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Sargasso
Vintage paperback
301 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
4 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Edwin Corley
16 books4 followersaka Patrick Buchanan, David Harper
Edwin Ray Corley was born on October 22nd, 1931, in Bayonne, New Jersey, and passed away on November 7th, 1981, in Gulfport, Mississippi. During the intervening 50 years, his career varied from that of an underage Air Force staff sergeant to a carnival fire-eater to a vice-president of a leading advertising agency.
Edwin Ray Corley was born on October 22nd, 1931, in Bayonne, New Jersey, and passed away on November 7th, 1981, in Gulfport, Mississippi. During the intervening 50 years, his career varied from that of an underage Air Force staff sergeant to a carnival fire-eater to a vice-president of a leading advertising agency.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 12, 2025
This mainstream suspense/thriller wasn't my usual brand of book (in the 1970s genre categories were much more strenuous), but I remember buying it because I loved the green cover by Paul Alexander that has an astronaut buried underwater in sand. It's the story of Apollo 19 which splashes down in the Sargasso Sea and the mysterious events which result. (Bermuda Triangle stories were quite popular in the 1970s.) The Apollo program ended with #17 in December of 1972, so I suppose you could see this as an alternate-world story, too. But I digress... There are lots of mysterious events recounted, many of which are not sufficiently explained or explored, but I still thought it was a fun and fast-paced story.
March 28, 2014
Today’s book is a slightly special one, compared to many of the tomes Bookworm has reviewed. While Sargasso was written in the seventies, it has the look and feel of the classic pulp sci-fi novels that made up what some call its golden age. It depicts a simpler time in American History, a time some long for. America had beaten the Japs and Nazis, we had a thriving economy and space program, and worries such as terrorism and global warming were far away.
Thus enter, Sargasso
The Plot
The Bermuda Triangle is one of the modern world’s most enduring mysteries. An area of the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the United States, the Triangle roughly spans the area between the tip of Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. According to legend, supernatural forces cause ships and airplanes traveling through to vanish without a trace.
While modern science has revealed that there is nothing unusual regarding that area of the Sargasso Sea. Nonetheless, the Triangle has captured the imagination of the public for many years and is the main source of the books conflict.
Apollo 19 has disappeared. On television everyone was supposed to see the triumphant astronauts after completing a joint mission with the Russians, come home on national television but suddenly the President orders a press blackout and the airwaves shutdown. It is almost missed but soon a few people see the truth…the capsule was empty. It would seem that the Devil’s Triangle has claimed three more victims.
The Good
What makes this book good is that believer or skeptic, no one can deny that the Bermuda Triangle is a fascinating piece of nautical history and the author does a good job of integrating the fascinating stories of Flight 19 and others into the main plot of the book. It helps the text in adding deeper layers of mystery into the plot. The characters have a wide variety of goals in their travels to the Sargasso. Some are looking for a good story and others are looking for clues into the wider mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
If you can get past the sheer number of characters and various plot threads, overall the book has more the air of suspense thriller than a science fiction book. And that is a correct assumption. Bookworm found himself eagerly turning the pages to figure the next part of the story or uncover the next clue.
No spoilers but what makes the ending of this book so good is that while the truth behind the mission, while not mundane, can be easily explained. That is it makes sense.
In spite of that though we are left with the impression that there is something unknown at work there. That maybe there is something lurking in the depths of the Atlantic. Something not from man…
The Flaws
Part of what makes this book so grand also contributes to its detriment. Perhaps there are too many characters and plot threads. The reader finds themselves confused by all the plot threads woven through the text. The saving grace is that they are interesting enough to keep the reader engaged. Engaging as they may be they can get distracting and sometimes it seems that the author is trying to fill a word count quota rather than get the next part of the story.
Sometimes the story threads just sort of meander and while it was a page turner there were times when the consensus was “Get to the point!” It starts of strong but its gets a little bogged down about a third of the way in, and takes a while to rev up speed again.
Final Verdict:
While it may too much for some readers to handle. Sargasso is still a quick airport read sure to appease fans of the pulp tomes of the Golden Age. But perhaps the author could have been a bit more forceful with the editing.
Three out of Five Stars
For more reviews and other things visit: jordan.danbrantley.com
Thus enter, Sargasso
The Plot
The Bermuda Triangle is one of the modern world’s most enduring mysteries. An area of the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the United States, the Triangle roughly spans the area between the tip of Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. According to legend, supernatural forces cause ships and airplanes traveling through to vanish without a trace.
While modern science has revealed that there is nothing unusual regarding that area of the Sargasso Sea. Nonetheless, the Triangle has captured the imagination of the public for many years and is the main source of the books conflict.
Apollo 19 has disappeared. On television everyone was supposed to see the triumphant astronauts after completing a joint mission with the Russians, come home on national television but suddenly the President orders a press blackout and the airwaves shutdown. It is almost missed but soon a few people see the truth…the capsule was empty. It would seem that the Devil’s Triangle has claimed three more victims.
The Good
What makes this book good is that believer or skeptic, no one can deny that the Bermuda Triangle is a fascinating piece of nautical history and the author does a good job of integrating the fascinating stories of Flight 19 and others into the main plot of the book. It helps the text in adding deeper layers of mystery into the plot. The characters have a wide variety of goals in their travels to the Sargasso. Some are looking for a good story and others are looking for clues into the wider mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
If you can get past the sheer number of characters and various plot threads, overall the book has more the air of suspense thriller than a science fiction book. And that is a correct assumption. Bookworm found himself eagerly turning the pages to figure the next part of the story or uncover the next clue.
No spoilers but what makes the ending of this book so good is that while the truth behind the mission, while not mundane, can be easily explained. That is it makes sense.
In spite of that though we are left with the impression that there is something unknown at work there. That maybe there is something lurking in the depths of the Atlantic. Something not from man…
The Flaws
Part of what makes this book so grand also contributes to its detriment. Perhaps there are too many characters and plot threads. The reader finds themselves confused by all the plot threads woven through the text. The saving grace is that they are interesting enough to keep the reader engaged. Engaging as they may be they can get distracting and sometimes it seems that the author is trying to fill a word count quota rather than get the next part of the story.
Sometimes the story threads just sort of meander and while it was a page turner there were times when the consensus was “Get to the point!” It starts of strong but its gets a little bogged down about a third of the way in, and takes a while to rev up speed again.
Final Verdict:
While it may too much for some readers to handle. Sargasso is still a quick airport read sure to appease fans of the pulp tomes of the Golden Age. But perhaps the author could have been a bit more forceful with the editing.
Three out of Five Stars
For more reviews and other things visit: jordan.danbrantley.com
March 30, 2021
The writing was good. And the pages turned. But at the end the reader realized that many of the plot lines were simply unnecessary and really did little more than make this a VERY 1970s soap opera rather than the hoped for romp through topics seen on In Search of... with Leonard Nimoy with parts played by actors and actresses from The Six Million Dollar Man and Kojak.
August 12, 2023
This book is from the 1970s, when books and films about the Bermuda Triangle were all the rage. The Apollo 19 mission (it never existed, the last was Apollo 17) returns with a splashdown in the Sargasso Sea, right in the Bermuda Triangle. When the capsule is opened it is discovered that it is empty, the astronauts are not there... what happened to them? The explanations in the book have nothing to do with aliens, but the novel still leaves some described phenomena (strange fogs, problems with communications, sudden blackouts, rogue waves) unexplained, suggesting the intervention of something supernatural.
March 31, 2022
Really good Bermuda Triangle story. Written in 1977 the NASA technology is a little dated but fits right in the story. I really liked it.
December 10, 2023
Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog
"Apollo 19 has just splashed down in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. With no one inside!"
This is the kind of book I was attracted to when I was a young reader. I remember going to the downtown department store and looking through the paperbacks. My limit was about $1.75, and I remember turning away books because they were $1.95, a little expensive for me. This was around 1979/80. When I came across a copy of Sargasso at a bookstore that was closing out recently, the cover was so recognizable that I am sure I'd seen it before, all those years ago.
The cover price is $1.95. Today, I bought it for .10cents, so I just had to wait 35 years for the price to come down.
Sargasso is an action adventure novel, a little on the technical side. It begins with the last Apollo mission before the Space Shuttle takes over. A joint mission with the Russians, all goes well with the reentry (narrated on television by Walter Cronkite) until they open the capsule to find it empty!
A hasty decoy broadcast diverts the attention of the world while the President bans all those who know the truth from revealing it. This includes a government underwater energy research ship, a globe sailing adventurer, a top female news broadcaster and various other characters. The research ship is then commissioned by a Hollywood producer to explore the Sargasso sea for an upcoming movie.
Everyone ends up in the Bermuda Triangle area where some strange light effects and odd dusty fog banks occur, power outages and instrument malfunctions begin to plague them. What is causing it all?
Near the end there is also a terrific rogue storm to get through, while several people are trapped underwater in a powerless submersible. They had gone down to explore a strange phenomenon that looked on their monitors like a paved highway! and found instead the real explanation for the whole mysterious incident of Apollo 19.
I must say, there are a lot of characters in various stages of distress throughout the novel and Edwin Corley manages to keep all of them as well as the plot floating right up to about the third to last page, when he resolves all the questions and dispenses them all to their various fates. I won't even mention the Japanese investor aboard, or the Caribbean sailor who was born in 1840, yet still sailing the Sargasso sea!
This is very much in the style of Peter Benchley's The Island or The Deep. The movie Jaws (written by Benchley) is referenced and Sargasso is in the same marina. Written in 1977, it has many (now) humorous moments such as the Hollywood screenwriter erecting a pyramid over his bed (remember pyramid power?) and characters drive Pinto's, use only the finest Sony Betamax equipment, and the captain's wife is (in quotes) "liberated".
It had the aura of a book from the seventies, there is something about them at that time. It doesn't seem timeless, it seems from the seventies.
It all adds to the enjoyment of a fun and mysterious tour in the Triangle. If the cover or description appeals to you, I'd recommend it.
"Apollo 19 has just splashed down in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. With no one inside!"
This is the kind of book I was attracted to when I was a young reader. I remember going to the downtown department store and looking through the paperbacks. My limit was about $1.75, and I remember turning away books because they were $1.95, a little expensive for me. This was around 1979/80. When I came across a copy of Sargasso at a bookstore that was closing out recently, the cover was so recognizable that I am sure I'd seen it before, all those years ago.
The cover price is $1.95. Today, I bought it for .10cents, so I just had to wait 35 years for the price to come down.
Sargasso is an action adventure novel, a little on the technical side. It begins with the last Apollo mission before the Space Shuttle takes over. A joint mission with the Russians, all goes well with the reentry (narrated on television by Walter Cronkite) until they open the capsule to find it empty!
A hasty decoy broadcast diverts the attention of the world while the President bans all those who know the truth from revealing it. This includes a government underwater energy research ship, a globe sailing adventurer, a top female news broadcaster and various other characters. The research ship is then commissioned by a Hollywood producer to explore the Sargasso sea for an upcoming movie.
Everyone ends up in the Bermuda Triangle area where some strange light effects and odd dusty fog banks occur, power outages and instrument malfunctions begin to plague them. What is causing it all?
Near the end there is also a terrific rogue storm to get through, while several people are trapped underwater in a powerless submersible. They had gone down to explore a strange phenomenon that looked on their monitors like a paved highway! and found instead the real explanation for the whole mysterious incident of Apollo 19.
I must say, there are a lot of characters in various stages of distress throughout the novel and Edwin Corley manages to keep all of them as well as the plot floating right up to about the third to last page, when he resolves all the questions and dispenses them all to their various fates. I won't even mention the Japanese investor aboard, or the Caribbean sailor who was born in 1840, yet still sailing the Sargasso sea!
This is very much in the style of Peter Benchley's The Island or The Deep. The movie Jaws (written by Benchley) is referenced and Sargasso is in the same marina. Written in 1977, it has many (now) humorous moments such as the Hollywood screenwriter erecting a pyramid over his bed (remember pyramid power?) and characters drive Pinto's, use only the finest Sony Betamax equipment, and the captain's wife is (in quotes) "liberated".
It had the aura of a book from the seventies, there is something about them at that time. It doesn't seem timeless, it seems from the seventies.
It all adds to the enjoyment of a fun and mysterious tour in the Triangle. If the cover or description appeals to you, I'd recommend it.
August 14, 2014
Η Περιπέτεια στο Τρίγωνο των Βερμούδων έχει ως πρωτότυπο τίτλο το "Sargasso". Και αυτό είναι και το μόνο πρωτότυπο πράγμα σε ένα κείμενο που ανήκει στο παλπ-με-την-κακή-έννοια κομμάτι της χρυσής εποχής της εφ. Ένας σκασμός ονόματα, πολλά από τα οποία δεν τα χρησιμοποιεί ποτέ, υποτυπώδης έως μηδαμινή ανάπτυξη χαρακτήρων και αλλοπρόσαλλη πλοκή, που εξυπηρετεί μόνο την προσπάθεια του συγγραφέα να στριμώξει όσες περισσότερες πληροφορίες έχει για το Τρίγωνο των Βερμούδων στο βιβλίο του. Εντάξει, έκανες την έρευνά σου κι έμαθες κάποια πράγματα, μπράβο σου. Εμάς τι μας πρήζεις;
December 19, 2007
read 07.24.87
May 29, 2013
A great tale of the mysterious Sargasso sea, and the Bermuda Triangle! Moi groovy read!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews