Customer Reviews

Sheba

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was an almost perfect adventure. To have been written almost forty years ago, it still stands up. Keep in mind this novel was written almost twenty years before Indiana Jones. Makes you think maybe ole Jack Higgins influenced the creators of the famous archaeologists....

Definitely a slow starter, and once the action begins, it's pretty tame anyhow. Perhaps my least favorite Higgins book, and that largely due to it's predictablity and similarity to Indy stuff...worth a read, I suppose.

This book is a great grabber. Don't start this book unless you have read all of the others. % star reading at it's best.

This is another Jack Higgins adventure novel. Well written, good plot, likeable characters. A little slow in some parts, such as the beginning, but when the adventure comes it is fun to read. A person looking for a book somewhat similiar to The Indiana Jones movies, look to Sheba. But don't get to hyped up out about it. It isn't near as good as Indy, but it is still fun. I think most adventure lovers, will find this book fair enough

I'd never read a Jack Higgins novel before. It was decent; he manages a sort of an Eric Ambler 1930s ambience adapted for the mass-market paperback.

Kane, who is pretty much Indiana Jones minus the bullwhip, but including the battered felt hat, is an American archaeologist-adventurer ekeing out a living in a sleepy, sweltering Arabian port on the eve of World War II. When a lovely woman shows up looking for her missing archeologist husband, Kane makes the rounds of the town and finally digs up a trace.

Meanwhile a secret German team seeks to capitalize on a German's discovery of traces of the Queen of Sheba, long-rumored, but never substantiated. The Nazis aren't as interested in the discovery itself, as they are in the opportunity to slip a long-range seaplane with just enough capacity to reach, bomb and obstruct the Suez Canal as the German tanks roll into Poland. An enjoyable adventure.

I had previously read my first Higgins book "Eye of the Strom". I could hardly wait to read "Sheba". At first the book showed signs of life. The more that I read the worse it got. A book about doing battle with the Nazis in the desert in Egypt showed great promise. Our hero and the lady hunting for her husband had started the book off on a good footing. Then the book fell apart. The plot hit rock bottom. The hoped for action never took place. The excitement level of this book was a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10. I began to wonder if Higgins had hired a ghost writer. I was glad that I finally finished the book so that I could be through with it.A very dissapointing book.I do not reccomend it to anyone.

A manly hero. A damsel in distress. An evil set of Nazis. And everyone smokes. A decent retro adventure, "Sheba", like many of its counterparts, takes place in 1939, before the invasion of Poland sets off World War II. From a Nazi plot to blow up the Suez canal via souther Arabia, to the search for the temple of the legendary Queen of Sheba, Higgins packs in all the standard elements: treasure, romance, violence, and lots of cigarettes. Gavin Kane is a textbook hero: intelligent, resourceful and mysterious. The two female characters are right out of a 1930s movie: one is a wife looking for her missing archaeologist husband; the other, half-French and half-Arabian, who runs a multi-national business with an iron fist, yet melts into Kane's arms when needed. It's a fun read, but there's not a lot of suspense, and some of the retro attitudes, such as the women being too physically weak to walk too far or escape captors, is a little annoying. The description of the Arabs is a little stereotypical, especially Selim, one of the villains, who is prone to dramatic statements, both verbal and physical. Canaris, a German officer, is the one character I wanted more of (and was a real person); he's witty and seems to be the only character with sense. Okay, but derivative for modern readers.

Higgins had all the right ingredients - 1. Archeological background that dated to the days of King Solomon. 2. Nazi plot to assault the Suez Canal to show Britain her determination after taking Poland 3. Beautiful woman in search of her missing British archaelogist who had earlier went off in search for the legendary Temple of Sheba 4. An archaeologist-mercenary-smuggler Yank who is like Indiana Jones gone native 5. A beautiful smart mixed-blooded businesswoman who liked nothing better but meddle in affairs of other people, always accompanied by a hulk of an escaped slave with a life-debt (think Chewbacca) 6. A host of desertmen, Arabs, throw in even a German professor and Greek moneyman

Then it all started to go wrong. Using the title "Sheba", what could have been a pulp 30s adventure in the mysterious Orient just didn't turn out. Higgins had the ingredients but just didn't know how to produce the right product. Such a mystical name, Sheba, didn't deserve the ignominious treatment Higgins dished out.

It's acceptable that the characters didn't have the same depth and complexity as Macbeth by Shakespeare. It's pulp fiction. It's fine that the Nazi plot failed, we know anyway that the Suez wasn't destroyed in WW2. But we also know the Germany didn't win and Churchchill wasn't kidnapped (or was he?) and these didn't detract from his other works, including the famed "The Eagle has landed".

It would have been better if Higgins had collaborated with another writer who knows how to use the ingredients better.

The short summary of the story that appears on the back of the book leads one to believe that the book is about a German attempt to destroy the Suez canal just prior to the invasion of Poland in September 1939. However, this is really only a minor part of the story and seems grafted onto the main story - the discovery of the temple of Sheba and the search for a missing archelogist. As pointed out by other reviewers the story is a bit Indiana Jones-ish but the book does pre-date those movies.
The book is a quick read and well written but it was predictable and unbelievable.

For those of you reading this review prior to reading the book, beware. Spoilers are below!
I'm a big Higgins fan but 'Sheba' was a big upset. The premise was intriguing; dashing archaeologist, beautiful woman in need, Nazi villains, stereotypical Arab bad-guys. I thought it would be fun, easy summer reading.
Think again.
The dialogue was horrendous, the plot worked out too easily, and the ending, oh! the ending. Ruth and her husband are left at Jordan's camp in the desert, without a hint of what ever happens to them. It honestly seemed like Higgins was writing, and then his wife called him in for dinner, so he rushed the ending big time. I expected much more out of this book than I got.
I nearly forgot to mention, the entire plot was stolen from the 1950's film 'King Solomon's Mines' starring Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr. This is my favourite film and has been for some time, and is one of my favourite books as well. The idea of an archaeologist helping a beautiful woman find her husband (who is lost in Africa after searching for a legendary place), the scene where they are trapped in the cave and searching for a way out, and eventually follow a river out. Lifted straight from King Solomon's Mines. This too bothered me.
All in all, if you really have nothing better to read, Sheba will do, but if your looking for a better-than-mediocre thriller, this isn't it.