Sigma Force #14, Another hair raising, death defying, action packed, FANTASTIC read from James Rollins. If you haven't read the entire series yet I really recommend it, it's history, science, religion, and action adventure all rolled into one. Another nice thing, IMO, is I don't think you have to read the others to enjoy and follow this one. There are a few things references to a certain person in a past book but nothing to major, and the major characters are all established and there are quite a few characters to keep track of fortunately they are split into two groups, sometimes three, and with the third person POV you follow everyone, and in this books case you even follow the evolution of an AI.

Seichan and Monk's two daughters are missing, Kat is in the hospital barely hanging on, and now Monk, Gray, and their team have to track down a young woman and her AI before an overzealous group that goes back to the time of the Spanish Inquisition get their hands on it and unleash a new kind of hell on the world. Gray and Monk are torn between finding Seichan, who is pregnant with Gray's unborn baby,with Monk's two daughters and once again saving the world but the person who took them wants the AI too so in order to get them back they need the AI. It also helps that they know Seichan and what she's capable of, Monk's daughters couldn't be in better, safer hands even at eight months pregnant she's deadly.

I'm an emotional reader, I will laugh out loud in public at funny parts and I WILL bawl my eyes out if the situation calls for it. The beginning of this book and the end of the book had me in tears, big fat ugly tears. The rest of the time I was at the edge of my seat and holding my breath it was intense. It stands for reason that Rollins is one of my top five favorite authors he delivers, with every single book you get an action packed, emotional, educational, entertaining read. Each new book is my favorite and this is no exception this book wrecked me in all the best ways.   

If the biblical plagues of Egypt truly happened--could they happen again--on a global scale?

Two years after vanishing into the Sudanese desert, the leader of a British archeological expedition, Professor Harold McCabe, comes stumbling out of the sands, frantic and delirious, but he dies before he can tell his story. The mystery deepens when an autopsy uncovers a bizarre corruption: someone had begun to mummify the professor's body--while he was still alive.

His strange remains are returned to London for further study, when alarming news arrives from Egypt. The medical team who had performed the man's autopsy has fallen ill with an unknown disease, one that is quickly spreading throughout Cairo. Fearing the worst, a colleague of the professor reaches out to a longtime friend: Painter Crowe, the director of Sigma Force. The call is urgent, for Professor McCabe had vanished into the desert while searching for proof of the ten plagues of Moses. As the pandemic grows, a disturbing question arises.

Are those plagues starting again?

The Seventh Plague is the 12th book in the Sigma Force series and Painter Crowe, Grey Pierce, Seichan, and Kowalski, etc. are back trying to save the world from a deadly threat. This time it seems that they deadly plagues from the Bible could happen again.

This book did not have intense and wonderful thrilling feeling that the last book had. However, it was interesting to read, the idea that the plagues could have happened for real and the theory for it and I loved the historical part of the book that Rollins' included Mark Twain, Nikola Tesla in the story, although they did not have a large part in the whole story (unfortunately).

I wanted to like this book so much!  It sounded like such interesting fun from the blurb and I enjoyed the James Rollins book I read earlier this year, so I was looking forward to another action-filled thriller with some cool religiously supernatural overtones.  Vampire priests!  Woot!

Ugh.

That's not what I got.

First off, the female lead, the heroine, Erin... well, she spent half her time hiding behind the big, strong, blond, soldier protector guy who could make her warm with just a faint touch in the midst of all the danger of the damned world.  Every time something remotely dangerous approached, there was the big dumb hero thrusting her behind him. 

Speaking of big dumb hero, his name was Jordan, which is fine.  Jordan is a unisex name.  The only problem with this is that Jordan is a name I have used in my own writing for years as a woman's name.  So that bugged me from beginning to end.  *LOL*  Most people probably won't have this problem though.

Overall, this book had a really sexist vibe to it. Not only was Jordan 'protecting' Erin every chance he got and not only were the both of them getting turned on by the slightest of things in the midst of great danger or focus, the whole plot of the book hinged on sex it seemed.  Now I know that vampires are supposed to be sexy and all, but neither author is very good at writing sexy to prove it for one thing - and for another it all read like the downfall of all the good and holy came at the hands of the woman and her seduction of the defenseless priest.

I also felt that some of the ideas were really good and could have been expounded upon more but the authors maybe didn't have the facility to go deeper?  I dunno... I felt they missed the mark on a lot of the historical stuff.  And there was A LOT of historical stuff in this book - maybe too much.  Masada, Christ's Life, Saint Peter, Hitler, Rasputin, the siege of St. Petersburg, medieval Hungary.... just so so so much and alot of it just glossed over. 

But of course we have the improbable love story of Erin and Jordan - oh, did I mention that I think the story takes place over 2 days - 3 max?   Yeah, well, the number of times that we were treated to adolescent reactions from both of these characters was really over the top. 

I could go on because so much of this book left me unsatisfied.  And in the end... well... we don't really get much closure at all.  Oh... Erin and Jordan like each other.  *RME*  I don't know that I'll pick up the second book in this series.  Maybe, but I doubt it.  I think I'll probably stick to Rollins' Sigma Force novels instead for ridiculous, crazy action thrillers. 

New York Times bestselling author James Rollins comes a shocking short story, where a chance mishap leads to the discovery of a weapon like no other in . . . Crash and Burn.

On a transatlantic flight, the two black sheep of Sigma Force--Seichan and Kowalski--must set aside their mutual dislike as a mysterious fiery force knocks their aircraft out of the sky. This unlikely duo must use every skill, weapon, and bit of ingenuity to survive a night on a remote volcanic island, where their only refuge is the haunted, bat-plagued grounds of a seemingly deserted resort. But something horrific awaits the two, something born of the latest science but rooted in our basest human instincts. To survive they will need to learn to work together--but even then, it may be too late.

Right, I'm just going to do a short review of this novella since there is just not much to say about it. I thought I read it since I just got the latest James Rollins book (woohoo!) and I thought this story may be important to the book (or in some way connected). I do like that it featured two of my favorite characters, but to be honest it was way too short to be more than I appetizer. And, not even an intriguing appetizer. I felt that because the shortness of the story did nothing really happened, or rather everything had to happen in a matter of a few pages and then the end. I could see how this could be a prolog but as a short story? Nah, it didn't work for me.