To Whom It May Concern

Book Review: Pacific Vortex by Clive Cussler

This book is part of a series of books, starring main character Dirk Pitt. It is the second book of the series that I have read (I can’t remember the name of the first one), and there has been a movie made of one of the books in the series, that being the movie ‘Sahara’. This is actually the first book of the series. There is a brand new state of the art US nuclear submarine, and it goes missing in a mysterious part of the Pacific Ocean known as the “Pacific Vortex”, where more than 30 ships have disappeared in the last 40 years.

It’s a decent tale, but I believe that Cussler wants to infuse himself into the tale, I get this feeling that he models Pitt off of a younger version of himself, with Pitt of course being much more daring, charming, the ultimate man’s man, that no woman can resist, who does nothing wrong. Within the perfection lies the flaw of the book and series in general. Human nature is to err and due to Pitt’s constant triumphs over unbelievable odds, and his conquests of every single woman who comes along (to the point that James Bond is a mere hobo it seems), without so much as a mistake, you begin to find yourself almost bored with his exploits. Sure, there is the ‘how is he going to get out of this one?’ type of thing going on, but for the most part, you say to yourself “oh geesh, WHATEVER!!”

Still though, it’s a decent read if you can see past that fault, and I’m sure I’ll likely read others in the series if I come upon them.

Rating: ***