I'll read anything that has storms and ocean-going salvage tugs. This book has both, in addition to a vendetta, corporate and individual malfeasance, and romantic rivalry. The parts of the book dealing with those latter elements are the weakest. But Smith writes really well about ships during storms; the salvaging of the ocean liner in the beginning is riveting. One reviewer on Amazon complained that Smiths gets too technical and detailed during the storm scenes. Hell, man. That's the best part! There were times, however, when I felt I had fallen into an As the World Turns version of Alice in Wonderland. The story revolves around the rivalry of Duncan Alexander (the bad guy) and Nicholas Berg (the good guy) for control, of Christie Marine and the attentions of Chantelle Christie, owner of the company and a large fortune. The “child” at issue is the “Golden Dawn,” and immense (7,000 foot) super tanker (my incredulity at the size was beginning to become an irritant) designed by Nicholas but built by Duncan after Duncan forced Nicholas from the company. The inevitable then takes control of the plot, you know, Duncan cuts corners, the ship in Nicholas’s view is unsafe, and the maiden voyage will be carrying Nicholas’s son by Chantelle. Yawn. Nicholas, meanwhile, has built his dream salvage tug. You can guess where this is going. Four stars for the storm scene in the beginning; one for the soap.Read Jan de Hartog or Farley Mowat instead.
•tHUNGRY AS THE SEA by Wilbur Smith, William Heinemann430 pps. 170,000 words, no chapters, broken by asterisks.A damn good yarn with romantic interest. Set at sea and portraying the trials of a salvage tug boat captain and shipping magnate fallen from grace and left by his wife. The hero meets his romantic partner when he dives into icy seas to rescue her after she tries to save the lives of the passengers of the cruise ship he is trying to salvage. The fight between him and the man who stole his wife and company is central to the story. There is much about the sea, the vessels, shipping companies and pollution caused by oil. It is an informative and entertaining read which I found very readable. A page-turner.
What do You think about Hungry As The Sea (2000)?
Hungry as the Sea has all the action, suspense and romance a 400-pager can hold. It is Dirk Pitt on 500 acid trips! When Nick Berg accepts the challenge to save his own supertanker from turning the oceans from a big oily mess, he gets more than he bargains for. He'll have to fend off the competitive wiles of Duncan Alexander, a rich tycoon who cares little for the environment and plenty about making money. He'll also have to fight off hurricane winds, oil slicks and a beautiful ex-wife who plans to steal him from his one true soul mate, the mega-babe of Miami U., Samantha Silver. Indiana Jones himself would be seasick with all this much adventure. We're talkin' sex out the wazoo and stunts outa a Bruce Willis movie! It even has a message about our enviroment, and may have predicted the tragedy of the BP slicks of a few years back. Nick Berg is "right ahead" and "right on"!
—Edward Creter
It's obvious the author knows about ships and such, or at least he writes good enough to convince me that he did. I skipped a lot of the text, mainly because it was a bit too technical and not interesting to me. The book could have been much shorter and told the same story. But if the reader is looking for detail on sea rescue, etc., then this is the book for that. I somehow missed what happened to Samantha. Did she survive? Nick thinks she did. I'm not so sure! Anyway, a decent read, but not a favorite book of mine.
—Deb
