I was very excited to read this book after sampling an online chapter, but was utterly disappointed half way through the story. The author has clearly copied Dan Brown's formula (and subtly, some of his ideas) and wrote a story that is a mixture of extremely detailed technical/sci-fi descriptions (similar to Michael Crichton's) and slow/repetitive 'action' scenes that go somewhat like this: "When the enemy got distracted, he pulled a gun hidden on his boot. He lifted the gun. He turned his hand to point the gun to the enemy. He put his finger on the trigger. He slowly pulled the trigger. And the bullet crossed the space between the two of them." Zzzzzzz... I'm giving two stars because the historical information in the book is quite interesting. However, the breaking of codes just doesn't flow with the story and the author could have easily trimmed the book down to 200 pages. This is the first and last James Rollins book I will read. Sorry!