The Demon Crown (Sigma Force Series)

by James Rollins

Overview

“Bone-chilling.” –Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“One of the best in the series.” –Booklist (Starred Review)

To save mankind’s future, the members of Sigma Force must make a devil’s bargain as they join forces with their most hated enemy to stop an ancient threat in this gripping adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author James Rollins.

Off the coast of Brazil, a team of scientists discovers a horror like no other, an island where all life has been eradicated, consumed, and possessed by a species beyond imagination. Before they can report their discovery, a mysterious agency attacks the group, killing them all, save one: an entomologist, an expert on venomous creatures, Professor Ken Matsui from Cornell University.

Strangest of all, this inexplicable threat traces back to a terrifying secret buried a century ago beneath the National Mall: a cache of bones preserved in amber. The artifact was hidden away by a cabal of scientists—led by Alexander Graham Bell—to protect humankind. But they dared not destroy it, for the object also holds an astonishing promise for the future: the very secret of life after death.

Yet nothing stays buried forever. An ancient horror— dormant in the marrow of those preserved bones—is free once more, nursed and developed into a weapon of incalculable strength and malignancy, ready to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world.

To stop its spread, Commander Grayson Pierce of Sigma Force must survive a direct attack on the island of Maui. To be there first has always been the core mission of Sigma Force, a covert team forged to be America’s front line against emerging threats. But this time, even Sigma may not be able to decipher the deadly mystery, one that traces back to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution.

With each new discovery, the menace they hunt is changing, growing, spreading—adapting and surviving every attempt to stop it from reconquering a world it once ruled. And each transformation makes it stronger . . . and smarter.

Running out of time and options, Commander Grayson Pierce will be forced to make an impossible choice. To eradicate this extinction-level threat and expose those involved, he will have to join forces with Sigma’s greatest enemy—the newly resurrected Guild—even if it means sacrificing one of his own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062381743
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/19/2018
Series:	Sigma Force Series , #13
Pages:	672
Sales rank:	147,231
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

James Rollins is the author of international thrillers that have been translated into more than forty languages. His Sigma series has been lauded as one of the "top crowd pleasers" (New York Times) and one of the "hottest summer reads" (People magazine). In each novel, acclaimed for its originality, Rollins unveils unseen worlds, scientific breakthroughs, and historical secrets—and he does it all at breakneck speed and with stunning insight. He lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Hometown:

Sacramento, California

Date of Birth:

August 20, 1961

Place of Birth:

Chicago, Illinois

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Demon Crown: “Bone-chilling.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Praise for The Seventh Plague: “Fascinating research, beautifully told ... a riveting read.” — Wilbur Smith

“Bestseller Rollins’s epic...features exotic locales, heroic quests, quixotic villains, action galore, and enough science and scientific curiosities to titillate even casual readers....Rollins’s characters are as large as his landscape in this vast and vastly entertaining thriller saga.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“When it comes to the blending of action, adventure, history, and science, there is no other author who does it better than Rollins. Fans of Clive Cussler, Steve Berry, and Michael Crichton should already have Rollins on their mandatory reading list.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Rollins’ latest Sigma Force novel is one of the best in the series....The mix of science, history, and high-concept adventure is always first-rate in a Rollins novel....Devotees of Clive Cussler and Steve Berry are no doubt reading Rollins already, but if they’re not, what’s keeping them?” — Booklist (starred review)

“James Rollins has written a slew of pulse-pounding, wildly imaginative thrillers. But he tops himself, and everybody else, in The Seventh Plague, a book that exemplifies everything great storytelling is supposed to be.” — Providence Journal

From the Publisher

★ 10/23/2017
Readers with insect phobias may want to avoid bestseller Rollins’s terrific 13th Sigma Force novel (after 2016’s The Seventh Plague). In 1903, Alexander Graham Bell is on a mission to Italy to retrieve the bones of James Smithson, the man who founded the Smithsonian Institution. Along with Smithson’s skeleton, Bell finds a pumpkin-sized chunk of amber containing a small dinosaur with a tiny crown of bones. Smithson’s diary warns: “what the Demon Crown holds is very much alive and ready to unleash the very hordes of Hell upon this world.” Sure enough, in the present, the secret cabal known as the Guild is about to unleash a massive infestation of giant killer wasps that, once established, will bring the world to its knees. Sigma Force commander Grayson Pierce and partner Seichan are on the beach in Hawaii when the first masses of unrelenting, venomous wasps swarm ashore. Soon all of Sigma Force is working to defeat the evil plan. The chapters written from the wasps’ point-of-view are particularly bone-chilling. Agents: Russ Galen, Scovil Galen Ghost Literary Agency; and Danny Baror, Baror International. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Seventh Plague: “Fascinating research, beautifully told ... a riveting read.

Wilbur Smith

James Rollins has written a slew of pulse-pounding, wildly imaginative thrillers. But he tops himself, and everybody else, in The Seventh Plague, a book that exemplifies everything great storytelling is supposed to be.

Providence Journal

When it comes to the blending of action, adventure, history, and science, there is no other author who does it better than Rollins. Fans of Clive Cussler, Steve Berry, and Michael Crichton should already have Rollins on their mandatory reading list.

Booklist (starred review)

07/01/2017
Those bones encased in amber and buried in the nation's capital by a group of concerned scientists, with Alexander Graham Bell in the lead? Sure, they contain the secret of life after death, but they are also linked to an unimaginable horror from the past that could wipe out humankind. And with their unearthing during a construction project, the horror is out, and Sigma Force must join forces with its very worst enemy—the newly resurrected Guild—to defeat it. With a 500,000—copy first printing and a ten-city tour.

Library Journal