Black Wind (A Dirk Pitt Adventure Book 18)
Black Wind (A Dirk Pitt Adventure Book #18) By Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler.
Amazon Synopsis:
Legendary oceanographer Dirk Pitt must work with his children to unravel old battle plans from WWII to prevent a present-day massacre in this novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling adventure series.
In the waning days of World War II, the Japanese tried a last desperate measure. Kept secret from all but a few select officials, two submarines were sent to the West Coast of the United States, their cargo a revolutionary new strain of biological virus, their mission to unleash hell.
Neither sub made it to the designated target. But that does not mean they were lost
Someone knows about the subs and what they carried, knows too where they might be, and has an extraordinary plan in mind for the prize inside—a plan that could reshape America, and the world, as we know it. All that stands in the way are three people: a marine biologist named Summer, a marine engineer named Dirk . . . and their father, Dirk Pitt, the new head of NUMA.
Pitt has faced devastating enemies before, has even teamed up with his children to track them down. But never before has he encountered such pure evil—until now.
Preview: Black Wind combines deep sea and James Bond-style heroics (and quips) for an overall exciting chapter in the Dirk Pitt storyline.
What I liked:
This is the fifth Clive Cussler novel I’ve read. Cussler does two things very well: tons of action sequences, well-written and heart-pounding, and plenty of exposition, so you know exactly what the stakes are for this novel. I believe that exposition, done well, is not boring at all and lays the groundwork for the action scenes to follow. You care about the stakes because Cussler does such a great job at it.
Each Cussler book begins the same: sometime in the past, some evil plot is afoot which goes awry. In this case, during WW2, a Japanese submarine tries and fails to release a torpedo designed to release a deadly disease into the atmosphere. In the present, NUMA marine engineer Dirk and his twin sister Summer, children of Dirk Pitt (in the novel, Dirk the son is called Dirk while Dirk the father is called Pitt), the head of NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency, CIA-like organization on the water), discover that Kang, an industrialist mogul, wants to reunify North and South Korea and destroy America in the process, using a “chimera” mix of the deadly disease found the torpedo and a virus from today.
There’s plenty of deep-sea action as you can expect from a Cussler novel, along with some James Bond-style action to complement water heroics. I liked Dirk and his sister’s interactions; they are a solid team and can depend on each other to get out of plenty of tight scrapes, none better than the two being chained up in a cave that is quickly filling with water. I was on the edge of my seat because in that scene, it’s set up that there’s no hope of rescue - Dirk and Summer have to figure out how to get out of it all on their own. Great stuff.
I appreciated that Kang and his minions were outlandish enough that they functioned as action villains rather than more realistic dictators, and that would have detracted from the action and fun of the story. Plus, there are plenty of bad puns that any action movie of the 1980s and 1990s would have plenty of, and they felt right at home in this novel. I loved it.
What I Disliked:
The other four Cussler novels that I read did not linger on explicit sexual content, which other people may not have a problem with, but is something I could do without in my stories. However, in a subplot about “someone” trying to sever ties between South Korea and the U.S., a military man is lured by an adult Korean woman for a liaison and is found with a dead underage girl - the scene is uncomfortable and distracting. I wish Cussler and his son had come up with a different way to show how Korea would be outraged by something that “the US did” on their soil. In another scene, too explicit for my tastes, Summer uses her “womanly” features to distract Kang’s men (completely unnecessary too, by the way), and a computer programmer makes a woman AI skantily clad and in the form of his wife. No thanks.
This is a minor quibble because Dirk and Summer have a great relationship, but Dirk Pitt, the father, is a secondary character in his own novel. Dirk is missing from much of the book because, in this one, Dirk the son and his sister Summer are the protagonists of this story. Dirk and his best friend, Al Giordino, have a fantastic friendship, and they’re barely featured in this novel. It is there, I just wish there was more of it.
Also, while using North Korea as a villainous nation is nothing new (even the comedy film The Pacifier did it), I do want to point out that all the major Asian characters are villains. It’s a little disappointing that there wasn’t a major positive supporting Korean or Asian character to balance out that stereotype.
Content Rating: A solid PG-13 for explicit sexual content and James Bond violence.
Overall Review: Clive and Dirk Cussler never disappoint when it comes to action. While I wish there was less sexual content and more of Dirk Pitt the father, I still recommend this action thriller. 3 ½ out of 5 stars. A very good time.
Next review: Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna
