eat_6's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
jesssika's review
3.0
0n the remote Greek Island of Thasos, a German Albatros, a vintage World War I fighter plane, has swooped out of the blazing blue sky to attack a modern U.S. Air Force base, nearly destroying its fleet of F-105 Starfire jets. Thirty miles offshore, piloting a Catalina en route to the American scientific research vessel First Attempt, Dirk Pitt hears and responds to the Brady Field emergency call. He blows the Albatros back into the oblivion from which it came, ripping open a mammoth half-century-old conspiracy in the process.
Dirk Pitt is back as is Jordino, and they're still great together with their banter and camaraderie. Still a little on edge a year after all that happened in The Pacific Vortex, Dirk is moving forward with his life. Now in the Aegean, he's trying to help find a mysterious fish. After a crazy attack, he meets a seductively beautiful Teri who invites him for dinner. Everything goes downhill from there until the fast paced action takes you to a fast paced ending.
I do have a few drawbacks with the character Dirk, and that this story is almost a twin to the first. I still like the dialogue, the mystery, and the fact that it's a light, no-brainer read. But Dirk is highly sexist, and doesn't have any qualms about airing his low opinion of women at every possible turn. I'm not overly offended in the least, but it does make his character more unlikeable which is probably why I'm always happy when Jordino is around to make the dialogue more fun.
Dirk Pitt is back as is Jordino, and they're still great together with their banter and camaraderie. Still a little on edge a year after all that happened in The Pacific Vortex, Dirk is moving forward with his life. Now in the Aegean, he's trying to help find a mysterious fish. After a crazy attack, he meets a seductively beautiful Teri who invites him for dinner. Everything goes downhill from there until the fast paced action takes you to a fast paced ending.
I do have a few drawbacks with the character Dirk, and that this story is almost a twin to the first. I still like the dialogue, the mystery, and the fact that it's a light, no-brainer read. But Dirk is highly sexist, and doesn't have any qualms about airing his low opinion of women at every possible turn. I'm not overly offended in the least, but it does make his character more unlikeable which is probably why I'm always happy when Jordino is around to make the dialogue more fun.
balthazarlawson's review against another edition
3.0
This is the first book written in the Dirk Pitt series and is over 45 years old. There are events mentioned in this book that were later incorporated into a new book, [b:Pacific Vortex!|361081|Pacific Vortex! (Dirk Pitt, #1)|Clive Cussler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1269478239l/361081._SY75_.jpg|6841892], but this is the book that introduced Dirk Pitt to the world. Having read a few books in this series at times it is hard to recognise the main character as he seems so different.
In this book Dirk Pitt is a bit of womaniser and rogue. He doesn't treat women all that well, going so far as to slap one to bring the silly girl to her senses. And he had only just met her. A very strange action and one that would not really be acceptable if this was to be published as a new book today.
It's an action thriller set in the Aegean Sea where Dirk, accompanied by his life long friend Al Giordino, goes to investigate a series of strange accidents onboard a NUMA ship searching for a fish. Before he even reaches the ship he becomes involved in an attack on an American airbase on a nearby island. Thus he is dragged into to finding out what is happening in this supposedly quiet part of the world.
It's a nice read where everything is explained in the end, but would have been hard to work out before the explanation. Highly unrealistic but entertaining escapism.
In this book Dirk Pitt is a bit of womaniser and rogue. He doesn't treat women all that well, going so far as to slap one to bring the silly girl to her senses. And he had only just met her. A very strange action and one that would not really be acceptable if this was to be published as a new book today.
It's an action thriller set in the Aegean Sea where Dirk, accompanied by his life long friend Al Giordino, goes to investigate a series of strange accidents onboard a NUMA ship searching for a fish. Before he even reaches the ship he becomes involved in an attack on an American airbase on a nearby island. Thus he is dragged into to finding out what is happening in this supposedly quiet part of the world.
It's a nice read where everything is explained in the end, but would have been hard to work out before the explanation. Highly unrealistic but entertaining escapism.
thisbookishcat's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
evelina_g's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
It embodies some of the worst sentiments characterising the 1970s.
gmvader's review
1.0
The cases where the movie is better than the book can probably be counted on the paw of a two-toed sloth. The prime example being the Bourne Identity. Robert Ludlum seems incapable of telling a story without devolving into a European travel journal instead of staying focused. The movie — having little beyond basic inspiration and a few character names in common with the book — is excellent.
The Mediterranean Caper does not have a movie — at least not one that I have seen. If there were it could not help but be better than its source material. I say this with the utmost confidence as one who has watched a Uwe Boll movie, and survived, barely. Also, I know this because there does exist a movie version of a later book in this series and, while it will never qualify as high art or inspire world changing social reform, it is mindlessly fun and endlessly hilarious. My mistake was in hoping that the mindless fun and hilarity were Clive Cussler.
Dirk Pitt starts out this book by getting into a dogfight with a World War II fighter plane — that is shooting up a U.S. Military air field while the military does nothing but cower in fear of ancient technology — while flying an unarmed transport plane. He wins. Then he goes swimming at midnight, forces himself on some random woman he meets on the beech in the dark, calls it seduction, tells her she needed it and she agrees with him. The story goes downhill from there, if that can be believed.
I understand that this book is over thirty years old and times change and sensibilities mature but every word of this book drips with misogyny and the objectification of women. Men become incapable of remaining in control of their faculties when in the presence of women and all women enjoy parading around in front of men, half dressed, while the men ‘admire’ them.
I’m sure there was a story as well but I couldn’t see it because of the red haze of rage that this book inspired in me. There was something about a submarine full of drugs and Nazi patriots and a fish that had never been found before — which, by the way, Dirk Pitt found for the scientists, after overturning the biggest drug smuggling operation in the world, that INTERPOL was unable to figure out, all on three days without sleep.
Then there was the writing. Cussler obviously loves the Mediterranean. His descriptions of the blue water and the rock cliffs and the reefs and caves were the only part of the prose that felt like actual words. The rest was a jumble of barely comprehensible syllables tossed about and stirred into a stew that resembled kibbles and bits more than alphabet soup. The dialogue sounded like it was put together by a computer taking random samplings of phrases and pasting them together. It was so awkward and, frequently, nonsensical that I had to drag my eyes across the burning coals of confabulation several times in order to gain a decipherable meaning from the text. Much of the plot was equally incomprehensible, mostly due to it being incomprehensible but the vague sentences and overwrought verbosity obscured what little meaning was actually there.
It’s like a train wreck. You can’t look away. You want to, but…
Needless to say I will not be reading any more of Cussler’s significant body of work.
The Mediterranean Caper does not have a movie — at least not one that I have seen. If there were it could not help but be better than its source material. I say this with the utmost confidence as one who has watched a Uwe Boll movie, and survived, barely. Also, I know this because there does exist a movie version of a later book in this series and, while it will never qualify as high art or inspire world changing social reform, it is mindlessly fun and endlessly hilarious. My mistake was in hoping that the mindless fun and hilarity were Clive Cussler.
Dirk Pitt starts out this book by getting into a dogfight with a World War II fighter plane — that is shooting up a U.S. Military air field while the military does nothing but cower in fear of ancient technology — while flying an unarmed transport plane. He wins. Then he goes swimming at midnight, forces himself on some random woman he meets on the beech in the dark, calls it seduction, tells her she needed it and she agrees with him. The story goes downhill from there, if that can be believed.
I understand that this book is over thirty years old and times change and sensibilities mature but every word of this book drips with misogyny and the objectification of women. Men become incapable of remaining in control of their faculties when in the presence of women and all women enjoy parading around in front of men, half dressed, while the men ‘admire’ them.
I’m sure there was a story as well but I couldn’t see it because of the red haze of rage that this book inspired in me. There was something about a submarine full of drugs and Nazi patriots and a fish that had never been found before — which, by the way, Dirk Pitt found for the scientists, after overturning the biggest drug smuggling operation in the world, that INTERPOL was unable to figure out, all on three days without sleep.
Then there was the writing. Cussler obviously loves the Mediterranean. His descriptions of the blue water and the rock cliffs and the reefs and caves were the only part of the prose that felt like actual words. The rest was a jumble of barely comprehensible syllables tossed about and stirred into a stew that resembled kibbles and bits more than alphabet soup. The dialogue sounded like it was put together by a computer taking random samplings of phrases and pasting them together. It was so awkward and, frequently, nonsensical that I had to drag my eyes across the burning coals of confabulation several times in order to gain a decipherable meaning from the text. Much of the plot was equally incomprehensible, mostly due to it being incomprehensible but the vague sentences and overwrought verbosity obscured what little meaning was actually there.
It’s like a train wreck. You can’t look away. You want to, but…
Needless to say I will not be reading any more of Cussler’s significant body of work.
trisha76's review against another edition
4.0
Inhoud:
Op het Griekse eiland wordt een Amerikaanse luchtmachtbasis aangevallen door een ongeïdentificeerd vliegtuig. Dirk Pitt is in de buurt en is verbijsterd als hij het bericht van de basis ontvangt. Hij besluit het gevecht aan te gaan om de luchtmachtbasis te helpen. Tijdens het gevecht gelooft Pitt zijn ogen niet.. Zijn tegenstander is een vliegtuig uit de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Een vliegtuig dat verloren zou zijn.
Nieuwsgierig als Pitt is besluit hij op onderzoek te gaan en maakt zo kennis met Von Till, een Griek die op het eiland woont en miljoenen verdient aan een vrachtschepentransport. Pitt merkt dat er meer achter Von Till zit dan de wereld ziet en is van plan om het mysterie op te lossen.
---
Waardering:
Een heerlijk verhaal met humor en actie. May Day! is het tweede boek met Dirk Pitt en ik vind Clive Cussler een auteur die een heerlijke schrijfstijl heeft. Het verhaal boeit je en trekt je mee. Het laat je lachen, maar laat je ook een stukje spanning voelen. Dat maakt dat de boeken heerlijk lezen en ook voor tussendoor tijdens vakanties makkelijke ontspanningsboeken zijn.
De vier sterren die ik geef is omdat het verhaal lekker loopt, de humor en actie er goed verdeelt in zit. Ook het stukje romantiek zit er in maar niet overdadig. Dit maakt het boek een geheel. Het verhaal zelf is redelijk geloofwaardig en het zou zo uit de geschiedenisboeken zijn overgenomen en daarnaast is de beschrijving van historische vlieg- en vaartuigen zo geloofwaardig dat men kan merken dat een auteur goed onderzoek verricht om zijn verhaal te ondersteunen. Kortom een heel goed boek om te lezen en daarbij te ontspannen als je van avontuurlijke thrillers houdt.
---
Boekinformatie:
©1973,1994 Clive Cussler
Oorspronkelijke titel: The Mediterranean Caper
©1996 Uitgeverij Bruna
Vertaling Ruth Lieberthaler
ISBN: 90.449.2628.4
236 pagina's; pocket (Zwarte beertjes)
Op het Griekse eiland wordt een Amerikaanse luchtmachtbasis aangevallen door een ongeïdentificeerd vliegtuig. Dirk Pitt is in de buurt en is verbijsterd als hij het bericht van de basis ontvangt. Hij besluit het gevecht aan te gaan om de luchtmachtbasis te helpen. Tijdens het gevecht gelooft Pitt zijn ogen niet.. Zijn tegenstander is een vliegtuig uit de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Een vliegtuig dat verloren zou zijn.
Nieuwsgierig als Pitt is besluit hij op onderzoek te gaan en maakt zo kennis met Von Till, een Griek die op het eiland woont en miljoenen verdient aan een vrachtschepentransport. Pitt merkt dat er meer achter Von Till zit dan de wereld ziet en is van plan om het mysterie op te lossen.
---
Waardering:
Een heerlijk verhaal met humor en actie. May Day! is het tweede boek met Dirk Pitt en ik vind Clive Cussler een auteur die een heerlijke schrijfstijl heeft. Het verhaal boeit je en trekt je mee. Het laat je lachen, maar laat je ook een stukje spanning voelen. Dat maakt dat de boeken heerlijk lezen en ook voor tussendoor tijdens vakanties makkelijke ontspanningsboeken zijn.
De vier sterren die ik geef is omdat het verhaal lekker loopt, de humor en actie er goed verdeelt in zit. Ook het stukje romantiek zit er in maar niet overdadig. Dit maakt het boek een geheel. Het verhaal zelf is redelijk geloofwaardig en het zou zo uit de geschiedenisboeken zijn overgenomen en daarnaast is de beschrijving van historische vlieg- en vaartuigen zo geloofwaardig dat men kan merken dat een auteur goed onderzoek verricht om zijn verhaal te ondersteunen. Kortom een heel goed boek om te lezen en daarbij te ontspannen als je van avontuurlijke thrillers houdt.
---
Boekinformatie:
©1973,1994 Clive Cussler
Oorspronkelijke titel: The Mediterranean Caper
©1996 Uitgeverij Bruna
Vertaling Ruth Lieberthaler
ISBN: 90.449.2628.4
236 pagina's; pocket (Zwarte beertjes)