11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
OK plot, very poorly put together, September 13, 2005
I am a big fan of Cussler's books and have read (and re-read) all of his work. This last book, "Polar Shift", is by far his worst work to date and it is painfully obvious that Cussler did very little of the actual writing of this book. The plot, on the surface, is a typical Cussler work, but the action scenes are poorly constructed and quite boring. I do not think Austin even gets scratched in this book. Compare that to Cussler's earlier works where Pitt gets beaten half to death in every book. For that matter, I am not sure Austin even breaks a sweat. There are a couple of interesting moments in the book, but they all lead nowhere. This book reads like a quickly put together idea that just never arrived at a cohesive book. If you are like me, and are a big Cussler fan, you will buy it and read it. There is some enjoyment here, but I certainly hope Cussler pays a little more attention to what his co-writers are doing and re-establishes control of his characters before they fade into the obscure depths of poor story-telling.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Trying a touch too hard..., March 30, 2006
The sixth Kurt Austin novel from the N.U.M.A files isn't a good as the previous primarily because it gets bogged down in character overload. It possesses all the usual Cussler and Kemprecos thriller punch as Kurt slices his way through the mystery (more with an enquiring mind than a ready fist) to save the world from the latest megalomaniacal scheme to gain power and wealth. The problem this time is it never really settles on a one or two characters around whom the plot revolves, choosing to divert equal page time between Kurt, Gamay & Trout, Karla Janos, Karl Schroeder, the various antics of the bad guys in the personages of Tris Margrave, Doyle, Spider Barrett (who is later reformed) and the corporate tyrant, Gant. The science also gets a lot more page time than normal for a Cussler novel.
None of this is bad, per se, but it'll take Austin a couple of novels to settle in if future novels intend to bulk up on content whilst retaining the light-hearted panache that accompanies the adventures.
So, Austin's sixth adventure has us following the flight of the brilliant electro-magnetic scientist, Lazlo Kovacs, as he flees a crumbling Third Reich under the guiding hand of Karl Schneider. Spending the next fifty years becoming rich in the US and having Karl godfather his granddaughter, Karla, we move to present day with the sinking of the Southern Belle in waves greater than 90ft. This, of course, immediately demolishes all current tidal theories and launches Kurt (after escaping being inexplicably attacked by an Orca pod) into a mystery that involves the late Kovacs work on electromagnetism, a couple of brilliant young software geniuses whose wayward youthful desire to be anti-establishment leads them down the dark path of the elitist and corporate overlord, Gant, and the obvious beautiful young lady in the guise of Karla who happens to be a leading authority on woolly mammoths.
So, we find ourselves underwater on the Southern Belle looking at enormous spark plugs, single-handedly saving Trout and Gamay in vast Atlantic whirlpools, avoiding capture in Bond-esque style on a remote ski-run in the Rockies, in shootouts with mercenaries in the Siberian hinterland, discovering lost civilisations that ran a dwarf woolly mammoth rearing farm, poking heads into the lion's den and convincing the US powers-that-be that the world is about to suffer an global cataclysm all before saving the world from an aeroplane with a formula worked out from a nursery rhyme.
As usual, Austin has Joe Zavala along for the ride, Trout & Gamay provide their usual diversionary cameos, and Dirk Pitt makes a brief appearance in the usual Cussler role, lending his antique replica car to Kurt for the obligatory car chase. It's all nonsense, but it's a delightful formula that has earned Cussler legions of fans and money. You get the sense that the formula is trying to expand and has failed to do so in this latest effort. There is a lot of additional verbiage that is not necessary in a Cussler novel and whilst it should be lauded, the Pitt/Austin novels are, perhaps, one mould that shouldn't be broken.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Formula Shift, June 10, 2006
Previous Cussler novels could be summed up in the formula: Bad guys exploit ancient historical obscurity to bedevil mankind. NUMA good guys stop bad guys and get the girl.
This book has all those basic elements, but it expands the essential formula in that it has two bad guys with separate agendas, a third almost-bad guy who helps the good guys, and another good guy outsider. It sounds complicated, but it's not.
This book has the potential to be the most interesting of the series, even tossing in an intriguing arctic lost city free of charge. Unfortunately, the story starts to collapse upon itself as it nears the end. For one thing, we're never told explicitly what Gant's secret agenda is or how it's supposed to work. We're never told why Gant wants to kill Kurt Austin long after Gant's aware his secret is out; in other words, there's no point to Austin's death.
This leads to a silly gratuitous Dirk Pitt classic car scene that could have been- should have been- dropped from the book. Cussler likes to insert other characters (including himself) into his novels and I guess this was his vehicle (pun intended) of choice for this novel, but it was an unnecessary distraction. I'd rather have had more about the comeuppance of the bad guys.
Even Austin winning the girl appears half-hearted and Spider Barrett seems a more likely candidate, but I suppose the authors felt it would violate the established formula. The info about the WTO and IMF turns out to be more interesting that the romantic afterthought.
I hope Cussler's co-authors continue expanding and perhaps break out of their self-imposed formula. Unfortunately, this book is only a ghost of what could be.
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