Status
Available
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Pocket (1993)
Description
Dr. Rojas and Dirk Pitt are in Africa investigating different things, but are thrown together to save the world from environmental catastrophe.
User reviews
LibraryThing member SamuelW
It is instantly apparent within two minutes of picking up Sahara that this is the kind of book for people who like action movies in print. Having compared this novel to the film based on it, I would be willing to say that the book is more of a Hollywood movie than the movie is. Action, violence,
Starting to read Sahara was an interesting experience for me. Cussler presents the reader with four completely separate, seemingly unconnected stories before finally getting on with the plot. Little by little, he draws them all together as the story progresses. On top of this, Sahara has three main plotlines, which are introduced one after the other, and resolved in the opposite order, like a series of three circles inside each other that the reader passes through the middle of. The central circle is the most intense, climactic and exciting, but it is commendable that Cussler doesn’t go for the typical, unrealistic Hollywood ‘quick fix’ (usually involving some form of explosion,) that solves all three plotlines at once – he solves all three individually and systematically.
As a thriller, this book ranks moderately high. Cussler isn’t the best out there, but he’s far from boring! Be warned, though; if you can’t stand clichés, this is not the book for you. From the outrageous gadgets and vehicles Pitt and Giordino receive, (all of which they manage to destroy,) to the moment where they subject the ‘baddies’ to cruel, inhumanly torturous deaths, (all in the name of peace and justice, and accompanied by a cool, witty quip,) ‘clichéd’ is this book’s middle name. Don’t be too critical, or you won’t enjoy. Sit back, strap yourself in, and enjoy the ride.
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gunpowder and assassination attempts, right from the word ‘go’, so much so that there would be people in the world who would not classify Sahara as a book at all. Our typical, steely, fearless, accomplish-anything wonder-hero is summed up perfectly by a quote from the book itself – “If anyone can enter hell and walk out carrying a glass of tequila over ice, it’s Dirk Pitt.” Couple him with the comical sidekick, throw in the beautiful woman they save from the jaws of death, and the red-faced, cigar smoking Admiral who gives the orders, and you’ve got the definition of ‘cliché’. An overused, blunt and blatantly American recipe for disaster, but a fun ride all the same.Starting to read Sahara was an interesting experience for me. Cussler presents the reader with four completely separate, seemingly unconnected stories before finally getting on with the plot. Little by little, he draws them all together as the story progresses. On top of this, Sahara has three main plotlines, which are introduced one after the other, and resolved in the opposite order, like a series of three circles inside each other that the reader passes through the middle of. The central circle is the most intense, climactic and exciting, but it is commendable that Cussler doesn’t go for the typical, unrealistic Hollywood ‘quick fix’ (usually involving some form of explosion,) that solves all three plotlines at once – he solves all three individually and systematically.
As a thriller, this book ranks moderately high. Cussler isn’t the best out there, but he’s far from boring! Be warned, though; if you can’t stand clichés, this is not the book for you. From the outrageous gadgets and vehicles Pitt and Giordino receive, (all of which they manage to destroy,) to the moment where they subject the ‘baddies’ to cruel, inhumanly torturous deaths, (all in the name of peace and justice, and accompanied by a cool, witty quip,) ‘clichéd’ is this book’s middle name. Don’t be too critical, or you won’t enjoy. Sit back, strap yourself in, and enjoy the ride.
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LibraryThing member jrcchicago
This book was so bad that I couldn't get past page 100 or so. The writing was awful, riddled with cliches, and the character descriptions were painful. If there were the option to give the book zero stars, I would.
LibraryThing member gazzy
Why this was written as a novel instead of a screenplay owes to the fact that hollywood only recently has made improbable adventure stories their main concern.
LibraryThing member df6b_mattW
The first Dirk Pitt Adventure I read. My Dad said I'd like the book , he did when he was growing up. Everyone should read the Dirk Pitt novels.
LibraryThing member readafew
I listened to this book and it was another Dirk Pitt adventure with all that entails. This is one of the longer ones, which only means it gives Dirk and Al a lot more time to get into more trouble only to find their way back out again. The science was pretty bad in this one and it was a rather
Dirk and Al are sent up the Niger river to try and locate the source of chemical pollutants that are creating a red tide of epic proportions and could threaten the health of the entire planet. Eva a doc with WHO is going to Mali to look for what is making thousands ill. A billionaire and a corrupt general have secrets to hide one has the money the other the forces to try and keep the secrets.
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overt attempt at persuasion for going green. While I try to be green myself, this was a bit of a club over the head.Dirk and Al are sent up the Niger river to try and locate the source of chemical pollutants that are creating a red tide of epic proportions and could threaten the health of the entire planet. Eva a doc with WHO is going to Mali to look for what is making thousands ill. A billionaire and a corrupt general have secrets to hide one has the money the other the forces to try and keep the secrets.
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LibraryThing member DavidLErickson
During the closing days of the Civil War a Confederate ironclad runs the Union gauntlet, the enemy guns silenced as a highly recognizable figure steps out on the ironclad’s deck. In the mid 90’s a Saharan tourist group disappears. 5 days later, Dirk Pitt comes across a beautiful woman alone on
Couple that with a red tide spreading across the globe that will, in a matter of months, extinguish all life on Earth by depriving the atmosphere of oxygen.
So begins an adventure that will send Dirk Pit and Al Giordino on a life-threatening romp across the desolation of the Sahara that rivals the best that Clive Cussler has to offer. It is an intriguing tale employing a cast of characters Cussler readers have come to know well.
The only aspect of this novel I wasn’t pleased with is the same issue I’ve had with Cussler’s other novels: The plot prop of waiting until the last possible second before they cut the right wire… In this case, Dirk and Al are taking their last step across a barren wasteland, having consumed no water or food for at least two days while enduring torturous temperature swings from the ice cold of night to the frying pan heat of the day. Here they are, both on death’s door, not an ounce of energy remaining when they stumble across a downed aircraft. Somehow they are able to build a land yacht from the wreckage and sail another day across the desert sands to where a truck driver miraculously appears, just when they have, once again, reached death’s door.
All I can say is, please Clive, give us readers a break. You write great tales and they don’t need a constant feed of TVesque ‘a moment beyond the last possible second’ scenarios to make the read great. I know this is fiction and meant to simply entertain, but I’d much rather see these tales a tad more realistic. Sure, bring things to a boil, edge of your seat, but not every transcendental moment requires this kind of prop.
Overall this was an entertaining read, perhaps one of the best, and I do appreciate Clive sharing his creative talents with us. However formulaic they are.
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a North African beach and saves her from would be assassins.Couple that with a red tide spreading across the globe that will, in a matter of months, extinguish all life on Earth by depriving the atmosphere of oxygen.
So begins an adventure that will send Dirk Pit and Al Giordino on a life-threatening romp across the desolation of the Sahara that rivals the best that Clive Cussler has to offer. It is an intriguing tale employing a cast of characters Cussler readers have come to know well.
The only aspect of this novel I wasn’t pleased with is the same issue I’ve had with Cussler’s other novels: The plot prop of waiting until the last possible second before they cut the right wire… In this case, Dirk and Al are taking their last step across a barren wasteland, having consumed no water or food for at least two days while enduring torturous temperature swings from the ice cold of night to the frying pan heat of the day. Here they are, both on death’s door, not an ounce of energy remaining when they stumble across a downed aircraft. Somehow they are able to build a land yacht from the wreckage and sail another day across the desert sands to where a truck driver miraculously appears, just when they have, once again, reached death’s door.
All I can say is, please Clive, give us readers a break. You write great tales and they don’t need a constant feed of TVesque ‘a moment beyond the last possible second’ scenarios to make the read great. I know this is fiction and meant to simply entertain, but I’d much rather see these tales a tad more realistic. Sure, bring things to a boil, edge of your seat, but not every transcendental moment requires this kind of prop.
Overall this was an entertaining read, perhaps one of the best, and I do appreciate Clive sharing his creative talents with us. However formulaic they are.
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LibraryThing member pussreboots
Another entertaining adventure mystery! I was a bit surprised at how coldly Dirk and Al dispatched the villains of the story. They usually aren't quite so eager to kill. I guess if you're a super villain you don't want to get on their bad side.
LibraryThing member reneputt
great book, of course.
LibraryThing member mattries37315
Within the vastness of the Malian Sahara hides numerous mysteries, some like the desert itself are deadly and some will change history. Sahara is the eleventh book in Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series as the titular character traverses back and forth across to save the world from a threat created
A week before the surrender at Appomattox the ironclad CSS Texas runs the gauntlet of Union ships and artillery down the James River then heads out to the Atlantic after displaying their prisoner, Abraham Lincoln. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton sets up a hoax assassination with the murder of an actor at Ford’s Theater by setting up John Wilkes Booth. In 1931 Kitty Mannock is flying over the Sahara in quest of a new aviation record when a sandstorm takes out her engine and she crashes in the desert; she dies ten days later but after finding an iron ship. In the present a convoy of tourists crossing the Sahara reach a scheduled stop at a village in the country of Mali where they are attacked by red-eyed savages who kill and eat them, with only the tour guide escaping. Meanwhile, working in Egypt on an archaeological mapping of the Nile, Dirk Pitt rescues Dr. Eva Rojas, a scientist working for the World Health Organization, from assassins sent by the military dictator of Mali Zateb Kazim with the backing of French businessman Yves Massarde. Eva’s WHO team flies to Mali investigate a mysterious disease while Pitt, Al Giordino, and Rudy Gunn are ordered up the Niger River to find a pollutant that is causing red tide to mushroom out of control and where that pollutant is coming from. The WHO team and the NUMA trio run afoul of Kazim and Massarde with the former captured and sent to a unknown gold mine as slave labor and the former running around Mali to find the source of the pollutant that Gunn has identified and escaped the country to report on. Pitt and Giordino find out Massarde’s detoxification facility is the culprit but are captured and sent to the gold mine, but escape over the desert and only saved by finding Kitty Mannock’s plane and salvage the parts to escape to Algeria via land yacht. Once in Algeria, Pitt and Giordino lead a UN rescue team on an assault on the gold mine to rescue foreign nations then battle the Malians in an abandoned French Foreign Legion fort until US Special Forces arrive in relief and kill Kazim in the process. Pitt and Giordino capture Massarde, poison him with contaminated water so he dies as a savage madman. The two then venture out into the Sahara using Mannock’s journal to locate the CSS Texas and find Lincoln.
The Lincoln subplot—including everything connected with it—is the major reason this book barely gets the rating it does, it’s bad and ruins an otherwise good book. The next complaint is the “happy ever after” type ending which features the secondary characters introduced in the books, which along with the previous subplot soured the ending of the book. Cussler’s female characters were an assortment of good and bad, the tertiary characters like soldiers in the UN rescue team who were actual soldiers not medics stood out because the major female character (Rojas) might have been a doctor but was two-dimensional. The main plot with Pitt, Giordino, and the major antagonists was actually very good as well as the Kitty Mannock subplot, however everything else just brought it down the overall book.
Sahara is a book that was good but could have been better if not for subplot and characterization choices that Clive Cussler made. Pitt is at his action-packed adventurer best, but it was fringe features that distracted me from enjoying things.
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from chemical pollutants.A week before the surrender at Appomattox the ironclad CSS Texas runs the gauntlet of Union ships and artillery down the James River then heads out to the Atlantic after displaying their prisoner, Abraham Lincoln. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton sets up a hoax assassination with the murder of an actor at Ford’s Theater by setting up John Wilkes Booth. In 1931 Kitty Mannock is flying over the Sahara in quest of a new aviation record when a sandstorm takes out her engine and she crashes in the desert; she dies ten days later but after finding an iron ship. In the present a convoy of tourists crossing the Sahara reach a scheduled stop at a village in the country of Mali where they are attacked by red-eyed savages who kill and eat them, with only the tour guide escaping. Meanwhile, working in Egypt on an archaeological mapping of the Nile, Dirk Pitt rescues Dr. Eva Rojas, a scientist working for the World Health Organization, from assassins sent by the military dictator of Mali Zateb Kazim with the backing of French businessman Yves Massarde. Eva’s WHO team flies to Mali investigate a mysterious disease while Pitt, Al Giordino, and Rudy Gunn are ordered up the Niger River to find a pollutant that is causing red tide to mushroom out of control and where that pollutant is coming from. The WHO team and the NUMA trio run afoul of Kazim and Massarde with the former captured and sent to a unknown gold mine as slave labor and the former running around Mali to find the source of the pollutant that Gunn has identified and escaped the country to report on. Pitt and Giordino find out Massarde’s detoxification facility is the culprit but are captured and sent to the gold mine, but escape over the desert and only saved by finding Kitty Mannock’s plane and salvage the parts to escape to Algeria via land yacht. Once in Algeria, Pitt and Giordino lead a UN rescue team on an assault on the gold mine to rescue foreign nations then battle the Malians in an abandoned French Foreign Legion fort until US Special Forces arrive in relief and kill Kazim in the process. Pitt and Giordino capture Massarde, poison him with contaminated water so he dies as a savage madman. The two then venture out into the Sahara using Mannock’s journal to locate the CSS Texas and find Lincoln.
The Lincoln subplot—including everything connected with it—is the major reason this book barely gets the rating it does, it’s bad and ruins an otherwise good book. The next complaint is the “happy ever after” type ending which features the secondary characters introduced in the books, which along with the previous subplot soured the ending of the book. Cussler’s female characters were an assortment of good and bad, the tertiary characters like soldiers in the UN rescue team who were actual soldiers not medics stood out because the major female character (Rojas) might have been a doctor but was two-dimensional. The main plot with Pitt, Giordino, and the major antagonists was actually very good as well as the Kitty Mannock subplot, however everything else just brought it down the overall book.
Sahara is a book that was good but could have been better if not for subplot and characterization choices that Clive Cussler made. Pitt is at his action-packed adventurer best, but it was fringe features that distracted me from enjoying things.
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LibraryThing member buffalogr
19+ hours of listening. Multiple threads include a different take on history and continual stories of desert survival. Combine that with impending environmental disaster, a dictator and a wimpy American President and you get the idea. Characters include Dirk, Al, the Admiral and a love interest who
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is rescued from the desert. I believe that the book could have been half as long and been twice as fun to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member sjh4255
Another very entertaining Dirk Pitt adventure... so close he always comes to having it all end, and seems to come through... and just keeps adding to his collection of cars.. a pity the movie did not represent the real excitement and plot to the novel...
LibraryThing member bxwretlind
Meh. A little long winded, if you ask me. But oh, so, Cussler.
LibraryThing member Karlstar
Not my favorite Dirk Pitt adventure. The premise is just a little too far-fetched (but aren't they all?) and the action just a little too convenient and contrived, compared to some of his better novels.
LibraryThing member MarkLacy
I picked up this book because I saw the previews for the movie coming out. But it wasn't until I had started reading the book that I realized I had tried to read this once before. I tried again, but gave up again. In this book at least, Cussler violates so many tenets of "good writing." He includes
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meaningless detail about what people eat and drink. His characters are stereotyped. He uses adverbs to describe dialog. I just got to the point where I said, why am I wasting my time with this? There are too many better books (and better authors) out there waiting to be read. Show Less
LibraryThing member XanaduCastle
this is the first Clive Cussler book i read. i liked it it was fun.
now before reading this book all i knew about Clive Cussler was that his books are pretty much indiana joans meets james bond and i love both of those things so i was interested and i can say i liked it. Dirk is a fun character who
just like most action movie's there is many things that are very unrealistic but if your like me and love action movie's regardless if they are realistic or not. i dont think that will be a problem for you. my only real complaint is that the story started to feel long towards the end, once everything is pretty much over it still goes on for another 30 or so pages. but other wise i liked it and would like to read more of his books.
on a side note, i never seen the movie that was based on this book but i always heard people always hate on it. after reading it, i think this book and im sure some of his others have a lot of potential to be great fun movies. i guess they really goofed it up badly
now before reading this book all i knew about Clive Cussler was that his books are pretty much indiana joans meets james bond and i love both of those things so i was interested and i can say i liked it. Dirk is a fun character who
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happens to get himself into some sticky situations and gets out of them in an over the top fashion. just like most action movie's there is many things that are very unrealistic but if your like me and love action movie's regardless if they are realistic or not. i dont think that will be a problem for you. my only real complaint is that the story started to feel long towards the end, once everything is pretty much over it still goes on for another 30 or so pages. but other wise i liked it and would like to read more of his books.
on a side note, i never seen the movie that was based on this book but i always heard people always hate on it. after reading it, i think this book and im sure some of his others have a lot of potential to be great fun movies. i guess they really goofed it up badly
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Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1992-05
Physical description
4.5 x 1.5 inches
ISBN
0671867318 / 9780671867317