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Stephen Coonts Saucer 6 cassettes (unabridged)

Reader: Dick Hill

Stephen Coonts' "Saucer" is a story about a group of archeologists who stumble across a 140,000 year old flying saucer buried in sandstone as they work in the Sahara Desert. Once they uncover the saucer, they find that it not only is capable of flight, but that it has become a very hot commodity for a number of groups ranging from the US Air Force to the the Libyian government to the 2nd richest man in the world.

One of the archeologist, Rip Cantrell, feels that the saucer is his due to the law of possession and, with the aid of a beautiful former test pilot, Charlotte (Charley) Pine, he gets control of the saucer and flys it back to the US. From this point, the plot moves quickly as possession of the saucer becomes, "now you have it, now you don't". Billionaire Roger Hedrick steals the saucer back from Rip and forces Charley to be his private pilot as he begins a auction to sell it to the country (in this case, China, Japan, Russia and the European nations) with the highest bid. Hedrick really has no desire to keep the saucer for money, he is totally driven by greed.

Meanwhile, back home in the USA, the President and his staff are trying to come up with a way to take the saucer back for reasons of "national security". If the reader can suspend their feelings of disbelief, then he or she will enjoy this book. It is very light reading and not to be taken seriously. Character development is not as strong as I would have liked, but, the characters are memorable, none the less. The plot moves at a rapid pace and is action-filled.

The ending sets the stage for the sequel entitled, "Saucer - The Conquest" in which our heroes once again reunite to save the saucer from the hands of the greedy and evil.

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