Sahara (Mass Market Paperback)

by Clive Cussler (Author) "After traveling through the desert for days or weeks, seeing no animals, meeting no humans, civilization, no matter how tiny or primitive, comes as a..." (more)
Key Phrases: detoxification project, hazardous waste project, sport yacht, Fort Foureau, General Kazim, Niger River (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
Not since Treasure (1988), when Dirk Pitt discovered Cleopatra's barge in Texas (or was it on the Mississippi Delta?), has Cussler come up with so far-fetched a story as this herein, the tenth Pitt novel. The plot begins with a Confederate ironclad, the Texas, outrunning a Union blockade while carrying on board not only the South's treasury but also the North's kidnapped president. Then, in 1931, world-famed aviatrix Kitty Mannock (an Amelia Earhart clone) vanishes on a flight over the Sahara, her plane or body never seen again. Then comes Dirk Pitt's 1996 search through the Nile bottom (via image-making computerized sonar) for the lost barge of a pharaoh dead some 2500 years. Dirk locates the barge under many meters of silt; but before he can even make the Egyptian authorities aware of the find, he's reassigned by the National Underwater and Marine Agency to investigate the source of poisons that are killing coral and creating a red tide on such a massive scale that the world's oxygen supply will soon shrink to an unlivable level if the horror can't be reversed. Dirk rescues from assassination and falls for beautiful Eva Rojas of the World Health Organization, who is in Africa to find the source of the fatal plague now turning thousands of natives into bands of frenzied cannibals who'll eat anything human and are fearless of gunfire. Whence this malignancy? As Pitt discovers, the country of Mali- -backed by a ruthless French industrialist--is in the solar nuclear waste disposal business, but the bad guys have poisoned the water table with their inept methods and befouling of the Niger. How does this tie in with Kitty Mannock's desert crash and her discovery of the Texas buried in the Sahara sands? And whose well-preserved, noble-featured body does Pitt find seated in a rocking chair in the ironclad? His initials are A.L.... For the faithful. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (March 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671521101
• ISBN-13: 978-0671521103
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #327,033 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 11 in The Dirk Pitt Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Sahara' got me started reading Cussler..., March 24, 2005

By	Beau Clarke (Gulf Breeze, FL) - See all my reviews

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.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sahaara: A Novel, September 30, 2002

By	Joe Zika "Khemprof" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Adventure in the desert, July 6, 2005

By	Mr. Lu. (Denver) - See all my reviews

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.