Besides, how many good novels have you read which include a statistical distribution curve as a plot device?
American geologist Ty Campbell, raw from recent personal tragedy works in solitude on the edge of the North African desert dowsing for water and observing the hidden rivers of life beneath the surface of the Sahara. Ty's peace is disturbed and he is made aware of the raw edge between life and human death when a group of refugees, led by the crusading Lila, make camp in his surrounds and demand help for their collective survival.
Ty's emotional bank is drained with the shared responsibility of keeping over 400 souls alive and his re-emergence into the company of others leads him into dealing with Bud van Sickle, CEO of Timbuktu Earthwealth. The nations of the world need somewhere to store their burgeoning masses of nuclear waste, and Timbuktu Earthwealth want Ty's assistance in the process of selling their idea to the world community of burying this waste in the desert. In effect, in return for the company assisting the refugees, Ty agrees to become an industrial spy.
While the effortless comparative similies remain, after the introduction of conflict on an industrial and political scale the novel departs the previously winning formula and battles for purpose. Local warlords, environmental crusaders, political middle men and traffickers are introduced at such pace it becomes convoluted and an effort to follow. Every introduced character seems to be a mystic and after the purity of the opening pages the novel seems cluttered and somewhat inconsequential despite the grandness of its setting.
The working credentials of this debut author impress detail in to what could be described as a technical novel that works hard at crafting for our minds one possible future for Africa. "Desert Burial" is difficult to classify, in parts excellent literary fiction and in others, industrial thriller. Nothing could take away from this novel the beauty of the introduction and the possibilities of excellent reading in future (perhaps more defined in genre) works of this author.
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Andrea Thompson
"Desert Burial" is primarily set in Mali which the author notes is now "one of Africa's more vigorous democracies;" that adds a note of irony to this futuristic horror story. That Littlefair's predictions for that country and the world might actually come true makes this story fascinating and devastating.
Ty Campbell is a geologist who has finagled his way into being paid by an obscure US government agency to live with the silent rocks and aquifers in the heart of eastern Africa. The opening chapters tell of the isolation, quiet and mineral deposits he loves are exquisite. They are a mind-numbing contrast to the bedlam that is about to engulf the world with tentacles so pervasive they reach out even to Campbell's self-imposed isolation in the desert. There are some restrained romantic interests. He comes to know several women of substance who personify the different ways that people might try to make a positive difference in the world. He comes to know some men who are doing their best to undermine world order. He learns a lot in the process.
Littlefair's imaginary (I sometimes wonder if it isn't more clairvoyant than fictional) world is, at times, difficult to follow. The ins and outs and ups and downs of politics, the underworld, and the human traffickers aren't immediately clear. This book is about international intrigue and I'm not sure it wouldn't lose something if the reader stopped to trace every intricacy. Further, I don't feel it is necessary to catch every relationship and motivation to understand and to love a story.. I thought this one was well worth the ride.
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(Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"