THE TANGENT FACTOR

Even the most undiscriminating patrons of Sanders' fiction factory will find this sequel to The Tangent Objective (in which mercenary oil-man Peter Tangent helped Napoleonic Obiri Anokye to depose King Prempeh of Asante) shamelessly conveyor-belted and totally resistible. Without a single remotely likable character among the cast of sleazy tarts and piggy men, any momentum would have to come from the plot, and that is thin and implausible: Anokye now wants to unite all Africa under his rule, so he cunningly foments warfare between two neighbor nations, Togo and Benin, making it easy for him to conquer both (dull battle scenes) and thus be in position to invade Nigeria. The ease with which Anokye can hoodwink all countries—including France, whom he fools into believing that there's a "Red threat" in Togo and Benin—is Sanders at his naive worst, just as the regularly-spaced "hot, hot and tight" mechanical sex is Sanders at his arrested-development worst. There are a few random touches here that echo The Tangent Objective's tangible interest in fashioning a microcosmic African culture—like the funeral of Anokye's father. But macho-zombie Tangent and his gross confederate, Sam Leiberman, set the tone for a vulgar and sluggish tourist trap that manages to make deepest West Africa look and sound like a corner in New York's garment district.