I will admit, I am rubbish when it comes to understanding the workings of the computer. I do know how to turn them on an off, do the important things like write my blog and compile my shopping lists, but the rest leaves me with a blank look upon my face and the feeling that somehow I have been left behind. So, in James Rollins newest outing with the brave and intrepid members of Sigma Force, Crucible, left me lagging in netherspace or is it etherspace?
I did so enjoy the rapid pace of the story, the ideas and concepts it entailed, but understanding what was going on in the field of artificial intelligence just went whooshing right over my head.
After discovering Kat, his friend’s wife, their two children, and his pregnant girlfriend attacked while Kat is left for dead, Commander Pierce and the illustrious Sigma Force is on the trail on the assailants. Kat is left for dead and through the use of some pretty sophisticated technology, she, the only witness to the crime, is enlisted to help. Problem is she is technically brain dead.
The team swings into motion and this time wages war against the modern forces of the Spanish Inquisition. As history tells us, the Inquisition was a blood filled era, a time where everyone was thought to be a witch, a wizard, or a demon of some kind that members of the Church felt duty bound to rid the world of in none too pleasant a manner.
In this book, the modern incantation of the Inquisition is back in a group that decides the world is too evil and needs to be cleansed. Never a good sign really! In their quest to do so, they want to steal the AI work of a brilliant scientist whose work has produced an AI which resides, at least for now, inside her computer. Joining forces with Sigma are witches, seemingly sanctioned by the church who play a role in tracking down the bad guys, and striving to prevent the Inquisition members from attaining their goal, that of purifying the world. Things really are looking pretty dire for planet earth, but is it possible that the Sigma forces can succeed once again and save the day?
This is the fourteenth outing for the Sigma Force books and as always, Mr Rollins is able to combine areas in science that are currently occurring, with an intriguing story line. I enjoyed the book, although not as much as his others and I blame on my lack of computer savvy skills. Rollins’s fans, and I count myself on of those, will enjoy this fast paced drama that will blend amazing things being done today with a fast paced story line. However, Mr Rollins is quick to point out that humans might not benefit from the current breakthroughs especially if the breakthroughs become smarter than the people who discovered them.
and here’s the author:
James Rollins is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers, translated into more than forty languages, with more than 20 million copies sold. The New York Times says, “Rollins is what you might wind up with if you tossed Michael Crichton and Dan Brown into a particle accelerator together,” and NPR calls his work “Adventurous and enormously engrossing.” Rollins unveils unseen worlds, scientific breakthroughs, and historical secrets–and does it all at breakneck speed and with stunning suspense. A practicing veterinarian, Rollins has pursued scuba, spelunking, and other adventures around the world, and currently lives and writes in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
yaya_reads (Marialyce) 