Thursday, January 1, 2009

Book Review - SAHARA by Clive Cussler


SAHARA by Clive Cussler
1993 568pgs

I bought this book at a thrift store sometime this summer, thinking it would be a perfect Beach Read style of book, and then forgot I bought it and never read it. Clive Cussler has a pretty good pile of books under his belt, and all of them are known for being rootin'-tootin' shoot 'em up thrillers, with big locations, bigger characters, and even bigger explosions.

This was my first exposure to Cussler, and unfortunately I wasn't too impressed. The story concerns a deadly red tide that, being fed by a mysterious chemical pollutant stemming from the Sahara Desert, threatens all life on earth, so Dirk Pitt, buff, brilliant, scientist/military mastermind leads a team into the desert illegally to discover the source. Along the way he finds a beautiful scientist, a evil warlord, a wicked french businessman, gold mines, a Civil War boat, an Australian pilot, and a prospector named Clive Cussler.

Now really, as ludicrous as the plot was, with all it entailed, the odd choice of naming the prospector after himself was the most annoying to me, the rest were all played out pretty well, and I did find the book pretty fun. I just don't understand why he chose to do that. Sahara is definitely one to just turn your mind off and let loose with, and I think if I re-read this in the summer on a beach, I'd probably rate it higher, but in the middle of a huge snowstorm, slightly grumpy about Christmas, it didn't catch my attention very well.

That said, I paid $.50 for it, and it was a decent enough way to pass a couple of evenings. If I found any more of his books for sale cheap, I'd probably give them a go too.

4/10

Now Reading - The Loch by Steve Alten

2 comments:

The Grows said...

I am pretty surprised to hear that, where as I really enjoyed the movie and the books themselves are usually better. I guess it can't be true always.

Unknown said...

Hey you!

I think the main problem with the book is that the main character is obviously invulnerable. There was never any chance that he would lose, or do anything but be super manly and whup everyone. I liked the movie too, and I think if they'd been true to the book, both Pitt and his friend would have been played by Vin Diesel and Arnold Scwarzenegger or something, and been a very 80's style R rated action flick.I'm glad they went the way they did with the movie.