Condon is a romper, and [Bandicoot] is one of his wilder and funnier romps. The plot? Forget it! The story concerns a gambling-mad ex-British naval captain, Japanese industrialists (they stretch their Rolls-Royces a few feet to make them the world's longest), oil deposits under Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Unlike other writers of improbable derring-do, Condon gives lots of little side essays on such things as ballooning, opal mining, haute cuisine, and sexual positions.