Commander Gray Pierce arrives home on Christmas Eve, only to find out that Seichan, his pregnant lover is gone and his best friend's wife Kat is on the brink of death. Kat is the only one that saw the attack, but how to get someone in a semi-comatose state to speak? A neurologist may have the answer to that. Meanwhile, a terrified young woman witnesses a massacre by a video link and realizes that her invention is the reason for this and now she has to run. These two events will link together and once again Sigma must stop evil people out for destruction.

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Commander Gray Pierce arrives home on Christmas Eve, only to find out that Seichan, his pregnant lover is gone and his best friend's wife Kat is on the brink of death. Kat is the only one that saw the attack, but how to get someone in a semi-comatose state to speak? A neurologist may have the answer to that. Meanwhile, a terrified young woman witnesses a massacre by a video link and realizes that her invention is the reason for this and now she has to run. These two events will link together and once again Sigma must stop evil people out for destruction.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION! ( )

My romance with globe trotting action-adventure/spy thrillers started almost a decade ago and I’ve always had so much fun reading them. But I did feel that some of them have been losing their mojo when some of their books in the past few years didn’t feel upto the mark. However, I have been pleasantly surprised in the past few months and I’m so thankful for it. While Steve Berry’s latest The Malta Exchange and Matthew Reilly’s Three Secret Cities thoroughly impressed me, this book showed me why James Rollins has been my go-to author for this genre for the past ten years. I was just expecting to have some fun but this book definitely did so much more.

Rollins’s strength has always been combining aspects of history with advanced technology which seems both implausible but not completely unrealistic at the same time. In Crucible, he really intertwines these concepts brilliantly and I just couldn’t put the book down even for a minute. Even though this book has a historical backdrop starting with the Spanish Inquisitions and the inhuman witch trials that happened across Europe, the story here is definitely more about the extremely fast technological developments that are happening in the area of Artifical Intelligence and how when unchecked, these might have very unintended and unimaginable consequences. The core part of the plot in the book deals with an almost sentient AI which is something that has never been seen before and it’s capabilities are very vast, but the most surprising part is that this is the only fictional part of the story. As Rollins mentions in his always riveting Author’s Note, almost all of the technology that is mentioned in the book apart from the AI itself and the other incidents that have occurred are all true and that’s what makes this book absolutely terrifying. These stories are supposed to be escapist fiction, not impending doom of our own reality, but it’s this touch of reality that makes this book both entertaining and thrilling while also serving as a word of caution.

If you are a James Rollins fan, you are going to adore this book and I don’t have to sing it’s praises. If you haven’t read the Sigma Force series before but love action-adventure novels with a touch of history and science, please go and checkout Sandstorm right away. This book was action packed, full of thrills and terrifying events but also very very emotional at its core. I don’t think I’ve ever cried reading one of these books before, but I did here and that’s what makes this installment truly special. ( )

At the heart of this installment of the Sigma Force series is a scary scenario: that artificial intelligence will eventually develop to an extent to protect itself against its human creators. Eve is invented by a Spanish scientist (Mara), and during her introduction to her sponsors, they are slaughtered by an ancient religious cult of witch-hunters, who want Eve to promote their agenda. Eve's last transmission is a Sigma sign. Meanwhile, the Sigma family is attacked: one left for dead and three others kidnapped by another party interested in Eve, who is partially funded by DARPA (like Sigma), and Gray and Monk are sent to Europe to find answers. Mara has to accelerate Eve's learning so she can make the best decisions for humanity as Eve falls into the hands of the twisted cult, wreaking havoc in Paris. I especially liked the setting in the Catacombs, which is a very strange and eerie place for those who have never been, and the medical procedures used on Kat to find clues as to the kidnapper's identity. ( )

2.5 stars.
Overall I think it was okay to almost boring, but the fate of a Sigma member kept my interest.

Crucible has too many tech jargon for me. I lost interest after two thirds into the book. The story didn't flow because I was stuck with all those tech terms I don't care to understand. Eve's thoughts were sometimes repetitive. I honestly would be happy with reading just the hospital part and the escape. ( )