Prime By Jeremy Robinson (Jack Sigler #0.5)

Prime by Jeremy Robinson is the intro story to his Chess Team / aka Jack Sigler techno-thriller series. I have to admit that prior to reading this book, my only experience with Jeremy Robinson’s work was through reading Island 731. And I have to admit that I was not impressed by it at all.

What prompted me to start reading Prime were a few Goodreads reviewers who equally didn’t like much Island 731, but really enjoyed his Chess Team series, as well as his Kaiju series. I figured I’d give the author another chance, and let’s just say I never regretted my decision. Right now I’m in the middle of reading both series by him and I equally enjoy them both.

But back Prime. The novel was written a few years after the first book in the Jack Sigler series, but I am a stickler for reading the books in order, so I picked it up to see where all started. As I’m now already at book #3, my decision to start with the prequel turned out to be a good one.

Prime takes you back to the very beginning, to the origins of the Delta team. The story starts with a raid on an insurgent safehouse to find the Voynich manuscript, a very rare and deadly set of as of yet uncracked papers containing the recipe for one of the most destructive weapons on earth.

As the story unfolds and the bullets fly left, right and center, Jack gets the chance to recruit his new team and gives them chess piece codes as names. He is the King, then we have the Queen, the Bishop, the Rook and of course the Knight. And literally lurking in the shadows, looms over them their faceless boss called Deep Blue.

Each of the team members has a different and very specialized skill set which will come in handy at the best of times, while the end goal of the missions themselves is to save the world from monsters and everything else that wants to destroy it. Over and over again.

The story is action packed, a nail biting roller coaster, because there is lots to do for the team on every page. The characters are interesting and quite entertaining, and knowing how the team was formed, I found reading the next books in the series (starting with Pulse) that much more entertaining.

Prime is a wonderful start of the series, and a great re-introduction to this author that I avoided so far due to the lackluster Island 731. What a world of difference between that book and this one – or any other novel by him for that matter. Jeremy Robinson has of now become one of my favorite military/techno-thriller authors.