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mark_bruno's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
clintonfitch's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Fun read but not my favorite ever.
hauntedjen's review against another edition
2.0
All I can say is this: the older the Dirk Pitt adventure, the more of a jerk he is. I guess the seventies weren't such a good time for women in fiction and men were expected to be jerks to prove they were men. On the upside, as time passed, Dirk Pitt became more of a gentleman! Thanks Clive Cussler for evolving with the times!!
kmjmg's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The book was okay. I really didn't like the main character
topdragon's review against another edition
3.0
This is another series that I haven't read in order but I am now making an effort to go back and fill in some holes. Some say this is the 1st Dirk Pitt novel, (and I believe it was the first one published - 1973) while others say it's the second. Regardless, it is an early version of Dirk Pitt that is quite a bit rougher around the edges than the one I know better from later books in the series. There was even one early scene where Dirk's actions rather turned me off (even given the time period when it was written) and if I hadn't already read later books in the series I might never return to them.
The plot was OK but also a bit contrived. It was like watching a movie-of-the week in the 1970s. Lots of action followed by the big reveal so that we readers understand what was really happening all along. It wasn't a horrible book but I am gratified to know that the series gets better as it goes along.
The plot was OK but also a bit contrived. It was like watching a movie-of-the week in the 1970s. Lots of action followed by the big reveal so that we readers understand what was really happening all along. It wasn't a horrible book but I am gratified to know that the series gets better as it goes along.
dorothy_dickerson's review against another edition
4.0
Attack on an American base by a WWI plane, a quest to find drugs, submarine and the quest to find a possible living fossil, all set in Greece. Seems kind of wild and surely can't be threaded together cohesively. But it did. Great story, Cussler spins a great adventure, but for the love of Chuck, PROOFREAD!! Maybe it's because someone gave me an older book, but there were missing comas, periods, and quotations, a few misspellings and it drove me berserk.
alexandriam_rose's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 - reading these in order and unfortunately this one is stuck in the 70s. of the more recent ones I've read, they get much better on that front. Also not my favorite plot/premise, but fits with the series overall.
biberbart's review against another edition
2.0
Also sorry, das war Grütze.
Ein sooo intelligenter Held, er ist ja so schlau. Außerdem Frauenheld, natürlich.
Das Frauenbild war das Schlimmste am Buch.
Außerdem plot holes bzw. unlogisches Verhalten so ziemlicher aller Beteiligter, es kaum auch eher keine Spannung auf
Ein sooo intelligenter Held, er ist ja so schlau. Außerdem Frauenheld, natürlich.
Das Frauenbild war das Schlimmste am Buch.
Außerdem plot holes bzw. unlogisches Verhalten so ziemlicher aller Beteiligter, es kaum auch eher keine Spannung auf
mattia_masciadra's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
michaelbtice's review against another edition
1.0
Where do I start with this? About 23 years ago I read the only other Dirk Pitt book I have ever read. It was Inca Gold and my 16 year old self loved it. I decided, while taking a break from reading way too many Jack Reacher novels, that I would find some other bit of flippery to occupy my reading time on airplanes while traveling for work, and went back to the well to pull out the very first Dirk Pitt novel published.
I wish I hadn't.
Perhaps I am applying a modern sense of morals to a book that came out 44 years ago and I should accept this novel for what it is based off of the time in which it was written? I think perhaps not.
We start off with our "hero " meeting a woman who he first slaps because she is being, what he deems as, hysterical and then, because she hasn't had a man in the 9 years since her husband dies, immediately has sex with her on the beach. Was this acceptable then? I'm pretty sure Dirk just raped a woman.
The book then continues to follow a cliff hanger, how will Dirk get out of this trap, format where Dirk is naturally the only person smart enough to understand how anything works, what is going on, and how the day will be saved. He is, naturally, the smartest and the best at everything he does, because he is a man, and all men aspire to be him. The manliest of men.
Working through all these problems that only Pitt can see, and that are revealed to the reader at the end, wrapped up with a nice little bow, leaving us entirely in the dark, Pitt makes his way around the island battling the German mastermind at every turn, coming up with the most out there idea as to what is actually going on, while providing absolutely no proof until the very end of why any of this happens to be true or why anyone should understand it. Maybe I like my mystery to have a few clues along the way? I could be wrong, though. I guess it all should be in the hero's head and then just presented at the end like the "fresh" catch of the day. You either buy it or you don't.
Minor aside, when the radio operator is described as a, "your black," with his, "low, resonant voice," I winced. Man did I ever wince so hard.
Really, though, why did I devote the time it took me to actually finish this book? It wasn't a matter of figuring things out ahead of time, which there were a few parts where it was easy to do that, I'm looking at your Unterseeboot, but more that you couldn't figure anything out because this was really nothing more than the story of Dirk Pitt bumbling around an island, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and stitching together a bunch of unrelated nonexistent clues to form a cohesive narrative that absolutely had to be true because Dirk Pitt said so!
And the overt misogyny at the very end with the women working their typewriters in that office? That was way over the top.
One mystery about this book that I cannot solve, and there are ample clues to be found within its pages, how did it spawn so many sequels?
I wish I hadn't.
Perhaps I am applying a modern sense of morals to a book that came out 44 years ago and I should accept this novel for what it is based off of the time in which it was written? I think perhaps not.
We start off with our "hero " meeting a woman who he first slaps because she is being, what he deems as, hysterical and then, because she hasn't had a man in the 9 years since her husband dies, immediately has sex with her on the beach. Was this acceptable then? I'm pretty sure Dirk just raped a woman.
The book then continues to follow a cliff hanger, how will Dirk get out of this trap, format where Dirk is naturally the only person smart enough to understand how anything works, what is going on, and how the day will be saved. He is, naturally, the smartest and the best at everything he does, because he is a man, and all men aspire to be him. The manliest of men.
Working through all these problems that only Pitt can see, and that are revealed to the reader at the end, wrapped up with a nice little bow, leaving us entirely in the dark, Pitt makes his way around the island battling the German mastermind at every turn, coming up with the most out there idea as to what is actually going on, while providing absolutely no proof until the very end of why any of this happens to be true or why anyone should understand it. Maybe I like my mystery to have a few clues along the way? I could be wrong, though. I guess it all should be in the hero's head and then just presented at the end like the "fresh" catch of the day. You either buy it or you don't.
Minor aside, when the radio operator is described as a, "your black," with his, "low, resonant voice," I winced. Man did I ever wince so hard.
Really, though, why did I devote the time it took me to actually finish this book? It wasn't a matter of figuring things out ahead of time, which there were a few parts where it was easy to do that, I'm looking at your Unterseeboot, but more that you couldn't figure anything out because this was really nothing more than the story of Dirk Pitt bumbling around an island, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and stitching together a bunch of unrelated nonexistent clues to form a cohesive narrative that absolutely had to be true because Dirk Pitt said so!
And the overt misogyny at the very end with the women working their typewriters in that office? That was way over the top.
One mystery about this book that I cannot solve, and there are ample clues to be found within its pages, how did it spawn so many sequels?