The Judas Strain - James Rollins

New York Times bestselling author James Rollins returns with a terrifying story of an ancient menace reborn to plague the modern world . . . and of an impossible hope that lies hidden in the most shocking place imaginable: within the language of angels.ju·das strain, n. A scientific term for an organism that drives an entire species to extinction.From the depths of the Indian Ocean, a horrific plague has arisen to devastate humankind--a disease that's unknown, unstoppable . . . and deadly. But it is merely a harbinger of the doom that is to follow. Aboard a cruise liner transformed into a makeshift hospital, Dr. Lisa Cummings and Monk Kokkalis--operatives of SIGMA Force--search for answers to the bizarre affliction. But there are others with far less altruistic intentions. In a savage and sudden coup, terrorists hijack the vessel, turning a mercy ship into a floating bio-weapons lab.A world away, SIGMA's Commander Gray Pierce thwarts the murderous schemes of a beautiful would-be killer who holds the first clue to the discovery of a possible cure. Pierce joins forces with the woman who wanted him dead, and together they embark upon an astonishing quest following the trail of the most fabled explorer in history: Marco Polo. But time is an enemy as a worldwide pandemic grows rapidly out of control. As a relentless madman dogs their every step, Gray and his unlikely ally are being pulled into an astonishing mystery buried deep in antiquity and in humanity's genetic code. And as the seconds tick closer to doomsday, Gray Pierce will realize he can truly trust no one, for any one of them could be . . . a Judas.

Published: 2007-07-02 (William Morrow)

ISBN: 9780060763893

Language: English

Format: Hardcover, 464 pages

Goodreads' rating: -

Genres

Action Fiction Thriller Mystery Adventure

Reviews

Sherm rated it

A friend recommended James Rollins to me as I like books by Dan Brown, and Steve Barry. I have read a couple of his books so far and am in complete agreement with my friend. I find that the books start off in a very exciting way and hold my attention throughout. In this book, The Judas Strain, I am learning about Marco Polo and the mystery surrounding his 24 year voyage that took him to the palaces of Kublai Khan in China. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a historical thriller.

Scotty rated it

I'm a little bit embarrassed to give this book a 4, but there you go. It's a guilty pleasure, I guess, because the book is kind of ridiculous in a testosterone-fueled Indiana-Jones-meets-Mission-Impossible kind of way. If this tells you anything, I nearly downgraded it to a 3 because of the cannibals. (Yes, cannibals.)I was about 60 pages into the book before I realized that it was part of a series. Some of you know that reading a series out of order is one of my BIGGEST PET PEEVES EVER, so I think it represents a therapeutic breakthrough that I kept reading. (Really, it's just the book was borrowed, and I didn't want to keep it for an unusually long time while I tracked down and read all of the books that came before it.)Very basic plot summary: Secret military-ish agency must stop end of the world by figuring out the connection between Marco Polo and a strange bacterial outbreak on Christmas Island. There's some code-breaking and historical speculation that will appeal to the Da Vinci Code enthusiasts out there. And did I mention that there are cannibals?

Byrle rated it

ista adrenalinska poslastica! Uivala sam od prve do zadnje stranice knjige ije itanje je trajalo ukupno 3 dana. ak sam ju itala do pola 2 u noi jer je bila toliko napeta i eljela sam saznati to e biti na kraju (to mi se nije jako dugo dogodilo).Kod Rollinsa mi se svia to proui sve injenice vezane za temu i onda na osnovu njih osmisli svoju priu. Glavni likovi, Gray, Monk, Lisa, Painter, su mi svi dragi od samog poetka serijala. Radnja je stalno napeta, akcija, pucaina, eksplozije, iznenadni preokreti, kao da gledam neki dobar akcijski film. A sve to proeto s malo povijesti, mistike, ak i malo nadnaravnog.

Donielle rated it

This was definitely an intriguing adventure for the Sigma forces, starting with the mysterious motive behind the murder of an Egyptian curator for an even more mysterious object with links to one of the most bizarre historical mysteries we know of. The journey of Marco Polo and his father (Niccolo) and his uncle (Masseo). However, there are parts of the journey that remain a total mystery to us all. This adventure looks into what may have happened as well as a secret chapter of Marco's journey and what happened to his personal confessor, Friar Agreer.There's another part to this adventure, as is standard Sigma affair- that of a bizarre and extremely disturbing outbreak. One that can turn people into cannibals, burn them from the inside out (not like combustion, but more like boils and intense, uncontrollable sunburns). So, it's one part historical thriller, one part medical thriller. One part, not one half, as there are more parts to this story, like a personal attack to Gray's parents, and Painter's search for them. Multiple stories/substories intertwining. However, there are also very sad moments, both with people you've known and liked for some time (like Monk) and people you only knew from the Prologue (Gregg Tunis). The strangest thing to happen in this book is actually what concerns Susan, Gregg's wife. But to find out what that is, you'd have to read this book. The reason for 4 stars is one of the side enemies, an emotionally-distant assassin, Surina, becomes interesting, but something she does doesn't get explained thoroughly enough for me, so I ended up getting dissappointed about that. Beside that, this was a very good adventure full of crazy twists and sarcastic, razor-sharp wit and counter-twists.

Scotty rated it

I've read a lot of books by James Rollins and loved all of them, but this one is my less favorite, it was still very good but not as much as his other books.