I’ve been a longtime fan of James Rollins’s novels. I picked up his first thriller, Subterranean, on the premise of an underground adventure at the center of the earth. I never seem to get tired of those, and Rollins made the concept his own while providing unique twists. I followed his other books into the current Sigma Force series that are consistent New York Times bestsellers.
I wasn’t too surprised to see him enter the young adult market. With his writing talent and his varied interests that are always at the core adventures, Rollins is a natural for the 9 to 12 age group. The title of his first book, Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow, practically screams out for attention from young fans won over by the recent Indiana Jones movie. If you didn't know, Rollins also wrote the novelization of that movie.
Notice that James Rollins’s hero Jake Ransom shares the same initials. As you get to know this author, you’ll also learn that he shares many of the same interests as his young protagonist. I don’t know if Rollins was like Jake when he was a kid, but I suspect so. I also am pretty sure that Rollins didn't get to go to other worlds the way his young hero does. But I’m willing to bet that Rollins would have been just as eager to go as Jake Ransom.
Where Rollins generally tries to stay within the realm of somewhat possible in his adult thrillers, he discards the convention almost entirely with this first book. Jake and his sister Kady receive halves of a coin that were on necklaces. Their parents, noted archaeologists, had been missing for years. Jake and Kady haven’t given up hope that they may someday be reunited with their parents, and they’ve done everything they can to learn about the things their parents were studying when they disappeared.
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