Fun, February 11, 2004
Dirk Pitt is the James Bond meets John Wayne character that every guy would love to be. Pitt's a "man's man." He smokes, but he still scuba dives with the best of them. He's no pretty boy, well-mannered and cute, but he gets plenty of women. He's no fame-seeking show off, but he always saves the day. Playboy, Maxim, and GQ only WISH they could have such a chap to plaster on their covers!
Pacific Vortex! is a quick read since its a rather short book, but that's not a bad thing. A lot of popular novels contain the author's preaching to the reader or cramming pages upon pages full of verbose meandering. Not so with Cussler. Pacific Vortex is the perfect book for anyone who wants to have fun reading. Its difficult to make a novel fun (is Dan Brown a "fun" read? is Sydney Sheldon a "fun" read? are the classics "fun" reads?), but Cussler writes really fun books. I enjoyed Pacific Vortex because it moves quick - Cussler doesn't bore me by telling me every single detail about every room characters are in, what they are wearing, what they are thinking, what they ate for breakfast etc. There's a mysterious "vortex" in the Pacific? A capsule from a missing ship has been awash? Add Dirk Pitt and the story comes to life and there's not much of a pause. The ending is a bit silly (as is the villian), but good triumphs over evil, there were sexy women (but no filthy sex-scenes) involved in the storyline, and there were guns! I'm a happy reader!
AMAZON.COM READER'S REVIEW
The first Dirk Pitt adventure! I have several of Cussler's earlier Dirk Pitt books that I haven't read so decided to see where it all started. This one is quite unlike some of the later stories without so much detail and length but still enjoyable. In this one Dirk gets involved with the strange disappearances of ships during the last 30 years in an area of the Pacific called the Pacific Vortex -- much like the Bermuda triangle. The book starts out with the loss of a nuclear submarine in the area. A capsule with the Captain's last words ends up with Dirk while he is swimming on the north shore of Oahu. And off we go! Dirk winds up finding out that the ships have been scuttled by a group of men using a lost island similar to Atlantis, called Kanoli, as its base. The leader of the group is like a cross between Doc Savage (he has golden or yellow eyes) and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo. I can see that Cussler was influenced by both of these. Along the way, Dirk falls in love but alas, it was not meant to be. Overall a fun read.
The Pacific Vortex an area in the pacific ocean very similar to the Bermuda Triangle. 38 ships have disappeared completely off the radar in 30 years. When a US nuclear submarine is 38, Dirk Pitt gets involved in the mystery.
The mystery itself is fascinating. The adventures of recovering the submarine by the US Navy and Drk are amazing. The storyline is not up to Cussler's usual twisty turny plot scenarios but well written except for the romance of Dirk and Summer. He first meets her when she tries to kill him - very little conversation. The next time she rescues him from her father's treachery - no talking at all. Then they see each other again under extreme duress and declare their love - gimme a break. Everything else is believable in this outlandish tale except that. What crap. Dirk always gets the girl in later books - only for a night - so it seems like Cussler wanted him to get the girl in this one but he certainly went about it the wrong way.
