The first James Rollins book I ever read was Subterranean. It was a “lost world” adventure, about an underground world that spawned the marsupial creatures that inhabit Australia. The book was a blistering good read and I read it — held completely in thrall — in a single sitting. Not many 400-page novels can do that to me these days.
Rollins is the pseudonym of Jim Czajkowski, but he also writes fantasy novels under the pen name James Clemens. As Clemens, he’s written and published seven high fantasy novels so far, with more in the works.
Writing under the Rollins name, he wrote five stand-alone thrillers that took readers inside the earth — Subterranean, into high mountains — Excavation, to the ocean’s bottom — Deep Fathom, through the deepest jungles — Amazonia, and to the most remote and dangerous pole in the world — Ice Hunt. He also wrote the novelization of the newest Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
In Sandstorm, Rollins introduces a covert espionage team called Sigma Force that deals with archeological and scientific threats to the world. Made up of scientists and military personnel, Sigma Force goes anywhere and battles anything to ferret out puzzles and mysteries left throughout history. Imagine Dan Brown on steroids with Tom Clancy weaponry and you’ve got a good idea of what Rollins does in these books.
His interest in science and history are immediately noticeable in these books. They’re carefully researched (albeit with an eye toward getting Rollins and his fans where they want to go in high adventure), and the pacing is absolutely frantic. Not only does Rollins present information, but he also leavens the exciting mixture with no-holds barred conjecture on his part. He doesn’t just know how to relay information, he’s quite handy at spinning theories in bite-sized chunks that don’t get in the way of the action and don’t blow the readers away. I read these books for the information bytes almost as much as for the action and adventure.
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