They are twelve men who shouldn't be alive. They have survived the sudden blinding sandstorm that crippled their air freighter. Survived a desperate crash landing in the Sahara of Central Libya. Survived to face the slow, dry, agonizing death of the desert. Twelve men with one hope: to build a new plane from the wreckage of their Skytruck and make a flight out of hell.
Only one man could build such a plane: Stringer, the brilliant and obsessed engineer. Only one man could fly it: Towns, the arrogant and tormented pilot. Both had been aboard the Skytruck, but both are mortal enemies whose consuming hatred for each other is a danger greater than the desert itself.
A cargo plane with 12 men aboard crashes in a Sahara sandstorm. With no rescue in sight, they struggle to cobble together a substitute flying craft before death claims them. Grover Gardner individualizes the guilt-ridden pilot; two British military men; the plane designer on whom survival depends but who is not what he seems; the dying German boy; and others. He almost humanizes the forces of nature seeking to destroy these men. Adept at conveying the plethora of technical details involved in plane construction, Gardner reads the narrative parts in documentary mode. This classic 1964 adventure tale has twice been made into film but is equally riveting--and more informative--in this superbly read audio. J.B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
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