Customer Reviews

The Mediterranean Caper/ Iceberg (Dirk Pitt Adventure)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have a certain fondness for this Cussler novel, sure its missing some of those fun "pretitles" style preludes that tie together seemingly unrelated historical events in an ingenious manner and it's also very politically incorrect (but not as much as PACIFIC VORTEX is). But, this Dirk Pitt adventure (the first published, though Cussler wrote the aforementioned PACIFIC VORTEX first), is a fun ride of a novel and moves along at a fast pace (it's actually one of Cusslers shortest, if not THE shortest). With some very vivid fight scenes and some nice Alistair Maclean-esque plotting (apparently Cussler used the late Scottish writer's work as a template until he found his own style) this Cussler novel really delivers and I made fast work of it reading over a weekend about a year ago.
Starting with the attack on a US airfield in the Greek islands by a biplane and involving smuggling, German fighter aces and the trademark underwater sequences for which Cussler is perhaps best known for (through his non-fiction writings as much as for Dirk Pitt) I can guarantee that this novel will no doubt charm even the harshest of Cusslers critics as long as they take it for what it is - some harmless. Mildly diverting fun.
On a sidenote, all the reviewers who are commenting on the bad writing should really lighten up, this was after all one of Clive Cussler's earliest works :)

I will keep this review short. I have read all of Cussler's works over the past dozen years or so. I read The Mediterranean Caper perhaps ten years ago. To this day I still believe that it was my favorite of the Dirk Pitt stories. If you are a new fan of Cussler - pull this older book out. It is a classic.

I first started reading Cussler when I found Pacific Vortex at my condo complex's library. I became addicted. Dirk Pitt novels are all top-notch adventure stories with political suspense, romance, and high-speed car chases thrown in. This is the 2nd book in the series, though it was the first one printed, and is an exciting, riveting adventure tale. I don't want to spoil a lot, but the plot is excellent, and as always, as twisty as the roads Pitt drives his sports cars on. It all starts when Dirk Pitt, the main hero, and Al Giordano find an antique WWII Bomber plane attacking a United States Base. With the help of a beautiful secret agent, Pitt is thrown into a wild action-packed tale of danger and villanous criminals. As with many Pitt books, the political entanglements can sometimes slow the action, but I still highly recommend this story, and the rest of the series. Enjoy the read.

This is the first of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels. This was my second book by Cussler having discovered him by reading Dragon first. AS soon as I realized there were books before Dragon I ran to the bookstore and for the first three and The Mediterranean Caper bring first I devoured it. I was hooked (officially!). It was great to find Dirk Pitt as he was first introduced to the world. A swashbuckling character part James Bond part Indiana Jones (long before there was an Indiana Jones). This is a great start toa long and wonderful life of a character. I will concede that some of the actions of Dirk are a bit over the top. He is a true womanizer , but you also have to remember when the book was originally written. That is what "manly spies" did... yeah i know its no excuse but people this is not great literature, its escapist reading. For those of you that are just now discovering Cussler you are lucky... you don't have to wait 6 months to a year for the next novel you have many to read (also the character does grow and mature...)

Clive Cussler's books always remind me of a James Bond movie. The plots are preposterous, the hero is far too perfect, and the women fall into his bed much too easily. Nevertheless, they're so much fun that they keep you turning the pages until the very end. The hero, Dirk Pitt, is an Air Force Major on assignment to the National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA) as a kind of trouble shooter. In this case, Pitt is sent to Thasos (a small island off the coast of Greece) to investigate sabotage attempts being made against a NUMA scientific expedition. He immediately finds himself in the middle of an air raid on a U.S. Air Force base - a raid made by a World War I era biplane. Pitt ultimately winds up bringing down a Nazi war criminal who has eluded justice long enough to become perhaps the world's most clever and dangerous smuggler. In the process he becomes romantically involved with a beautiful Narcotics agent posing as the smuggler's niece while narrowly escaping death several times. In short, if you like James Bond you'll love Dirk Pitt.

A great book from start to finnish...... Cant wait to read the rest of the Dirk Pitt series. Im sure they will be jsut as good if not better. Check this book out, its a great book and a fast read. Also check out any books from AJ Quinnell (Man on Fire, Siege of Silence.....Check them all out !!!!)

In this outer, Dirk Pitt, NUMA's deep-diving hero, tangles with an elaborate smuggling ring that treats the Aegean waters like their own bath tub. In one of their bolder moves, the smugglers strike at nearby USAF base using nothing more than a WWI fighter. Millions of dollars worth of air force aircraft shatter and burn when struck by the primitive fighter's machine gun. Nearby, an NUMA research ship is also targeted by the smugglers. In striking back, Pitt will face a WWII U-boat skipper and a hot Grecian beauty. It's a thin Pitt adventure - closer to the Kurt Austin NUMA books, but still above them. It's closer to "Pacific Vortex" than one of the larger (and globe-spanning) novels like "Cyclops" or "Raise the Titanic". A lot of it is over-the-top (even with their planes on the ground, wouldn't a USAF base have other forms of protection? And are 20 ton airplanes a tad bit more damage resistant?) On the plus side, it's still a dependable Pitt actioner and Cussler (still keeping himself out of the story) gets some good use of the hot Aegean settings.

Look, this is a very early work - and the edges are really rough. The writing is pretty stilted. The plot plays games with the reader. The attitude towards women is really wretched. It isn't a terribly good book by any measure. Read this book if you are already a Cussler fan and you want to explore his early works. Don't read this as your first exposure to Cussler. You might well not give him a second chance - and some of his other books are really quite good. My personal favorites are _Raise the Titanic_ and _Night Probe_. Those are also pretty early efforts, but even a couple of books past _The Mediterranean Caper_ he had settled down into a pretty darned effective writer who could tell a good tale without totally annoying the average reader. If you already gave this book a try and hated it - try one of the above two before you give up on Cussler entirely.

Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed reading this book, my first by Clive Cussler. Dirk Pitt, the main character and lead for several other Cussler books, is a fun protagonist and certainly an engaging character. Mainly because of Pitt's likability, I am looking forward to checking out more of Cussler's works.

Now, after all that, why only 3 stars? Well, quite simply, it just wasn't a great book, but on the other hand, it met my expectations. The Mediteranean Caper is a fun adventure story, but with a plot maybe a little too fantastic. The book starts off with a bang, but even that bang seems a little forced and unbelievable. And as the story progresses, the elements of realism get left in the dust. Not to mention, he spends so much time building up one character, and then super-casually reveals this huge twist that turns out to mean nothing to the story.

I am absolutely not one who doesn't like to suspend belief when reading books or watching movies. James Bond is my favorite fictional character ever, so I am obviously a huge fan of stories that are "unbelievable." But when I read Ian Fleming's books, I can appreciate that he is an expert writer. Never did I get that sense with Cussler, and hence it is a three-star book. It served as a great introduction to Cussler's books, but it isn't the same as Fleming, or the adventure novels of Alistair McLean.

Released only once in 1995, this book contains the first two published Dirk Pitt adventures. A limited number of this omnibus were printed then, making it very sought after today. Collectors will love this publication, as well as anyone who's wondered how it all started with Pitt and NUMA. "Iceberg" is my favorite of the two because the bad guys are eventually apprehended during a daring battle in The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland. Cussler gave readers an entertaining backstage look at the Magic Kingdom-something the Walt Disney Company did not appreciate much. A number of copies of this book are available here on Amazon and elsewhere on the Internet. It's worth checking out.