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Want to know one of the well-kept secret of literature that would make Rhonda Byrne turn over in her grave if she was dead? Great writing doesn't always translate into great sales and great sales doesn't always mean great writing. For example, Dan Brown is a terrible writer but he has good ideas. People who read one book a year can't exactly put his prose in perspective. James Rollins sells a lot of novels too. A LOT of them. He's been hailed as the new king of action/adventure fiction for a few years. Everybody knows that action/adventure is just a marketing suit for pulp adventure. The craziest, most outlandish action/adventure novels always are the best. James Rollins' Sigma Force adventure THE EYE OF GOD feels inflated like the Michelin Man at times, but it's a fun, intricate pulp tale about the true nature of the universe. What's not to like about that?
There are several narrative threads in THE EYE OF GOD, so you have to pay attention. There is a meteor slowly making its way towards Earth for an unknown reason. It transports a signature of dark energy and when the NASA sends a satellite to investigate, the thing is thrown back to Earth and last thing that is displayed before going offline is a photo of the U.S's Eastern Seabord completely destroyed. When analyzed, the photo reveals to have been taken four days into the future. The satellite crashed in Mongolia, so Sigma Force dispatched Commander Gray Pierce and his squad to retrieve the piece of hardware. Only problem is that Pierce and his friends are caught in a Macau casino, running away from triads and North Koreans as they learn about the satellite. They have four days to survive, make it to Mongolia and save the Earth. How does that sound for a work assignment?
The great thing about THE EYE OF GOD is the scope of its premise. It is so massive and ambitious and detailed, it's difficult not to admire. Bridging the gap between science and religion is brilliant because these two ideas have been at war with one another for as long as they existed. What if there were tangible phenomenon to explain every system of belief? What if the universe and the concept of afterlife were intimately connected? I'm not going to lie, these are questions I've asked myself and I loved James Rollins' boldness for attempting to answer them. Whenever Rollins backs into a meta-narrative mode where he superposes historical events, biblical belief and scientific observation, THE EYE OF GOD was nothing short of fascinating. James Rollins has that pulp bravado to ask the most outlandish questions and answer them in the most outlandish manners. He knows how to make it fun.,
The major issue with THE EYE OF GOD is that it has a little too much of everything. It's like a drunk guy who tries to overdo everything to prove he's not drunk. The ''minor voice'' scenes (as Chuck Palahniuk would call them) are way too long and too many. For example, you don't get to the object of the premise for the first half of the novel because of character development scenes. It's ridiculous, it's supposed to be the NINTH NOVEL in the series. Even if it was my first, I was bored with reading copious amounts of Gray Pierce's girlfriend Seichan's existential concerns about reuniting with her triad tiger mom. It was cute and a bit funny at first, but somewhere between page 100 and 250, I stopped giving a fuck about it and all that interested me was that goddamn satellite. There are too many characters doing too many things in THE EYE OF GOD and the premise is way too interesting to lose track several time like it does.
I liked THE EYE OF GOD. It was frustrating to read at times, but I can only applaude at its ambition and originality of plot. It's a surprisingly sophisticated novel when it comes to fundamentally clashing ideas such as science and religion and for that alone, it deserves to be read. I'm not sure James Rollins is an ambassador for a pulp movement renaissance like he seems to be, but he's a selling point. If you read James Rollins, there is no reason you shouldn't like the BLOOD AND TACOS series, for example. You should have the necessary taste for fisticuffs and enough sense of humour to get it. Reading THE EYE OF GOD is a gateway into the strange and fascinating world of over-the-top adventure fiction. If you like it, there is crazier stuff out there.