15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Good Desert Adventure, June 10, 2002
This review is from: Empires of Sand (Mass Market Paperback)
Here is the skinny on this one: it is a novel about a couple of Parisian lads who have adventures in war-torn 1870's Paris, then grow up and meet each other as enemies in the Sahara desert. It's a lengthy, epic, page-turning adventure tale which ultimately overcomes some early clumsy writing and ends up being very enjoyable.
The book is almost evenly divided into two halves, the first taking place in Paris. The two lads in question--Paul and Moussa--are cousins, with one of them the son of a Saharan Tuareg woman. (Moussa's father, a count, met her while exploring North Africa.) They live together on the count's estate and get into some interesting adventures, particularly after the advent of the Franco-Prussian war. The author is terrific at creating scenarios and maintaining dramatic tension. For example, there are the boys spying from the attic on an elegant party; there are the boys hunting rats in the tunnels underneath Paris; there is Paul's father, a colonel, leading a cavalry charge against brigand French.
Good stuff, but the first half, at least, is marred by some absolutely horrible, out-of-place, modern-day colloquialisms. The author describes Bismarck's boldness by saying he had, well, a common English epithet for male genitalia. A wounded French soldier speaking to the colonel says, "Gosh, Colonel, sir, I've never been this close to a real officer before," and, "we whomped them," in speaking of a meeting with the Prussians. Since when does a bumpkin from Huckleberry Finn show up in the French army? And sure enough--you can see it coming--one of the French officers insults another by resorting to the standard ignorant comment: "... you." Come on, we're reading about the French in 1870: can't the author at least try to create a little verisimilitude? These are good examples of sloppy writing, and are very off-putting. Several times, and despite the compelling plot, I was on the verge of giving this book the old heave-ho.
But oddly, after a couple of hundred pages or so, these jarring anachronisms pretty much disappear. And the second half of the novel, the part which takes place in the Sahara, becomes even more exciting than the already-interesting Parisian adventures. Moussa, you see, has to flee there with his mother after some difficulties with the French authorities, and becomes a leader of the desert-warrior Tuareg tribe. Paul becomes an officer in the French Army, and sure enough, is sent to the Sahara with the historical ill-fated mission to seek a railroad route to central Africa. As with the first half, exciting and numerous adventures abound. Most exciting to me were the descriptions of a desert ostrich hunt; and also the slave camp, in which the slaves are forced to dig long tunnels and work underground to get at what little water there is in the scorching desert. There are also some terrific battle scenes between the French and the Tuareg, and of course, the tale culminates in the inevitable meeting between the two long-lost cousins under very trying circumstances. It's very exciting.
There do continue to be a few minor problems, however. Some of the characters--most notably the nun, the bishop, and Mahdi--are a little too one-dimensionally evil, and the ending fits together just a little too neatly. But I can forgive it these faults. It is a romantic adventure after all, in the style of Dumas or Robert Louis Stevenson, and one must expect at least a little of this sort of thing. It ends up being a very satisfying read. Too bad there wasn't an editor around to clean up the earlier parts a little bit.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bad but great, December 7, 1999
By A Customer
Everything you read in the other reviews about cliches, stereotypes, and a hoaky storyline is true. Believe me. The first three chapters are horrible. I only kept reading because I kept hoping it would get better. And amazingly enough, it did! Not that the characters got more three-dimensional, no, I just got completely absorbed in the story. Once Ball's caught you, it's getting harder to notice the shortcomings of this book. Maybe it's because it's so simple: You've got your three or four evil characters, you're rooting for Moussa to win and for Paul to come to his senses again, and everything is set in faraway lands... you could easily make this book a successful Hollywood motion picture. The formula is there. All in all, if you look for a book with deep moral struggles or an excellent, believable plot, look elsewhere. But if you have a few hours left and want to fill your mind with pictures of exotic places and people, read the book. It reminded me of the wonderful adventure stories of my childhood and left me wishing for more.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing short of outstanding.........., August 10, 2002
Okay, so there's some predictability, but David Ball has written a novel so completely fun and absorbing that one simply doesn't care. From 1870's Paris to the limitless expanse of the Sahara, Ball takes the reader on a remarkable journey that is truly extraordinary.
The novels main characters, cousins Moussa and Paul DeVries, battle invading Prussians, corrupt clergy, treacherous relatives, and merciless bedouins in an attempt to establish lives separate from the tragedy of their youth within the French nobility. Moussa, his father a French count and his mother a Taureg noblewoman of the Sahara, is forced to flee Paris for Africa with his family. His cousin Paul is left behind with his own ghosts to exorcise. The two find each other again years later caught in the confrontations endemic to the European colonization of Africa. What ensues is a purely spellbinding tale of love and hate, life and death, beauty and utter ugliness.
Empire of Sands is an excellent novel. I thought of it often between the times I was forced set it down until my next opportunity to continue. For anyone who enjoys a captivating historically-based tale they will find few books far better than this. As a huge fan of historical fiction, I give it my highest recommendation.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
