Tides Of Fire (2023) (Sigma Force #17) by James Rollins. I haven’t read a Sigma Force novel in a decade, and I don’t know why. I have a couple of the earlier adventures and decided to give this latest outing a try, and I am glad I did so. If anything, Dr. Rollins’ writing has gotten tuned to an even finer degree. The action in the preamble is easily surpassed by the thrilling South Seas adventure of the remainder of the book. This is a thrilling ride from start to finish.
We begin in the early 1800’s with an island eruption northeast of Australia. Ash clouds the skies and manages to darken summer global that year. Mysterious events attack the crew of a ship and the remains of two of them show strange mysterious disfigurations.
Jump ahead to a time near ours. A new Chinese submarine goes missing in the Tonga Trench, east of the New Hebrides island group. And a massive series of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes begin occurring almost immediately after the downing of the sub. Also it is revealed that a Chinese mission to the moon had drilling operations interrupted during a ELF transmission, one very similar to what occurred coinciding with the sinking of the sub.
Now the Chinese military, Sigma Force, one or two of the Hong Kong Triads along with several other consortiums are after the secret of the Tonga Trench. Not to mention there is a very high tech, multi-billion dollar research ship, platform, underwater facility and deep sea bathyspheres involved. Put them all together, set a ticking clock for the world to end, and you have a fast paced adventure that will suck you in like a Pacific vortex.
Dr. Rollins adds in a lot of information about octopi and there origins, giving himself a nod to his Veterinarian profession, something I did not realize he was. I will say that his hobby of writing thrillers is almost as great a boon to society as his medical work.
Tides Of Fire is highly recommended for fans of water based action/adventure tales, or thrillers of any kind. ( )

The book started out great with volcanoes erupting at a quickening pace in Indonesia, water turning into to fire and dead human bodies that have turned into stone. A similar event took place in the region in 1815 when earthquakes and an eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia and its dark summer killed an enormous amount of people around the world. I was riveted by the work that marine biologists Phoebe Reed and Jazleen Patel were doing in the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia. Reading about their study of coral was fascinating and kept me reading to the halfway point without taking a break.

When the Sigma Force folks became involved in the story I began to get bored. I couldn't see any connection between their subplot with the scientist's subplot. As the summary above states, this is supposed to be a story about geology and the biodiversity in the oceans. I did enjoy, though, Commander Gray Pierce's historical research into the massive earthquakes in Indonesia. With this subplot the story became a treasure hunt for the records of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. Raffles lived through the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in the early 1800s. As for the rest of the Sigma Force crew, why were they in the book? The subplot with characters Seichan, Monk Kokalis, and Joe Kowalski gives the reader an update about their lives but none of them were central to the other subplots. It seemed to me that they were added into the story only because they were featured in prior books in the series. ( )

Tides of Fire by James Rollins is a very highly recommended, action packed, heart-stopping thriller wrapped around a geological disaster. This 17th novel in the Sigma Force series is a winner! (Teaser: there is biomineralization of bodies.)

Sigma Force joins with the Titan Project which has an international research station off the coast of Australia in the Coral Sea. The researchers are looking at the Tonga trench and the otherworldly bioluminescent coral living there when a Chinese military nuclear submarine is lost in the trench. Obviously, the Chinese want to keep this a secret, setting up a raid on the research station, but what happens next is already set into motion. A geological disaster that destabilizes the entire region starts and could bring about the end of the world.

An excellent addition to the Sigma Series! The pace starts out fast and only picks up the pace as the various plot threads unfold. Rollins knows how to write a complicated, riveting plot that is science based, detailed, and includes historical facts. The new characters introduced for this adventure are all wonderfully interesting and capable or decidedly evil.

As a long time fan, I have read every Sigma force novel. Tides of Fire rates as one of the best in the series. It is incredible and everything anyone could want in a Sigma Force novel. If you have never read a Rollins novel you could certainly start here and just enjoy the non-stop action and intricate plot. He includes at the beginning a cast of characters to help you follow who's who. You won't know the backstory of all the characters, but enough information naturally occurs in the narrative to provide basic details about them. The story is the star.

Along with maps and pictures within the novel that relate to the unfolding plot threads, there is also included an informative Author's Note to Readers: Truth or Fiction section at the end of the novel which discusses the real science and technology and where artistic license was used, which I always appreciate and find informative. There will be a sequel to Tides of Fire.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins via Edelweiss.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2023/08/tides-of-fire.html ( )

It wouldn't hurt to have a tissue handy on the two (or three) days it will take to read this PG near-future apocalyptic thriller set mainly 200 miles north of New Zealand in the Coral Sea. There may also be a chuckle or two. I had an ARC from William Morrow and this is my voluntary review. ( )