Very enjoyable continuation of a series. Definitely left room for another installment, which I look forward to. ( )

The Conquest is very similar in style to the first book, which means shallow characterisation, wildly implausible storylines and a stretched out finale. The Saucer novels are quick reads and make only a vague attempt to suspend the reader's disbelief; in fact they make Cussler's wildest works read like factual documentaries. The Conquest uses the (almost standard) rule that a sequel requires twice as much as what the original delivered - so Coonts offers two saucers, an Evil Genius plot twice as diabolical and therefore is two times removed from the 'reality' the first one offered. Summing up, The Conquest *will* keep you turning the pages, and there is a base level of entertainment to be had from it. A silly romp which will soon be forgotten, which won't stop you reading morw Coonts in the future. ( )

This is a sequel to Coonts's Saucer. In Saucer, Rip Cantrell, a young engineering prodegy working with an oil-prospecting team in the Sahara discovers a 170,000 year old flying saucer embedded in sandstone, and teams up with an attractive sexy female USAF test pilot named Charlie, sent to capture the saucer. Together Rip and Charlie, with Rip's fat, inventive uncle, Egg, keep the saucer away from a variety of baddies, with the saucer ending up being donated to the Smithsonian to keep it away from evil doers. Technology in the saucer includes antigravity, telepathic computers, a tiny fusion reactor and super-efficient rockets using plain (or even muddy) water for fuel.

"Saucer: the Conquest" begins when another baddy steals the telepathic computer stolen from another saucer that crashed in Roswell NM when it was hidden in Area 51 on the Nevada Test Site. This was classified is super top secret as being too scary to study. The plot thickens when the French establish a base on the Moon using conventional rocket driven space planes, and Charlie volunteers to pilot one of them.

It turns out that the French moon base was established by a megalomaniac who bought antigravity technology from the guy who stole the Roswell computer, and has turned it into an antigravity beam weapon that could be used to target objects on the Earth to destroy them by lifting and dropping (e.g., the Golden Gate Bridge, the Whitehouse, etc.

Charlie discovers the plot to conquer the Earth on her first trip to the Moon as pilot of one of the space planes, and steals the plane - leaving the baddies trapped in their base with the functional beam weapon. Egg is kidnapped by the French plotters who then steal the Roswell saucer and force him to fly it to the moon.

As would be expected Rip and Charlie save the day to rescue Egg and the USA from the dastardly French by stealing back their saucer from the Smithsonian and engaging in dog-fights on the Moon, Washington and New York.

On the whole, despite stretching the laws of physics in a few places (e.g., a single proton-antiproton anhilation doesn't release enough energy to blow someone's arm off), the story is a good read - adolesecent Sci-Fi that can be enjoyed by anyone who likes a good yarn.

I expect that there will be more sequels - there has still been no explanation or contact with the saucers' makers. ( )