Can't sleep at night? Then reading James Rollins' latest Sigma Force novel The 6th Extinction (#431) won't cause you lose any additional slumber. I wish I could say the same for the rest of us! Rollins doesn't have to rely on the paranormal to scare us; he manages quite well simply by reading the current scientific journals. There's plenty going on out there to scare the pants off most of us.
I have somehow managed to miss the warnings from experts that we are currently in the midst of the 6th Extinction here on earth. Life as we know it will soon (in scientific terms) be gone, to be replaced by who knows exactly what. Scientists are taking courses of action to deal with this, either conservation/preservation or by synthesizing replacement life in the lab. Apparently with the tools currently available, almost anyone can design their own genes. That's the launching point for the action in The 6th Extinction. There is a third option, and that's what the villain in this piece is determined to bring about, survival of the fittest, if man is on an equal footing with every other life form on earth, including those found only in the most extreme environments like Antarctica. When a containment lab is breached in a remote California wilderness, the Sigma Force members are called in to deal with a horrifying environmental disaster. They're aided this time on their quest by a plucky California State Park Ranger and her dog, Nikko. The fate of the world hangs by a slender thread...
The action here is non-stop and oh, so plausible. That's what makes a Rollins thriller so exciting. The settings may be exotic, but the elements he brings in to play are the scientific discoveries reporters are writing about every day. I especially like the fact that Rollins is finally adding more canine characters to his stories. Who better to write about them than a qualified veterinarian? Hard to believe that this is the 10th book in this series. It just keeps getting better.
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