Meet The Author
ConversazioniBook Discussion : Black Order by James Rollins
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2EadieB
James Rollins is a pen name of James Paul Czajkowski (born August 20, 1961 in Chicago, IL, an American veterinarian and writer of action-adventure/thriller, mystery, and techno-thriller novels who gave up his veterinary practice in Sacramento, California to be a full-time author. Rollins' experiences and expertise as an amateur spelunker and a certified scuba diver have provided content for some of his novels, which are often set in underground or underwater locations. Under the pen name James Clemens, he has also published fantasy novels, such as Wit'ch Fire, Wit'ch Storm, Wit'ch War, Wit'ch Gate, Wit'ch Star, Shadowfall (2005) and Hinterland (2006).
Biographical sketch
Rollins was born in Chicago. His father worked for Libby's canning plant, his mother was a housewife and mother of seven, and he lived what he likened to a Brady Bunch lifestyle.
He attended Parkway South Junior High School and then graduated from Parkway West Senior High School in Ballwin, Missouri, in 1979. His undergraduate work focused on evolutionary biology. He graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1985 with a doctorate in veterinary medicine (D. V. M). Soon afterward, he moved to Sacramento, California, where he established his veterinary practice, licensed July 24, 1985.
In an August 16, 2012 interview, he told SLM's Jeannette Cooperman:
For 20 years my paycheck was coming from my veterinary degree and my writing was my hobby, and I thought it would be really cool to flip that around. Veterinary medicine is much harder. It's a 14-, 16-, 18-hour-a-day job. I owned my own practice, had 24 employees. I couldn’t get away, that was the biggest thing. In the 10 years I ran my own practice, I had three weeks of vacation total. I started writing during my lunch hour at the clinic—dogs barking, cats meowing—so now I can write anywhere.
Now, he's flipped that equation: "Once a week I spend about eight hours spaying and neutering trapped feral cats for the Sacramento Council of Cats. All I do with my veterinary degree now is remove genitalia."
Influences
Rollins found the authors of the Doc Savage series inspirational as a youth and acquired an extensive collection of the popular 1930s and 1940s pulp magazine stories. Rollins was fascinated by stories of the exploits of Howard Carter and his discovery of the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, King Tutankhamun (King Tut); this true-life tale later inspired Rollins' novel Excavation, in which the main character, archaeologist Henry Conklin, and his nephew Sam discover a lost Inca city in the mountains of the Andean jungle that contains a treasure—and a curse. He also enjoyed L. Frank Baum's Oz series, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, and C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. Additionally, he was inspired by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, whose works he used as a springboard for creating similar contemporary novels filled with what he refers to as "the three M's of fiction: magic, mayhem, and monsters".
First novel
Czajkowski sold his first novel, Witch Fire (1999), under the pen name James Clemens, through Terry Brooks' publisher. Brooks had been one of the judges for a writing contest at the Maui Writers' Conference in Maui, Hawaii, in which James had entered a manuscript he had recently completed.
Action-adventure novels
Subterranean (1999), Excavation (2000), Amazonia (2002), Ice Hunt (2003)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
In 2008, Random House commissioned Rollins to write the novelization of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), the eponymous, American adventure science fiction film. This is the fourth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, created by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg.
Altar of Eden (2009)
SIGMA Force Series
The SIGMA Force is a fictional division of the U.S. DARPA program. The chief operatives in SIGMA combine highly trained military skills with specialized scientific knowledge. The Force's purpose is to investigate and to secure sensitive information that could be a threat to the United States; its functions are a combination of counter-terrorism, research, and covert operations. Following the first book, Sandstorm (2004), the SIGMA Force headquarters moves into the sub-basement of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. These novels are intended to be read in chronological order.
Book 0: Deep Fathom (2001) This book was not originally part of the SIGMA Force series, but its characters were frequently featured in the series' later novels.
Book 1: Sandstorm (2004), Book 2: Map of Bones (2005), Book 3: Black Order (2006), Book 4: The Judas Strain (2007), Book 5: The Last Oracle (2008), Book 6: The Doomsday Key (2009), Book 6.5: The Skeleton Key (2011), Book 7: The Devil Colony (2011), Book 7.5: Tracker (2012), Book 8: Bloodline (2012), Book 9: The Eye of God (2013), Book 10: The 6th Extinction (2014), Book 10.5: The Midnight Watch (2015), Book 11: The Bone Labyrinth (2015), Book 12: The Seventh Plague (2016), Book 12.5: Ghost Ship (2017), Book 13: The Demon Crown (2017, Book 14: The Hammer of Witches (2018)
SIGMA Force movie
Husband and wife production team Dino de Laurentiis and Martha Schumacher purchased the movie rights to SIGMA Force in 2010. Dino has observed: "James Rollins is a master storyteller. The Sigma Force series is rich with complex characters and thrilling action plots, and we can’t wait to turn this treasure trove of amazing stories into a great film franchise."
According to CinemaBlend: "The film won't adapt any of the six existing novels, but will tackle a brand-new story within the world with the aim of starting a franchise." Dino de Laurentiis died 10 November 2010, but Rollins, when interviewed by the Houston Chronicle's Murder By the Blog staff (aka "MurderBooks") on June 27, 2011, confirmed: "I spoke to Dino's grandson last month. He reported that a screenplay was well underway and that they are looking at a couple of different directors. So things are moving." As of September 1, 2014, the project is listed as "in development" at IMDB Pro.
Fantasy novels
The Banned and the Banished Series
The five-installment Banned and the Banished series is about a girl named Elena who "ripens into the heritage of lost power". She goes on a journey to defeat the Dark Lord and to find herself.
Godslayer Series
Godslayer Book One: Shadowfall (2005)
For 4,000 years, the people of the Nine Lands have lived peacefully under the guidance of their hundred gods. When the goddess Meeryn is murdered the peace is shattered, and Tylar de Noche – a defrocked knight who, as sole witness, is now sole suspect – must find the killer and prove himself innocent. Tylar turns to Delia, a priestess and love interest, and to Rogger, a thief wise to the ways of the criminal underworld. Slogging hither and yon for scraps of clues, the three begin to suspect that the supposedly pacific gods are in fact engaged in an ongoing struggle for power and control. The self-absorption of the gods and the apathetic ignorance of the people form stumbling blocks on Tylar's quest.
Godslayer Book Two: Hinterland (2006)
Failed Shadowknight Tylar witnessed the death of a god, whose blood healed his deformities but branded him a Godslayer and a hunted criminal. In this second volume, Tylar's struggle for the truth is vindicated when he is officially reinstated as a Shadowknight. Yet this is a trap, revealed as Sithryn forces flow from the Ice Eyrie to wage a deadly siege, trapping Tylar and his friends. But even Tylar's skill and magic cannot save the Citadel of Tashijan, ancient Shadowknight headquarters, for something foul lies at the heart of their Order. The Cabal has infiltrated the inner council and Tylar and his allies must flee for now there can be no refuge from evil.
Other Godslayer Books
On the FAQ section of his website, Rollins announces plans for further novels: "There are more plans for the Godslayer books. The working title for Book Three is God-Sword. Besides continuing the storyline, it will discover much more about Laurelle, her past, and her perilous journey to a god hidden in the heart of a volcano. God-Sword will finish the first trilogy. And there may be a second trilogy with many of the same characters."
On February 10, 2015, Rollins wrote in an AMA ("Ask Me Anything") on Reddit.com: "Third book is done; fourth is midway. Once the fifth is done, the entire series is slated for publication, each book coming out 6 months apart, starting with a re-release of the first two."
Collaboration with Rebecca Cantrell
Rollins collaborated with the mystery writer Rebecca Cantrell to write several works in the Order of the Sanguines series (comprising a trilogy published in print and digital formats, plus a number of short fiction e-books): City of Screams (2012), a novella set in Afghanistan; The Blood Gospel (2013); Blood Brothers (2013), an e-short; Innocent Blood (2013); and Blood Infernal (2015).
Collaboration with Grant Blackwood
Rollins collaborated with the thriller writer Grant Blackwood to write multiple works in the Tucker Wayne series of military thriller novels: The Kill Switch (2014) and War Hawk (2015).
Biographical sketch
Rollins was born in Chicago. His father worked for Libby's canning plant, his mother was a housewife and mother of seven, and he lived what he likened to a Brady Bunch lifestyle.
He attended Parkway South Junior High School and then graduated from Parkway West Senior High School in Ballwin, Missouri, in 1979. His undergraduate work focused on evolutionary biology. He graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1985 with a doctorate in veterinary medicine (D. V. M). Soon afterward, he moved to Sacramento, California, where he established his veterinary practice, licensed July 24, 1985.
In an August 16, 2012 interview, he told SLM's Jeannette Cooperman:
For 20 years my paycheck was coming from my veterinary degree and my writing was my hobby, and I thought it would be really cool to flip that around. Veterinary medicine is much harder. It's a 14-, 16-, 18-hour-a-day job. I owned my own practice, had 24 employees. I couldn’t get away, that was the biggest thing. In the 10 years I ran my own practice, I had three weeks of vacation total. I started writing during my lunch hour at the clinic—dogs barking, cats meowing—so now I can write anywhere.
Now, he's flipped that equation: "Once a week I spend about eight hours spaying and neutering trapped feral cats for the Sacramento Council of Cats. All I do with my veterinary degree now is remove genitalia."
Influences
Rollins found the authors of the Doc Savage series inspirational as a youth and acquired an extensive collection of the popular 1930s and 1940s pulp magazine stories. Rollins was fascinated by stories of the exploits of Howard Carter and his discovery of the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, King Tutankhamun (King Tut); this true-life tale later inspired Rollins' novel Excavation, in which the main character, archaeologist Henry Conklin, and his nephew Sam discover a lost Inca city in the mountains of the Andean jungle that contains a treasure—and a curse. He also enjoyed L. Frank Baum's Oz series, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, and C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. Additionally, he was inspired by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, whose works he used as a springboard for creating similar contemporary novels filled with what he refers to as "the three M's of fiction: magic, mayhem, and monsters".
First novel
Czajkowski sold his first novel, Witch Fire (1999), under the pen name James Clemens, through Terry Brooks' publisher. Brooks had been one of the judges for a writing contest at the Maui Writers' Conference in Maui, Hawaii, in which James had entered a manuscript he had recently completed.
Action-adventure novels
Subterranean (1999), Excavation (2000), Amazonia (2002), Ice Hunt (2003)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
In 2008, Random House commissioned Rollins to write the novelization of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), the eponymous, American adventure science fiction film. This is the fourth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, created by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg.
Altar of Eden (2009)
SIGMA Force Series
The SIGMA Force is a fictional division of the U.S. DARPA program. The chief operatives in SIGMA combine highly trained military skills with specialized scientific knowledge. The Force's purpose is to investigate and to secure sensitive information that could be a threat to the United States; its functions are a combination of counter-terrorism, research, and covert operations. Following the first book, Sandstorm (2004), the SIGMA Force headquarters moves into the sub-basement of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. These novels are intended to be read in chronological order.
Book 0: Deep Fathom (2001) This book was not originally part of the SIGMA Force series, but its characters were frequently featured in the series' later novels.
Book 1: Sandstorm (2004), Book 2: Map of Bones (2005), Book 3: Black Order (2006), Book 4: The Judas Strain (2007), Book 5: The Last Oracle (2008), Book 6: The Doomsday Key (2009), Book 6.5: The Skeleton Key (2011), Book 7: The Devil Colony (2011), Book 7.5: Tracker (2012), Book 8: Bloodline (2012), Book 9: The Eye of God (2013), Book 10: The 6th Extinction (2014), Book 10.5: The Midnight Watch (2015), Book 11: The Bone Labyrinth (2015), Book 12: The Seventh Plague (2016), Book 12.5: Ghost Ship (2017), Book 13: The Demon Crown (2017, Book 14: The Hammer of Witches (2018)
SIGMA Force movie
Husband and wife production team Dino de Laurentiis and Martha Schumacher purchased the movie rights to SIGMA Force in 2010. Dino has observed: "James Rollins is a master storyteller. The Sigma Force series is rich with complex characters and thrilling action plots, and we can’t wait to turn this treasure trove of amazing stories into a great film franchise."
According to CinemaBlend: "The film won't adapt any of the six existing novels, but will tackle a brand-new story within the world with the aim of starting a franchise." Dino de Laurentiis died 10 November 2010, but Rollins, when interviewed by the Houston Chronicle's Murder By the Blog staff (aka "MurderBooks") on June 27, 2011, confirmed: "I spoke to Dino's grandson last month. He reported that a screenplay was well underway and that they are looking at a couple of different directors. So things are moving." As of September 1, 2014, the project is listed as "in development" at IMDB Pro.
Fantasy novels
The Banned and the Banished Series
The five-installment Banned and the Banished series is about a girl named Elena who "ripens into the heritage of lost power". She goes on a journey to defeat the Dark Lord and to find herself.
Godslayer Series
Godslayer Book One: Shadowfall (2005)
For 4,000 years, the people of the Nine Lands have lived peacefully under the guidance of their hundred gods. When the goddess Meeryn is murdered the peace is shattered, and Tylar de Noche – a defrocked knight who, as sole witness, is now sole suspect – must find the killer and prove himself innocent. Tylar turns to Delia, a priestess and love interest, and to Rogger, a thief wise to the ways of the criminal underworld. Slogging hither and yon for scraps of clues, the three begin to suspect that the supposedly pacific gods are in fact engaged in an ongoing struggle for power and control. The self-absorption of the gods and the apathetic ignorance of the people form stumbling blocks on Tylar's quest.
Godslayer Book Two: Hinterland (2006)
Failed Shadowknight Tylar witnessed the death of a god, whose blood healed his deformities but branded him a Godslayer and a hunted criminal. In this second volume, Tylar's struggle for the truth is vindicated when he is officially reinstated as a Shadowknight. Yet this is a trap, revealed as Sithryn forces flow from the Ice Eyrie to wage a deadly siege, trapping Tylar and his friends. But even Tylar's skill and magic cannot save the Citadel of Tashijan, ancient Shadowknight headquarters, for something foul lies at the heart of their Order. The Cabal has infiltrated the inner council and Tylar and his allies must flee for now there can be no refuge from evil.
Other Godslayer Books
On the FAQ section of his website, Rollins announces plans for further novels: "There are more plans for the Godslayer books. The working title for Book Three is God-Sword. Besides continuing the storyline, it will discover much more about Laurelle, her past, and her perilous journey to a god hidden in the heart of a volcano. God-Sword will finish the first trilogy. And there may be a second trilogy with many of the same characters."
On February 10, 2015, Rollins wrote in an AMA ("Ask Me Anything") on Reddit.com: "Third book is done; fourth is midway. Once the fifth is done, the entire series is slated for publication, each book coming out 6 months apart, starting with a re-release of the first two."
Collaboration with Rebecca Cantrell
Rollins collaborated with the mystery writer Rebecca Cantrell to write several works in the Order of the Sanguines series (comprising a trilogy published in print and digital formats, plus a number of short fiction e-books): City of Screams (2012), a novella set in Afghanistan; The Blood Gospel (2013); Blood Brothers (2013), an e-short; Innocent Blood (2013); and Blood Infernal (2015).
Collaboration with Grant Blackwood
Rollins collaborated with the thriller writer Grant Blackwood to write multiple works in the Tucker Wayne series of military thriller novels: The Kill Switch (2014) and War Hawk (2015).
3Sergeirocks
>2 EadieB: Thanks, Eadie, 👍
4Andrew-theQM
>2 EadieB: Thanks Eadie. I loved the Order of the Sanguines series.
5EadieB
>4 Andrew-theQM: I love that series too!
6Olivermagnus
Thanks Eadie....very interesting. I really loved the Order of th Sanguines too. I remember thinking of passing because I was just over all those religious conspiracy books. It ended up being a favorite of mine and a good lesson in judging a book before I even try it.
7EadieB
>6 Olivermagnus: You’re welcome! Yes, it was a surprisingly good read!
