Customer Reviews

The Mediterranean Caper/ Iceberg

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was the first Clive Cussler book Ive read, and I loved it. I thought it was great! The whole story, the characters, everything !!!
The ONLY thing I hated was the part when Dirk Pitt slaps the chick on the beach after only meeting her for like 2 minutes. That was soo stupid. BUT other than that, a great story. I have since read ICEBERG, and I still liked this one better !!!

A great book from start to finnish...... Cant wait to read the rest of the Dirk Pitt series. Im sure they will be jsut as good if not better. Check this book out, its a great book and a fast read. Also check out any books from AJ Quinnell (Man on Fire, Siege of Silence.....Check them all out !!!!)

This was my first Cussler novel (I figured I'd start at the begining) and it's a decent enough yarn but atrociously written. The protagonist Dirk Pitt is a James Bondish action caricature, and the dialogue is cliched and corny. People behave and speak in laughably unnatural ways: within an hour of meeting the female lead on an Aegean beach, Pitt slaps her smartly in the face for dwelling excessively on her dead husband. She comes to her senses, and within minutes they're making love on the beach. I'm serious - it's that dumb. I might be inclined to give Cussler another try, I've heard good things about RAISE THE TITANTIC but it had better be good.

In this outer, Dirk Pitt, NUMA's deep-diving hero, tangles with an elaborate smuggling ring that treats the Aegean waters like their own bath tub. In one of their bolder moves, the smugglers strike at nearby USAF base using nothing more than a WWI fighter. Millions of dollars worth of air force aircraft shatter and burn when struck by the primitive fighter's machine gun. Nearby, an NUMA research ship is also targeted by the smugglers. In striking back, Pitt will face a WWII U-boat skipper and a hot Grecian beauty. It's a thin Pitt adventure - closer to the Kurt Austin NUMA books, but still above them. It's closer to "Pacific Vortex" than one of the larger (and globe-spanning) novels like "Cyclops" or "Raise the Titanic". A lot of it is over-the-top (even with their planes on the ground, wouldn't a USAF base have other forms of protection? And are 20 ton airplanes a tad bit more damage resistant?) On the plus side, it's still a dependable Pitt actioner and Cussler (still keeping himself out of the story) gets some good use of the hot Aegean settings.

I first started reading Cussler when I found Pacific Vortex at my condo complex's library. I became addicted. Dirk Pitt novels are all top-notch adventure stories with political suspense, romance, and high-speed car chases thrown in. This is the 2nd book in the series, though it was the first one printed, and is an exciting, riveting adventure tale. I don't want to spoil a lot, but the plot is excellent, and as always, as twisty as the roads Pitt drives his sports cars on. It all starts when Dirk Pitt, the main hero, and Al Giordano find an antique WWII Bomber plane attacking a United States Base. With the help of a beautiful secret agent, Pitt is thrown into a wild action-packed tale of danger and villanous criminals. As with many Pitt books, the political entanglements can sometimes slow the action, but I still highly recommend this story, and the rest of the series. Enjoy the read.

Hey, not literature but still a lot of fun! Don't miss any of about the first 10 books in this series.

Very entertaining! My husband and I have been reading (and re-reading) Clive Cussler's novels for over 15 years. All his books contain lots of action and history. Yet, he is still able to connect all the loose ends. The hero Dirk Pitt is a man of honor and principles. He's a quick thinker with an adventurer's spirit.

Considering the obvious success Clive Cussler has had with his novels, I thought it was time I gave one a try (they're popular, they can't be that bad... wrong). With this in mind I thought I'd start at the beginning (which is really Pacific Vortex, as it was written before 'The Mediterranean Caper' - or 'Mayday!' as it's called in Australia - was published).

However, while I won't comment on the literary merits of Pacific Vortex (think an utterly dumbed down James Bond - and that's really dumb), it was supremely advanced over the stilted dialog and so-called machismo of the Mediterranean Caper. In fact, I wasn't even able to get past 35 pages of this truly awful example of writing.

And why is that, you ask?
Let's look at the following text taken from the book. To put you in the scene our 'hero' Dirk Pitt has gone down to the beach one early morning. While there a beautiful young woman stumbles across him. Naturally they talk and she reveals how her beloved husband was killed in a car crash eight and a half years previously:

<and let's now read the literary brilliance of Clive Cussler:>

'It's been eight and a half years now,' she replied in a whisper.
Pitt felt dazed. Then anger set in. What a waste, he thought. What a rotten waste for a beautiful woman like her to grieve over a dead man for nearly nine years. The more he thought about it the angrier he became. He could see tears welling in her eyes as she lost herself in the remembrance, and the sight sickened him. He reached over and gave her a hard backhand slap across the face.
Her eyes jerked wide, and her whole body tensed from the sharp blow. It was as if she was struck by a bullet. 'Why did you strike me?' she gasped.
'Because you needed it, needed it badly,' he snapped. 'That torch you carry around is as worn out as an overcoat. I'm surprised someone hasn't taken you over a knee and spanked it off. So your husband was dashing. So what? He's dead and buried, and mourning over him for all these years won't resurrect him from the grave. Lock away his memory somewhere and forget him. You're a beautiful woman - you don't belong chained to a coffin full of bones. You belong to every man who turns and admires you.' Pitt could see his words were penetrating her weak defences. 'Now you think about it. It's your life. Don't throw it away and play "Camille" until you're withered and grey.'
Her face was distraught in the morning sun, and her breath came in sobs. Pitt let her cry for a long time. When she finally raised her head and turned it towards him, he could see that her cheeks were streaked with tears, mixed with tiny grains of sand, clinging to the wetness. She looked up at him, and he caught the gleam in her eyes. They were soft and scared-looking, like a little girl's. He lifted her in his arms and kissed her. Her lips were warm and moist.
'When was the last time you had a man?' he whispered.
'Not since...' Her voice trailed away.
Pitt took her as the long shadows of the rocks crept upward over the beach, shielding their bodies from the sun.

<and thank you Clive>

'Why did you strike me?'
Personally, I can think of several other things I would've said in that situation, such as: 'Help', 'Police' and 'Rape'.

I can only hope that in the intervening 3 decades since those words were written that Clive's attitudes to women and what constitutes a 'hero' are a bit less pathetic. Here's a fragile woman who is physically and verbally attacked by our 'hero', whose eyes are then equated with looking 'soft and scared-looking, like a little girl's' (well, whatever gets you going Dirk). Naturally Dirk Pitt then has sex (I won't say she does, she's just - in my mind - been raped) and she's ever so grateful and invites him back to meet her family, etc. etc.

When I read that section I honestly thought, no, I must've missed something. There's no way that just happened.

At that precise moment I found I could not read on.

What sort of hero is this? Is this how a 'man's-man' is meant to behave? Is this, as other reviewers have said of this book, 'fun'?

I mean, was this sort of garbage ever seen as okay, even in the early 1970's? I can understand a writer having their hero as a clichéd 'man' that all other men envy, etc, but what Dirk Pitt does in that scene is not something any 'man' or 'hero' would do.
Sorry, Clive, because of that one scene I won't be reading any more of your books. I've already wasted my money on this one and the ridiculously plotted Pacific Vortex. I've already been burnt twice.

There's too many good adventure stories out there, with much better writing and plot, and with character's that aren't throwbacks to some outdated era for anyone to be bothered with this infantile slush.

Dirk Pitt is a man's man. He is the ultimate machismo. He was the Hollywood action hero before there was such a thing. Pitt is the man described in the theme song for the James Bond film "Thunderball". The type of hero that he is has been outdated, whether wrongly or not, in our more politically correct times. It's wrong to rescue a damsel in distress now. It's wrong to be ruthless when it comes to the feelings of others. Ours is an age when we tell the truth on one hand and gently coo "I'm sorry for telling the truth" with the other. Pitt is a throwback to old style pulp fiction heroes and I don't see anything wrong with that.

The Mediterranean Caper is the first published novel starring Dirk Pitt. It opens with an attack on Brady Air Force Base, which is located on the Greek island of Thasos. Without warning a German bi-plane identical to those used in World War I strafes the airfield, causing much damage to the facility and its aircraft. By coencidence, Dirk Pitt and his best friend, Al Giordino are flying to the base and are able to win an air battle against the attacker. The wounded bi-plane manages to fly away and disappears into thin air and so begins the mystery.

Dirk Pitt is the Special Projects Director for the US National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA). What that really means is that he is a troubleshooter. When things are going wrong he is sent in to solve the problem. In this book he has been called in to investigate the sabotaging of a NUMA research ship called The First Attempt. The ship's mission is to locate and capture a fish that is considered a living fossil. Someone does not want this to happen and is sabotaging the ship's equipment. Dirk just happens to fly in as the seemingly unrelated plane attack on the base is going on.

Shortly afterward, as he is lying on the beach, relaxing after all the excitement, he meets a beautiful woman named Teri. This sets up one of the more comical scenes that almost made me put down this book. As the woman warms up to Dirk she begins to reveal a little of her past. She has been in mourning for her dead husband for the better part of a decade. She starts to break down and cry. Dirk becomes so enraged by this that he slaps her across the face. I mean, he's only known for her about five minutes and he's slapping her across the face for showing weakness. Of course, instead of her running away, they make passionate love right there on the beach.

It turns out that the girl's uncle is a German war veteran who basically runs the island through his business influence. Dirk is invited to dinner and the adventure really begins when he tries to ascertain whether the uncle is tied to the attack on the Air Force base. Dirk is promptly thrown into a labyrinth below his villa in pitch black dark with a ravenous dog tracking him through its depths. Will he survive to find out what the Mediterranean Caper is all about? Well, of course, there's 13 other Dirk Pitt novels. It's the getting there that's the point.

Parts of the novel made me roll my eyes. Especially the slapping making love scene. Pitt tells her that her sadness is as worn out as an overcoat. There's really some cheesy metaphors and similes through the whole book. I really started to enjoy it as I realized that basically I was reading a comic book in novel form. I mean, the characters and the book were written for fun and adventure, not to spark epiphanies. The action scenes are really good and draw you in. The character depth is about that of a Dirty Harry movie, that is, practically nonexistent. At times Pitt seems very intelligent, at others very stupid. All in all, this was a fun book and I would recommend it. Hopefully, the second novel will be better.

I recently read this book again for the first time in twenty years. I now realize what captivated me to read all of the Dirk Pitt novels. I have begun to read them all again. If you like action and adventure, Clive Cussler is your author and this is the book to start with.