Seventh plague - book review
If I was given a little titbit of an information on relation between Tesla and Twain, few interesting legends surrounding Livingstone and Stanley, news about an organism that thrives on eating electricity, that’s right, for survival and add to the mix the fact finding mission on verification of THE exodus, by Moses, I would’ve relished reading each of those items individually and would’ve stopped at that. But James Rollins had other ideas to add to them and has come up with the latest edition of Sigma series Novel – The Seventh plague.
Have always been a big fan of novels that move at super fast pace, with a delightful mix of fact and fiction and Rollins is a past master at that. His last few novels where a total let down to say the least. But he more than makes up for them in this latest edition. It’s a true to its tale, Rollins special with a fantastic premise weaved around fiction, almost undecipherable from so many facts strewn around, that it all results in sensational stuff. It’s a marvelous piece of imagination that makes him blend Egyptian self mummification with memories of Elephants and a microbe surviving in extreme environments to make a story out of it. Of course there are several logical lead of faiths and potholes of a plot. But if you are an action movie buff, this would be right up your alley. Rollins, as always, follows a blast scenario for his lead characters that take them continents apart and then a regroup to the climax plot which links all their chase and quest into a single plot to form a cohesive ending. Almost all of this stories have such blockbuster opening sequences that they immediately become ‘hard-to-put-down’ers. But he usually goofs up the ending so badly that it feels irritating an effort to have spent on the book. With 7th plague, he has done a reasonably decent one on the ending.
The story resembles those famous myths around Egyptian mummies and tombs and how they cause mysterious accidents and death to the archeological crew who are involved in the excavation. It borrows heavily from these urban legends and forms a link all the way to the original exodus. What happens when those ten plagues that were unleashed by Moses on the Pharaoh is all set to make a re-appearance, as the professor whose life ambition is to prove that exodus was not a story, but a real incident, inadvertently release the very plague that shook the then Egypt. The microbe, that thrives on eating electricity gets unleashed, when his body undergoes post mortem, from his brain. Sigma force comes into picture straight away and from then onwards it’s a race to finish between the good intented yet sinister villain’s team vs the heroes. And as always the heroes win.
Gils verdict – After a long time had a real racy thriller to read and relished it. Not for logic seeking, classic novel literature buffs.
Have always been a big fan of novels that move at super fast pace, with a delightful mix of fact and fiction and Rollins is a past master at that. His last few novels where a total let down to say the least. But he more than makes up for them in this latest edition. It’s a true to its tale, Rollins special with a fantastic premise weaved around fiction, almost undecipherable from so many facts strewn around, that it all results in sensational stuff. It’s a marvelous piece of imagination that makes him blend Egyptian self mummification with memories of Elephants and a microbe surviving in extreme environments to make a story out of it. Of course there are several logical lead of faiths and potholes of a plot. But if you are an action movie buff, this would be right up your alley. Rollins, as always, follows a blast scenario for his lead characters that take them continents apart and then a regroup to the climax plot which links all their chase and quest into a single plot to form a cohesive ending. Almost all of this stories have such blockbuster opening sequences that they immediately become ‘hard-to-put-down’ers. But he usually goofs up the ending so badly that it feels irritating an effort to have spent on the book. With 7th plague, he has done a reasonably decent one on the ending.
The story resembles those famous myths around Egyptian mummies and tombs and how they cause mysterious accidents and death to the archeological crew who are involved in the excavation. It borrows heavily from these urban legends and forms a link all the way to the original exodus. What happens when those ten plagues that were unleashed by Moses on the Pharaoh is all set to make a re-appearance, as the professor whose life ambition is to prove that exodus was not a story, but a real incident, inadvertently release the very plague that shook the then Egypt. The microbe, that thrives on eating electricity gets unleashed, when his body undergoes post mortem, from his brain. Sigma force comes into picture straight away and from then onwards it’s a race to finish between the good intented yet sinister villain’s team vs the heroes. And as always the heroes win.
Gils verdict – After a long time had a real racy thriller to read and relished it. Not for logic seeking, classic novel literature buffs.
Comments
Vachanam, Direction, Gils of course !