Flood Tide

This is my third Drk Pitt novel, and it has been no less entertaining than the others I have read. It's clear that Mr. Cussler did his research, as you can tell by the way he writes cars, boats, and weapons in here - always a big plus for nerds like me. Dirk and Al are their usual smart-aleck selves, which I do enjoy. The main story itself is a bit cliche, but the Dirk Pitt novels have a sort of lightness that is lacking in authors like say, Tom Clancy. Don't get me wrong, I like Tom Clancy, but the adventures of Dirk Pitt has a nice mixture of seriousness and humor which is hard for me to not appreciate.

This novel should be required reading for those seeking to understand the current (2018) situation between the United States and China. Perhaps Trump read it and gained much from Cussler's take on the situation. I wouldn't call the book racist because Pitt's love interest is a Chinese-American but it certainly is xenophobic as the main characters again and again blame China for America's immigration woes. They go as far as claiming that China is deliberately smuggling her people abroad in order to reduce the domestic population. This was fearmongering at the time and laughable now that China has discovered she needs all the births she can encourage. Other than these cautions the book is just a lot of running around the world proving how show more great Pitt is. A three for action. show less

Pitt also studied the shattered windshield, the splintered engine hatch, the holes stitched across the bow, the wisp of dark smoke rising from the engine compartment. "If you'd arrived two seconds later, Admiral Sandecker would be stuck with the chore of writing my eulogy."

Again?

A collector of old automobiles and aircraft, [Dirk Pitt] kept them stored in an old hangar at the edge of Washington's National Airport. He lived in an apartment above the collection. His accomplishments at NUMA while serving as special projects director under his boss, Admiral James Sandecker, read like an adventure novel. From heading the project to raise the Titanic to discovering the long-lost artifacts from the Alexandria Library to stopping a red tide

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in the oceans that would have ultimately decimated life on earth, during the past fifteen years the subject was directly responsible for operations that either saved a great many lives or were of inestimable benefit to archaeology or the environment. The list of projects he directed to successful conclusions covered nearly twenty pages.

That will never stop being amusing. Yes, his life does in fact read like an adventure novel. Go figure.

For the most part, [b:Flood Tide|559889|Flood Tide (Dirk Pitt, #14)|Clive Cussler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328033231l/559889._SY75_.jpg|293507] follows the formula we've come to know and love. Big bad villain type has multiple plots to take over the world (mwahahahah); this time by way of illegal immigration. NUMA and Pitt get involved somehow; this time through a lake full of bones. There's a damsel in distress; although Cussler has been tending towards much stronger women, this time said woman Julia is an Immigration Services officer gone undercover and has far more reason to be involved in this whole mess than plot does. Which of course means Pitt is going to get involved. And hey, this time around we actually get some crazy naval scenes (a giant ship going up the Mississippi) and a salvage plot! I've missed those.

One interesting aspect I am actually looking forward to, this is the first mention of the Oregon and her crew, which would later lead to a spin off series all it's own: Oregon Files (the first book, [b:Golden Buddha|41703|Golden Buddha (Oregon Files, #1)|Clive Cussler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1338482352l/41703._SY75_.jpg|1666204], was published 6 years after Flood Tide). I may have to add those all to my to-reads.

One thing that continues to bug me somewhat about these books is how caviler they are with the lives of the bad guys' underlings--or those that are only tangentially related. In this case, a Chinese military ship and crew among others. How do they justify that?

Julia said to him, "I think you're the craziest, most complex and reckless man I've ever met."

"You left out charming and cuddly."

"I can't imagine any woman putting up with you for more than twenty-four hours."

"To know me is to love me." The mirth lines around his eyes crinkled, and he gave a tilt of his head toward the bar. "All this talk makes me thirsty."

Ah well, it's not that much different structurally than many of the other Dirk Pitt novels, which is exactly why I read them. They're good, light, background books to listen to while driving, working out, or even playing (some) video games.

Onward! show less

Once again, Clive Cussler has written a story that kept me up late in the night to read through the many twists, turns, and obstacles facing Dirk Pitt and Giordino. The story begins with Dirk traveling to a remote cabin in the Washington wilds for a well-deserved healing vacation on the lake. Unfortunately, he suspects evil doings at a property across the lake and decides to investigate. What he finds turns his stomach and makes him want to find whoever is responsible and bring them to justice.

The evil-doer is Qin Zhang, a Chinese billionaire, whose company is suspected of illegally transporting thousands of Chinese nationals into the US. Dirk and NUMA are tasked with putting an end to this enterprise. Readers also discover that the show more billionaire is obsessed with the disappearance of a luxury liner that sunk in 1949, its holds, and passenger rooms filled with stolen Chinese artifacts that he wants for himself; he's been looking for the wreckage most of his life. The author also includes Juan Cabrillo and his Oregon vessel in this storyline to help Dirk and Giordino complete a task in Hong Kong.

The wreckage is eventually located and everyone gets what he deserves.

FLOOD TIDE is a thrilling adventure mystery that will be hard to put down. I highly recommend it and already purchased the next book in the series. show less

A ship goes down in unknown waters leaving only two survivors that know where a vast amount of Chinese heritage is located, a ship that a human trafficking Chinese businessman would do anything to find. Flood Tide is the fourteenth book of Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt with the titular character attempting to stop a human trafficking ring to the U.S. and preventing a massive economic and human disaster in Louisiana.

A ship taken by the retreating Nationalist government is loaded the national treasures of China before Mao’s Communists can get them in 1948, but before it reaches it’s destination it sinks in a violent storm with only the ship’s engineer and his girlfriend surviving on a freezing shore. In 2000 Dirk Pitt is vacationing show more and recovering from his injuries in Australia at Orion Lake when he realizes the cabin he borrowed has been search by the security of a Chinese businessman’s estate at the other end of the lake. Intrigued Pitt investigates only to find the mansion is a holding prison for illegal Chinese immigrants while the bottom of the lake is littered with dead bodies. Pitt saves new victims from drowning including an undercover INS agent and wrecks to the estate’s docking area before escaping down the Orion River to the Pacific from the security force. The INS raid the estate and the businessman Qin Shang begins damage control, including sending feelers to the White House and the President who he has given money to for his reelection campaign. Pitt teams up with Al Giordino to investigate a cruise ship in Hong Kong that Shang had bought and was refitting believing it’s to continue his illegal human trafficking ring, but find it empty except for automated guidance equipment that then navigates the ship across the Pacific without a crew. The pair return to the U.S. and Pitt along with the INS agent survive a car chase against Shang’s henchmen, but NUMA and the INS have a spat leading to them not working together anymore. Pitt and Giordino head to the Louisiana to investigate Shang’s shipping port that is in the middle of no where from the Mississippi when the duo figure out how his human trafficking network works in the area and again save the INS agent that Pitt keeps running into. Shang’s automated cruise ship arrives on the Mississippi River, but Pitt figured out Shang’s plan to redirect the flow of the Mississippi bypassing New Orleans and going to his out-of-the way port by blowing a levee and scuttling the cruise ship across the river. Pitt and Giordino takeover the ship and guide it into the levee’s breech to prevent a massive disaster. Shang flees to China where the Communist government will protect him while as there is battle in the U.S. between those he bribed against those who want him charged with terrorism. After learning everything to know about Shang including his search for the ship carrying his nation’s treasures, Pitt and NUMA discover the location of the wreck in Lake Michigan after talking with the survivor of the ship and his wife. NUMA, the Navy, and a Canadian salvage vessel recover everything before they leak the location into Shang’s channels. His massive ego leads Shang to arrive in Canada to border his own salvage vessel and goes down first only to find the ship empty with Pitt and Giordino springing a trap that send Shang to the bottom to die like all those at the bottom of Orion Lake. Admiral Sandecker and the head of the INS threaten the President to keep their own jobs with his own political future in the balance.

Having previously listened to the audiobook edition, I had completely forgotten about the Chinese treasure ship or Shang bribing of U.S. politicians but do remember the human trafficking and diverting the Mississippi plot points. That was because the human trafficking and Mississippi diversion plots were the good parts of the book while the other two were forgettable. Pitt comes off as superhuman given what he went through in Shock Wave while the INS agent Julia Marie Lee could have been a good character if not for becoming a multiple time damsel-in-distress character. Qin Shang could have been an interesting antagonist if not for some the trope material that Cussler saddled him especially at the end of the book. In fact, Cussler’s politics are heavy handed throughout the book and his “not-Clinton” but totally Clinton President were a little too much for my tastes.

Shock Wave is a okay book at best and felt a like downgrade in quality from Clive Cussler’s previous installments of his bestselling series. While not as bad as some of the early books in the series, this book was a disappointment given the good elements that were undermined by the bad. show less

At 19+ hours, it's a very long book that seems like it will never end; however entertaining. The bad guy, a Chinese megalomaniac capitalist, smuggles Chinese into the USA and searches for a ship containing Chinese historical treasures. Dirk and Al team up with Juan Cabrillo for a time. Dirk's love interest is an INS agent--Chinese American. Cussler also appears as an old guy in Louisiana. Fun read, many plots on a single theme--illegal immigration.

Cussler has produced some preposterous storylines in the Dirk Pitt series and thankfully Flood Tide is not one of them. Dirk remains as indestructible as ever, this time up against a chinese megalomaniac whose plans are indeed very crafty. The well thought out plot continues to escalate until its grand finale and provides plenty of thrills and spills, a few unlikely coincidences, a little romance, a few villains and lots of spent ammo. A little wordy in places, Flood Tide for the most part is a very compentent action thriller and should keep Cussler fans and new readers happy until the end.