in with all the major characters, and a chance for Rollins to leave us with another of his signature cliff-hangers. This one isn't as brutal as some he's written, but those invested in the series will be left with a question to keep them wondering for the coming year.

A final note: Is it wrong that the author's afterwards have become my very favorite part of these novels? This may be the longest one yet (And for God's sake, DON'T read it before you finish the book!), and I am staggered by how much true stuff was worked into the novel. I mean, pretty much every too-amazing-to-be-true fact was, in fact, true. James Rollins, you rock my world! show less

Rollins' Sigma Force novels are action-adventure stories based on science, but taking that science well beyond established bounds. That's ok, the what-if-it's-true feeling you get from them is part of the fun. It doesn't hurt that the action is non-stop and the heroes are enjoyable. So what if they're essentially all the same book and major characters are clones of one another? I manage to enjoy four Lethal Weapon and who knows how many Schwarzenegger movies that have the same problem. If action/adventure/thriller is your thing, you'll likely enjoy Rollins.

Doomsday Key is better than the previous couple of books in the series. The plot's a bit more science-y and less hinting at the supernatural than earlier ones. The prose and the show more characters didn't disappoint, and the bit of a plot twist at the end sets up the next book nicely. Rollins is definitely a good antidote to the technical reading I've been doing for work lately! show less

A dead geneticist at Princeton, a dead Vatican archaeologist in St. Peter’s Basilica, and a dead aid worker in Ghana who happens to be the son of a US Senator. In every case, a Druidic cross is burned into the flesh of the victim. Gray Pierce and Sigma Force are called into the investigation from two different angles, and end up in deep.

This is the fifth book in James Rollins’ Sigma Force series. I haven’t read the other books, so I wasn’t sure how I would like this one; five books in isn’t the best place to start a new series, after all. But The Doomsday Key is an outstanding thriller that I would recommend to anyone.

There are hints in the book of past plot-lines, and surely there are some spoilers mixed in, so if you really show more want to read the other books in the series, I’d recommend you read them first. But there’s really nothing in this book that would prohibit a newcomer from picking it up and enjoying it. That’s not something you can say about most thriller series books.

Rollins’ writing is strong; the plot is tight, even when there are two or three different plot-lines going on at the same time, you aren’t really distracted, and you don’t have trouble keeping track of who is where and what’s going on in each. It helps that each plot-line is very closely related to the others, even though it’s not obvious to the characters at the beginning of the book. This is an outstanding beach book — in fact, the cover of my ARC is a little weathered because it got a bit damp while I was on the beach.

One of the things you don’t always get in a thriller is good characterization. Rollins’ characters in The Doomsday Key aren’t as deep as characters in fine literature, but they are far more developed than in most thrillers you’ll read. That’s the advantage of a series.

Rollins doesn’t assume that readers have read all the other Sigma Force books, which I appreciated. Of course, he’s also banking on them wanting to read the other Sigma Force books once they’re done with this one. And in that respect he is correct; I will at the very least paying a visit to my local library in the very near future to catch up on the past exploits of Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force. show less

The Doomsday Key by James Rollins is the sixth book in the Sigma Force series, reading the previous books is not required to understand or to enjoy the book. This is my first book by Rollins and I enjoyed it so much I read the last half in a single evening. As a matter of fact I plan on reading the rest of the series since I really enjoyed this one.

Sigma Force is a special black ops group that has a very wide range of skills and duties, similar to 'Mission: Impossible'. This time 2 separate and seemingly unrelated incidents peak Sigma’s interest for different reasons, discovering they are very much related and are only the tip of the iceberg. Someone has found an ancient biological weapon and has plans for it’s dissemination, all show more they need to do is find an antidote to protect those chosen. Sigma Force gets tangled up in the plot while trying to figure out who’s doing what and why.

The book was an exciting fast-paced ride that started on page 10 after an easy introduction and didn’t stop to let anyone off. As a matter of fact, it kept picking up speed until the end. Helping keep the pace, the chapters were relatively short and each chapter was broken down into sections with time stamps as we jumped back and forth between different groups doing things concurrently. I thought it was well put together and really enjoyed the story. It captured my attention and didn’t let it go. I highly recommend for those who enjoy spy thrillers of the action kind. show less