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Saucer: The Conquest by Stephen Coonts
01/09/2005 . Source: Paul Hanley 
pub: St. Martin's Press. 340 page enlarged paperback. Price: $14.95 (US), $21.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-312-32362-X. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out websites: www.stmartins.com and www.coonts.com
I have not read the 'Saucer' which sets out what happened prior to the start of the events described in this book but whilst there were a few references back these were mostly fully explained and I believe it is perfectly possible to read and enjoy this book on its own although it would probably be best to read 'Saucer' first.
The story is set in modern times with France having developed spaceplanes with which they are establishing a colony on the moon. It would seem that the protagonists, Rip Cantrell and Ms Charley Pine, discovered a spacecraft in the earlier book 'the classic flying saucer' - apparently abandoned on the Earth thousands of years before. Our hero and heroine, romance having failed to develop, placed their saucer in the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC and gone their separate ways. Charley, a test pilot, has joined the French space programme and is flying their super-shuttles to the moon base. Whilst there, she sees a weapon 'an anti-gravity beam' and flees back to Earth in the French spaceplane to warn the authorities. The megalomaniac in charge of the French space programme intends to hold the world to ransom and make himself ruler of everywhere. Whilst he begins to bombard well-known landmarks, such as the Tower of London, Charley and Rip work against him.
The story is a fast and furious one. The old saucer is taken from the museum and is back in action fighting the French spaceplanes and another similar saucer, one found years before but apparently forgotten when it was placed in the most secret of locations and operated on behalf of the baddies. The action moves back and forth whilst the air fighting or space fighting scenes are particularly well done. Perhaps not surprising as Stephen Coonts, perhaps better known for military thrillers, was a naval aviator who flew combat missions in Vietnam.
This is rather an old-fashioned feeling story full of swash and buckle. It ends with the goodies triumphing over the villains. The French are vanquished and the Americans victorious. I enjoyed it. It is a light-hearted adventure and great fun. Thoroughly recommended.
Paul Hanley 
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