The Sigma Force Books in Order: How to read James Rollins’s Series?

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Written by author James Rollins, The Sigma Force series is obviously about The SIGMA Force. It is a fictional division of the U.S. DARPA program whose purpose is to investigate and secure sensitive information that could be a threat to the United States.

Based in the sub-basement of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Sigma Force is leading counterterrorism, research, and covert operations. As the series progresses, we follow the team as its members must go on missions in order to investigate and secure discoveries that are both technological and historical, and that could hurt the U.S. as well as the rest of the world.

How to read The Sigma Force Series in Order?

Every book in the SIGMA Force book series works as a standalone story, you do not need to read the books in a specific order to enjoy the adventure, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

Note: Most of the short stories are also available with some of the novels (the one following), but not in every edition.

  1. Sandstorm – A freak explosion in the British Museum in London ignites a perilous race for an earth-shaking power source buried deep beneath the sands of history. When an ancient artifact points the way toward the legendary ‘Atlantis of the Sands,’ Painter Crowe, an agent for Sigma Force, must travel across the world in search of the lost city–and a destructive power beyond imagining.
  2. Map of Bones – During a crowded service at a cathedral in Germany, armed intruders in monks’ robes unleash a nightmare of blood and destruction. But the killers have not come for gold; they seek a more valuable prize: the bones of the Magi. With the Vatican in turmoil, Sigma Force under the command of Grayson Pierce leaps into action.
  3. Black Order – A sinister fire in a Copenhagen bookstore ignites a relentless hunt across four continents. Arson and murder reveal an insidious plot to steal a Bible that once belonged to Charles Darwin. And Commander Gray Pierce dives headlong into a mystery that dates back to Nazi Germany … and to horrific experiments performed in a now-abandoned laboratory in Poland.
  1. The Judas Strain – From the depths of the Indian Ocean, a horrific plague has arisen to devastate humankind – a disease that’s unknown, unstoppable … and deadly. But it is merely a harbinger of the doom that is to follow. Aboard a cruise liner transformed into a makeshift hospital, Dr. Lisa Cummings and Monk Kokkalis – operatives of SIGMA Force – search for answers to the bizarre affliction. But there are others with far less altruistic intentions.
  2. The Last Oracle – In Washington, D.C., a homeless man takes an assassin’s bullet and dies in Commander Gray Pierce’s arms. A bloody coin clutched in the dead man’s hand is the key to a conspiracy that dates back to the Cold War and threatens the very foundation of humanity.
  3. The Doomsday Key – Three murders on three continents bear a horrifying connection: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh. The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a race against time to solve a riddle going back centuries, to a ghastly crime against humanity hidden within a cryptic medieval codex.
  4. The Skeleton Key (Short Story) – Seichan and a young urban explorer awake in a Paris hotel after having been kidnapped and drugged, to find deadly electronic collars fastened around their necks. They are tasked to rescue the kidnapper’s son, who has fallen under the sway of the nefarious leader of an apocalyptic cult.
  1. The Devil Colony – Deep in the Rocky Mountains, a gruesome discovery stirs international attention and fervent controversy. The local Native American Heritage Commission lays claim to the prehistoric remains. During a riot at the dig site, an anthropologist dies horribly, burned to ashes in a fiery explosion. A teenage firebrand who escaped with a vital clue to the murder calls on the one person who might help – her uncle, Painter Crowe, Director of Sigma Force.
  2. Tracker (Short Story) – In the medieval heart of Budapest, Captain Tucker Wayne and his war dog, Kane, rescue a mysterious woman fleeing three armed men. They are after the secret she holds, which will unlock a terrible treasure steeped in blood and treachery.
  3. Bloodline – Galilee, 1025. Infiltrating an ancient citadel, a Templar knight uncovers the staff of Jesus Christ. A millennium later, Somali pirates hijack a yacht off the coast of the Horn of Africa, kidnapping a young pregnant American woman. Commander Gray Pierce is enlisted for a covert rescue mission into the African jungle. The woman is no rich tourist: she’s Amanda Gant-Bennett, daughter of the U.S. president.
  4. The Eye of God – In the wilds of Mongolia, a research satellite has crashed, triggering an explosive search for its valuable cargo: a code-black physics project connected to the study of dark energy. At the Vatican, a package arrives containing two strange artifacts connected to the long dead Mongol King Genghis Khan. Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force set out to discover the truth tied to the fall of the Roman Empire, to a mystery going back to the birth of Christianity, and to a weapon hidden for centuries that holds the fate of humanity.
  1. The 6th Extinction – A remote military research station sends out a frantic distress call, ending with a chilling final command: Kill us all! Personnel from the neighboring base rush in to discover everyone already dead-and not just the scientists, but every living thing for fifty square miles is annihilated. To halt the inevitable, Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma must unravel a threat that rises out of the distant past.
  2. The Midnight Watch (Short Story) – In the dead of night, a faceless enemy hacks into the Smithsonian Institution’s network of servers, but it is only the first strike masking a larger attack. To rescue a biologist trapped in the National Museum of Natural History and to discover the true intent behind an assault that grows bolder and bloodier by the minute, Sigma Force must unleash its most headstrong operative – Joe Kowalski.
  3. The Bone Labyrinth – In the remote mountains of Croatia, an archaeologist makes a strange discovery: the bones of a Neanderthal woman. In the same cavern system, elaborate primitive paintings tell the story of an immense battle between tribes of Neanderthals and monstrous shadowy figures. Who is this mysterious enemy depicted in these ancient drawings and what do the paintings mean? Before any answers can be made, the investigative team is attacked.
  4. Crash and Burn (Short Story) – On a transatlantic flight, Seichan and Kowalski must set aside their mutual dislike as a mysterious fiery force knocks their aircraft out of the sky. This unlikely duo must use every skill, weapon, and a bit of ingenuity to survive a night on a remote volcanic island.
  5. The Seventh Plague – Two years after vanishing into the Sudanese desert, the leader of a British archeological expedition, Professor Harold McCabe, comes stumbling out of the sands, frantic and delirious, but he dies before he can tell his story. The medical team who had performed the man’s autopsy has fallen ill with an unknown disease, one that is quickly spreading throughout Cairo. Fearing the worst, a colleague of the professor reaches out to a longtime friend: Painter Crowe, the director of Sigma Force.
  1. Ghost Ship (Short Story) – The discovery of a burned body sprawled on a remote Australian beach shatters the vacation plans of Commander Gray Pierce. To thwart an ingenious enemy, he and Seichan are pulled into a centuries-old mystery surrounding a lost convict ship, the Trident.
  2. The Demon Crown – Off the coast of Brazil, a team of scientists discovers a horror like no other, an island where all life has been eradicated, consumed, and possessed by a species beyond imagination. Before they can report their discovery, a mysterious agency attacks the group, killing them all, save one, an entomologist, an expert on venomous creatures, Professor Ken Matsui from Cornell University.
  3. Crucible – Arriving home on Christmas Eve, Commander Gray Pierce discovers his house ransacked, his pregnant lover missing, and his best friend’s wife, Kat, unconscious on the kitchen floor. What Pierce learns from Kat sets Sigma Force on a frantic quest for answers that are connected to mysteries reaching back to the Spanish Inquisition and to one of the most reviled and blood-soaked books in human history
  1. The Last Odyssey – In the frozen tundra of Greenland, a group of researchers stumbles on a medieval ship buried a half-mile below the ice. Inside the captain’s cabin is a clockwork gold map embedded with an intricate silver astrolabe. Once activated, the moving map traces the path of Odysseus’s famous ship as it sailed away from Troy. But the route detours as the map opens to reveal a fiery river leading to a hidden realm underneath the Mediterranean Sea. Now, Sigma Force must prevent a tyrant from igniting a global war and cross the very gates of Hell.
  2. Kingdom of Bones – An unknown force is leveling the evolutionary playing field. Men, women, and children have been reduced to a dull, catatonic state. The environment surrounding them-plants and animals-has grown more cunning and predatory, evolving at an exponential pace. Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force are prepared for the extraordinary and have kept the world safe, vigilance for which they have paid a tragic personal price. As they race to find answers, the members of Sigma quickly realize they have become the prey.
  3. Tides of Fire – The Titan Project–an international research station off the coast of Australia–discovers a thriving zone of life in an otherwise dead sea. The area teems with a strange bioluminescent coral that defies science, yet holds great promise for the future. But the loss of a military submarine in the area triggers a brutal attack and sets in motion a geological disaster that destabilizes an entire region. As seas turn toxic and coastlines burn, can Sigma Force stop what has been let loose?

  1. Arkangel – The execution of a Vatican archivist within the shadow of the Kremlin exposes a conspiracy going back three centuries—to the bloody era of the Russian Tsars. Before his murder, he manages to dispatch a coded message, a warning of a terrifying threat, one tied to a secret buried within the Golden Library of Tsars, a vast and treasured archive that had vanished into history. As combative forces race for the truth behind this death and alarming discovery, Sigma Force is summoned to aid in the search—not only for this missing trove of ancient books, but to follow a trail far into the Arctic, to search for the truth about a lost continent and a revelation that could ignite a global war. But Sigma Force has its own difficulties at home after an explosive attack on the National Mall—one aimed at the heart of their covert agency—has left them vulnerable and exposed.

If you like our article about The SIGMA Force reading order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in Cotton Malone, or Clive Cussler’s books.

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