Sandstorm:A Great Climax, But Not Much Beyond That

Sandstorm By James Rollins

Overall rating: A Great Climax, But Not Much Beyond That

This was interesting. After reading Subterranean by James Rollins, I really did want to read some of his other work. When looking at his other books, they all seemed similar in very stereotypical “Indiana Jones” like set up. So when it came to picking one, it is like pulling a random number out of a hat. So I just picked Sandstorm.

Sandstorm is a odd novel. It’s a adventure novel that starts off with a strange explosion in a museum by a odd floating orb of energy. The explosion destroyed Arabian artifacts found and kept safe by close friends Kara and Safia. Meanwhile, a couple of spies form this “Sigma force” in the US investigate. In the explosion Kara and Safia find a iron heart in a statue that may be the key to lost city of Ubar. But they quickly find that they are chased by Cassandra. (Who is a archenemy of Paniter Crow who is one of the spies investigating) They go on the search for Ubar and are on the run from Cassandra. They are also joined by Danny and Omaha Dunn and a college student named Clay. And from there on it is a adventure that leads to a amazing climax in this great sandstorm. (And I’m not spoiling anything here. I mean if you start reading a book called Sandstorm, it’s obvious a sand storm is a big part of the story.)

So I’ll start with the bad. The book starts with espionage assignment with Painter Crow. Then it jumps to Safia and Kara’s story. Omaha joins in too. But for half of the book, Painter appears to be the central character. But he is so shallow. I couldn’t care less about him. I cared so much for more about the gun fights, battles and tomb raiding. But when Painter comes into the scene, it turns to espionage and I didn’t like it. I didn’t care that much. And I have nothing against spy novels. I usually love spy novels, but not this one. And Painter is so two dimensional. Omaha Dunn (Which really is knock off character of Indiana Jones) is a adventurer but we don’t know any thing about him until the second half. And what we learn then is so little. It was just so focused on Painter. Then it switches to Safia and Omaha who are much more interesting, but in the first half of the book they felt like stand ins. Kara’s character is forgettable. And Clay and Danny, they are there through out the whole book but are hardly ever mentioned. You forget they’re even there. I just couldn’t connect with characters at all. And after all of this, I still ask what is Sigma? Why were they even involved? I think they could of made it better book with out the Sigma part at all.

The good. it’s the climax. The book has a fantastic climax where action doesn’t stop and managing to have a since of humor while it happens.

So overall, I don’t love it but I don’t hate it. It does have a good and fantastic climax but the way up to the climax is kind of a drag because the characters just aren’t likable. And this is supposed to be the first book in the Sigma Force series, but it doesn’t make me want to read a sequel. Sandstorm gets a very mediocre two smoothies out of four.

2 smoothies out of four.

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