Date first published	2006
ISBN Number	0 718 14975 0
Page Count	552 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Dirk Pitt senior is back in the field !

After the usual historical interlude, we find Dirk and Al surveying a lake in Russia. During the survey they find themselves in the middle of a seiche wave (an inland water Tsunami). With their monitoring equipment detecting the wave before it appears Dirk orders the survey ship to head as afar away as possible. However he notices another ship that has not taken note of his warnings. In typical Pitt fashion he goes off to warn the other ship.

Having survived the wave he awakes during the night to find the survey ship sinking, and the crew he rescued has disappeared, and so Pitt finds himself immersed in a plot to reunite the two Mongolian States, and a plot to control the worlds oil supplies.

Meanwhile as Pitt tries to find his friends kidnapped from the survey ship, his son and daughter run into problems of their own when they discover by accident an ancient Royal barge, in a bay off Hawaii. For they have found a greater mystery, and someone doesn't want them to report it.

Review

I thought that Trojan Odyssey was the end of the line for Dirk and Al. Black Wind seemed to confirm this with the story based around Dirk's son and daughter, a partnership that I was not very sure about. It was quite a pleasant surprise to find that this story was firmly based around the old rogues. with Dirk junior and Summer appearing in a sub-plot. The story is much the better for it.

The book also returns to more realistic science. I'm not sure whether the seismic device would work in reality, but it sounded plausible, without stretching the imagination to far. The Science in Trojan was just to weird to take on board, and I think the story suffered for it.

As with most of the Pitt novels, there is a single theme, that starts out with a historical event or mystery, which takes on form in the modern day. The pre adventure is set around the time of Genghis Khan, an interesting subject in itself.

The story then jumps to the Second World War, and the apparent discovery of Khan's palace, the theft of a map revealing Khan's burial place, and then the disappearance of the archaeologist. We then jump forward again to present day, where after Dirk tangles with a descendent of Khan, he finds the missing the archaeologist.

The pace of the story, is not as fast as the old Pitt novels, but there again does reflect the fact that Pitt is a lot older. The story does move along and doesn't drag, with little political or ecological posturing to get in the way. There are one or two minor quips, but it doesn't interfere with the story.

As always Pitt has a measure of luck in getting out of some tricky situations, but nothing to elaborate. The final show down with Borjin, was a slight disappointment, and you felt that he didn't get his just desert before dying, but never mind.

The final part of the book was a bit too saccharine for my part, with the trip to the grave of Summer (see Pacific Vortex). The story could quite have happily finished with the creation of the khan monument, but it did have the mystery of the boat that Dirk and Summer found to resolve. It does however add little to the book. I suspect the plotline was introduced to stop the destruction of the Alaskan pipeline - there would have been little way otherwise.

The other bugbear of mine, is the appearance of Cussler as a character. This time it was done with some subtlety, and I had read it before realising who the character was. If Cussler appears like this in the future, then I can just about live with the idea. (I find it difficult to suspend belief when a person in the real word intrudes).

Overall, an enjoyable book, which has picked up in quality since Trojan Odyssey, it is still a long way off the likes of Treasure and Inca Gold.

Previous	Index	Next