Sandstorm

Rating:
Summary: Sandstorm will have you running for cover!
Review: An inexplicable scientific phenomena destroys a museum with many ancient Arabic artifacts. All that is left behind are clues leading to an ancient city long buried beneath the Arabian sands. The curator of the museum, along with her best friend, a archeologist, and two agents from Darpa(U.S. Scientific Special Forces agents) and two Indiana Jones type Archeological explorers, travel two this site to unearth the reason behing the explosion that rocked the museum, also believed to be the reason why the curator's father disappeared in a sandstorm many years before, above the ancient, lost city.
On their tale is a group of female assassins, bent on keeping this city a secret, and therein lies the action, and excitement behind James Rollins's best book yet.
Plenty of fun for anyone hooked on the action adventure novel.
HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!!! AAA+++

Rating:
Summary: A rollicking fun read!!
Review: First let me say that Lady Kensington has a much smaller role than I was lead to believe after reading the synopsis. Aside from that, this is a fun read. I have read all of Rollins' previous books and this is one of his best! The plot was fast moving and you don't get confused as to how the characters relate to one another. The ending was a little obvious, which is why I didn't give it five stars, but if you like adventure novels (and I most certainly do!) you will enjoy "Sandstorm."

Rating:
Summary: Who cares about character developement?
Review: First of all I liked this book. It's fun, fast, never overly silly, but just silly enough. It's one of his two best. Now, I'd like to rant about something that bothers me. I've been an avid reader for well over twenty years and I can't help but cringe whenever I hear someone talking about character developement in an action/thriller where all of the action takes place in a matter of a few days. First off, when someone is staring at an enemy army with no hope of escape and a potentially Earth destroying antimatter bomb under their noses... who cares if they once had a puppy that died or if their favorite color is blue?!? This isn't an epic saga of the Russian Revolution where it might be important to know what events have molded our characters in the past. This is a fast-paced action adventure where we get to know all we need to know about the characters in order to enjoy the story. We have tough guys and even tougher gals fighting for their lives in extreme, supernatural circumstances. It's GREAT for a fun weekend read. I love some author's ability to coax a lot out of his characters, but in a book like this more character developement would have slowed down the pace and seriously hurt the overall book. As far as character developement, Dean Koontz is the champ, Matt Reilly is at the other end, and Rollins is in the middle somewhere. However, I can get just as big a kick out of Rollins and Reilly as I do from Koontz. Overall, for this kind of book, I think Rollins does pretty good in the overrated "Character Developement" category. It's an enjoyable read and you won't get cheated out of anything. I gave it 4 stars only because I save 5 star reviews for the truly GREAT works.