Saucer [Hardcover]

Stephen Coonts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 2005

Rip Cantrell and former Air Force test pilot Charley are back! When Charley takes a job flying space-planes to the moon for the French lunar base project, she finds an anti-gravity beam generator, a weapon that the crazed project director intends to use to make himself ruler of the earth. Charley steals the plane and returns to base. In retaliation, the French kidnap Rip's uncle and force him to fly the saucer hidden in Area 51 to the moon - and the only thing capable of catching it, is the original Antarctic saucer - now stored in the National Air and Space Museum. The chase is on...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this humorous UFO thriller, the sequel to bestseller Coonts's Saucer (2003), pilot Charlotte "Charley" Pine is hired to fly a French spaceplane to the moon, where millionaire Pierre Artois is building a base. Once there, she discovers that Artois has equipped the base with an antigravity beam projector and plans to make himself and his malevolent wife, Julie, rulers of the world. Charley promptly returns to Earth to warn everybody. Meanwhile, Newton Chadwick, a mad scientist in the pay of the French, kidnaps saucer-expert Egg Cantrell and forces him to fly to the moon in the original Roswell saucer that landed in 1947. Egg's nephew Rip Cantrell and Charley steal another flying saucer from the Smithsonian, and soon saucers and other borrowed alien high-tech are in pitched battle over the moon. Later, French pilot Jean-Paul Lalouette (perhaps the book's most engaging character) is determined to go down fighting and nearly turns the tables in a gripping aerial duel of saucers up and down the East Coast. Cartoonish characters with names like Senator Blohardt and Joe Bob Hooker add to the fun.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

This felicitous, lightweight combination of thriller and sf is the second adventure of Rip Cantrell and Charley Pine involving flying table settings (the first: Saucer, 2002). To begin things, Coonts introduces the original 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, saucer (the saucer of Saucer was a Saharan denizen) and a scientist who, if not mad at first, is driven mad by the need to keep its discovery secret. Jumping to the present, Coonts gives us Rip at loose ends while Charley flies a French space plane to the Moon. (How the French developed that particular piece of hardware remains unexplained, as does quite a lot else in the book.) Charley soon encounters a mad French brewer and his definitely evil wife, who plan to use stolen saucer technology to conquer the world. Charley makes an excellent whistle-blower, however, and although the rest of the yarn is fast-paced (featuring superb flying sequences, among other exciting things), its issue is never really in doubt. Coonts' tongue is in cheek for much of the story, as it has been in some of his later Jake Grafton books, but this is not likely to raise the hackles of anyone except the humor-impaired. Readers: enjoy. Libraries: provide. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing; hardcover edition (January 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752868640
• ISBN-13: 978-0752868646
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,937,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Coonts is the author of 14 New York Times bestsellers, the first of which was the classic flying tale, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER.
Born in 1946, Stephen Paul Coonts grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a coal-mining town of 6,000 population on the western slope of the Appalachian mountains. He majored in political science at West Virginia University, graduating in 1968 with an A.B. degree. Upon graduation he was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy and began flight training in Pensacola, Florida.
He received his Navy wings in August, 1969. After completion of fleet replacement training in the A-6 Intruder aircraft, Mr. Coonts reported to Attack Squadron 196 at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington. He made two combat cruises aboard USS Enterprise during the final years of the Vietnam War as a member of this squadron. After the war he served as a flight instructor on A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an assistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz. He left active duty in 1977 and moved to Colorado. After short stints as a taxi driver and police officer, he entered the University of Colorado School of Law in the fall of 1977.
Mr. Coonts received his law degree in December, 1979, and moved to West Virginia to practice. He returned to Colorado in 1981 as a staff attorney specializing in oil and gas law for a large independent oil company.
His first novel, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER, published in September 1986 by the Naval Institute Press, spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover. A motion picture based on this novel, with the same title, was released nationwide in January 1991.
The success of his first novel allowed Mr. Coonts to devote himself full time to writing; he has been at it ever since. He and his wife, Deborah, enjoy flying and try to do as much of it as possible.
Mr. Coonts' books have been widely translated and republished in the British Commonwealth, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, China, Japan, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Latvia, and Israel.
Mr. Coonts was a trustee of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1990-1998. He was inducted into the West Virginia University Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 1992. The U.S. Naval Institute honored him with its Author of the Year Award for the year 1986 for his novel, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER. Mr. Coonts and his wife, Deborah, reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book 2 of the "Saucer" series reads like a Sci Fi "B" movie, October 27, 2005

By 

coachtim (Indiana, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saucer: The Conquest (Paperback)

Not that that's bad, but just a departure from what Stephen Coonts fans will expect. In "Saucer - The Conquest", Coonts, one of the kings of the "military novel", creates a light-hearted plot that has his characters romping from the Moon and back. Picking up about a year after the conclusion of "Saucer", the plot begins with the protagionists from the first book, pilot Charley Pine and archeologist Rip Cantrell, parting company. Charley (or Charlotte) takes a job as a pilot under the employ of Pierre Artois, a French millionaire with designs on the creation of a colony on the moon. Rip stays behind with his uncle Egg and "pines" for Charley.

After her first trip to the moon on one of Pierre's French space shuttles (yeah, right), Charley discovers that Pierre's real motivation is not in establishing a lunar colony, but rather a base from which he can use an anti-matter weapon against the Earth. His ultimate goal, of course, is world domination as he sees himself as the next Napoleon.

When Rip senses trouble, he takes the flying saucer that he and Charley used in the first novel of the series (and subsequently donated to the National Air and Space Museum) and heads out to help Charley. Without revealing too much of the plot, let me just say that there's action aplenty (especially the aerial dogfight between Rip's saucer and another saucer that's introduced in the book) in the last half of the book as the heroes fight for the Earth's survival.

My only real criticism of the book is the format in which in was printed. Printing it in the "large" paperback format was a downright dirty trick for those who had already invested in the series. Come on St. Martin's Press, doubling the price by printing the large format was a blatant attempt to simply gouge the consumer.

Not with that being said, the reader needs to go into this book with the idea that it is a wild ride solely based in fiction. That could be tough for some Coonts fans to take because most of his earlier works are at least rooted in some fact. If the reader simply looks at the "Saucer" series as Coonts chance to play a little bit, then it will become an enjoyable read. Certainly, fans of the '50s and '60s Sci Fi "B movies" will enjoy the two books. (And probably a third that seems to be on the horizon.)

With that being said, it's still a good (and fast) read and should be picked up by anyone who enjoyed "Saucer".

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wild and entertaining read, September 24, 2004

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saucer: The Conquest (Paperback)

Stephen Coonts has steadily made a name for himself as a go-to guy for fans of military thrillers. His novel, SAUCER, from two years ago raised a few eyebrows with its obvious science fiction leanings but was given a popular welcome by fans of that genre who were not necessarily familiar with Coonts's military works. SAUCER: THE CONQUEST is an immensely readable and most welcome sequel to SAUCER, as well as an indication that Coonts has no intention of limiting his immense talent to one genre.

All of the protagonists who made SAUCER such an accessible work are back. The focus is on test pilot Charley Pine, but pilot Rip Cantrell and his quietly brilliant Uncle "Egg" Cantrell play important secondary roles. While the relationship between Pine and Rip that began in SAUCER isn't on the rocks, it has become somewhat bumpy. Cantrell is content to rest on the laurels and wealth he acquired during the events in SAUCER. Pine, however, is interested in new challenges. When a wealthy Frenchman named Pierre Artois offers her the opportunity to fly an experimental space plane to the Moon as a co-pilot, Pine jumps at the chance. The enforced absence grates upon Pine and, more heavily so, upon Rip.

Pine has other things on her mind when she discovers that the plane's cargo includes a nuclear catalyst for a weapon designed to hold all of earth hostage to the whim of Artois. Artois believes that a world government --- with himself, of course, at its head --- will solve all the earth's problems, and he's not going to give anyone a say in the matter. Pine manages to escape from the Moon just as Artois makes his first demand of earth's governments to disband. France's government predictably accedes almost immediately. The United States and Britain, on the other hand, don't act along these lines. Rip and Pine, meanwhile, reunite with the idea of stopping Artois, saving the earth, and incidentally rescuing Uncle Egg, who has been kidnapped to the moon by a half-mad scientist who is in league with Artois and has a saucer of his own. Pine and Rip "liberate" the saucer that they discovered in the first book and the festivities begin.

While the success of their mission is rarely in doubt, SAUCER: THE CONQUEST remains a wild ride. Coonts's science fiction work is reminiscent of the work of Robert Heinlein, who was often described as "The Dean of Space Age Fiction." The majority of Heinlein's work --- those books that preceded STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND and its successors --- dealt with the "can do!" attitude of humanity, with no task being insurmountable. Coonts's protagonists are infused with this attitude as well, a quality that, along with a wild chase through the skies (not the streets) of Manhattan, makes SAUCER: THE CONQUEST a wild and entertaining read.

Coonts leaves enough unresolved issues --- as well as a startling discovery --- at the end of SAUCER: THE CONQUEST to hint at the possibility of at least one more novel in the series. While these books may not be of interest to all readers of Coonts's military works, they should certainly appeal to fans of old-school science fiction who fondly recall the genre before it was hijacked by wookies. Recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars rip roaring space adventure, September 1, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saucer: The Conquest (Paperback)

After the adventures in SAUCER, Rip Cantrell and his girlfriend Charley Pine donated the flying saucer to the Air and Space Museum. A bored Charley accepts Pierce Artois' offer to pilot a space plane to the moon to bring supplies to the station being built there. While she is on the space plane, Charley notices inside a locked compartment an object marked with a radioactive warning label; nothing on the manifest indicates that anything radioactive is on the ship.

On the moon, Artois and his associates are building a mysterious machine that disturbs Charley. She soon learns that they are constructing an antigravity beam that will destroy anything in its path even from the distance to earth. Artois wants to be emperor of the world and he has a good chance of succeeding. Charley hijacks a space plane and returns to earth. She and Rip steal back the donated saucer so that they can try to destroy Artois' fleet leaving him stranded on Luna, rescue his abducted uncle, and ultimately obliterate the weapon of mass destruction.

SAUCER: THE CONQUEST is a rip roaring space adventure novel filled with a dashing hero and a courageous female champion, vile villains ready to commit genocide for power, and numerous space battles that make Star Wars look like a romance. Rip is a modern day Flash Gordon leaping from one adventure into another while Charley is the only person who can out leap Rip yet keep him somewhat on an even keel. Gifted Stephen Coonts provides an innovative yet in some ways old fashioned space tale that will appeal to anyone who enjoys the Star war sagas.

Harriet Klausner