A Dirk Pitt novel, taking place mainly in Iceland after finding a ship that was, after a fire on the boat, pushed into an ice shelf and eventually became an iceberg. Much intrigue and bad guys doing what bad guys do and an ending which would seem more in line today than when this book was written in 1975. ( )

[b:Iceberg|41710|Iceberg (Dirk Pitt, #3)|Clive Cussler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439683898s/41710.jpg|3132229] by [a:Clive Cussler|18411|Clive Cussler|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1225620641p2/18411.jpg]

Genres; Action/Adventure, Crime, Mystery, Suspense

4 Stars

This is kind of fun, going down memory lane.
This is the exact paperback that I read back in my youth. I don't remember what I paid for it.
Hmmm, come to think about it, I think I stole it from my future ex-husband who was in the navy at that time.
Anyway, this was one of my favorites even though I remember some of the 'scientific' conversations tended to confuse me. Mostly I skimmed over those parts. ( )

Fun 70s adventure story. Tidi one of only two female characters plays damsel in distress. Dirk is the unstoppable hero who saves the world from an evil plot. ( )

[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 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. ( )

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 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. ( )