The Judas Strain by James Rollins (2007, Hardcover)

The Judas Strain

The Entertainment Critic Book Review By James Myers
THE JUDAS STRAIN
By James Rollins
Published by William Morrow
An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
352 Pages
ISBN 10: 0060763892
ISBN-13# 978-0-06-076389-3
(Four Star Rating)****
Something old, fatal and evil from the ancient past comes back to haunt the modern world in James Rollins latest tale. The story begins at midnight on the Island of Sumatra in 1293, where there is some kind of unknown, mystical violence. Marco Polo and his father pray for forgiveness and leave the island to return to Italy. The treck from the Far East to Italy begins with 14 ships and 600 men. They arrive home with only 2 ships and 18 men. A great mystery arises, what became of the remainder of Marco Polo’s fleet? This was a secret the great explorer took to his grave. Could the fleet have been overtaken by some plague or other catastrophe?

Back in the present, Dr Susan Tunis and her husband Gregg, while investigating the possible cause of scores of dolphins that have beached themselves on the coast of Java, that same Marco Polo mystery befalls them. Has the same deadly virus that may have decimated Marco Polo’s crew that once was dormant become active again?

At the same time, we learn the Vigor Verona, the new prefect of the Vatican’s Secret Archives has learned that the fate of the Polo crew, the dead beasts in the ocean, and a luxury ocean liner, converted into an emergency medical ship laying stranded in the Indian Sea, are all somehow related to a cataclysmic plague, and an artifact held in the possession of a Guild Agent. This infection threatens all living things. SIGMA and its group of agents are called into action. This book is the third installment that traces the struggle between SIGMA, a secret agency that protects the free world against biological or chemical attacks through the use of technically trained operatives and The Guild, a group of evil scientist, bend on taking over the world through sophisticated biological warfare. Can they stop the Guild and save the world?

Rollins, who weaves together scientific and historical aspects of truth and fiction in his novels has successfully done so again. His ability to blend truth and fiction, history and fantasy, technology and the thriller genre novel is evidenced again in his latest work. His combination of some truth, some historical fiction makes his books insightful and penetrating. He uses these contrasts to create impossible situations for the heroes to get out of that gives the readers a sense of urgency and tension in his work. Then the heroes, at the last possible second, find a way out. Lot of adventure, mystery, exotic locales, and a popular group of standard characters, make this book and this series action packed adventures, with puzzles to be solved, socking developments to handled, and the inevitable cliffhanger, leaving the reader begging for more. The book reads like a Hollywood blockbuster movie. Somehow Rollins convinces us to suspend our belief and his work is smart enough to draw us into the fun. This one is interesting, polished and impressive. Along the lines of The Da Vinci Code, an Indiana Jones movie, and a James Bond film, we are drawn in by the forceful writing of this book. We’re taken on a long, exciting, suspenseful joy ride to find the answers to the book’s mysteries. It is a ride worth taking.