The Devil's Oasis

Bartle Bull has done it again. A rip-roaring adventure story with good guys and bad guys, and people caught between all told in the midst of World War II Cairo. Like the previous books in this series this one is full of characters you love and characters you love to hate. Unlike the other ones this book is set in the deserts of North Africa in 1941 & 1942 in the desperate days before the British Victory at El Alamain. The author manages to write about daily life behind the battle lines in Cairo as well as he writes about the battlefield. That author was able to convey in words the vastness and beauty of the desert while also describing the tyranny of survival in that extreme environment. He weaves fiction with non-fiction and makes the show more fighting in the deserts of North Africa real while also making the intrigue and personal and political maneuvering of life behind the front as interesting and lively. More than once I found myself thinking that I was reading an episode of Rat Patrol combined with the cold war antics of James Bond. Very exciting stuff and a wonderful read.

It was also a timely read in that the cities of Libya that are now in the news were also featured in the book and a work of fiction about World War II became something that helped to explain the country prominently in the news this summer. The endpiece of the copy I read had a wonderful map of the area which I really appreciated. Each chapter also featured a small drawing of some event, person, or object that figured prominently in the story. I found myself eagerly searching that picture for clues as to what was coming next. No doubt this work contributed to the cost of this book, but it added greatly to my pleasure in the reading. show less

I liked this book, really enjoyed reading it, particularly since I didn’t think I would as it took some time for me to get into it. I generally shun stories with caricature rather than characters, but the further I read the more I grew to like them all: the beauties and the fading beauties, the wealthy and those with fading wealth; the decadence, frivolities, and entitlements of the Occidentals including their cavalier attitudes; the patient Others. The good or nearly good, and evil or nearly evil were well conceived.

The descriptions of the desert and surviving in the desert – maybe more correct to say "environments" to encompass both cities and deserts - and war and surviving in the war were superbly done. The intelligence and show more cunning of the hunters of both Allied and Axis forces was fascinating.

I typically do not read tales of war, but this was a good one. It was also nice to read a story about loyalty and honor, something virtually absent from 21st Century planet earth. show less

The Third of the African Trilogy, it follows Anton and Gwenn Rider, their son Wellington, Ernst von Decken, and one of the most interesting characters I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, the dwarf Olivio Fonseca Alavedo, as they deal with their own personal demons and the German battle for North Africa in the early days of WWII.

I found this book a little less stunning than the first two, but still miles ahead of most historical fiction - beautifully written characters, accurate and interesting descriptions of life in Africa and Egypt in the 1940s, and horrific and historically accurate descriptions of battles in North Africa. I cared for the characters; cheered their victories and was saddened by the bad things that happened to them. show more A wonderful book. show less