Clive Cussler's Arctic Drift Reviewed
Once Again Dirk Pitt Confronts an International Crisis & an Evil Foe
Arctic Drift is the latest “Dirk Pitt Novel” by Clive and Dirk Cussler. [G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 2008] In just over 500 lively pages, Cussler takes the reader to Northern Canada and the now navigable Northwest Passage, following a plot that could easily be found on tomorrow’s front page news. In this latest installment of Dirk Pitt adventures, nothing less than the energy crisis and global warming are at stake. Following a predictable Cussler formula, the story ends with the hero once again saving the world. But this is expected in a Dirk Pitt novel, much like a James Bond adventure. The fun, however, is getting there.
The Latest Arch-Villain
Canadian tycoon Mitchell Goyette emerges as the duplicitous and greedy speculator whose public image portrays him as a friend of environmentally conscious energy production but whose secret, sinister side is engaged in the exact opposite. Goyette has found a way to pump harmful carbon dioxide deep into the earth. This technology is actually not fiction: Norway is already doing something similar at a StatoilHydro plant near Stavenger. But in Goyette’s case, the harmful gases are being released into the ocean, killing fish and people.
Goyette’s vast network of enterprises has been enabled through extensive corruption, implicating government ministers and the Canadian Prime Minister. Engineering a series of incidents between Canada and the United States, the prospect of an actual war appears certain. Thrust into the situation, NUMA’s Dirk Pitt, along with the usual cast of Cussler characters, seek to unravel the mystery behind Goyette and find an elusive and highly rare mineral that might take the sting out of global warming.
Parallels to Other Cussler Works
In Cussler’s Raise the Titanic, the rare mineral needed for a missile defense system, byzanium, became the treasure hunt, much like ruthenium is in Arctic Drift. Goyette’s hired assassin, Clay Zak, is a reincarnation of Foss Gly, the assassin in Night Probe and Cyclops. Goyette himself reminds the reader of Yves Massarde of Sahara, a French billionaire who disposes of toxic industrial waste in Africa illegally and contaminates the water. Parallels might remind the reader that certain characteristics of evil men never change.
The Appeal of Cussler
From the very first exploits of Dirk Pitt, readers have been captivated by a genuine American James Bond. Unlike Bond, however, Pitt comes across as an all-American type who is part frontiersman, part adventurer, and always one to save a damsel in distress. Pitt is the down-to-earth hero every American boy longs to be as an adult.
The Cussler novels have taken Pitt from one crisis to another, in most cases very plausible scenarios, much like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. In the process, Dirk Pitt got older, discovered that he was the father of two children (going back to Pacific Vortex), and is now married to Congresswoman Loren Smith. Readers connect to Dirk’s audacity and directness, attributes he hasn't lost with age.
At the same time, Cussler brings back other familiar characters, equally appealing to Cussler fans like Admiral Sandecker, now the Vice President, Hiram Yaeger and his computer Max, and St. Julien Perlmutter. Cussler does his best to integrate the characters into familiar roles while giving enough detail from past books to make each person’s existence credible to the story.
Possible Weakness in Arctic Drift
The first part of Arctic Drift follows Dirk’s two children, Dirk, Jr., and Summer, as they attempt to unravel a mystery in Kitimat, British Columbia. Yet these adventures barely connect with the mid to latter part of the novel and the reader is forced to ask, why didn’t Dirk team up with his children to unravel the mystery more quickly? This lack of integration slows the overall pace of the book.
Nonetheless, Arctic Circle is the type of book that once started, becomes very difficult to put down. The dilemma is timely as Cussler brings to bear current research and problems associated with global warming. The sad part in finishing a Cussler adventure is having to wait until the next one is published.
Arctic Drift
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