There are two books that have been published in 2014 called The Sixth Extinction, interestingly and perhaps unsurprisingly on the same subject. One is a work of brilliant nonfiction about the sixth extinction taking place now as species continue to be killed by humanity and made extinct; the other is a thrilling adventure involving Sigma Force and one man’s maniacal crusade to give Planet Earth back to nature and its animals. I don’t think I need to tell you which one was written by bestselling author James Rollins.
After an act of sabotage, a deadly airborne virus is released into a remote part of California from a secret laboratory, but it soon begins wreaking havoc and devastation, wiping out all wildlife and causing horrible deaths. Soon people begin to get infected. Sigma Force is brought in to take over the situation and discover a cure, but it is soon discovered that this virus isn’t even DNA-based, but something completely new and exobiotic referred to as XNA.
To get to the origin of this devastating virus, the Sigma team is going to have to split up and travel the globe. One group goes deep into Antarctica to find a specific individual, but find themselves led to secret underground caverns that have been hidden from the world for a very long time and harbor new species and forms of life. The other group travels to the deep jungles of Brazil in search of a man thought to be dead and there they find unique ecosystems and specifically-engineered species the world has never seen.
As Elizabeth Kolbert was revealing a startlingly changing reality in her book, Rollins is doing the same through the lens of fiction backed up with lots of research (including Kolbert’s book). The author has done his research in history and biology and ends the book with a full breakdown on what is based on reality and our changing world. The action is of course nonstop and over the top, as readers have come to expect and enjoy from Rollins, while the science is startling and fascinating.
Originally written on August 23, 2014 ©Alex C. Telander.
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