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The Demon Crown

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"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.

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    • Library Journal

      July 1, 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.

      Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from October 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.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from November 15, 2017
      Rollins' latest Sigma Force novel is one of the best in the series. The founder of the Smithsonian Institution, James Smithson, never set foot in the U.S. His bones were stolen from an Italian tomb by Alexander Graham Bell. What could possibly have compelled Bell to commit such a robbery? Jump to the present: Grayson Pierce and his girlfriend are in Maui, enjoying time away from Sigma Force, when they are among those subjected to a horrific attack by predatory wasps (yes, wasps). These creatures can adapt to the environment, and, as more attacks are reported, the Sigma Force team is tasked with eradicating a new kind of enemy. First they must find where the killer wasps are coming from and then aid scientists in developing an antidote to the deadly venom the wasps use to incapacitate their victims. The mix of science, history, and high-concept adventure is always first-rate in a Rollins novel, and that's true here as well, even with killer wasps in the mixand don't forget those bones and Alexander Graham Bell! Rollins raises the stakes even higher by daring to present the wasps' point of view in several scenes. Go with him, and you'll agree that he pulls it off beautifully. Devotees of Clive Cussler and Steve Berry are no doubt reading Rollins already, but if they're not, what's keeping them?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

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