Date first published	30/08/2005
ISBN Number	13:978-0-718-14788-4
Page Count	435 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Germany - at the end of World War 2, and on the brink of collapse. A mysterious German appears at a secret laboratory to take a scientist to safety. The flight is fraught with danger as Soviet agents also want the scientist. They are ultimately saved when the ship they are travelling on is torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, and it is believed that he has died with all the other passengers.

Flip forward to the modern day, and the works of the mysterious scientist are bearing fruit. The technology has fallen into the hands of a bunch of anti globalisation fanatics who aim to use the technology to cause a polar shift, and so disrupt the worlds corporations. However Kurt Austin happens to see the results of two of the test runs and sets off to find out who and what is the cause of the mysterious phenomenon occurring in the worlds oceans.

The investigations will take across the world and out in the frozen tundra of Russia, in the search for a woman who may hold the antidote of the terrorists technology. Can Kurt prevent a world catastrophe, or will he be the first of its victims?

Review

This is not the best in the series. It's anti globalisation message is out of place - after all it is the Americans leading the charge to global harmonisation and comes across as a preachy 'its bad', without explaining why. The anti globalisation fanatics to my mind are just as bad if not worse than the system they want to overthrow. They seem to be a bunch of anarchists, who want anarchy for anarchys' sake.

On top of that I felt that the story as a whole was weak. The elements are there, but it seems to have been written without any passion, there are chases, on a ski slope and on a steam driven vehicle, but the action doesn't grab you and doesn't get you turning the pages. You feel the chase is there, but that no harm will come to Kurt. If you want to see what I mean read some of the earlier Dirk Pitt chases, and you will see a big difference. One I particularly remember is one where Dirk takes a classic car down a ski slope! I wish I could remember which book that it was in.

Austins character has moved on and is perhaps less like Pitt than in other novels. Zavala, is a bit of a non entity, whilst Giordino is very much a part of the Pitt novels, Zavala has little to do except make the odd acid comments here and there. The Trouts seem to be more integral to the books, but in a way cut Austin out, as they work as a close knit team, which has little room for a third party. I assume that Zavalas apparent down grading is to try and break the similarities between Pitt and Giordino, but it doesn't quite work. The character and his relationship to Austin needs to be re-thought out or dropped.

If the series is to continue, future books need to be written with some passion and by someone who cares about the people he is writing about. Cussler does care about his characters, and does put them through hell, but the passion with which he wrote the Pitt novels came through in the stories. Whether Pitt had just killed his worst enemy, or just met the most ravishing woman on the planet.

The series obviously should not die just because of one book that hasn't hit the mark, but improvement is needed.

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