‘Doomsday Key’ hard to put down
Looking for an action-packed thriller that has some brains to it this summer? Check out “The Doomsday Key” by James Rollins.
Literary fiction, it is not. “Da Vinci Code,” it is not. At times, it reads like a glorified screenplay. But for a beach read, it’s got plenty of excitement and is hard to put down. Rollins is another in a growing list of novelists (i.e. Steve Berry and Raymond Khoury) who
have tapped into the historical mystery/suspense genre in the last decade or so. The general outline for these types of novels follows this pattern: a scientist/historian uncovers an ancient secret and a group of friends/co-workers joins him as they battle a vast government/corporate conspiracy in a race against the clock to save the world. Oh yeah, there are traitorous beautiful women involved, too.
In movie terms, think of a combination of “Indiana Jones,” “National Treasure” and “Da Vinci Code.” Rollins mixes fact and fiction pretty
deftly, but he emphasizes the action in his novels. There’s lots of explosions, gunfire, fights and general mayhem. Don’t expect much
character exploration. He throws some historical mysteries into his story line, but they get overwhelmed by the action.
Still, “The Doomsday Key” has some thrills, and readers can learn something about history and technology (i.e. the facts behind ancient Celtic rituals and the dangers of genetically modified crops). Thankfully, Rollins explains the truths of these subjects after the
story ends.
“The Doomsday Key” is the sixth installment of the Sigma Force series. The Sigma Force, led by heroic Commander Gray Pierce, is an elite and covert arm of the Department of Defense. A series of bizarre murders across three continents (a Druid pagan cross is burned into each victim) forces the team into a global hunt for a powerful group of industrialists who are threatening the world’s food supply.
A large chunk of the action takes place in Norway, in Oslo and above the Arctic Circle, where the Doomsday Vault is located. The vault is an actual place, built deep inside a mountain, where the world’s seeds are stored, in case of a global catastrophe. Some of the novel’s best scenes take place here.
Rollins also blends into the plot medieval mysteries such as the Doomsday Book (a Census-like tome involving the king of England) and a papal prophecy from St. Malachy who predicted the current pope, Pope Benedict XVI, is the second-to-last Holy See before the world ends.
This all sounds heavy for a beach read, but it’s not. Rollins keeps things moving at a rapid-fire pace, and it’s no wonder his novels
regularly appear on The New York Times best-seller list. They’re quick, they’re fun and you’ll learn a little bit about history and
modern technology in the process.
