A review by hirvimaki
Altar of Eden by James Rollins

2.0

I'm a fan of Rollins. I very much enjoy his Sigma Force novels and the adjacent novels such as Excavation, Subterranean, and Amazonia. I figured this would fall into the latter, novels not focused on Sigma Force but with the same pacing and a looming weird science catastrophe. And in a way it was kind of that. And yet it was different. Sure, there was a looming weird science catastrophe. But the pacing? Not his best. And although I'd never call his characters deep, in this one they were cartoonish. Similarly, the plots of his novels are always out there on the fringe, a couple of toes still rooted in the real world but blown up and exaggerated to make things exciting, yet this one was...outlandish? Oh, not the pieces of science, perhaps, but the assemblage of said science. It is a mashup of The Island of Doctor Moreau, Frankenstein, and The Terminal Man that at times is silly and at others confusing. This rather bizarre plot is stretched between frantic actions scenes that smack of the 80s Airwolf. Not a bad book, but not one of Rolllins' best efforts.