Saturday, January 2, 2010

AUTHOR INTRODUCTION








INTRODUCING...(Well, you will have to read through a bit of my jargon before I actually tell you who he is!)


As promised, I (Dave) have been withholding my all time favorite author from you guys since we started our site. Actually, I had Sami give you a taste of him without even letting you on about my passion for him and his books. Earlier on last year, Sami did a review on his first Children's/YA novel "Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow." However, it is this author that inspired us to start our own review site.


I had been in the library one day a few years ago and glancing at the "new arrivals" in the adult section, which I do not frequent often and being out my my element here found a book that gave me some sense of comfort since I had been a fan of the movies for many years. I picked up "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" just because I had seen all of the movies except this one over the years and thought that reading the book would be just as fun as seeing the movie. Venturing outside of my "norm" I started the book when I got home and had ended up finishing it only a few hours later. (I remember it was a bad snow storm, which is why I ran to the library in the first place) The writing floored me. I had looked up the author on the net to do some research on him. From what I read, he had already written a good few handfuls of action-adventure/thrillers and was hand picked by Steven Spielberg himself to write the novel rendition of the new Indiana movie. Intrigued, I read on. It happened that this author was not only a veterinarian, which I immediately liked due to my hidden passion and past studies of biology, but also a NYT, National, and International best selling author already!


I then went to his website and started to learn as much about him and his writing as I could.  I returned to the library with a list of his books that he had already written to find only a couple of old copies of a few of them on the shelf. Next stop.... Barnes and Noble.  That afternoon, I picked up every paperback copy of every book he had written and went to work. Within a couple of weeks, including sleepless nights as well as a few missed days of work (shhh, please don't tell that I really didn't have a 3 day stint of a bad flu!) I had completed all of his books and was marking the calendar for the next release.


After doing a bit more homework, I found out that this author had written a complete fantasy series as well as a few books in a new fantasy series under a different pen name. What amazed me was how he could write such amazing books in both genres which were at total ends of the spectrum. Just an amazing author. I had been a reader prior to all of these books, but not anywhere in the capacity of since. I will attribute my passion for not only my intense reading, but also even starting this site and sharing my thoughts on what I read with all of you to this particular author. Yes, he is that powerful to me.


WHO IS THIS GUY ALREADY?????


Ok... hopefully I have your attention. Many of you know how serious I am about my reviews and what I read. So for me to tell you that this is my hands down all time favorite author ever, I mean it. Now, don't get me wrong- there are a handful of authors I have mentioned on this site before that fall under my "favorite author's list" like Dashner, Bingham, Forman, and a few others. To me, these are all major league players in my mind. The only way I can explain my passion for this author is like comparing him to the NY Yankees. (sorry Sox fans!) There are major leaguers and then there is one team that will forever stand out. To me, this Yankee, is author JAMES ROLLINS.


I was hoping that some of you out there have heard of him and read his work before. He also goes under the pen name "James Clemens" in the fantasy world. I have had the pleasure of speaking to James a few times and even have a dozen book plates that he sent me for every time I pick up his latest release. Besides being an amazing author, he is also a super nice guy. He just released a new book this past Tuesday that I will be reviewing later on today called "Altar of Eden." My suggestion to any of you out there who trust my advice is to start with one of his earlier works to get a feel for his style. (Amazonia is always a good one to start with!) I will include a list of his books below, which includes some stand alones as well as a series called "The Sigma Series" which is one of the best series I have ever read.


What I absolutely LOVE about his books is that you seriously can not wait to turn each and every page of any of his books. Action, action, action with every other element you would like to see mixed in. I do not think there are any other books that I read quicker than his. Picture this... a roller coaster climbing the lift quite quickly, but continuing to climb and climb and climb, always feeling like you are almost at the top but it being nowhere in sight. Then, just when you give up on seeing the top, it hits you. Not only does it hit you, but it's the biggest drop ever, and all you keep doing is picking up speed the whole way down! Well, that's the feeling I get when I read his books. And what is great is that he is consistent. Each book has the same feeling. Every page is action packed and leaves you wanting more.  More More More... I hope that you guys trust my opinion, so I am going to give you a list of his books under James Rollins as well as his fantasy books. You can always get more information at his site www.jamesrollins.com or for you fantasy buffs, and I would suggest not jumping into the fantasy ones unless you are big into fantasy, www.jamesclemens.com


Below is a short video of James as well as his released work so far.









The Books under James Clemens, under the fantasy side include:





  • and the 2 books so far in the second series (my favorite of the 2 series):
  • The Godslayer Chronicles- Shadowfall, and Hinterland


Under James Rollins, we have the following:


















Thanks for letting me share this with you guys and I will post a review of his latest stand alone release, 'Altar of Eden" later on. I really appreciate you taking this time to read this post and I hope I can create some new Rollins fans!


DAVE 

7 comments:

  1. I am totally intrigued by this and will have to look him up and read some of his books! Thanks for sharing, Dave!!!

    Molly "Buukluvr81"

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  2. I never took the guys who wrote novelizations of movies very seriously, but obviously this guy has quite a resume to back him up!

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  3. brilliant! I'll look him up to learn more...what a resume! :)

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  4. I look forward to reading some of his books! Now I just have to decide which one to start with.

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  5. I really enjoyed the Judas Strain. It was the first book I read by Mr. Rollins. I thought the idea for the book was great and am waiting for my husband to finish Black Order so I can read it.

    Kate Mobley

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  6. Wow Dave, you really do love James Rollins' stuff, huh? I've never heard of him, but I'll have to check him out now. I've never been a huge action book person, but I do love some every once in a while, so I'll be looking up some of these books.

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  7. I also have an award for everyone over at my blog: http://ahauntofancientpeace.blogspot.com/2010/01/honest-scrap-award-its-my-first-ever-d.html

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