Shock Wave (Dirk Pitt Adventures) [Mass Market Paperback]

Clive Cussler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996 | Series: Dirk Pitt Adventures

In the wake of a mysterious disaster that kills thousands of marine animals and nearly two hundred cruise ship passengers, Dirk Pitt rescues Maeve Fletcher and traces the incident to her father and sisters. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this explosive Dirk Pitt novel by the author of Inca Gold, Pitt meets the most intriguing and sinister villain of his adventurous and legendary career--a billionaire Australian diamond king with whom he must wage conflict above and below the sea for the survival of vast numbers of sea creatures and more than a million human beings. Only Clive Cussler--the Grandmaster of Adventure--could have written a story this suspenseful. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The latest Dirk Pitt adventure pits him against an evil diamond tycoon.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Pocket; First edition (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671000306
• ISBN-13: 978-0671000301
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #782,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clive Cussler began writing novels in 1965 and published his first work featuring his continuous series hero, Dirk Pitt(R), in 1973. His first non-fiction, The Sea Hunters, was released in 1996. The Board of Governors of the Maritime College, State University of New York, considered The Sea Hunters in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis and awarded Cussler a Doctor of Letters degree in May, 1997. It was the first time since the College was founded in 1874 that such a degree was bestowed.
Cussler is an internationally recognized authority on shipwrecks and the founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, (NUMA) a 501C3 non-profit organization (named after the fictional Federal agency in his novels) that dedicates itself to preserving American maritime and naval history. He and his crew of marine experts and NUMA volunteers have discovered more than 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites including the first submarine to sink a ship in battle, the Confederacy's Hunley, and its victim, the Union's Housatonic; the U-20, the U-boat that sank the Lusitania; the Cumberland, which was sunk by the famous ironclad, Merrimack; the renowned Confederate raider Florida; the Navy airship, Akron, the Republic of Texas Navy warship, Zavala, found under a parking lot in Galveston, and the Carpathia, which sank almost six years to-the-day after plucking Titanic's survivors from the sea.
In September, 1998, NUMA - which turns over all artifacts to state and Federal authorities, or donates them to museums and universities - launched its own web site for those wishing more information about maritime history or wishing to make donations to the organization.
In addition to being the Chairman of NUMA, Cussler is also a fellow in both the Explorers Club of New York and the Royal Geographic Society in London. He has been honored with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration.
Cussler's books have been published in more than 40 languages in more than 100 countries. His past international bestsellers include Pacific Vortex, Mediterranean Caper, Iceberg, Raise the Titanic, Vixen 03, Night Probe, Deep Six, Cyclops, Treasure, Dragon, Sahara, Inca Gold, Shock Wave, Flood Tide, Atlantis Found, Valhalla Rising, Trojan Odyssey, Black Wind, Treasure of Kahn and Arctic Drift (the last three with his son, Dirk Cussler) as well as The Chase; the nonfiction books The Sea Hunters, The Sea Hunters II and Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt (R) Revealed; the NUMA(R) Files novels Serpent, Blue Gold, Fire Ice, White Death, Lost City, Polar Shift, The Navigator and Medusa (written with Paul Kemprecos); and the Oregon Files novels Sacred Stone and Golden Buddha (written with Craig Dirgo) and Dark Watch, Skeleton Coast, Plague Ship and Corsair (written with Jack Du Brul).
Clive Cussler lives in Arizona.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Cussler I've read so Far, January 13, 2004

By 

J. Lewis "Bookworm and Music Lover" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shock Wave (Dirk Pitt Adventures) (Mass Market Paperback)

You have to take Clive Cussler's books for what they are. He presents his protagonist, Dirk Pitt, as a James Bond type hero except that he operates at sea. A very well written plot with a great ending, unique characters, intense action, make this novel one of Cussler's finest works that I've read so far. However, for some reason, people do not discuss this book as one of Cussler's finest works in the same vein as Sahara.

My only disappointment was that Julien Perlmutter, his obese marine historian, does not make any appearances. He's one of Cussler's most interesting characters.

I would definitely recommend Shockwave.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dirk Pitt's ingenuity rises to new heights, December 14, 2005

By 

Daniel Berger (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shock Wave (Dirk Pitt Adventures) (Mass Market Paperback)

Getting started in this Dirk Pitt novel, I recognized all the familiar elements - the damsel in distress, the Pittian rescue, the daring reconnaissance the greedy, secretive and all-powerful billionaire with his wicked worldwide plot, etcetera. After the historical intro sequence, with its harrowing tale of the shipwreck of an Australia-bound prison ship, I found it ho-hum - until about halfway through the book. It really takes off when Dirk, Al and damsel Maeve Fletcher are set adrift in a small boat in the South Seas. Cussler gives this part of the story the good, long ride it deserves, and Dirk's ingenuity rises to new heights as the trio survive to make not one but two unlikely landfalls. Maeve Fletcher rises above heroines of other novels to become an alltime and unforgettable love of Pitt's life along with Summer Moran. The monster threat of this book - amplified sound waves travelling thousands of miles through water that do terrible damage if several converge - is a little vague and somewhat implausible, and the climactic sequence, which I won't giveaway, contains at least one apparent inconsistency.

Still, a fine book. And the zoologist Maeve Fletcher's discourse on the factual basis behind the sightings of sea monsters is so well done that it has me wondering how much of this might actually be true (as opposed to how much of a yarn old seadog Cussler is spinning here.)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, April 30, 2006

By 

Bradburys English Class (Burlington, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shock Wave (Dirk Pitt Adventures) (Mass Market Paperback)

Shock Wave is a great book for many reasons. A few are the fact the Clusser makes his characters, settings, and the situations in his books believable. I am really into the fact that a book has to be realistic to please me and I really enjoyed it. Firstly his characters, his characters don't have these seemingly impossible abilities, they are average people that when it comes time to do something they take care of it. Such is the description of the main character, Dirk Pitt who is part of the NUMA underwater research association is described as tall, muscular, and cool. His long time friend and partner Al who adds the comic part to Clusser's novels is always trying to get girl or making a joke about the situation they're in. All the settings in the book are real places which range from the Arctic to the Caribbean islands, another thing I liked about the way the book was written was that the characters don't jump magically from setting to setting either and how they get from place to place is explained so as not to lose the reader. Finally, the situations that Pitt finds himself in are quite believable for a man is his position. He does everything from stop a cruise liner from running ashore to masquerading as an engineer in a diamond mine to find the cause of a deadly sea plague. In conclusion I think that this is a great book to read because of it's realism and how it flows through the story at a reasonably fast pace to keep you hooked.