The 6th Extinction

July 14, 2014
When a research site blows up in a remote California desert, releasing a virulent pathogenic entity, the operatives of the secret U.S. agency, Sigma Force, swing into action, in bestseller Rollins's exciting, well-researched 10th Sigma Force novel (after 2013's The Eye of God). Under the command of Grayson Pierce, the Sigma team discovers not one, but two, underground worlds. Scientist Cutter Elwes, who has established his living laboratory inside a mountain in the jungles of Brazil, is targetingâthrough his minion, Maj. Dylan Wrightâthe domain of Professor Alex Harrington, a huge cavern under the ice of Hell's Cape, Antarctica. Elwes's wants to cause a mass extinction, the sixth in the planet's history, to save it from the evils of humankind. The book has everything the genre demands: Nazis, ancient maps, alien life forms, a ticking nuclear clock, and exotic, deadly beasts. Rollins makes it all believable, and ties everything together in a satisfying climax that hints at more adventures to come. 10-city author tour. Agents: Russ Galen, Scovil Galen Ghost Literary Agency; and Danny Baror, Baror International.

August 15, 2014
Mash up Lovecraft and Ludlum, stir in exotic geography and lashings of mad science, and you've got the latest from the Rollins (Bloodline, 2012, etc.) pop-thriller factory. Given that half of adult Americans reportedly don't believe in evolution, it's daring to open in the chart room of the HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin pondering an "ancient Fuegian map" redolent of dark, unsettling mysteries. Move forward a couple of centuries, and we're with the steely-jawed Painter Crowe, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency commando par excellence (and who knew DARPA had commandos?), who takes time out from protecting the world from technological mayhem only long enough to ogle his whip-smart fiancee, "to appreciate the curve of her backside, the angle of her hip, the length of her leg." She may be the captain of the chess club we'd all like to join, but she's got the right stuff, like all of Sigma Force, to protect us from evil-until, that is, supreme bad guy Cutter Elwes returns from the grave where he's presumably been, well, not living for a dozen-odd years to do that voodoo that he does so well. He's very, very bad-we know because he's "French on his father's side"-but he's not the only scientist to be tinkering with the innermost workings of nature, attempting to undo all that we know of the laws of Darwinian evolution by, say, bringing extremely irritable creatures back from extinction and unleashing biological mayhem on an unsuspecting world. Cutting-edge science and mad dashes to D.C., Antarctica and highland Brazil notwithstanding, this is a good old-fashioned dust-up, the cliffhanging question being always whether the good guys of the public sector will prevail over the bad guys of the private. Tune in to find out. Literature it's not-more like an industrial product that sort of looks like it, in the same way that a fast-food burger resembles food. Still, it's plenty tasty, if not very nutritious.

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August 1, 2014
A remote scientific research facility issues a frantic mayday: something has been let out of the facility, something that could potentially lead to the extinction of life on Earth. Now it's up to Sigma Force, the covert operations arm of the U.S. government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to find out what the facility was working on, why the chief researcher has gone missing, and why some centuries-old maps seem to be vitally important to the man's work. This is another fast-paced mixture of real science, real history, and wild speculation. Rollins' popular Sigma Force series is definitely formulaic, but it's a formula that works splendidly, like a well-oiled machine. We know who these characters are, we know there will be a mind-bending revelation about a historical mystery, and we know there will be plenty of race-against-the-clock action. Fans of the series and lovers of wall-to-wall action in general will have a great time. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: For speed freaks (narrative speed, that is), Rollins always delivers the goods. Readers, start your engines.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)