Works by
Jim Czajkowski
(aka James Clemens, James Rollins)
(Writer)
[1961 - ]

Writing as James Clemens

Banned and Banished Series

1. Wit'ch Fire (1998)
   On a fateful night five centuries ago, three mages made a desperate last stand, sacrificing everything to preserve the only hope of goodness in the beautiful, doomed land of Alasea. Now, on the anniversary of that ominous night, a girl-child ripens into the heritage of lost power. But before she can even comprehend her terrible new gift, the Dark Lord dispatches his winged monsters to capture her and bring him the embryonic magic she embodies.
   
   Fleeing the minions of darkness, Elena is swept toward certain doom--and into the company of unexpected allies. There she forms a band of the hunted and the cursed, the outcasts and the outlaws, to battle the unstoppable forces of evil and rescue a once-glorious empire . . .

2. Wit'ch Storm (1999)
   James Clemens burst onto the fantasy scene with Wit'ch Fire, a remarkable novel as brilliant as it was original. Now in Shadow of the Wit'ch, the explosive sequel, his talents blaze brighter still, illuminating a war-torn world of dark magicks and darker destinies--where a last, desperate hope for the salvation of all that is good lies in a young girl's hands . . . and heart.
   
   Elena bears the mark of the wit'ch upon her palm, the crimson stain that testifies to the awesome power of unimaginable potency: wild, seductive, difficult to control. Only a mistress of blood magick can stand against the foul minions and all-corrupting evil of the Dark Lord. But Elena is not yet the mistress of her magick. Protected by an ageless warrior and a band of renegades, she quests for a lost city where prophecies speak of a mystic tome that holds the key to the Dark Lord's defeat. But if the Dark Lord finds her first, Elena will become his most fearsome weapon.
   
   Sy-wen is a girl-child of an ocean-dwelling clan, bond-mates to the terrible and majestic sea dragons. But ancient bonds tie Sy-wen to the land she does not know, to a man she has never seen . . . and to a legend asleep in stone deep beneath A'loa Glen--a legend beginning to wake.
   
   Now, as Elena and Sy-wen converge on A'loa Glen from land and sea, will the forces they unleash lead to a future of freedom--or an eternity under the Dark Lord's yoke?

3. Wit'ch War (2000)
   With Wit'ch Fire and Wit'ch Storm, two novels of extraordinary imaginative power and originality, James Clemens staked his claim to being among the finest writers of fantasy to emerge this decade. Now Clemens adds to his masterpiece in the making with Wit'ch War, the dazzling third volume in the epic saga of The Banned and the Banished . . .
   
   In her hands, the young wit'ch Elena holds the awesome energies of blood magick--and more. For the fate of all Alasea hinges on her recovery of the Blood Diary, a potent talisman forged five hundred years ago, then locked away behind wards too strong for any mage to break. But only with the secrets recorded in its pages can Elena defeat the evil magicks of the Dark Lord. The challenge? The Diary lies hidden in A'loa Glen, the fabled city that belongs to Shorkan, chief lieutenant of the Dark Lord, and his fearsome army.
   
   Now, with the aid of the ocean-dwelling Sy-wen and her great dragon, Elena prepares a desperate invasion of A'loa Glen. At her side stands the one-armed warrior Er'ril, her faithful protector and the only man who knows how to unlock the wards surrounding the Blood Diary--a man who also happens to be the brother of the dreaded Shorkan.
   
   Meanwhile, Elena's brother, whose magick brings him prophetic dreams, has glimpsed a future in which Elena falls by the deadly sword of . . . Er'ril. But his visions do not always come true. How can he act against his sister's trusted guardian on the basis of a future betrayal that may never happen? For Elena's sake, and for the sake of all Alasea, how can he afford not to?

4. Wit'ch Gate (2001)
   In a spectacular feat of daring and magic, Elena and her army of outlaws and rebels have defeated evil’s minions and released the mystic secrets of the Blood Diary. But the malevolent Dark Lord has unleashed the Weirgates–black wells of ferocious energy that are his greatest source of power. Now Elena’s bravest allies are sent to find and destroy the Gates, as windships carry the fight north to the frigid woodlands, south to the burning desert sands, and east to the blasted regions of dread Gul’gotha.
   
   Along the way, they will face their own personal demons as well. The twin brothers Mogweed and Fardale race against time to break the curse that has stolen their shapechanging birthright, and Elena’s brother Joach must evade the desert sandsharks if he is to master his own elemental power. The trail will lead them even to the fabulous el’vin homeland of Stormhaven. None of the rebels will come back unscathed, some never returning at all . . .
   
   And Elena herself must journey to Gulgotha. Daring the enemy’s own lair, she must emerge victorious if she is to reveal the secret of the Dark Lord’s frightening identity–and the shocking nature of his vast powers.

5. Wit'ch Star (2002)
   The three deadly Weirgates are destroyed but the threat of the Dark Lord remains. And so Elena and her companions have gone their separate ways to prepare for what is yet to come. Elena herself has journeyed to the beautiful city of A’loa Glen, there to recover her strength and spirit.
   
   Enter Harlequin Quail.
   
   Some might call him a fool, but the little man in the jester’s suit claims to be a spy. And he comes fresh from the foul fortress of Blackhall itself, where the Dark Lord dwells. There he uncovered things that spell certain doom– for a final Weirgate remains, the most potent one of all. And with it, in just one moon’s time, the Dark Lord will avenge his earlier defeat, destroying the heart of the land and ushering in a reign of evil without end. Only Elena, with the awesome magicks of the Blood Diary, has the power to stop him.
   
   Blackhall is all but impregnable. And according to Quail, the Weirgate is well hidden, in a place known only to the Dark Lord himself.
   
   Thus begins a desperate quest like no other. Hunted by the Dark Lord’s minions and threatened by clandestine betrayals, Elena and her brave companions reunite in the effort to locate the last Weirgate and destroy it. Along the way, many questions will be answered and illusions will be smashed. Brother will turn against brother, and the strongest bonds of magic and love will be tested to the breaking point . . . and beyond.

Godslayer Chronicles

1. Shadowfall (2006)
   Four millennia have passed since the gods came to Myrillia, creating the nine lands of peace as a haven from the nightmarish, accursed Hinterlands. In all this time nothing has disturbed the harmony of the nine lands.
   
   But now the goddess of the Summering Isles has been murdered. The only witness is Tylar de Noche, a crippled and disgraced former Shadowknight. As he holds the dying goddess, her last breath bestows a powerful blessing on him-a mark that heals his broken body. A mark that many see as proof that he killed a god. A mark that unleashes a powerful force of darkness within him.
   
   Chased across Myrillia by enemies both human and ethereal, Tylar must uncover and face down a being powerful enough to kill an immortal-the true godslayer. For if he fails, all of Myrillia will fall into shadow.

2. Hinterland (2006)
   All of Myrillia is held in a grip of unease when a skull, twisted and corrupted by dark Graces, is found. It's the work of the Cabal, a faction of daemonic naethryn intent on destroying the Nine Lands. Former Shadowknight Tylar must unravel the mystery of the skull before all of Myrillia is threatened.
   
   To save the Nine Lands-and himself-Tylar must enter the Hinterland, the desolate territory beyond the blessed Lands, where rogue gods roam and dark Graces flow-and from which no Shadowknight has ever returned.

Writing as James Rollins

• The Judas Strain (2007)
  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 the shadowy covert organization SIGMA Force--search for answers to the bizarre affliction that has inexplicably washed ashore. But there are others with far less altruistic intentions. In a savage and sudden coup, terrorists hijack the vessel, turning a mercy ship into a floating bio-weapons lab.
  
  At a Fourth of July celebration a world away, SIGMA's Commander Gray Pierce thwarts the murderous schemes of a beautiful assassin--a would-be killer who holds the first clue to the discovery of a possible cure. With the fate of every man, woman, and child on Earth hanging in the balance, Pierce joins forces with the woman who wanted him dead, and together they embark upon an astonishing quest--one that winds through Venetian tombs, Byzantine cathedrals, and jungle-encrusted ruins, following the trail of the most fabled explorer in history: Marco Polo.
  
  But time is an enemy as a worldwide pandemic grows rapidly out of control. And as a relentless madman dogs their every step, Gray and his unlikely ally are being pulled into an astonishing mystery buried deep in antiquity and in humanity's genetic code. And as the seconds tick closer to doomsday, Gray Pierce will realize he can truly trust no one--not the bewitching enigma who runs at his side or even those who are closest to him--for any one of them could be...a Judas.

• Black Order (2006)
  In Copenhagen . . . a suspicious bookstore fire propels Commander Gray Pierce on a relentless hunt across four continents—and into a terrifying mystery surrounding horrific experiments once performed in a now-abandoned laboratory buried in a hollowed-out mountain in Poland.
  
  In the mountains of Nepal . . . in a remote monastery, Buddhist monks inexplicably turn to cannibalism and torture—while Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force, begins to show signs of the same baffling, mind-destroying malady . . . and Lisa Cummings, a dedicated American doctor, becomes the target of a brutal clandestine assassin.
  
  Now only Gray Pierce and Sigma Force can save a world suddenly in terrible jeopardy. Because a new order is on the rise—an annihilating nightmare growing at the heart of the greatest mystery of all: the origin of life.

• Map of Bones (2005) -- Nominee 2006 Barry Award Best Thriller
  The bestselling master of astonishing adventure James Rollins delivers his most relentlessly exciting page-turner to date—a gripping and explosive novel of an ancient conspiracy to create a terrifying new world order out of the ashes of modern civilization.
  
  The crime is inhumanly cruel with horrific consequences both unthinkable and inevitable. During a service at a cathedral in Cologne, Germany, a band of armed intruders dressed in monks robes unleash a nightmare of blood and terror, ruthlessly gunning down worshippers and clergy alike. The killers havent come for the churchs gold and valuable artwork, but for a priceless treasure secreted within: the preserved bones of the Three Magi who once came to pay homage to a newborn savior. As they flee the carnage they have wrought, they carry a prize that could reshape the world.
  
  The Vatican is in turmoil, and Lieutenant Rachel Verona of Romes carabinieri is assigned to lead the investigation. But no ordinary police organization alone can deal with the bizarre theft and massacre, and SIGMA Force—an elite covert arm of the U.S. Defense Department—is called in under the command of Grayson Pierce. New to SIGMA, Pierce assembles a crack team of scientific and Special Forces operatives to unravel the mystery of the stolen bones, and together they set out on a twisting trail through a labyrinth of clues and dark revelations that carry them to the sites of the Seven Wonders of the World—and to the doorstep of the mystical and terrifying Dragon Court.
  
  An ancient, secret fraternity of alchemists and assassins, the master-adepts of the Dragon Court have plans for the sacred remains that will alter the future of humankind in devastating ways that only the maddest of zealots could desire—and they will let nothing and no one stand in their way. Suddenly Pierce, Verona, and the SIGMA team are the hunted as well as the hunters, forced to use every skill they possess to survive as they follow the bones to the ultimate confrontation between darkness and light—in a lost place of history where science and religion will unite to unleash a horror not seen since the beginning of time.
  
  A masterful novel that combines the exhilarating mysticism of The Da Vinci Code with the pulse-pounding action of a Tom Clancy thriller, James Rollinss Map of Bones is destined to be a modern classic that will stand among the very best adventure tales ever written.

• Sandstorm (2004)
  An inexplicable explosion rocks the antiquities collection of a London museum, setting off alarms in clandestine organizations around the world. And now the search for answers is leading Lady Kara Kensington; her friend Safia al-Maaz, the gallerys brilliant and beautiful curator; and their guide, the international adventurer Omaha Dunn, into a world they never dreamed existed: a lost city buried beneath the Arabian desert. But others are being drawn there as well, some with dark and sinister purposes. And the many perils of a death-defying trek deep into the savage heart of the Arabian Peninsula pale before the nightmare waiting to be unearthed at journeys end: an ageless and awesome power that could create a utopia . . . or destroy everything humankind has built over countless millennia.

• Ice Hunt (2003)
  Carved into a moving island of ice twice the size of the United States, Ice Station Grendel has been abandoned for more than seventy years. The twisted brainchild of the finest minds of the former Soviet Union, it was designed to be inaccessible and virtually invisible. But an American undersea research vessel has inadvertently pulled too close—and something has been sighted moving inside the allegedly deserted facility, something whose survival defies every natural law. And now, as scientists, soldiers, intelligence operatives, and unsuspecting civilians are drawn into Grendels lethal vortex, the most extreme measures possible will be undertaken to protect its dark mysteries—because the terrible truths locked behind submerged walls of ice and steel could end human life on Earth.

• Subterranean (1999)
  Beneath the ice at the bottom of the Earth is a magnificent subterranean labyrinth, a place of breathtaking wonders—and terrors beyond imagining. A team of specialists led by archaeologist Ashley Carter has been hand-picked to explore this secret place and to uncover the riches it holds. But they are not the first to venture here—and those they follow did not return. There are mysteries here older than time, and revelations that could change the world. But there are also things that should not be disturbed—and a devastating truth that could doom Ashley and the expedition: they are not alone.

• Excavation (2000)
  High in the Andes, Dr. Henry Conklin discovers a 500-year-old mummy that should not be there. While deep in the South American jungle, Conklins nephew, Sam, stumbles upon a remarkable site nestled between two towering peaks, a place hidden from human eyes for thousands of years.
  
  Ingenious traps have been laid to ensnare the careless and unsuspecting, and wealth beyond imagining could be the reward for those with the courage to face the terrible unknown. But where the perilous journey inward ends—in the cold, shrouded heart of a breathtaking necropolis—something else is waiting for Sam Conklin and his exploratory party. A thing created by Man, yet not humanly possible. Something wondrous . . . something terrifying.

• Deep Fathom (2001)
  Ex-Navy SEAL Jack Kirkland surfaces from an aborted underwater salvage mission to find the Earth burning.
  
  Solar flares have triggered a series of gargantuan natural disasters. Earthquakes and hellfire rock the globe. Air Force One has vanished from the skies with Americas president on board. Now, with the U.S. on the narrow brink of a nuclear apocalypse, Kirkland must pilot his oceangoing exploration ship, Deep Fathom, on a desperate mission miles below the oceans surface. There devastating secrets await him—and a power an ancient civilization could not contain has been cast out into modern day. And it will forever alter a world thats already racing toward its own destruction.

• Amazonia (2002)
  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 worlds 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.
  
  Unable to comprehend this inexplicable event, the government sends Nathan Rand into this impenetrable secret world of undreamed-of perils, to follow the trail of his vanished father . . . toward mysteries that must be solved at any cost. But the nightmare that is awaiting Nate and his team of scientists and seasoned U.S. Rangers dwarfs any danger they anticipated . . . an ancient, unspoken terror—a power beyond human imagining—that can forever alter the world beyond the dark, lethal confines of . . .