"The Devil Colony" by James Rollins: Book Review

"The Devil Colony" by James Rollins
William Morrow, 480 pp., $27.99
Reviewed by David Marshall James


Pesky kids-- when a cave not far from Provo, Utah, is said to carry an ancient Native American curse (as in, stay the heck out of it, or the world will be doomed), then keep the freak out of it.

They're not the only teenagers who are taking the law-- and the world-- into their own hands in James Rollins's latest thriller.

At least his crack team of spies, soldiers, scientists, and enigma unravelers, Sigma Force, can swoop in from their secret headquarters under the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C., in order to commence damage control.

Sigma is bigma on weaponry. If they're in a jam, with an immediate need for a Humvee, a Harley, or even a Pontiac, one of them will whip out a Sig and shove it in the driver's face.

Works for me-- here're the keys.

The entertainment/adventure/action quotient shoots off the chart in this Saturday-matinee melange of American history, Native American history and culture, Joseph Smith and his golden tablets, the Book of Mormon, and nanotechnology.

Say what?

Nanotechnology-- the science of the manipulation of subatomic particles, including the still-mysterious neutrinos.

The crux of the plot involves the archaeological discovery of a lost tribe of Israel, possessed of amazing alchemical skills, who dispersed to the New World and assimilated amidst the Native Americans, until and perhaps inevitably the new "tribe's" magical-seeming powers resulted in wars and genocide.

The existence of such a lost tribe of Israel became a fixation of such Founding Fathers as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, as well as a subject of The Book of Mormon.

In "The Devil Colony" (the title refers to a proposed fourteenth American colony, to have been inhabited by the Iroquois nation, in the West, beyond the borders of the Louisiana Purchase), Sigma is not only out to save the world, but they're also attempting to remain one step ahead of an incredibly powerful group of wealthy families that is secretly imbedded in organizations, institutions, and businesses around the world.

These families have been global puppetmasters since time immemorial, and intend to remain as such.

To that end, this group is dying-- literally-- and killing to get its hot little hands on that alchemical nanotechnology.

Much of the novel's action transpires in the American West, as well as in D.C., Kentucky, and Tennessee, with an exciting foray to Iceland, and a subplot in Japan.

Sigma ops are also big on blowing things up, and being caught in the midst of others' blow-ups.

The author includes enough history, science, geography, and sociology to anchor the thrills. With two young characters in the forefront (and a bare minimum of objectionable language throughout), this is the perfect novel to pass around the household.

After you're finished, of course.

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