Iceberg

Eesh - one of the worst Clive Cussler books that I have read thus far. You can absolutely tell this one was written in the seventies it is oozing with homophobia and sexism. For over half the book Dirk Pitt pretends to be gay, and he does so in such an outlandish way, and at the very end of the book... WOW. I won't spoil that surprise if you're going to read it. There were far too many moving parts to this story, yet Dirk was always one step ahead. He is just too smart and the story is too over the top. I'll try out the next one in the series, but if it is as bad as this one, then I am done with Cussler!

Not one of Cussler's best, 'Iceberg' (1975) is the third in the Dirk Pitt series and suffers from overplotting. This results in an absurd centre piece where the villains lay out all their evil plans to Dirk in an extended version of the Bond villain's propensity to do the same thing.

Having said that, there are some exceptional set scenes, mostly set in and around Iceland, and fast moving adventure which make it enjoyable enough. The denouement in the Pirates of the Caribbean section of Disneyland was made to be filmed 1970s style.

We will not give away the plot, of course, but we can say that it fits into the period model of the unhinged super-rich trying to re-model the world over the heads of even competing superpowers. The link to the show more sea is very much there but is a little more tenuous than in most Dirk Pitt tales.

It is also exceptionally violent (and less obviously sexual) this time around. The prime villain's vicious martial arts attack on Pitt is matched by the brutality of a staged helicopter crash and by Pitt's revenge on the villain. It is on the edge of sadistic writing.

There is an aspect of the novel that will not sit easily for most readers under 30 (or later). The mocking of camp homosexuality (actually quite funny in places given the personality of Pitt) and a transgender aspect which will be seen by most as negative stereotyping.

But this was the 1970s and not much else can be expected for a popular thriller of the time. Either live with that as a historical curiosity or avoid the book completely. As usual, the gender relations are also stereotypical so stay away if that too makes you hot under the collar. show less

[b:Iceberg|41710|Iceberg (Dirk Pitt, #3)|Clive Cussler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1439683898l/41710._SY75_.jpg|3132229] opens with a solid enough set piece/action scene: a burnt out wreck of a luxary yacht, long since missing, found melted into an iceberg. One thing leads to another and Dirk Pitt stumbles into a cadre of billionaires with a plot to take over not only businesses but countries. For that--plot and set pieces--Iceberg is a solid enough read.

And then... you get to the pretty terrible sexism and homophobia. Pitt finds out the woman he's supposed to be getting information out of is in a serious relationship (which for plot reasons he must not threaten), so decides in the spur of the show more moment to play a caricature of a gay man and... oof. You can tell this book was published in the 70s and not the particularly progressive sort of 70s either. On top of that, you have sexism wrapped up in a neat little bow with how Pitt and his boss Admiral Sandecker treat Tidi Royal (the latter's secretary). They all treat it so normal that Tidi exists to make coffee and should be yelled at for spilling it on a tossing ship... oy.

It's actually surprising when in the final closing 'so that's how it all happened' section, the main villain is revealed to be transgender, finally transitioning from the male form they were born with to female, taking on the role of their own sister. It's certainly questionable for that to be the villain, but it's actually treated as just another thing by Pitt, which given how badly he deals with women and gay sterotypes is... something at least?

That action is still solid and they're for the most part quick, fun reads. You just have to skip a few parts that have aged... badly. Onward. show less

A missing luxury yacht is found encased in an iceberg by a Coast Guard air patrol, but within a week of the discovery that bizarre sight won’t be the only thing that isn’t what it seems. Iceberg is the second published book of Clive Cussler’s series featuring Dirk Pitt, taking the U.S.A.F Major to the north Atlantic and Iceland then to Disneyland.

Taken away from his California vacation and dispatched by NUMA Director Admiral Sandecker to the titular iceberg in the North Atlantic, Dirk Pitt takes Dr. Bill Hunnewell to search for the ship before heading to Iceland. The two commandeer a U.S. Coast Guard cutter as a base of operations along the way, which proves fortuitous as the helicopter is low on fuel after a wild goose chase for show more the iceberg. Finding a way into the ship, they find it burned along with the crew as well as the owner, Kristjan Fyrie who is identified by Hunnewell who worked with him. As they head for Iceland, the two are attacked by a black jet and Hunnewell is mortally wounded while Pitt uses the helicopter to take out the jet before crash landing just off shore. Pitt survives an attempt on his life by two thugs disguised as local Icelandic police before eventually getting to the American consulate in Reykjavik. Sandecker offers to send Pitt back on his vacation, but as he suspects Pitt wants to find who killed him. The Admiral then orders Pitt to get close to Kristjan Fyrie’s twin sister who is now Iceland’s wealthiest person and who has shied away from the working with the U.S. government on a state-of-the-art probe, but Kirsti is engaged to fishing magnate Oskar Rondheim and Pitt decides to play a homosexual so as not to pose a threat to the man. After several escapes with Sandecker and a National Intelligence Agent respectfully, Pitt and Sandecker’s secretary are invited to party at Rondheim’s home which is a trap for several wealthy and politically important men from around the globe so they can die while a cabal of wealth businessmen that include Rondheim and Fyrie play to take over all of Central and South America. Rondheim beats the presumably gay Pitt and leaves him and the others to die in a remote part of Iceland. Pitt is able to find help and save nearly everyone, while in the hospital the head of the National Intelligence Agency swindles Pitt from NUMA to Disneyland so stop a duel assassination of Latin American leaders. Pitt gets revenge on Rondheim and then makes a deal with Fyrie, who had been Rondheim’s puppet after he learned Kirsti was actually Kristjan after a sex change.

Like The Mediterranean Caper this was a quick paced book, but this time there was a larger cast of characters instead of a tiny one that was present in both Pacific Vortex and Caper. Iceberg improved in narrative flow over its predecessor as well as making the characters a little more rounded, but still the one-dimensional characters were still prevent. While Dirk Pitt wasn’t as big of a…“jerk” as in Caper, he still wasn’t the same character that appears later in the series and what bad qualities he loses from Caper are negated from the over-the-top homosexual clichés that he displays as part of his act. Besides Pitt’s gay act, the transsexual-sex change angle and the misogynistic comments by numerous male characters could be called typical clichés of the mid-1970s but age really badly over the last 40 years. However the biggest hole in the book is the missing of Pitt’s best friend, Al Giordino, a mistake that Cussler never made again.

Iceberg shows improvement in narrative and characters to an extent, but some of the choices Cussler made negated them. Overall I can’t give this a lesser or better rating that the first Dirk Pitt book, but if there is anyone interested in getting into this series I don’t recommend starting with some of these early books. Read books later in the series and then come back to these early ones. show less

For what it is, this book is quite well done. Although it was a little slow in starting, once it did the action and excitement picked up in such a way to make it entirely enjoyable for me as a reader. From the halfway mark on, I was fully hooked and could not put it down. There is a lot to like here and I feel this is one of Cussler's greater achievements in terms of novels- at least for the second half.

3 stars.

I took a stab at some post-WWII fiction. It was okay. In the first few chapters, there was a lot of interesting military talk and fun banter. It was also a very interesting mystery. The book degraded from there. There was a lot more violence than I expected. (He's, what, some kind of SCUBA spy who flies helicopters? I am not sure how he turned into James Bond, to be honest.) The second half became a slog.
I could not decide whether the main character was an alcoholic womanizer, or just an alcoholic who acted as a foil for other womanizers. (I don't know understand the persona here; Dirk Pitt is a much worse character than James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Ethan Hunt.) The hero is just not very likable. The author also seems to think that show more downing lots of alcohol in subfreezing temperatures is a great survival technique; I'm not sure where that information came from. Many other (less ridiculous) tidbits about helicopters and boats made much of the book a page-turner.
I do enjoy Cussler's (and/or his ghostwriter's) turn of phrase, but coming from a bestselling author, this novel was surprisingly unpolished. There were also several typos in the Kindle edition, clearly coming from imperfect work after an OCR job.
The second star out of five comes for the funny idioms and cold temperatures, which are much appreciated.
By the way, if you've seen the movie Sahara, Matthew McConaughey really toned down Dirk's arrogant attitude. If someone wrote some more Dirk Pitt screenplays along that line, I would probably watch them. show less

St. Barts 2020 #2 - A rare occurrence for me. I finished 2 books in one day, this being the second! Which says something about this book. I am not a speed reader by any stretch, but this one flew for me. And that was after 1.5 hours of finishing the previous book this AM. Now mind you, I am on vacation, but still....Every year we read a Cussler work on our vacation, and we just got started on the original set of Dirk Pitt. This was much better than the Mediterranean Caper! It just kept going and going and I did not want to stop. Tales of cold, Iceland, ghost ships, world domination, undersea mining, not to mention a trip to Disneyland! 'Pirates of the Caribbean' to be exact......perfect for my Caribbean vacation. Bravo Cussler!