Chad's Reviews > Unrestricted Access: New and Classic Short Fiction

A collection of James Rollins's short stories to date, including a new one, featuring Tucker and Kane from Sigma Force, Sun Dogs. The stories are accompanied with anecdotes and author's notes into the science presented in the stories, just like his novels have.

Sigma Force Between the Numbers
Kowalski's in Love - ★★★★
Your typical Kowalski story. Through a combination of bumbling and bulldozing his way through a situation, he manages to save the day. This little ditty is how he was introduced to Sigma Force. It's short, but any fan of the Sigma Force novels is going to like this. This was originally printed in an anthology book called Thrillers.

The Skeleton Key - ★★★★
Seichan wakes up with a shock collar around her neck and two hours to stop a doomsday cult from blowing up Paris. Thus begins an underground adventure among the catacombs. Even though Seichan has left the Guild at this point, she's very much the cut throat Seichan I love. Leads into The Devil Colony.

The Midnight Watch - ★★★
Nice little short story featuring Kowalski crashing headlong through an adventure with computer expert Jason Carter. This leads into Bone Labyrinth.

Ghost Ship - ★★★★
Gray and Seichan are travelling in Australia when they get involved in some betrayal off the coast of Australia. Rollins manages to pack in a lot of action in a very short story, only about 25 pages long. Leads into The Demon Crown.

Crash and Burn - ★★★★
Kowalski and Seichan crash land on an island full of zombified people. It's a cool Halloween-ish type tale that leads into The Seventh Plague. This was the best one of Rollins between the numbers Sigma Force stories yet.

Tracker - ★★★
A short story introducing Tucker and Kane before they appear in Bloodline. Tucker and Kane are a former military K-9 unit from Afghanistan. Now they travel the world helping those they come across who need it. I love the interaction between Tucker and his dog Kane.

The Devil's Bones- co-written by Steve Berry - ★★★★
A nice, short little ditty teaming up Gray Pierce of Sigma Force and Steve Berry's Cotton Malone. They both are after the same neurotoxin in the Amazon. I haven't read any of the Cotton Malone books but I'll be checking them out now. First appeared in the anthology Faceoff.



The Order of the Sanguines Between the Numbers - co-written by Rebecca Cantrell
City of Screams - ★★★
This is the lead in to The Order of the Sanguines trilogy. It follows, Sgt. Jordan Stone, who is stationed in Afghanistan when he's sent to help some archeologists who have been attacked. When they get there the bodies are all gone and strange things are afoot. It ends with Jordan's team being sent to Masada, Israel where The Blood Gospel begins. It's a solid introduction to a new character and series from James Rollins.

Blood Brothers - ★★★
A little between the numbers story from The Order of the Sanguines detailing how the vampire, Christian, joined the Order. It was a nifty little story of the bonds between brothers.



Tagger - ★★★★
A young woman is able to impart magical protection by tagging buildings. She is beset upon an ancient adversary and must stop it from causing a massive earthquake in L.A. First appeared in the anthology, Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror.

The Pit - ★★
Jesus, this story was rough. It's about a dog who was kidnapped from his family and turned into a fight dog. To be honest, as a dog lover, I wanted to punch James Rollins for not only putting me through this, but the fictional dog in the story. Reading about this dog's "training" (more like torture) made me so f%ing angry. I know he was trying to be realistic but it was very upsetting. Rollins said he wanted to write something to impress George R.R. Martin but I'll take the Red Wedding over this any day. This story was originally printed in Warriors.

Sun Dogs - ★★★★
Newly written for this anthology, Sun Dogs returns us to Tucker and Kane in the Sedona desert when they investigate a gunshot. It delves into Vortexes rumored to exist in the area around Sedona.