Product Description

What if you could bioengineer the next great world prophet: scientifically produce the next Buddha, the next Muhammad, or the next Jesus? Would it mark the Second Coming or initiate a chain reaction with disastrous consequences?

A master at combining historical and religious intrigue with edge-of-your-seat adventure, New York Times bestselling author James Rollins brings back SIGMA Force to battle a group of rogue scientists who've unleashed a bioengineering project that could bring about the extinction of humankind.

In Washington, D.C., a homeless man dies in Commander Gray Pierce's arms, shot by an assassin's bullet. But the death leaves behind a greater mystery: a bloody coin found clutched in the dead man's hand, an ancient relic that can be traced back to the Greek Oracle of Delphi. As ruthless hunters search for the stolen artifact, Gray Pierce discovers that the coin is the key to unlocking a plot that dates back to the Cold War and threatens the very foundation of humanity.

An international think tank of scientists known as the Jasons has discovered a way to bioengineer autistic children who show savant talents—mathematical geniuses, statistical masterminds, brilliant conceptual artists—into something far greater and far more frightening, in hopes of creating a world prophet for the new millennium, one to be manipulated to create a new era of global peace . . . a peace on their own terms.

Halfway around the world, a man wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of who he is, knowing only that he's a prisoner in a subterranean research facility. With the help of three unusual children, he makes his escape across a mountainous and radioactive countryside, pursued by savage hunters bred in the same laboratory. But his goal is not escape, nor even survival. In order to thwart a plot to wipe out a quarter of the world's population, he must sacrifice all, even the children who rescued him.

From ancient Greek temples to glittering mausoleums, from the slums of India to the toxic ruins of Russia, two men must race against time to solve a mystery that dates back to the first famous oracle of history—the Greek Oracle of Delphi.

But one question remains: Will the past be enough to save the future?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4966 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-01
• Released on: 2008-06-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 434 pages

From Publishers Weekly
At the start of bestseller Rollins's rousing fifth Sigma Force novel (after The Judas Strain), the group's leader, Cmdr. Gray Pierce, encounters a homeless man as he's crossing the Mall in Washington, D.C., near Sigma Force's secret lair far beneath the Smithsonian Castle. The man, who's really an MIT neurology professor, collapses in Pierce's arms and dies after passing him a strange coin, thus kicking off a far-flung adventure whose plot threads include the Oracle of Delphi, autistic savant children with strange implants behind their ears, Gypsies, power-mad Russians bent on unleashing enough radioactivity to poison the world, rogue American spy agencies and genetically enhanced wolves and tigers. Lots of absorbing scientific information and tantalizing sentences like With two rifles strapped to his back and a boy and a chimpanzee in tow, Monk marched down the pitch-black tunnel keep the pages flying by. 10-city author tour. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Go out and buy James Rollins’s latest saga. He just keeps getting better and better." -- The Barnstable Patriot The Barnstable Patriot

"Lots of absorbing scientific information and tantalizing sentences." -- Publishers Weekly

"Once again, the action is nonstop." -- Sacramento Bee

"Rollins combines real-world science with high-octane action to create rousing stories of adventure that are as exciting as any movie." -- Chicago Sun-Times

"Rollins has outdone himself with this fabulous mix of history, science, and adventure that will easily increase his growing number of fans." -- School Library Journal

"The perfect escape novel, an edge of-you-seat read." -- Knoxville News-Sentinel

About the Author

James Rollins and his new protagonist, Jake Ransom, share many of the same passions. The author's interest in archaeology led him to amass his own Cabinet of Curiosities, which includes a 100,000-year-old mammoth tusk from China.

His New York Times bestselling books include The Last Oracle, The Judas Strain, and Black Order. James has a doctorate in veterinary medicine and his own practice in Sacramento, California. An amateur spelunker and a certified scuba enthusiast, he'll often be found either underground or underwater.

Customer Reviews

Odd man out
This is one of the oddest books I've ever read. It is a combination of action/adventure and fantasy, neither theme augmenting the other. There is so much action that it exhausted me.

One reviewer talked about Rollins' style being concise. Concise -- hell! In my mind, it was confusing, especially in identifying who was doing something. At the same time, to understand the action I had to stop and re-read. I still don't know where "up" and "down" is, and I had difficulty relating "he" and "the man" back to the character we were following at any given moment.

So I'm not an intellectual. I just read for amusement.

Rollins delivers again......
The first book I read by James Rollins was The Judas Strain, that my wife and I picked up in the airport in Chicago while enroute to Seattle. We both were fans of Dan Brown's DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons & this book looked to be in the same general genre, so we decided to check it out.

Since that time, we've bought every book Rollins has written and it's been very interesting to see the progression of him as a writer. It's fascinating how he's been able to write novels' about so many different locales, many that normally I'd have had no real interest in, and kept me turning page after page well into MANY a night.

Onto The Last Oracle-- I've read a lot of the reviews to see how differently others have felt from me, and I'm glad to see that the reviews are pretty positive. One of the glaring comments made from someone that gave a negative review was that it's a lot of the same old same old. For my money, and for my entertainment, that's just fine. Rollins always delivers a top notch thriller with extremely likeable characters that I have enjoyed watching evolve.

If you've liked ANYTHING you've read by Rollins in the past, specifically the Sigma Force books, then you will not be disappointed.

the sigma saga continues
which is a good thing! i've read the entire series, and i've enjoyed them all! the last oracle though, well, not so much as the others, don't get me wrong, it's a very well written book, full of action and science, i just could not get into the story like i had with the other books.
i'll keep up with the series though, because james rollins is one of my favorite writers, i've read all of his books, the man can write!
anyway, i'm looking forward to the next book in the sigma series or any other book mr. rollins gives us next year!