Amazonia

I read Amazonia several years ago when it first came out in paperback. The story grabs you and takes you into the Amazon rainforest. Mutated beasts, a memorable villain, and an epic trek to find a cure for a new virulent plague keeps you totally invested with finding out what happens next. Enjoy the adventure!

If you are a fan of Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code), you will LOVE James Rollins!When an unknown white man stumbles out of the jungle, a padré insists on helping him against the advice of the local shaman, who insists that the man's body must be burned immediately upon his death. The shaman says that the man bears the mark that he is a slave of the Ban-Ali tribe, and that none must help the Ban-Ali. The padre discovers some identifying information in the man's pocket, and arranges to notify the United States, who collects the body (since it turns out the man is a former government agent, missing for several years). It turns out this man has re-grown a missing arm, complete with correct fingerprints. When the body is shipped back to the United States, it leaves a trail of destruction wherever it passed, as the new pathogen is transmissible by air.The U.S. government wants to investigate how the regeneration was possible, and to retrace the missing man's movements, when he went into the Amazon as part of a scientific team. Meanwhile, a French pharmaceutical company hires spies to follow the team into the Amazon, and steal whatever the American team can find.In the jungle, they encounter terrifying creatures sent by the Ben-Ali. Eventually, some of them arrive in the Ban-Ali homeland area, in which numerous species thought to be extinct are existing. They find some amazing things upon arrival in the Ban-Ali homeland, including solving the mystery of what happened to the former expedition, which had vanished without a trace.This is a great thriller that is hard to put down. I thought the characters were great, and I really liked all of the main characters. (People do die horrific deaths along the way, but not the characters you like most.) The book is full of so many interesting places, people, and ideas. Some of the ideas have to do with evolution, prion diseases, the origin of humans as a species, and just plain good adventure (with a satisfying romance toward the end)! The book reminded me a bit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, The Lost World. Furthermore, the ending is EXTREMELY satisfying.Amazonia is the second book I've read by James Rollins--Sandstorm, a later book, being the first. I think Rollins gets better with every book, and had I not read Sandstorm first, I would have given Amazonia five stars. So the four stars is only by comparison to Sandstorm, which is even better!

I finished reading Amazonia by New York Times best selling author James Rollins. To me, this is the best of his stand alone books (and my overall favorite out of all his books). I had read all of the Sigma Force books before I started reading these. It was the dust jacket blurb that reeled me in . . . "The Rand scientific expedition entered the lush wilderness of the Amazon and never returned. Years later, one of its members has stumbled out of the world's most inhospitable rainforest - a former Special Forces soldier, scarred, mutilated, terrified, and mere hours from death, who went in with one arm missing . . .and came out with both intact."Who on earth, and in their right mind, wouldn't want to read about that? I would love to see the book turned into a movie - if only to see the mutant animals dreamed up out of this author's mind. This is a bonafide action/adventure/thriller. No 'ifs, ands or buts' about it. There is a twist or turn on every page. There is the perfect blend of fiction overlaid with just enough science to make it believable. This tale has murder, giant jaguars, lost indigenous tribes, mutant animals and a truly, mind-boggling mystery at it's core. The research achieved for writing this book makes me feel like Jim was jotting down actual events instead of making them up.A James Rollins book is the best place I know of where a person can escape, ignore what's going on around them, and get lost in another world. A world that seems so real, you never want to leave! It has been quite a while since he has written a stand alone book. His Sigma Force series is so wildly popular with his fans. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed.James Rollins is an expert at "Catastrophising" everyday life and painting a world that is scary, exhilarating, thrilling and extreme. If you are in the mood to travel to far off, exciting, exotic locals then open up any book by James Rollins. It gets a little scary out there, so you might want to take a friend along with you.

Amazonia reminds me of those 1950s adventure movies where people find themselves in fantastical lost cities or facing peril from some long lost beast. To me its an old school adventure novel with aspects of science fiction. It come complete with a race against the clock, nefarious bad guys, lost tribes and genetically altered beasts. In many ways it reminded me of James Rollins Subterranean, which has a similar feel to it.The book is well paced and provides a good balance of scientific explaination and exploration with narrative. Character development is satisfactory for an adventure novel although a couple of the minor bad guys appear to be from central casting. There is a female antagonist who is a real piece of work. I would have liked to have seen just a little bit more of her in the story.To be honest the book is quite violent, in a comic book kind of way, but be warned there are a few beheadings. So if you are squeemish or buying for your children, bear this in mind.This is the forth James Rollins book I have read. The first being Ice Hunt, followed by Subterranean, then Map of Bones and finally Amazonia. Currently, I am part way through Altar of Eden. I have to say that Amazonia and Subterranean are my favourites, although so far Altar of Eden is not too far behind.

I've read a number of Rollins books and I've yet to be disappointed. This one is a constant page turner and I couldn't wait to get back to it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Good plot though entire ly predictable in places. Interesting story overall, a good read. Well worth the cost and the time spent.

Always enjoy JR

I liked it a lot. The characters, the setting, the writing. Thumbs up for James Rollings. He wrote a very compelling book.

Mark walks out of the Amazon jungle , he's been missing for four years. He was part of scientific group looking for new medicinal plants and to learn from tribal medicine men.Unfortunately Mark dies soon after. Unbeknown to medics he carries a deadly virus which in the main attacks children and the elderly. So another team go into the Amazon to find out what happened to the group, and desperate to find a curefor the virus. What they find is Extraordinary. Devoured in one sittiing thoroughly enjoyable !

Very Good Novel and the Delivery by Amazon.com and the Quality of the pages of the Book was great. A Good read of an adventure novel from start till Finish. The Dangers of The Amazon Jungle with its Predators like Giant Black Caiman crocodiles, Man eating mutated Piranhe creatures, thousands of flesh eating locuts and the Giant Black Jaguars are shown in a great manner by the author in this Book. Good Read 5 star rating .

Fast paced, well written- enjoyed this book. Have read many of James Rollins’ books and really love them