Sucked in ***

This is the novel that introduced Dirk Pitt of Sahara fame to the world. This is the third Pitt novel I've read and also the worst. However, picking up a bad novel from a good series is like meeting up with an old friend whose bad manners and habits you've grown accustomed to. You simply overlook them and carry on.

As Clive Cussler himself admits in the introduction, this novel lacks the intricate plots of the later novels in the the Pitt series. Some other signatures I've come to expect from a Pitt novel were also not present, such as a Cussler cameo and strong but needy (as in they need Dirk Pitt) women. However that is not my main gripe. What I can't stand is the ridiculous way Cussler handles the romance in this one. When I realised that this novel was the one with Dirk Pitt's first true love in it, I had high hopes of a wonderful sizzling romance to top off the expected over-the-top action. However, other than a chance meeting between them at the beginning of the novel, Dirk and Summer did not meet again at all until the fatal climax!! How the heck did those twins pop out??? They didn't even do the dirty! How did they even fall in love??? What a disappointment.

Well, I may rant occasionally but I'd never diss an old friend outright so this rating is probably biased. Nothing in this novel matches up to the others in the series, I believe, but you gotta take the good with the bad, and I still think that Pitt's a worthy read.