Doomed Oasis by Hammond Innes

Doomed Oasis Reviews

• 
  Coleen

  Post WW2 Middle East Arabian Desert rich with oil if only one could find it. The Emirs and Sheiks are fighting each other for territory and for agreements to be reached with Oil Companies who will pay them to drill with the expectation of finding OIL.
  
  In the middle of all this is a Solicitor from Wales, Aubrey George Grant. He had barely met David Thomas upon discovery of the youth's killing of his stepfather, when David was arrested. The boy had discovered that his real father [Whitaker] had abandoned his mother, and he hated the father who had raised him, as well as his unknown real father. The arrest did not last long, as David escaped and then left the country, searching for his real father in a vast wasteland of a desert.
  
  From there, the action of the book, including a lot of desert and camels - which I personally enjoyed reading - was non-stop with Arab tribes who fought each other and anyone who got in their way. What intrigued me, thinking of the sixty plus years since this action, was how the situation has changed - for the better or in some ways for the worse.
  
  Innes is a well known and excellent author and I had read some of his books many years ago, but happened upon this one, published in 1960, in a book purge.
  
  
• 
  Paul Cornelius

  A unique adventure tale that takes place in the Trucial States, the area that today consists of the UAE and parts of Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Iran. This was part of the British Raj, frontier states for British India. And after Indian independence, they continued on as British protectorates until 1971 or so. Thus this Innes novel, published in 1960, is perhaps one of the last contemporary stories about the Raj. The sweep is enormous, taking the protagonist, lawyer George Grant, from Britain, to the Persian Gulf, where is faced with the task of tracking down David Whitaker. Whitaker is a young man Grant earlier provided the means to search for his legendary father, a former British colonel who converted to Islam and lived as an Arab, all the while searching to strike oil in a remote part of the desert. Tribal conflicts, heroic last stands, and martyrdom ensue. And all these efforts are generated by the desperate desire to save an ancient oasis from the encroaching sands of desert. The oasis becomes a symbol of ancient ways, lost dreams, even as David Whitaker wants to save it and provide hope for a future that retains traditional ways of life.
  
  Because I have just finished reading through Erich Ambler's spy thrillers, it is easy to see Ambler's influence on Innes, especially now that I have finished my fourth Innes novel. Like Ambler, Innes' heroes are ordinary men put in extraordinary circumstances. But with a twist. Usually, an Innes character seems to be faced with monumental forces of nature, as well as with the antagonistic forces of political intrigue. Innes' heroes also lack the wit and irony of Ambler's. But they still have a depth that sometimes outshines Ambler. For it seems' that Innes decided to write heroic figures that had a bit of a moral failing somewhere at work within them, whether it be anger, fear, greed, or indifference. This makes them sometimes more interesting and often ends up leaving the reader with ambiguous feelings about the resolution of the novels.
  
  As for The Doomed Oasis itself, it seems to lack the intimacy of the other Innes novels I have read. The grand sweep of the story comes at a price. George Grant and David Whitaker seem to orbit each other, as they do David's sister, Sue. Nobody really connects. And of course this especially applies to David and his father, Charles Whitaker. In the end, the characters remain as isolated as the desert wilderness they explore. And not even the "happy ending" can disturb that final sense as being a commentary on the desperation of finding meaning in existence.
• 
  Simon Mcleish

  Originally published on my blog
  here in November 2000.
  
  The legend of Lawrence of Arabia plays a large part in this thriller about oil and politics in the peninsula. Colonel Charles Whitaker is a figure clearly based on Lawrence, a European who has accepted Arab customs and who has a great deal of influence in the politics of the various small states which are mostly today subsumed into groupings such as the United Arab Emirates. Here, it is oil rather than war which is the aim, but Whitaker as he has become older has managed to destroy his reputation with the oil companies as he has put forward a theory that oil is present in vast quantities in places where it was never found.
  
  Whitaker is not the central character in the story. This is his son David, who came out to Arabia once he had discovered his paternity. David becomes passionately involved with the desert kingdom of Saraifa, the doomed oasis of the title. Water is brought to the inhabitants through ancient aqueducts, the falajes, but now the slow process of neglect which is gradually destroying them has been accelerated by the vandalism of enemies from the neighbouring emirate. David comes up with a desperate plan to stop this brutal destruction, which the Whitakers have themselves motivated by their conviction that oil is to be found in a border area disputed by the two countries.
  
  The Doomed Oasis has the potential to be a far better novel than it is. The contrast between the motivations of greed and romance is something which could be the basis of an interesting story. The relationship between the Whitakers, one of several broken father-son relationships in Innes' novels, has dramatic potential which is not exploited. Also like other Innes' novels, it centres around poorly written courtroom scenes; there are far better devices to use in a thriller.
• 
  Natalie

  I thoroughly enjoyed this - reminded me a bit of Shute's Trustee from the Toolroom - in a good way !
  
  Explores the impact of oil & water resources on communities, of military, business, political and journalistic expectations and manages to be a good story at the same time !
• 
  Ethan Hulbert

  I couldn't finish this book. I kept going until the 50% mark, about 160 pages in. At this point... nothing had really happened yet. I mean, various small things had happened here or there, but they didn't add up to anything, they weren't pointing to any plot, they weren't going anywhere. The book didn't seem to be about anything. I couldn't tell you who the protagonist was or what the goal of the book would be.
  
  So why 2 stars and not 1? Well, I still didn't feel like it was a complete waste of time. I enjoyed some of the writing. I liked the descriptions of Arabia. I liked the mystery around the region and it was fun getting a picture of it from this time period.
  
  However, that alone does not a book worth reading make.
• 
  Jasper Hallum

  I would say “The Doomed Oasis “ by Hammond Innes is a book I throughly enjoyed, started Sunday night, then again the whole Monday, couldn’t put the book down. Real swashbuckling adventure in the desert with tribesmen 3 heroes, Grant, David & his father Colonel Whitaker, camels, oil drilling, water holes, “falajes”or wells”all contributing to an exciting tale. I think this Hammond Innes story is the best I’ve read so far & I’ve read “Isvik” “Campbells Kingdom“ ,”The Strange Land” & “The Lonely Skier”. I’ve still got to read quite a few other books of Mr Innes that I have in my bookcase that I bought.
  All I can say he is a really good story teller. There should be a film made on “The Doomed Oasis “. I give this a 5 star rating!
• 
  Godly Gadfly

  Review of the 1984 dramatized audio version (3 stars)
  
  I listened to the dramatized audio adaptation from 1984, which was splendidly done with many sound effects, as well as Arabic and foreign languages. But there is a significant amount of blasphemy in the story, and the plot itself was just okay. It features a Welsh lawyer as protagonist, who heads to the desert of Arabia to uncover a mystery involving a father and his estranged son, and big oil companies.
• 
  Kris McCracken

  A somewhat dated little thriller that explores the complications behind exploiting the oil resources of feuding Arab states in the mid-20th Century. The story moves along, but the characters are very muc, "blah"...
• 
  Matt Kelland

  Old-school action. As one commenter said, it;'s like watching a black and white movie on a Saturday afternoon. Dated, but entertaining.
• 
  Mary

  A fairly entertaining adventure story; as in the one other Innes novel I have read, Innes is very good at writing man vs. nature, and at describing harsh natural environments.
• 
  Rob

  Decent first half, really boring second half.
• 
  Natalie

  Found this book thru some serendipity and the beginning was exciting, but it fizzled halfway thru and became a slog. It sounded like the type of book that Wes Anderson has used for inspiration for the books read aloud in his movies.
• 
  Bettie

  a nice audio to craft to
• 
  Margaret Martin

  A quick read. Entertaining in an old B movie sort of way. After setting up the story with lots of characters and detail the ending is kind of fast and puzzling.
• 
  David Nadolny

  This old novel is worth reading. I enjoyed it.