Date first published	2004
ISBN Number	0 718 14779 0
Page Count	530 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

I have had some difficulty in deciding whether to review this book with the other Dirk Pitt novels or create a separate section. However as the cover states a Dirk Pitt novel I have decided to leave it with the other novels. Please note however that the stories focus is Dirk Pitt junior.

As with the other Pitt novels the book starts off with an incident/event set in the past. This one has a slightly more recent event, in that it is set in the dieing days of the Second World War, with the Japanese attempting a chemical and Biological strike against the US.

We leap forward into the present day to find that an unscrupulous Korean businessman, plans to use the biological weapons in an attack on the USA, as a diversionary tactic whilst North and South Korea reunite under the Norths terms.

So the scene is set for NUMA to prevent a chemical and biological catastrophe and also put an end to the scheming businessman who is in reality a North Korean agent.

Review

The book came as something of a surprise. I thought with Trojan Odyssey that this particular franchise had reached the end of the road. It now however seems to me that the story will continue with Dirk Pitt junior, with his father rushing in at the last minute to rescue the day.

To be fair the book is not bad, it is in fact better than Trojan Odyssey, because it is set much more in the real world. Some of the technology and historical ideas in Odyssey were simply too far fetched to make the story believable. This latest book does not have the same wacky ideas, and is much the better for it.

I do have reservations about the dynamic of the Dirk and Summer. Currently the two as characters don't gel. If you read the early Pitt and Giordino novels, the two are a team, they act as one, and even if one (usually Al) has gone off you always have the feeling that he is just around the corner. With Dirk and Summer the story tends to focus on Dirk, and when Summer is missing from the story, you don't worry about her, and don't really miss her. I do wonder if the problem is that Cussler doesn't know how to write a woman as a main character, and that Summer is just a sop to political correctness.

If you look back over the years the female characters have fallen into two categories, pretty woman, rescued/caught up in the tribulations, and potential love interest, or semi main character such as Senator Loren Smith. Loren has cropped up as a character dozens of times, but has rarely been central to the action, but has been an integral part of the Pitt (senior) legend.

Pitt (senior) and Al have had some momentous punch ups in their time, such as with Darius in Mayday or Foss Gly in Night Probe, and I just don't see this happening with Pitt and Summer.

It is good that Cussler has moved from the Pitt/Al partnership, as the two tired old ruffians were getting past their best before date, but in extending the franchise in this way I'm not sure that it is the right way. Bernard Cornwell also reached an impasse with the Sharpe Novels, and chose as his solution to fill in some areas between the existing books, I think that this might have been the better option. The Pitt timeline became confused a long time ago and so adding additional stories wouldn't have been a problem.

The other problem is that Pitt junior is far too much like his father, in that they have a love for antique cars, and usually end up having a car chase in which the machine 'sensing that this was the end the car gave one final surge'. This is the main problem with the book, we have a car chase that has been done before, the use of a blimp, and the reshaping of the ships hull to enable it to leave harbour under cover. Whilst minor in themselves it leaves the reader feeling that we have seen it all and done it all once before.

As stated above there are areas of the book that have appeared before, but there are several new ideas, which keep the reader interested. Certainly if the books continue to improve after the recent dive of the last two or three then things are looking up.

If you have just seen Sahara at your local cinema, then try Inca Gold, Night probe, or Treasure to acquaint yourself with Messrs Pitt and Giordino, then come back to this one.

Previous	Index	Next