SAUCER The Conquest

Test pilots Charley Pine, a woman who provides most of the heroics, and Rip Cantrell tangle with megalomaniacs who plan to conquer Earth from a moon base. In characters, tone, and action, this story harks back to the space operas of the thirties, but Eric Conger's narrative delivery is oddly flat, an effect that, when combined with Coonts's flat prose, makes for scenes that should excite but don't. Conger is better, and the story moves better, in passages of dialogue, though the cartoonish villains, mostly perfidious Frenchmen, speak with an accent that's hard to take seriously. A tale of space planes, moon bases, and flying saucers should be exciting and fun, but this one never really takes off. W.M. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 05/ JAN 06]