Last Oracle: A Sigma Force Novel Mass Market Paperback – April 26, 2011

As I`ve mentioned in my previous reviews I've been reading James Rollins since I picked up The Doomsday Key at Target. I have been looking forward to reading each of his Sigma novels with anticipation before buying it. I have been reading each in the order they were written after reading The doomsday Key, The Devil Colony and Bloodline last summer whilewaiting for the release of The Eye of God later this month his latest, The Last Oracle, is a thrilride like his past books. I loved everything about it from start to finish.In the last book, Mr. Rollins leftfans with a cliff-hanger ending which I wont spoil. I`ll start this review by telling readers that the unresolved questions are answered thoroughly and in a completely satisfying manner. And, you don't have to wait `til the end of the book to learn those answers. So here we go.This novel opens in 398 A.D., with the eponymous Oracle of Delphi. The final moments of the temple are depicted. A few pages later we're in Romania, circa 1959. The Russians are rounding up a bunch of charming villagers. And a few pages after that we're at last in modern-day DC, with our old friend Gray Pierce of Sigma. Walking across the Mall, he's approached by a "homeless" man. As he pauses to give the guy a hand-out, a shot rings out. Gray is safe, but the derelict is killed. Later investigation suggests the stranger was the intended target, not Gray. This is confirmed when Gray's boss takes one look at the body and say's, "I know this man."It turns out the man was an important part of Sigma history. Two clues from his murder lead Gray to the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History. There he meets Elizabeth Polk, who becomes a major player in the novel. The scenes in the museum (where I once worked in real life) are among my favorite that Rollins has ever written. The action picks up at this point, and as one clue leads to another, Gray, Elizabeth, and an assortment of Sigma and non-Sigma characters find themselves globe-trotting from India to Russia. With this author, it's pretty much a given that the action comes fast and furious, and the pages will fly by at lightning speed. Along the way, Rollins explores the connections of autism to the Oracle of Delphi, the history of the Romani (Gypsy) people, and the advancement of the human race. We get to visit with old favorite characters from books past (though some you'll expect are notably missing) and we'll meet some new characters too. Not all are human.In short order, Rollins has got his plot up and running, separating Sigma Force into teams and branching out with different avenues of action. Director Painter Crowe and his group try to figure out the mystery of the Russian girl that falls into their hands while Gray Pierce follows up on the trail of bread crumbs Dr. Polk has left behind. On another front, we pick up the story of yet another Sigma Force member who's fighting for his life to escape enemy clutches with a cadre of the psychically gifted children. And then there are the machinations of the bad guys.As always, there was some real science entwined in the plot that absolutely floored me! Sometimes it's almost an aside and you just wish the entire novel was about the fact that, apparently, human beings (all of us) can see two or three seconds into the future. And again Rollins provides an afterward to clarify fact vs. fiction and cite some of his sources. He also manages to incorporate up-to-the-minute current events into the novel's plot. Something that he always does.Overall this is a book that any fan of action adventure books should read along with anyone who might be autistic you will also learn a lot of information about autism itself and be kept on the edge of your seat. The Last Oracle is fantastic addition to the Sigma novels, You need a great airplane book or a beach read or summer read? This is the book you're looking for.

So, the Sigma Force books are a fun series of fringe science thrillers. This one should have been awesome. It feels timely - between the recent HBO series about Chernobyl and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the plot in this book for a new Russian Empire and unleashing nuclear contamination from Soviet sites like Chernobyl - well, it feels very timely. But - in a previous book, Rollins used autism as a plot device, and the term "idiot savant" or "autistic savant" - now, this was a character speaking, not the author/narrator, but . . . well, it still felt icky. This one is even more problematic, linking neurodivergence (and again, the concept of autistic individuals as "idiot savants") as a plot device - as an extreme form being a genetic inheritance of certain tribes from the Pubjab who became the ancestors of the Romani ("Gypsies" to use the politicaally incorrect term), and linking this to the Oracle of Delphi in Greece, and linking this to an ancient prophecy about the world burning that becomes relevant as the plot advances to unleash nuclear contamination on the world . . . And this all feels a bit problematic. It's still a pretty fun thriller, but . . . yeah, 3/5, not 5/5. Maybe it should be less, I don't know.

Ive been reading the sigma series and got me hooked up!!Every book is a new adventure.... A mixture of both scientific notes, real places, wonders, and unknowns mixing it with the fictional story... Very well elaborated... I had just finished reading the Juda's strain... Thats where Monk was thought dead, but at the end of the book the writer hinted on the possibility that he may have survived somehow.... And thats what i wanted to know on the next series... Kokkalis is one of my favorite characters; smart, creative, team player, unselfish, bad ass soldier with a lot of heart, he puts his life on the line before others for the greater cause... W/o expecting anything in return... Who does that?... Glad the writer brought him back from the dead.... Anyway, love the book and will keep reading the whole sigma series!!! Job well done J.Rollins!!!

When Commander Gray Pierce makes eye contact with a vagrant, he winds up with a dying man in his arms. Dr. Polk was shot by a sniper, but would have died of radiation poisoning within days. He left behind a mysterious ancient Greek coin and a bewildered daughter. Since he died right outside top-secret government agency Sigma, they send a team, headed by Commander Pierce, to retrace his last steps, leading to danger in India and the remote mountains of Russia. Meanwhile, things at Sigma Headquarters in Washington get exciting when Director Painter Crowe winds up with custody of a little girl with amazing drawing abilities and a strange steel implant in her skull. A third adventure befalls another member of Sigma being held deep in the Ural Mountains of Russia when he escapes with three special savant children and goes on the run through the forest near a radioactive lake. It seems the Russians have been conducting secret experiments on a special group of autistic savants with roots in Gypsy culture, and now one man is poised to make use of the technology toward his own ends...after killing millions and instilling world-wide panic, of course.I've been there for all of Sigma's adventures, and this is the best one yet. Other Sigma novels have contained a bit too much chasing around, but this time it all worked smoothly. I'm not sure if the third storyline was the magic ingredient or if Rollins finally got it just right, but this time out the action was balanced well with the plot, making for a page-turning read. Though I've always been a bit ambivalent about the Sigma novels, my interest in them has been renewed.

Spellbinding and amazing are among the many superlatives I could use to describe another work of Rollins, but such is not necessary because this novel stands on its own merits. Once more, two hours I don't regret spending reading this book.

Once again a rip roaring yarn against a well researched background. Background this time involves Delphic oracles, Gypsy racial history, Chernobyl, intuition and radiation. Wow again. Bring the series on.

Another great entry in the Sigma series blending fact and fiction in a disturbingly believable, and ultimately enthralling, adventure. Brilliant storytelling, engaging characters you can't help but care for, blistering action and suspenseful twists and turns that keeps each page as enjoyable to read as the last. If like me you are reading the series in sequence, you definitely don't want to miss this one...trust me.

Got boring in a quite a few places

As usual an exciting story with some interesting historical background overlaying the novel.