tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28085999.post8900115471143537071..comments2024-03-26T05:04:01.131-06:00Comments on Gravetapping: SHEBA by Jack Higgins (Harry Patterson)Ben Bouldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16024782701164448300noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28085999.post-54632559984884829352024-02-03T10:40:40.514-07:002024-02-03T10:40:40.514-07:00I just finished reading Seven Pillars to Hell. I a...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.<br /><br />The 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.<br /><br />Otherwise, Sheba's text is an exact copy of Seven Pillars of Hell with some minor changes to accommodate the Nazi villain angle.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />I think Seven Pillars to Hell works much better. You can read about 98% of it by skipping the first two chapters of Sheba.Terry Zobeckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00853039073607532351noreply@blogger.com