Sahara (Dirk Pitt)

This is possibly my most favorite Dirk Pitt Adventure. Is it possible that Abraham Lincoln was actually kidnapped by the Confederate Army? Cussler makes you wonder if it could have happened...just maybe. I was thoroughly entertained throughout this book - the villians were excellent, Cussler made a personal appearance, I loved the way Kitty Mannock came into the equation, and the last stand at the fort was exceptionally face-paced. Can Dirk and Al save the world's seas from an environmental catastrophe and still have time to save the girt? Of course! And that's what makes it so much fun.

What a premise and terrific subplots ! OK, OK...so it is a bit far-fetched, but that is what good fiction does, it stretched the imagination to possible what-ifs and if onlys'. Lots of the usual twists and turns, but again, Cussler has given us an involved tale with characters we can visualize and a locale that always evokes possibilities. Cussler is a terrific storyteller and I like to think I have helped pay for his car collection...well, maybe a few gallons of car wax !
If you are looking for a book that makes a great beach read or one of those books to cuddle up with on a cold night, this is the book - out of his many works. Enjoy !

I recently caught the trailer to the movie adaptation of 'Sahara' to be released later this year. Upon seeing this trailer, the story looked like a lot of fun so I immediately purchased the book. I agree with a lot of the reviewers in that some of the dialogue is very cliche' and "cheesy", but let's face it, as I think any writer will attest, dialogue is not an easy thing to do. I've also read where people think Dirk Pitt is very over the top, almost to the point of being unbelievable, but really, isn't James Bond, or Indiana Jones for instance the same type of character? Yet, people love those two. Besides that however, this book was tremendous fun, and the way Cussler weaves different events in history past, together with the plot for his hero, Dirk Pitt, is truly fascinating. I enjoyed the book enough where I will pick up another Dirk Pitt adventure whenever the opportunity arises!

This is my first time reading a Clive Cussler novel and I loved it!! Yeah there is romance in there but not so much to make you gag and the action is just superb! Dirk and Al are quite the team: strong, intelligent, and humorous.

There is the too much detail thing. My English teacher always says there is no such thing as too much detail. And well I think Mr. Cussler just proved her wrong with that. But anyways it became such a drag with so much detail but I still love the book and the movie for that matter. But they just dont seem to parallel; they just collide. But that's okay because I still like them anyways.

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.

This was the first of Clive Cusslers adventures and I am pleased to say that I now own the whole collection to date. From start to finish the way he ties the plots and seperate incidents togeather show the true talent of thiw writer. There are several little adventures that when concluded only lead on to another which leaves you exhausted by the end. I would recommend this to any Cussler fans or anyone who likes an adventure book, it is not for everyone though. Thanks Clive and keep them coming.

This is my favorite of the Dirk Pitt series. This story is full of action and a. It of suspense as Dirk sets out to find the monitor from the civil war. The side stories in the authors books are always a second adventure within an adventure and this makes for an exciting read as they escape death multiple times all the way up until the end.

People are going crazy in the desert. Dirk and Al go to see what is going on, they find pollution and encounter rebels. With the remains of a lost airplane they are able to escape. Includes a side story about Abe Lincoln and an old ship that came up a now dry river. Fun!

I attribute this book to my ongoing love of reading. I had never heard of Clive Cussler before reading this book and I read it years before the movie came out. I've now read all of Mr. Cussler's books and this one is still my favorite. There is action aplenty and the author does a nice job connecting all the sub-plots together. If you are interested in action in a James Bond meets Indiana Jones style, give this book a read. You won't be dissapointed.

I picked this book up as airline reading over the holidays, due in large part to the fact that a movie based on it was soon to be released. I had never read a Clive Cussler novel before and must say I am a new fan of his work. This is a great action adventure novel that kept me coming back for more. The only disappointment being the lack of strong, believeable female characters. I find it hard to believe that a woman who has risen to the position of Secretary-General of the UN would so casually spill government secrets to someone in the back of a limo, even if that person was a former lover. Additionally, the only adjective to characterize Dirk Pitt's love interest is pitiful. I am sure these disappointing characters will be fleshed out in the movie version, though, and they would not deter me from recommending this book for those looking for a quick and entertaining read.

Not necessarily, I just like saying that. However, it's pretty close to the mark in this case. Clive Cussler's Sahara starts off with a bang and keeps it going for most of the book, only bogging down once in a great while. Some of Cussler's descriptions are just a bit to technical for me, especially when he gets to marine vessels like the Texas or the Calliope, but I gather that's his area of expertise, so it's a forgivable offense.

The story itself is a far-fetched one, but that's all part of the fun. If you pick up a book wanting nearly nonstop action and adventure, Sahara delivers. It picks up in the midst of a Confederate ironclad's desperate run of the Union blockade and ends with an Alamo-like stand against half the army of Mali, making stops along the way at a toxic waste dump in the middle of the desert, a gold-mine manned by slaves, and a remote village filled with cannibalistic natives, all somehow linked to an expanding red tide that threatens all life on earth. Did I mention there's a secret connection to Abe Lincoln that could change America's entire perception of the Civil War?

The plot is at times hard to follow, and the characters are the standard two-dimensional heroes and villains found in nearly every take on the genre, but book is a fun read nonetheless. Not better or worse than the film (which I happened to see first), just different.

This being my third Clive Cussler novel, I was both entertained and annoyed while reading it. The historical parts interested me, and Cussler has a clever way of making you forget things you read at the beginning of the book, so that it's surprising at the end. Other than that, it follows the classic formula Cussler uses for all of his novels. Suave, charming hero with the same repetitive one-liners, faithful but uninspiring sidekick, near death experiences, and finally winning the day with some unbelievable and ridiculously clever (to the extent that it hurts) plot. Good for a laugh, but not much else.

This is clive Cussler at his best. First off, the introduction with the Confederate ironclad is great. Next, the setting, the Sahara desert and an African river, are both very intriguing and great settings. Then, the plot is riveting and will keep you glued to this book for hours. This is the best Dirk Pitt adventure that I've read so far. The villain, as always, is great and the ending is the finest I've read.

This terrible book starts out with a stupid ship that dissappears.

Other than that nothing good happens.

Athought the battle abord the ship on the Niger River was pretty good, this book is a disappointment. I can't believe the author was able to draw out such a long and boring, and uninteresting piece of malarky. Don't even think about going out and looking at even the cover of the book, cause thats uninteresting to. The only reason that i would give this book 2 stars is because the movie was good. It had some humor, action and is interesting. Rent the movie, burn the book... Rent The Movie, BURN THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Clive Cussler's novels are hokey and weird..... but I'm addicted. Where else can you get a shoot-em-up adventure and a way-over-the-top James Bond-esque hero combined with oceanography, history, and archeology? The plot of this one makes you wonder what Mr. Cussler was smoking, but is still delightfully entertaining. Abe Lincoln's body is resting on a Confederate ironclad in the middle of the Sahara desert and only Dirk Pitt can save the day and stop the rich industrialist polluting the oceans.

A cascade of unlikely, even impossible events, an all-everything hero, lovely damsels in distress,villains with global destruction in mind, and a wild ride to the end. Cussler is like the modern Alexander Dumas to me, and his stories are totally formulaic escapist fun fiction and I love them. Sahara wasn't the first Dirk Pitt adventure I read, but it was a favorite, so when I saw an autographed copy at a bargain price I snapped it up.

I wanted to try out another adventure writer other than the ones I've been reading. I thought I'd give Clive Cussler a try since I read Raise The Titanic.

The setups in the beginning were long-winded and gave absolutely no relation to the story whatsoever till somewhere towards the end of the book. It served to confuse the readers greatly until strangely and coincidentally enough the Dirk Pitt chances upon them.

The book is full of male bravado and machoism. It was shameless in the way Clive included himself into the novel as one of the characters searching for the lost ship. At the same time, the people who seem not to die or get injured miraculously is Dirk Pitt. Everyone else he knows dies.

The plot itself was very round about, back and forth and linear. I hope the movie would prove a better watch. Otherwise, some interesting facts about survival in the Sahara that's about it.

Sahara is an extremely well written book by Clive Cussler. It is a very interesting action/adventure book that never ceases to captivate you with its many story lines and plots. Its characters all have something to offer and don't kill the story with stupidity or lame lines. Also the main characters Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino are always on the top of their game and always have something humorous to say in the light of trouble adding a lighter side to the imminent threat of deadly toxins overshadowing the book. Recently Sahara was made into an excellent movie. I loved the movie, which I saw before I read the book, but the book makes the movie look like a cheap B grade film. In the movie the focus was on the confederate ironclad Texas and the side story the so-called "red tide". However the book brings the "red tide" to the focus as well as adding new plot twists and side stories as well. This makes it an extremely well rounded book that everyone should read.

Sahara is an extremely well written book by Clive Cussler. It is a very interesting action/adventure book that never ceases to captivate you with its many story lines and plots. Its characters all have something to offer and don't kill the story with stupidity or lame lines. Also the main characters Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino are always on the top of their game and always have something humorous to say in the light of trouble adding a lighter side to the imminent threat of deadly toxins overshadowing the book. Recently Sahara was made into an excellent movie. I loved the movie, which I saw before I read the book, but the book makes the movie look like a cheap B grade film. In the movie the focus was on the confederate ironclad Texas and the side story the so-called "red tide". However the book brings the "red tide" to the focus as well as adding new plot twists and side stories as well. This makes it an extremely well rounded book that everyone should read.

This was a better than average Cussler effort in which Dirk and Al are sent down the Niger river delta into the Sahara to search for the source of a water-born toxin that is poisoning the ecosystem and the locals. This conveniently dovetails with a search for a missing civil war ship and a romance with a UN health worker. Exotic, dangerous and all around engaging.

Quite possibly my most favorite Dirk Pitt adventure. Is it possible Lincoln was kidnapped by the Confederates? Cussler makes you answer...hmmmm, maybe. I was thoroughly entertained throughout this book. The villians were excellent. Cussler made a great appearance. I loved the way Kitty Mannock came into the equation and the stand made at the fort was exceptionally fast-paced. Can Dirk and Al save the world's seas from an environmental catastrophe and still have time to save the girl? Of course! And that's what makes it so fun.

This book was a well written high adventure novel. What could one expect from such a litertary master, like Clive Cussler, however? The book is full of plot twists and turns, which keeps the reader enthused. I look forward to future novels written by Mr. Cussler.

I read this particular novel in one night. I started it because I have this thing about reading books before seeing the movies based on them. I didn't realize at the time that it would hook me into a whole new genre. I've read four other Cussler books, and working on the fifth, and so far this is the best, with 'Pacific Vortex' and 'Raise the Titanic' in a close second and third. I recommend this for anyone who enjoys a fly by your seat adventure that just keeps going and going...Cussler does go a bit overboard on descriptions, making for long paragraphs, but it was easy to overlook.

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.

With a great historical plot twist, Clive Cussler has gotten back in line with a wonderfully written Dirk Pitt novel. Pitt is back with his NUMA cohorts to save the world from an environmental threat caused by cold and callous human beings. Cussler would make X-Files creator Chris Carter proud with the historical twist regarding the Lincoln assassination. It's a stretch but believable. Worth reading.

This book in the Dirk Pitt series is probably the most action-packed, full of adrenaline and gun-blazing frenzy! Instantly addicting. And it has probably become the most talked-about with the movie being just around the corner. Check it out before the movie is released! It'll make you thirsty for more!

Travelling through Thailand last year by bus, train and boat...I simultaneously discovered two new incredible worlds. Clutching Sahara in one hand and a map in the other I expereiced
far off lands that spiced up my own historical perspective and put sweat on my brow.
Why not keep your travel and enetertainment expenses down this time around. Pick up Sahara or one of its brethern and float away into a world immersed in action, intrigue, romance and
perhaps the most likeable and robust character in years, Dirk Pitt. Thumbs way up to Clive for endeavoring to keep all interested readers so highly entertained!

if anymone came to me asked me, 'sir, which clive cussler book would you recommend to me?' i would doff my bowler hat back and reply: 'Sahara'. Sahara without a doubt in my mind is one of the best cussler moves written at his height. this is more gungho than the others and is more American, like a rambo movie.its got great ideas as well as some great historical ideas. if the only critism i have it is that it is bit overlong,but still great.

Badly written, badly researched, and offensive to women, Africans and anyone who's ever read a book over 150 pages.

I don't know where to begin. This man obviously never went to Mali, and I'd be surprised if he did more research on it than read the first two pages of a travel guide. His inaccuracy about the people there borders on criminal. If he had written such a thing about a Native American group, he would have been pilloried. He turns one of the few peaceful countries in Africa into a pit of corruption, torture, war and cruelty. This is a country that, in order to prevent ethnic strife, adopted the custom of "joking cousins:" if you come from one of my "enemy" family groups, I tell you you eat beans, and you tell me I eat donkey, and we both laugh our heads off.

Then we have Dirk Pitt. Where did this guy come from? A Saturday Night Live parody? Sweaty, hairy self-righteous manly man whose skin is impenetrable to bullets, crocodiles and apparently, the Sahara sun.

An incredibly self-satisfied, lazily-written piece of drivel.

This book is one of Clive Cussler's masterpieces. When a deadly red-tide sweeps the world's oceans Pitt, Giordino and Gunn travel up the Niger on a research boat looking for the answers. When its leads to contamination from a chemical disposal plant owned by a French Tycoon, Pitt and Giordino race across the Sahara to stem the tide before the world's oceans die and with them human life. A great read for ages 13 through to 50, a fantastic book full of suspense and real top quality Dirk Pitt adventure.

The last time I read Clive Cussler was around twenty years ago, and the experience had not exactly had me wanting to read more. Time, however, dulls the memory, and I'm a different reader than I once was. When I had the opportunity to read Sahara, therefore, I was hopeful that the reading experience would be pleasant; alas, such hopes were to be crushed. Sahara is not a good book, and reading it, I wonder exactly what makes Cussler such a popular author; maybe it's his exotic locales and his almost non-stop action; it certain isn't his ability to write.

Sahara begins with a pair of prologues, the first dealing with a Confederate warship disappearing at the end of the Civil War, the second focusing on a female pilot crashing in the Sahara back in the 1930s. We then go to modern times, where Dirk Pitt is called in to investigate a toxic waste runoff that threatens a biological catastrophe that could kill all humanity. Standing in his way is an evil dictator in Mali who is almost cartoonish in his cruelty and an equally vicious billionaire. Pitt's adventures will lead him throughout the Sahara in a series of adventures that bring him closer to the truth while battling soldiers and the hostile desert.

What about the prologue material? It turns out to have almost nothing to do with the main story. The crashed plane is a mere plot device to rescue characters at an opportune moment, and the lost ship contributes even less, only really reappearing in something of an epilogue, in which we get some ludicrous distortion of history. In literary terms, one is a deus ex machina, the other a non sequitir, and any time either one of these appears in a story, it is a substantial weakness. With both, you have truly bad writing.

The characters themselves are stiff and generally one-dimensional. The villains are laughable clichés and many of the heroes are little better, and between pure good and pure evil there is a Sahara of sorts with no one to be found. Then there is Dirk Pitt. A godlike man who never flinches from danger and always prevails. Even when we are not seeing him beat the odds, we are having other characters praise him.

There is enough cheesy dialogue to open a deli, but on the plus side, Cussler does have a decent (though not great) ability to describe settings, and his action sequences are often interesting if not really exciting. Unfortunately, the chief virtue in this book is to make other books seem better in comparison. For those who think I'm being overly hostile, read the far superior adventure stories of authors such as Wilbur Smith, Ken Follett or even Jon Land. There are better authors out there; if Sahara is typical Clive Cussler, I strongly recommend skipping his books and going elsewhere.

Sahara was my first Dirk Pitt adventure and what an adventure it turned out to be. As a result of Clive Cussler's ability to maintain several plots that bear no possible connection, I was unable to put this book down. Only to my surprise and Cussler's cleaver imagination, were all the plots able to come together so cleanly and without a hitch. The only problem with this book is that now I question my own belief of history. What is truth and what is fiction? A must book for anyone!

Following trusted recommendation, I devoured my first Cussler. The successful intersection of daring adventure and... well, not much else, made this an enjoyably quick, yet scintillating read. The two star rating reflects an "all-in universal score", much like that used in springboard and platform diving-- difficulty multiplied by kubuki-theater-execution. This is a must-read for no one, but an essential part of the cocktail party repertoire for any BoBo. In summary, I loved it.

This is a beautifully written yarn that makes the unbelievable seem somehow plausible. I absolutely love this story.

If you have friends that rave about Clive Cusslers books, read this book and understand why.

of the five dirk pitt adventures i have read, sahara is without a doubt the best. the constant flow of action and intriguing plot line had me reading this book into the late hours of the night. although i was totally not into how the story ended, from beginning to finish this book had me on edge. the characters were well developed, the villians had the necessary quantities and if you're a clive cussler fan, this is one book you wont want to miss!

Haven't read the paperback yet because I bought a used paperback and it was really used...pages following out made it too tough to carry around (prime feature of paperbacks).

So, I've ordered a new paperback of this book and will be very careful about purchasing used books again.