DEMON CROWN (SIGMA FORCE #13) JAMES ROLLINS

From the Epigraph of Demon Crown
I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae [parasitic wasps] with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars….
– Charles Darwin, in letter written May 22, 1860, to botanist Asa Gray

I couldn’t wait to read this latest installment of the Sigma Force series; I pre-ordered it to make sure I could start immediately upon its release. What? I was excited to read another sigma force book. Well, all I can say is it was worth the wait, the action-packed thriller had me finished reading it in a matter of days. I got my dose of DARPA and the Guild. James Rollins always makes me want more, and in Demon Crown, I got it, his infusion of history across multiple time-periods and the conspiracies that surround the Guild and other agencies are always so intriguing. His blending of history, technology, and science always makes the Sigma series a thrilling read.

This one is going to keep you guessing about the outcome of these beloved characters, right up to the end.

Alexander Graham Bell is in Genoa to secure the body of James Smithson; you know the guy who founded the Smithsonian Institution (yes, I love this about James Rollins, there’s always a bit of history within his books). Well, anyway Alexander didn’t exactly procure James Smithson’s body legally, but he needed to acquire them because of the secrets that he knows is buried with Smithson’s body.

He joined Bishop before the open tomb and peered inside. The wooden casket inside had long rotted away, leaving a blanket of heavy dust over what was clearly a set of bones. He reached reverently inside, parted the debris, and lifted the skull, which was surprisingly intact. He almost expect it to crumble as he gripped it.

In 1944, the secret artifacts that Alexander Graham Bell worked so hard to acquire and keep safe is stolen. Obviously, no secret is ever safe, especially if that secret has the potential to destroy. Hey, it’s what we humans live for after all.

Let’s move on to the present day shall, we? Commander Gray and Seichan are in Brazil on vacation (man I wish I were in Brazil right now, this winter is savage). So, there they are enjoying some sun and sand when they noticed a few planes coming towards them, then they released a black mist which began moving towards them. Well, at least they thought it was a black cloud until it got closer and they realized it was much more. What it was, is a swarm of wasps.

Wow! I enjoyed how James Rollins let us into the minds of the wasps (fascinating stuff) so that we knew how they operated, why they were doing what they did and how they would colonize and build their colony. OMG! The horror of how they (wasps) bring their children into the world. I won’t say any more about this here. But I will say that getting stung by these wasps multiple times will result in death if that is what they are going for at the time.

The man who has unleashed this ancient threat to the world is Takashi Ito, who has long wished to put Japan back on the top of the world, but his revenge is not only for Japan but for the death of his wife Miu who died in a gun battle. Man, talk about harboring a grudge. I mean dude, get over it, she was stealing some darn important artifacts from the U.S. what did you think was going to happen? She would steal it and then danced out of there. He also wants Gray and Seichan dead as part of his lunatic revenge.

With a biological assault now unleashed in Hawai for starters, Gray, Seichan, Painter, Monk, Kat and other agencies similar to DARPA, embark on a perilous journey to first find out how this weapon was released and how they can stop it, before the threat of unleashing to the rest of the world is carried out. The survival of mankind depends on them all.

As always you are going to learn a great deal when you’ve finished devouring this book. James Rollins always teaches you something new and fascinating.

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I just love everything James Rollins writes. Always have so much fun reading any book from the Sigma series!

3.5 stars.

This had a terrifying as fuck premise and I was sooooo here for the first 30% of it. The concept of giant parasitic wasps was both terrifying and nauseating.

Unfortunately James Rollins refuses to make the tough decisions to kill his darlings, so the remainder of the book feels like it's tied up in an annoyingly neat bow of convenience.

While the predictability of these books can feel comforting as a reader, on this occasion I wish he'd gone out on a limb and done something devastating. It all felt too easy.

This is a book about wasps, with parts of it written from the wasps' point of view. That's pretty much all you need to know about this one.

I listened to the book on Audible.
If I had known this book was about monster wasps I might have skipped it but since I love the Sigma Force series I automatically got it. I won't lie - there are some pretty scary and skin crawling parts in this book.
I liked the story but wasn't really happy with the narration, when narrating the parts about the wasps he sounded like a text book and I really didn't think he did justice to some of the characters. But, overall, if you like James Rollins and Sigma Force I'd give it a try.

This book was long but worth it. I mean the man puts drugs in every book he writes. *Chefs kiss* He literally never misses.

The latest (at the time of writing) in James Rollin's now long-running Sigma Force series, that picks up with Commander Gray Pierce and Seichan on an unauthorised leave of absence following the events of the last novel ('The Seventh Plague').

However, when they are targeted by members of the shadowy thought-to-be-destroyed Guild, who launch a bio-engineered attack on their location on the island of Maui, it's not long before they (and other members of Sigma) are called back into action, in two separate but combined story-lines: with Gray Pearce and a few other members of the team trying to track the source of the attack, whilst other members follow historical bread-crumbs left behind by the founder of the Smithsonian Museum that also tie into the mystery.


If I'm honest, for some reason while reading this I kept also having flash-backs (if that's the right term to use) to Michael Crichton's novel 'Micro': I think, perhaps, due to the nature of the bio-weapon? Basically, and without giving anything away - some rather nasty wasps, that had me shuddering at parts of the story.

I can't speak as the veracity of the science, or even to the history bit, but - like the majority of the Sigma Force books - I did thoroughly enjoy this one.

A sigma force novel that's not about ThEbIble?! Hah! Color me impressed! This was genuinely a refreshing read. There were bees! Lots of bees! Also the different POVs were fun to read.