Sheba
is
a revised edition of Harry Patterson’s ninth published novel, Seven Pillars to Hell. Pillars was released as a hardcover by
Abelard-Schuman in 1963 as by Hugh Marlowe, and Sheba was released as a paperback original in 1994 as by Jack
Higgins. Sheba is an example of what
Harry Patterson does very well—a linear adventure set in an exotic landscape
with a likable protagonist and sinister antagonists.
It is 1939. Gavin Kane is a former archaeologist
turned smuggler. He operates a launch from the small port of Dahrein, a
fictional place that is likely somewhere in real world Yemen, on the Arabian
Peninsula. Kane’s professional interest and greed is piqued when he is
approached by an alluring woman with a tale. Her husband is a lecturer of
archaeology, and he disappeared after coming to Arabia searching for the Temple
of Sheba. The temple is believed to be in Rub’ Al Khali, The Empty Quarter,
which is a no man’s land filled with criminals and wanderers. She offers Kane $5,000
in advance, and another $5,000 when her husband is found, and he will earn every penny.
Sheba
is a smoothly told adventure yarn. The plot is linear and clever. There are no
dangling devices, and one scene leads exactly to the next. The prose is vintage
Harry Patterson: stark, succinct, and, in places, eloquent. Everything works,
but the setting really shines. The heat and dust and thirst are palpable. An
early paragraph describing the harbor is particularly nice—
“The
Catalina swung in across the town and splashed into the waters of the harbor.
Beyond it a freighter moved slowly across the horizon toward the Indian Ocean,
and three dhows in formation swooped in toward the harbor like great birds.”
Sheba
has
the feel of the Indiana Jones movies. It includes a Nazi plot device,
archaeology, and a bunch of action. There are damsels in distress, traitors, and
very bad guys.
I haven’t read Seven Pillars to Hell and I consciously attempted to identify both
the new and the old (or what seemed to be the new and the old) in Sheba. The new: the
Nazi plot—including Admiral Canaris of Abwehr and a battle injured officer
named Captain Hans Ritter who is suspiciously similar to The Eagle Has Landed’s Oberst Radl—was likely added to the original
story. The old: Everything else. It is plotted much like many of Mr Patterson's early work, including Sad Wind from the Sea and The Khufra Run.
Interestingly, Kane refers to Dehrain as “Arabia Felix,” which is a Latin term used by the Romans to describe the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula. “Felix” is translated as “happy”.
I just finished reading Seven Pillars to Hell. I also have a UK hardcover copy of Sheba, so after reading your blog I decided to compare the two texts to see exactly how Higgins/Patterson revised the original to arrive at Sheba.
ReplyDeleteThe copyright page of Sheba states "Certain elements in this book are inspired by an earlier work, Seven Pillars to Hell, published in 1963." That's quite a disingenuous statement. The "certain elements" are simply two chapters stuck on the beginning of the original to give it its WW II setting and establish the Nazi plot that drives the plot.
Otherwise, Sheba's text is an exact copy of Seven Pillars of Hell with some minor changes to accommodate the Nazi villain angle.
Seven Pillars to Hell is actually set in the early 1960s. Gavin Kane is a veteran of the Korean War veteran, not WW II. The villain is a Russian agent causing trouble in the Mideast by supplying rebel groups with arms, rather than a Nazi trying to blow up the Suez Canal.
A trio of Spanish SS volunteers are added to the plot as the crew of an airplane, that in PIllars carries the arms, but in Sheba will bomb the Canal. Their end is exactly the same in both books.
I think Seven Pillars to Hell works much better. You can read about 98% of it by skipping the first two chapters of Sheba.