Reviews for Map of Bones (Sigma Force Series #2)

The average rating for Map of Bones (Sigma Force Series #2) based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-10-20 00:00:00 Benjamin Wallace Map of Bones is an action adventure tale, combining both ancient secret societies, a la Dan Brown, and other secret societies, a la...well... Ian Fleming. Sigma is the good guy crew here, led by Grayson Pierce, this book's version of 007, ably assisted by his trusted buddy, Monk, and the relative newbie, Kat. It comes complete with an opening action sequence that introduces the two antagonists. When a cathedral in Cologne is assaulted by a crew using strange technology that leaves all present but one dead, and the take is ancient Magi bones, the Church is, as one might expect, alarmed. Sigma is called in. James Rollins - from wikimedia There is a secret afoot and a highly competitive treasure hunt in which Sigma tries to outpace not only the Dragon Court, a millennia old cult of alchemists and overall bad guys, but their hired team of assassins, the Guild, led by Pierce's personal enemy, the cold-blooded Dragon Lady. Joining Pierce in his attempts to find out who, what, and where is Rachel Verona, Vatican Caribinieri and niece to a Vatican big-wig. Raoul, the major bad guy is straight out of central casting, lacking only steel braces. There are plenty of sub-mysteries concerning who is on which side in both the Vatican and Sigma, which adds some spice. Of particular value here is the technology, both real and speculative, and the offered history, a definite plus. Rollins is not the tightest writer in terms of offering reasonable explanations for the twists and turns of the story. Far too often he relies on silliness like "Gray had memorized the layout of the castle." This grows in frequency as we near the end. Another gripe is that the book seems a series of chases and battles with not all that much to connect them for the first 100 pages. That abates a bit, thankfully. Rollins offers the mandatory climactic thunderstorm, a reasonable quantity of blood and guts, hints of sexual attraction, a bit of perversion, but focuses on the story and keeps it moving at a hectic pace. Good fun. Leave your disbelief on a hanger somewhere. Rollins's site I read and reviewed one other Sigma Force Book, #4 - The Judas Strain

Review # 2 was written on 2009-08-27 00:00:00 Anthony Sims 4.0 stars. Second in the Sigma Force series (after Sandstorm), I can now see that this is going to be a great series. These books are incredibly quick reads with fast, well thought out plots. Even though they are quick reads, don't think there is no detail as James Rollins is a research fanatic and packs the book with a lot of interesting details from which he extrapolates some of the more "fantastic" plot devices. Think "Tom Clancy" meets "Fringe" with a dash of "Indiana Jones" and you will have a good idea what these books are about. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!