Altar of Eden
Record details
- ISBN: 0061231428
- ISBN: 9780061231421
-
Physical Description:
x, 398 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm.
print - Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : William Morrow, c2010.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Genetic engineering Fiction Animal mutation Fiction Veterinarians Fiction |
Genre: | Suspense fiction. |
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Homer Public Library | F ROLLINS (Text) | 000087519 | Fiction | Available | - |
Library Journal Review
Altar of Eden : A Novel
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Taking a break from his "Sigma Force" series, Rollins still captivates with this stand-alone work. Veterinarian Maura Kelly discovers a horrific menagerie of animals that have been genetically altered to not only be an ugly aberration of nature, but also extremely intelligent. She has very little time to contemplate who or what's happening, because one of the animals escapes. With the help of a U.S. marshall she knows from her past, Maura discovers an even more sinister plot that involves humans as well. Verdict Writing about a profession he knows intimately as a practicing vet, Rollins gets the details right in this exhilarating page-turner. The main characters are intriguing, and he does an admirable job balancing character development with the mayhem. Rollins's career is on the rise, and this further solidifies his reputation. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/09.]-Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
Altar of Eden : A Novel
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Bestseller Rollins (Subterranean) explores the genetic engineering theme popularized by Jurassic Park, if less imaginatively than, say, Warren Fahy did in his 2009 debut, Fragment, in this solid stand-alone thriller. During the looting of the Baghdad zoo in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, 12-year-old Makeen and his younger brother observe two men, one dressed in a khaki military uniform and the other in a dark suit, remove a large metal briefcase containing embryos from a secret facility at the zoo. About five years later, a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter lands at the New Orleans Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species to take Dr. Lorna Polk, a postgraduate resident, out over the Mississippi Delta to an abandoned trawler. In the boat Polk sees cages filled with bizarre creatures like Siamese twin capuchin monkeys and oversized vampire bats. The science mostly takes a backseat to generic suspense scenes of animal attacks, gunfights, and abduction.Ã (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
BookList Review
Altar of Eden : A Novel
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
In this stand-alone thriller from the author of the Sigma Force novels, Dr. Lorna Polk, a researcher at a high-tech facility dedicated to preserving endangered species, teams up with a border patrol officer, Jack Menard, to track down the people responsible for a boatload of genetically modified animals found beached on a small island near the coast. The book is written with Rollins' usual emphasis on history, cutting-edge science, and fast-paced adventure, and the villains are carefully drawn and supplied with sufficient intelligence and motivation to make them feel like real people and not cardboard-cutout bad guys. The two leads make a good team there's a personal undercurrent to their relationship and, as in all of Rollins' books, there is a series of questions, puzzles, and mysteries to be sorted out before the book's rousing conclusion. Readers who detect something different in this novel, a sense that the author is perhaps more personally invested in his story than usual, aren't imagining things: Rollins is a practicing veterinarian, and his affection for animals comes through pretty clearly. A very good thriller and further proof (after his earlier stand-alones, not to mention his recent adaptation of the latest Indiana Jones movie) that Rollins is as sure-footed on new ground as he is in the familiar Sigma Force world.--Pitt, David Copyright 2009 Booklist