American Muslima Writer -Daring to Work Towards Jannah

This book was wicked awesome! "Sandstorm" by James Rollins. It was Adventure, Romance, Science Fiction, Religion, Action, all rolled into one. Every page made you ask yourself a question and none got answered until a few chapters later. Antagonizing.... I TRIED to read it slowly and at first I did....soon though I couldn't resist the draw of the written word.
Since I was around 15 I had an idea in my head of a book set in Arabia that dealt with buried treasure, a mysterious woman, archaeologists, scientists, swords, Arabs, British, American stars. After reading this book which fit the bill above I don't think I will bother to write that one ever again because though mine is a little, OK a lot, different in plot it still will not come close to the brilliance of this book If you can't outshine SOMEONE why write it?
I was just amazed how easily this book flowed and covered a variety of landscapes and themes. Each Point of View had it's theme of sand, water, wind, rain, lightning, even the sense of smell was regularly covered as all writers should. Going back and forth between each theme was a balance of your mind along with the plot. Even until the very end you don't know which man the lady will choose to be with. You don't know who might end up shot next! AHHH!!! It was wonderful and terrific and when the last page turned I was satisfied. As I closed the book I realized Mr. James Rollins just got a big new fan. And to think it had been sitting on my shelf gathering dust for over a year now. I haven't been this impressed with a sci-fi book since my early days of reading ancient Alan Dean Foster books. It was hard to tell what was real science and what was theory. Thankfully at the end he explained himself....whew because I was about to question it all over my blog!
As to the religious aspect who knows the real story about the People of 'Ad, Queen of Sheba anyways. The part in the Qur'an mentioning their fate was covered here but the author's elaborations I took with a grain of salt as being the fiction part of Sci-fi. It made me interested to visit the graves of Prophet Job and Imran (Mary's father). Also I'd really like to see Oman now the main setting of the book. I have heard it really does mist in the mountains for some part of the year which would feel wonderful after all this hot summer sun we get here.
Still I give this book "Sandstorm" by James Rollins - the Seal Of My Approval [SOMA]. I can't wait to read the others. Thank God that my husband read this first and asked my mom for more of his novels, so somewhere in my fallen books are the next ones by him.