false 351169 3 What a find! David Ball's first novel packs the wallop of a good old-fashioned adventure movie, with historic sweep to please any James Michener fan. The action starts with a wounded wild boar's attack on two French boys (convincingly told from the points of view of the boar, the boys--Paul and Moussa--the terrified mom, and an evil bishop who watches and prevents his coachman from shooting the beast). The pace never slackens as the scenes flash past: invasion and class war in the streets and underground quarryways of Paris during the 1870 siege, moonlit sneak attacks in the desert the Arabs call "the Land of Thirst and Fear," and an epic French attempt to drive a railroad through the Sahara--a mad plan opposed by the dunes and their no less implacable inhabitants, the Tuareg. <p> The Tuareg are the coolest--they're known as the blue men because they wear head-to-toe wraparound indigo-dyed clothes that scarily obscure their faces and stain their skin. Their rivals call them blue devils, and they have lots of rivals. Even though their dads are brothers, the French boys are fated to fight as tribal rivals in Saharan nomad's land because Moussa has a Tuareg mother. His dad, Count Henri deVries, crash-landed his balloon at her feet, and she followed him back to Paris. Racial oppression and bad bishop behavior provoke justifiable homicide at the Paris Opera, occasioning a hairsbreadth balloon escape and southern adventures too numerous to enumerate here. The prose is purple but handsome, the plot pulpy and propulsive. Check out these sentences: "He fell to her from the sky"; "Bashaga's howl haunted them until it was swallowed by the wind"; "As Moussa's stabbing knife pushed up through to his brain, Abdul ben Henna's last thoughts were of revenge." If these make you burn to read on, read on! You won't be disappointed. <I>--Tim Appelo</I> 341412 1999 Empires of Sand total:55|5:15|4:33|3:4|2:2|1:1| 55 224 75 13 4 0 false false Fri Oct 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 19:44:38 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 20:23:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 30 08:32:34 -0700 2008 Wed May 14 12:22:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 15 20:06:11 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 20:07:49 -0700 2009 the place: France and the Sahara Desert.
A well written, well told story.]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sun Oct 18 06:46:37 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 06:46:37 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sat Mar 21 13:29:19 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 21 13:30:02 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat May 23 12:13:10 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 12:30:30 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Mon Nov 02 08:40:09 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 08:41:33 -0800 2009 1 0 false false Thu Feb 12 17:58:14 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 17:58:31 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sun Aug 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 15:12:58 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 19:01:14 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jul 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 07:50:14 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 03 07:17:55 -0700 2009
However the second half was wonderful and read more than twice as quickly. The ending was worth trudging through the novel.

I'd give this about 3.5 stars but rounded up for generosity'...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Jul 27 20:55:53 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 09:23:10 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat Sep 06 12:19:11 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 06 12:21:54 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 10:52:16 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 10:56:19 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Mon Nov 02 07:03:06 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 07:03:06 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Oct 18 21:32:36 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 21:32:36 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 10 06:40:40 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 06:40:40 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 07 21:00:19 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 21:00:21 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Sep 28 16:37:47 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 16:37:47 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 15 20:13:47 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 20:13:47 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Sep 04 04:48:23 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 04:48:23 -0700 2009