Mark Rubinstein Blog

Just another WordPress site

  • Home
  • Books
    • Mad Dog House
    • Love Gone Mad
    • The Foot Soldier
    • Mad Dog Justice
    • Return to Sandara
    • The Lovers’ Tango
  • Meet Mark
  • FAQS
  • News & Reviews
  • Media Room
  • Blog
  • Book Clubs
    • Mad Dog House Reading Group Guide
    • Love Gone Mad Reading Group Guide
    • The Foot Soldier Reading Group Guide
    • Mad Dog Justice Reading Group Guide
    • The Lovers’ Tango Reading Group Guide
  • Contact

‘The Demon Crown,’ A Conversation with James Rollins

December 5, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

James Rollins, known to millions of readers, has written bestselling thrillers that have been translated into more than forty languages. His books are noted for their originality and scientific authenticity; as well as for being rich in historical facts and in revealing secrets ranging from findings far beneath the earth’s surface to those deep within its seas.

His new thriller, The Demon Crown, describes the unearthing of a cache of bones preserved in amber and buried more than a century earlier. The scientists, led by Alexander Graham Bell, were safeguarding a wonder unlike any other: the secret of life after death. But the marrow of those bones contains a horror from the ancient past, one that has remained dormant but alive, and is now free to wreak havoc on the world. The Sigma Force, led by Commander Grayson Pierce, must solve a deadly mystery that began with the very origins of life on Earth. But the menace is spreading, growing and adapting, and will reconquer the world it once ruled. The novel both tells a compelling story and examines the greatest peril to the world’s future.

“The Demon Crown” details, among other things, that a comet wasn’t responsible for the death of the dinosaurs. Will you tell us about that?

I’ve always been a big Michael Creighton fan. One of the authors he researched when writing Jurassic Park talked about the role of insects in the demise of the dinosaurs. I must confess I’d never thought of insects as being capable of taking down those huge lumbering beasts. For a long time, I stowed that away in my idea box. After having read that Homeland Security is concerned that someone might attempt to weaponize insects, I decided it was time to write this novel.

It’s not at all far-fetched when you think about various current ecological concerns: pythons infesting the Everglades, and carp now swimming in the Great Lakes. Homeland Security is concerned someone might create environmental havoc by releasing certain flora or fauna that would be terribly difficult to combat. So, after reading about the role insects played in the extinction of the dinosaurs, I thought it would be interesting to pair up these two phenomena—insects and environmental havoc, and that became the crux of the novel.

All your novels, including this one, seem to deal with ‘what if’ scenarios.

Aside from looking for interesting ideas for plotlines, I’m always looking for interesting scientific possibilities—the ‘what if’ situations.  With all my Sigma Force novels, I’m playing with the edge of the future, looking at technology and where it might be headed. As a writer, I’m interested in how technological change might pose a threat or challenge our moral values, whether we’re talking about cloning or gene manipulation in unborn children. These have all become realities in our world. In a real sense, technology has caught up with my books. This presents me with moral and scientific quagmires I integrate when writing novels.

Speaking of technology and the future, are there actual threats to our national security such as those described in “The Demon Crown?”

Yes, there are.

Homeland Security is now investigating these threats and trying to find ways of thwarting them. Of course, these threats can come from many different directions—whether they be foreign invasive species accidentally carried into the U.S. on a ship or airplane; or the result of a nefarious plot. Right now, one of our biggest concerns is the possibility of something entering our country that would be capable of devastating our national breadbasket. How would we be able to stop a pest that’s been modified in such a way thus making it potentially impossible to eradicate? Some pest that would be able to adapt to our environment to the point where it overtakes our indigenous species and becomes supremely dominant.

Speaking of those possibilities, “The Demon Force” describes indestructible organisms. Tell us about Lazarus microbes and the secret of ‘life after death.’

I’ve read about scientists’ ability to move genes from one specie to another. There’s a specie of animal called tardigrades, which are water-dwelling microscopic animals. They’re virtually indestructible. They can survive high temperatures, high pressure, and radiation. They’re capable of entering into a state called cryptobiosis where they become almost indestructible. In May 2017, an issue of New Scientist described the astounding ability of Lazarus microbes to survive for hundreds of millions of years in salt crystals. Their lives are suspended in what’s called ‘a twilight zone between life and death.’

Various species can ‘borrow’ advantageous genetic codes from others, especially following viral or bacterial infections. So, there’s the distinct possibility that someone could take the advantages locked into the DNA of Lazarus microbes and tardigrades and transfer those properties into other species, thereby wreaking havoc on the environment.

Alexander Graham Bell and James Smithson play important roles in ‘The Demon Crown.’ Will you talk about them?

I’ve always loved putting historical facts in my novels. The Sigma Force has its base in the subterranean chambers of the Smithsonian Castle. The Smithsonian was essentially founded by James Smithson, a British chemist and geologist who never set foot in the U.S., yet left his fortune to this country

Smithson died and was buried in Italy. Alexander Graham Bell and his wife took a steamship to Italy and returned to the U.S. with Smithson’s bones, which are buried beneath the lobby of the Smithsonian Castle, near the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

We’ve talked about this before, but I’m again struck by the fact that your Sigma Force novels often predict scientific advances, so that even as you’re writing them, you must sometimes revise a manuscript because your predictions have come true. Tell us about that.

It takes a while to write a novel. Sometimes, science catches up with the novel as I’m writing it. I keep my finger on the pulse of new findings, so when a scientific article comes out that might alter the storyline, I have to go back and make revisions, even if a novel is ready to go to press.

What’s coming next from James Rollins?

I’ve written a number of short stories that have appeared in various publications. These are being collected and put into an anthology. I’m also writing a novella about the Tucker and Kane series that will appear in that anthology. I’m also about to start writing the first chapter of the next Sigma Force novel.

Congratulations on penning ‘The Demon Crown,’ a terrifying novel combining history, scientific concepts about the ‘dark matter of life,’ and high-octane action, guaranteed to keep readers awake late into the night.

Mark Rubinstein’s latest novel is ‘Mad Dog Vengeance.’

 

Please share...Share on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInPin on Pinterest

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Connect:

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on LinkedInFollow Us on GoodreadsFollow Us on Scribd

Recent Posts

  • Adrian McKinty Had Given Up On Writing: A Late Night Phone Call Changed Everything
  • David Morrell: Finding Inspiration, Transcending Genres, and Going the Distance
  • Don Winslow and the Making of a Drug War Epic
  • My talk with Lee Child about his “contract” with readers
  • C.J. Box on the Modern Western & Crime Thrillers

Archives

  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • February 2019
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012

Categories

  • About Books
  • Aging
  • Awards
  • book launch
  • bookstores
  • courtroom drama
  • creativity
  • crime
  • doctor
  • Dog Tales
  • health
  • Huffington Post Column
  • Interviews
  • library
  • Love Gone Mad
  • Mark Rubinstein
  • medial thriller
  • novel
  • On Writing
  • Podcast
  • psychological thriller
  • Psychology Today Columns
  • Reviews
  • The Foot Soldier
  • thriller
  • Uncategorized
  • war

Copyright © 2015 Mark Rubinstein