Customer Reviews

The Jungle

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great book, very hard to put down. Clive Cussler is the best story teller of our time. I loved it

great read! read it in 4 days (and I am a slow reader). I've read a dozen cussler books and all are fast, asy and enjoyable reading. action, action, action. 1st time that I have read a book with this central character - juan cabrillio. good to occasionally change characters to add some fresh elements. juan and his crew are like a team of 007's/commandoes. if you are a fan of cussler, then you will enjoy it. if you are new to cussler, be prepared to lay aside some time, because you won't want to put down his books until you've reached the back cover.

"Flash forth lightning and scatter them;
Shoot out Your arrows and destroy them.
Stretch out Your hand from above;
Rescue me and deliver me out of great waters,
From the hand of foreigners,
Whose mouth speaks lying words,
And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood." -- Psalm 144:6-8 (NKJV)

Most thrillers follow one of these formulas:

1. Superhuman heroes attempt to overcome impossible odds and succeed.
2. Heroes use advanced technology and quick wits to surprise and defeat overconfident opponents.
3. A global plot to dominate the world threatens life as we know it and a small band is all that can stop what's going on.
4. Wisecracking heroes take on tough tasks with panache.

What happens in each case is that the heroes resemble Superman more than any real person . . . combined with an ability to rarely make a mistake. The fun comes from either the surprising ways that the heroes succeed or the appeal of their swagger as they do.

After you've read hundreds of such stories, you yearn for something a little different . . . and that's what Clive Cussler has delivered with Jack Du Brul in The Jungle. Be prepared for some occasional heroic fallibility. It makes for a nice change of pace, without slowing down the action . . . which involves a lot of different venues and story lines.

Each aspect of the story brought at least some tiny surprises that brought a smile to my face.

Why, then, didn't I rate the story at five stars? As in some of the Dirk Pitt novels, the authors' technological imagination goes a little too far to be fully credible. Instead, you lose your ability to stay immersed in the novel from time to time . . . and find yourself watching the story unfold.

I thought that the book's Prologue was one of the most imaginative that Mr. Cussler has written or collaborated on, stepping into 13th century China to observe an army unveiling a new way to quickly win a siege.

Back in the present, we quickly get a sense that the ancient secret is going to be important to this story. From there, we find the Oregon on private assignments now that it's no longer in the good graces of the U.S. government after the events that concluded The Silent Sea. It's a dicier world, and new challenges are presented.

Some may be slightly disappointed that the Oregon doesn't play as much of a role as a technological marvel as usual, but I enjoyed the challenges falling more on the crew . . . rather than as much on the unexpected defenses and armament.

I sincerely hope that this writing duo will come back with some more plots in this vein, dampened down in terms of the technological threat to more realistic levels.

By the way, this is another one of those novels where the Kindle pricing makes no sense compared to the hardcover price.

Have fun!

I have always been a Clive Cussler fan. As always, reading this book brought adventure and enjoyment. Sometimes Clive's books are described in such a way that I feel I am part of the action. Is that neat or what? Only one other author has been able to do that with me.

This story is unfortunately missed named. The jungle is only one minor scene in the whole yarn, and it would have been aptly named `The Rescue' due to the five recues that take place in it. While I'm at it, I will critic Cussler for his lack of foreshadowing; that is his tendency to have things appear out of the blue. Need a hi speed boat to get away from the bad guys? Then the boat the good guys are on is high speed.

What I liked about this story is Cussler's usual fast paced action, knowledge of high tech and other types of equipment, and the clever plot twist at the very end. During the special op to knock out the secret evil centre and save the day, the good old US of A, and the world, the quantum computer acts rational and does something unusual. You have to like the genre to enjoy this book. It does entertain and keep you reading more and more well into the night.

Excellent book, no slow parts, incredibly hard to put down!!!! If you are an oregon fan this is a must read!!!!