Publication Date: June 30, 2009 | Series: Dirk Pitt Adventures
Clive Cussler’s breathtaking thriller is now available in a premium edition in an exciting new package.
Egypt, 1996. Searching for a treasure on the Nile, Dirk Pitt thwarts the attempted assassination of a beautiful U.N. scientist who’s investigating a disease that is driving thousands of North Africans into madness, cannibalism, and death. The suspected cause of the raging epidemic is vast, unprecedented pollution that threatens to extinguish all life in the world’s seas.
Racing to save the world from environmental catastrophe, Pitt and his team, equipped with an extraordinary, state-of-the-art yacht, run a gauntlet between a billionaire industrialist and a bloodthirsty West African tyrant. In the scorching desert, Pitt finds a gold mine manned by slaves and uncovers the truth behind two enduring mysteries—the fate of a Civil War ironclad and its secret connection with Lincoln’s assassination, and the last flight of a long-lost female pilot. Now, amidst the blazing, shifting sands of the Sahara, Dirk Pitt will make a desperate stand—in a battle the world cannot afford to lose.
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Cussler's ( Raise the Titanic ) durable hero Dirk Pitt returns with Al Giordino, his amiable hulk of a sidekick, to save mankind from a greedy industrialist in cahoots with a despot and to solve a few historical riddles along the way. Dirk meets beautiful Eva Rojas, a World Health Organization team member inspecting a mysterious epidemic that has struck in the Sahara, when he interrupts an attempt on her life. Then the National Underwater and Marine Agency sends Pitt and Giordino up the Niger on a gunboat to find the source of a toxin that causes red tide organisms to reproduce out of control, threatening to poison the oceans and deplete the earth's oxygen supply. The pairalso in next sentence is captured by evil billionaire Yves Massarde and Mali's tyrannical despot Gen. Kazim, but they escape to find the source of the pollution at Fort Foreau, Massarde's desert toxic waste factory that receives--but doesn't dispose of--nuclear and chemical wastes. Recaptured, Pitt and Giordino are sent to Kazim's desert slave camp, where they find Eva and her team--marked for death. A deadly trek across the Sahara is their only hope. Cussler champions ecological issues with verve, and continues his love affair with history by tossing in a Confederate ironside stranded in the Sahara near the remains of an aviatrix lost during the '30s. Some judicious cutting might have improved the narrative, but it's great fun nonetheless, putting Beau Geste swashbucklers against the vilest of villains. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild super release; Doubleday Book Club alternate; author tour. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Clive Cussler began writing novels in 1965 and published his first work featuring his continuous series hero, Dirk Pitt(R), in 1973. His first non-fiction, The Sea Hunters, was released in 1996. The Board of Governors of the Maritime College, State University of New York, considered The Sea Hunters in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis and awarded Cussler a Doctor of Letters degree in May, 1997. It was the first time since the College was founded in 1874 that such a degree was bestowed. Cussler is an internationally recognized authority on shipwrecks and the founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, (NUMA) a 501C3 non-profit organization (named after the fictional Federal agency in his novels) that dedicates itself to preserving American maritime and naval history. He and his crew of marine experts and NUMA volunteers have discovered more than 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites including the first submarine to sink a ship in battle, the Confederacy's Hunley, and its victim, the Union's Housatonic; the U-20, the U-boat that sank the Lusitania; the Cumberland, which was sunk by the famous ironclad, Merrimack; the renowned Confederate raider Florida; the Navy airship, Akron, the Republic of Texas Navy warship, Zavala, found under a parking lot in Galveston, and the Carpathia, which sank almost six years to-the-day after plucking Titanic's survivors from the sea. In September, 1998, NUMA - which turns over all artifacts to state and Federal authorities, or donates them to museums and universities - launched its own web site for those wishing more information about maritime history or wishing to make donations to the organization. In addition to being the Chairman of NUMA, Cussler is also a fellow in both the Explorers Club of New York and the Royal Geographic Society in London. He has been honored with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration. Cussler's books have been published in more than 40 languages in more than 100 countries. His past international bestsellers include Pacific Vortex, Mediterranean Caper, Iceberg, Raise the Titanic, Vixen 03, Night Probe, Deep Six, Cyclops, Treasure, Dragon, Sahara, Inca Gold, Shock Wave, Flood Tide, Atlantis Found, Valhalla Rising, Trojan Odyssey, Black Wind, Treasure of Kahn and Arctic Drift (the last three with his son, Dirk Cussler) as well as The Chase; the nonfiction books The Sea Hunters, The Sea Hunters II and Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt (R) Revealed; the NUMA(R) Files novels Serpent, Blue Gold, Fire Ice, White Death, Lost City, Polar Shift, The Navigator and Medusa (written with Paul Kemprecos); and the Oregon Files novels Sacred Stone and Golden Buddha (written with Craig Dirgo) and Dark Watch, Skeleton Coast, Plague Ship and Corsair (written with Jack Du Brul). Clive Cussler lives in Arizona.
In '96, needing something new to read, I borrowed 'Sahara' from my roommate. I've been an avid fan of Clive Cussler ever since. The plot and sub-plots in this, and his other novels, are mind-blowing and really imaginative. I highly recommend reading this or ANY of his other books.
I was even more intrigued to find out that Clive Cussler lives much the same life as his trademark character. His real-life NUMA organization actually DOES seek and find lost shipwrecks, planes, etc. You can read about those in his non-fiction books, 'The Sea Hunters' volumes I & II. If you're an adventurer of any sort, especially a diver, you'll love those books as much as the novels.
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Sahara written by Clive Cussler is the eleventh in a series of Dirk Pitt adventure-fiction books and this one is a very compelling story that really grips the reader, making an engaging story till the end.
Clive Cussler works some amazing threads in this book, like an iron-clad Confederate named "Texas" in 1865 as it fights through a Federal blockade and then vanishes in the Atlantic. Next, in 1931 an Australian aviatrix Kitty Mannock vanishes mysteriously in the middle of the Sahara while making an attemp to fly from London to Capetown.
These mysteries are only the start, as Cussler works his magic of mysery further, it is 1995 as the hero Dirk Pitt is called to find a Pharaoh's funeral barge buried in the bottom of the Nile. Now, we find our hero on an African adventure like none ever experienced before. An adventure that takes Dirk Pit and company on a hunt for a mysterious disease, and the source of unprecedented pollution as they investigate through Africa.
Of course, there has to be a villian, or this wouldn't be a Dirk Pitt save-the-world adventure, as we find out this time it's a French billionare named Yves Massarde and of course, the local African connection is General Zateb Kazim the brutal despot... corrupt to the core and makes life hell on Earth for the West African nation of Mali and the world as pollution is leaking and is threatening to extinguish all sea life... and man as well.
Clive Cussler has set-up this Dirk Pitt adventure very well as you are captivated in this action-adventure and you are pulling for Pitt to make the connections and solve this engrossing story. Pitt takes a trip up the Niger River and is met with resistance, but with resplendent resolutness Pitt takes on the villany, but is captured.
Now, the story gets to a fever pitch, as Cussler weaves this story making twists and turns in the plot, never forgetting about action and excitement. As Pitt escapes and treks across the Sahara, Cussler's set-up makes for a tale like none other.
You will not be disappointed reading this book... this is a classic Dirk Pitt trashes the bad guys and he always gets the girl adventure.
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This is Clive Cussler, his books are far fetched, incredible and over the top. But they are also a lot of fun, if you adjust your expectations a little bit. They are adventure romps where the good guys (Mr Dirk Pitt in this case) can take anything and solve any riddle (and always get the girl in the process)
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Reading this will not increase your IQ or expand your literary horizons, but it will provide a few hours of entertainment.
Most of Cussler books are similar, so if you must read one, Sahara is one of the best.
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