This was a fast read. One of his 'shorter' books, due in part to it being an earlier adventure. It moved at a fast pace and is definitely vintage Cussler. So much better than the stories being co-written with and written by his son! It has a fast flow to it and, as always, requires some kind of suspension of disbelief when reading, but aren't all James Bond movies like that? The book starts out with a scene from the mid-60s where a young woman steals $128,000 from her bank, takes on a new identity with a 'stolen' passport [she found somebody else's passport but used it for her self instead of returning it], and buys a ticket on tramp steamer to start a new life overseas. Unbeknownst to her, half of the crew intend to hijack the ship a few days after leaving port. So sad her life is so suddenly cut short just when she believes she will finally start living!Jump to the 'present' in which a strange malady is killing all forms of life, be they sea life, land creatures, or humans. NUMA is called in to assist an aggressive yet attractive EPA agent in solving the case. Dirk finds the source of the deadly pathogen in less than forty-eight hours, scoring a date from the hardened government agent in the process. The source is an old freighter buried under a mountain of ash. A volcanic eruption forces the group to flee the island after the sexy EPA agent is killed. Dirk naturally swears vengeance for the untimely death of such an attractive woman. In a very short time we discover a convoluted set of plots where the President and the next three members in line for the Presidency are kidnapped by a group of criminal Koreans working in conjunction with the Russians, advanced brain-washing where the memories of others are used to supplant the new victim's memories, somehow the US Military comes to support unconstitutional behavior, there is a plot to overthrown the government, Dirk is chasing villains and naval vessels all over the coastline, a Russian cruise ship is destroyed outside Cuban waters, and Dirk narrowly survives multiple attempts of near-death experiences before the villains get what's coming to them in the end.If he were to have written this today, I wonder if he would have had the SEALs so handily dispatched? Granted, they were still inside a helicopter, which is a rather frail utility vehicle no matter how heavily armored.I could not help but wonder how accurate the attempts at brainwashing and memory-replacement would truly be. It was an interesting premise, I guess, but I am not sure how well it would work. Similar plot devices have been used in later books, but it was still interesting to read about it in one of Cussler's novels. I had forgotten it had taken place.One item of interest that I have always found amusing, regardless of who the author is. Authors will insert other Presidential terms inbetween current Presidents, so references will be made to Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan [as they are mentioned in this book]. Yet we also have President's Dan Fosset replaced by Vincent Margolin [who shows up as President in 'Cyclops']. In later books, we will also have President's Bush the elder and Clinton mentioned. So it strikes me as humorous to have fictitious Presidential terms interspersed with the terms of real sitting Presidents. It doesn't bother me; I just find it amusing.I also found it hilarious that Christian conservative and author Chuck Colson is mentioned in the book [in a passing reference]. Some government representatives/officials are talking and one of them makes a passing reference on how he does not want to end up like Libby, Colson, and somebody else by serving time in prison. I have read this book a few other times, but this was the first time the light bulb turned on and I was 'Oooooooh! Now I get it!' hahahahIt was a fast-moving book. Al had plenty of smarts to go with him, which was a nice change of pace. Granted, not quite up to Dirk's brilliance, but he was much smarter than he is usually portrayed. He also saved Dirk from drowning after posing as Dirk's wife in a hilarious scene when trying to board the Russian cruise ship. ['Russian cruise ship' - now doesn't THAT seem like an oxymoron?]Dirk and Loren are an 'item' in this novel. So it was nice to see them 'together' even though they are not really 'together' much in the book. The book 'Titanic' is three books before this one in the chronology and that storyline takes place in 1987, yet the book itself was written in 1976. This book was written in 1984 and takes place in 1989. Kinda interesting how the stories are getting crunched together in terms of when they were written versus when they were to have taken place. So it is fun to read how Clive is trying to 'predict the future' in his stories as he anticipates changes that will be occurring in society as well as technological advances based on what we have today and the direction in which 'progress' is moving. I always enjoy reading the descriptions about Dirk's various vehicles in his renovated airplane hanger. I think the hanger gets bigger with each telling, based on the number of vehicles that continue to appear in it in each subsequent story.Probably the biggest 'downside' to the story is the treatment of women. It was written during the time when people act surprised that a woman can be aggressive, smart, and strong, while still being sexy and alluring. But considering the type of story that is being written, it is in the mold where damsels tend to be in distress unless they are the villains, and they still have to have muscle to back them up. It is what it is.Overall, I enjoyed the book.
Clive Cussler's Deep Six can be thought of as something of a transitional work for the author, occupying a space in between his early, tightly focused, short novels like 1976's Raise the Titanic, and the sprawling epics which came later, starting with 1986's Cyclops.This transitional quality is apparent in Cussler's handling of the book's two main plot threads – the first, an investigation of a marine disaster in the northern Pacific, and the second, the mystery following the disappearance of the presidential yacht with the President, VP, House Speaker and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate all aboard.The first mystery engages Pitt and his friends from NUMA exclusively for the first third of the book or so. They only become involved with the second mystery in the book's middle, and play only a minor role in that investigation until the last third of the story, when the two threads finally converge. Filling the gap is a great deal of inside-the-Beltway intriguing among officials of the National Security Council and the Secret Service. As is usual with such thrillers, Cussler's portrait of D.C. struck me as simplistic, inauthentic and lacking in nuance, almost a civics class textbook version of governance. The foreign politics are equally flat, down to the foreign villains (which are, as one might expect, one-dimensional clichés that occasionally verge on racism). Indeed, the Soviet strategy comes off as astonishingly clumsy, in stark counterpoint to the tactical and technological genius the KGB and its partners display in executing the scheme.In short, others have done this stuff before and after and in many cases better, and it is poor compensation for what is missing in the earlier parts of the story, where in their limited appearances Pitt and company do not do much more than contribute to a couple of underwater searches (the second of them treated rather briefly), and engage in some mostly stationary detective work. We are more than halfway through the story before Pitt has his first brushes with the bad guys, and it is some time after that before he gets up to his usual antics. The result is a story that gets better as it goes along, with the last third providing exactly the kind of thing I've enjoyed in his books, especially in the action-packed finale full of over-the-top heroics, flashy military hardware and creative anachronism as the clock ticks down to disaster – but getting there is occasionally a slog.
What do You think about Deep Six (2006)?
In this seventh installment of the Dirk Pitt series, Deep six we get a whole lot more Dirk, which I loved! Unlike the last two books that switched around with different points of view every few pages, and not having Dirk's point of view almost at all, in this one again it does switch points of view but not nearly as much also as I said it has a whole lot more of Dirk's point of view. Deep six, which I still don't understand the name unlike the others where I figured it out in the book, is about Dirk seeking personal revenge after a deadly poison is released in to the ocean waters, but also saving the government after the president and his predecessors disappear on the presidential yacht.This book was very interesting, Dirk had a love affair, no surprise there, things blew up, people died, there was utter chaos...it was AMAZING. Clive Cussler is an absolutely amazing writer, how he manages to mix the action, the historical depth and ect. into his book all at once, without making them dull or confusing is a mystery to me. I will continue to pursue this series to see where it goes, so far the books just keep getting better.
—Holly
Is the man you see boarding the helicopter really the president of the United States? In this case, he’s not, but it’s going to take a moment for the rest of the country to be clued in. And that isn’t even the central crux of this fantastic story.This is an interesting cross between the late Tom Clancy and David Baldacci. Crazy good is one way to describe the story. It’s got your typical mix of Russians, Koreans, terrorist plot and corporate intrigue.Give it a shot. It takes a moment for it to cycle up to a nice hum, but it’ll get there and will not leave you disappointed.
—Joe
It seems like each time I start reading a Clive Cussler book I finish the first chapter and say, "Oh my god this guy can write." This was no exception. This story is quick, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable. As I noted last time, it also has too many coincidences, takes on plot elements so big that they verge on ridiculous and diverges sharply from reality. This doesn't bother me, although I admit that I think that Tom Clancy does a better job with realism. On the other hand, I don't think I laugh as much while reading Clancy books. The ending of this book was truly classic.
—Felicia
