Status
Available
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Bantam (1984), 384 pages
Description
"1954, Vixen 03 is down. The plane, bound for the Pacific carrying thirty-six Doomsday bombs-canisters armed with quick-death germs of unbelievable potency-vanished. Vixen has in fact crashed into an ice-covered lake in Colorado. 1968, Dirk Pitt, who heroically raised the Titanic, discovers the wreckage of Vixen 03. But two deadly canisters are missing. They're in the hands of a terrorist group. Their lethal mission: to sail a battleship seventy-five miles up the Potomac and blast Washington, D.C., to kingdom come. Only Dirk can stop them."--P. [4] of cover.
User reviews
LibraryThing member wyn
Typical Cussler adventure story with his hero Dirk Pitt performing the impossible. I don,t mind that as if you buy his books you know youare doing so for a little light reading and escapism (rather like watching a Bond movie). However, despite a promising start it deterioated rapidly and whilst I
Show More
persisted with it I don,t really know why. I can accept an unbelievable storylinr but the story relating to the Scottish Farmer, Fawkes was too much to bear. There was also a lack of fluecy in the writing in the latter part of the book and I just wonder if the author was also starting to struggle to find the appropriate plot. A poor effort I,m afraid. Show Less
LibraryThing member SonicQuack
Cussler is on form with Vixen 03. It's definitely one of his better early novels. Dirk Pitt, a recurring character, features in this stand-alone tale of terrorism, with plenty of mystery and action. The second quarter of the book is tough going, for it doesn't feature Pitt at all. At this point
Show More
there are quite a few characters introduced in a short space of time and it is quite taxing to keep up. However, Cussler is canny with his prose and utilises a few summarising techniques to keep the readers on track. There is good reason for the depth of story early on - the plots are well twisted and create a decent level of suspense. Ultimately Vixen delivers, in terms of quality and quantity. It doesn't over play the story, and the finale is well executed. If you remember to take Cussler's work with a hefty pinch of salt you'll enjoy Vixen 03 - a solid adventure yarn. Show Less
LibraryThing member iayork
You Won't Regret Buying This Book: Cecil Adams Straight Dope books are some of the best trivia books out there bar none. While you may not get the answers to the specific questions you are asking you will find answers to things you always wanted to know but never really thought to ask about.Cecil
More Of The Straight Dope is the second book in his series and while it is hard to find, is certainly one of the best of the lot. He answers questions like - what exactly is Mojo? Why does your skin wrinkle in the tub? and so forth.
No one has ever seen the real Cecil Adams and as long as he keeps answering questions and putting out books like this - no one will ever really care (well.... it is probably the last mystery that he will ever solve.)
Show More
Adams has been writing his column for the Chicago Reader since 1973 and has been asked every random trivia questions under the sun and rarely is he unable to find the answer. Cecil Adams has a wicked sense of humor that makes his books so much fun to read over and over again.More Of The Straight Dope is the second book in his series and while it is hard to find, is certainly one of the best of the lot. He answers questions like - what exactly is Mojo? Why does your skin wrinkle in the tub? and so forth.
No one has ever seen the real Cecil Adams and as long as he keeps answering questions and putting out books like this - no one will ever really care (well.... it is probably the last mystery that he will ever solve.)
Show Less
LibraryThing member miyurose
I think this is the point where Cussler starts to hit his prime with the Dirk Pitt series. Dirk has grown out of most of his early ultra-misogynistic tendencies, and is even showing some serious feelings for Congresswoman Loren Smith. In fact, he is spending some 'alone time' with her at her
Show More
father’s cabin in Colorado when he makes a series of discoveries that lead him to the wreck of Vixen 03, an Air Force plane that had been presumed lost in the Pacific over 30 years previously. What you really don’t expect is for this aircraft to eventually tie in to the fight against Apartheid in South Africa and an aggrieved retired Royal Navy captain. There’s not a lot of NUMA in this, though there are a couple of appearances by Al Giordino and Admiral Sandecker. You do get one of Cussler’s usual big finishes, complete with all of the unbelievability and close calls that make this series so much fun to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member readafew
Another Dirk Pitt adventure. I enjoy listening to them quite a bit. But I admit that they are all very similar. The same kinds of things happen in similar ways in every book, but in a way that is what makes them fun. Not a whole lot of thinking is required which makes them ideal for listening in
This one Pitt discovers a plane that had crashed into a lake shortly before Korea that happened to have a payload of the most deadly biological weapon ever discovered by man. He also discovered it was missing some of the ordinance. Finding it before they are used is paramount.
The white South African government is dealing with an insurgence by a warlord trying to topple them with minimal directed carnage. It appears to be working and the South Africans are starting to get worried. Some have even started drastic steps to prolong their rule. Just how far are some people willing to go to get and hold power? These two stories collide and millions of lives are at stake.
Show More
the car while commuting. This one Pitt discovers a plane that had crashed into a lake shortly before Korea that happened to have a payload of the most deadly biological weapon ever discovered by man. He also discovered it was missing some of the ordinance. Finding it before they are used is paramount.
The white South African government is dealing with an insurgence by a warlord trying to topple them with minimal directed carnage. It appears to be working and the South Africans are starting to get worried. Some have even started drastic steps to prolong their rule. Just how far are some people willing to go to get and hold power? These two stories collide and millions of lives are at stake.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Bridgey
Vixen 03 - Clive Cussler *****
The fifth book in the Dirk Pitt series (as usual ever macho, womanising, hard drinking and seemingly indestructible) has Cussler’s hero investigating an aircraft high in the Colorado mountains around three decades and many hundreds of miles from its last known
This book is really two tales combined, where alternating chapters flick back and forth from the situation that Pitt finds himself embroiled in and a civil war in Africa. At first I couldn’t see how they would possibly become linked but Cussler does a really nice job of tying up all the loose strands over the final few chapters.
The book is very typical of its time – written in 1978, and very typical of the genre. Probably not one for those readers that get bogged down in scientific or historical accuracies (or easily offended), but for people like myself that love a big of escapism accompanied by fights, blood and guts, then you can’t go wrong. As I have said, this is the 5th book in the Pitt series but you don’t really need to have started at the beginning and this would be an ideal place to begin. I found it much more advanced than the previous novels and assume this is where Cussler really started making a name for himself as an author.
The fifth book in the Dirk Pitt series (as usual ever macho, womanising, hard drinking and seemingly indestructible) has Cussler’s hero investigating an aircraft high in the Colorado mountains around three decades and many hundreds of miles from its last known
Show More
location. Pitt seems to have a sixth sense for mystery and after probing where he shouldn’t , uncovers a mystery that would have better off forgotten but now it has resurfaced could end up wiping out millions of lives. This book is really two tales combined, where alternating chapters flick back and forth from the situation that Pitt finds himself embroiled in and a civil war in Africa. At first I couldn’t see how they would possibly become linked but Cussler does a really nice job of tying up all the loose strands over the final few chapters.
The book is very typical of its time – written in 1978, and very typical of the genre. Probably not one for those readers that get bogged down in scientific or historical accuracies (or easily offended), but for people like myself that love a big of escapism accompanied by fights, blood and guts, then you can’t go wrong. As I have said, this is the 5th book in the Pitt series but you don’t really need to have started at the beginning and this would be an ideal place to begin. I found it much more advanced than the previous novels and assume this is where Cussler really started making a name for himself as an author.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Carol420
The first third and last third are GREAT, but it's the middle which is almost so strange as to seem like it was written by someone else (not that I would think it actually happened...). All in all 'Vixen 03' is an entertaining story, mixed with a 2nd story that is just barely connected to the rest
Show More
of the novel. Good, but NOT Cussler's best. Show Less
LibraryThing member mattries37315
A deadly biological weapon thought long-lost is suddenly out in the world and a South African-planned black-op terrorist attack on the United States meant to discredit an insurgency to white rule intertwine with only one man finding himself at the crux to stop them. The fifth book of the Dirk Pitt
An Air Force transport plane takes off in a January Colorado blizzard carrying a deadly cargo, but the storm results in the plane crash landing on top of a snow covered lake then sinking. The Pentagon, under orders from Eisenhower, alters the records of the plane to hide its deadly secret. Thirty-four years later in South Africa, Scottish naval captain-turned-farmer Patrick Fawkes goes to a meeting with the South African Defense Minister and discusses the feasibility of a black-op, which Fawkes explains is impossible yet during the meeting his family is murdered during an attack seemingly by the African Army of Revolution run by an American-born black against the white South African government. As a result Fawkes talks the Defense Minister into letting him do the black-op, which the AAR finds out about and gets the info to the American government though they regard it highly unlikely to take place. Meanwhile in Colorado’s Sawatch Mountains, Dirk Pitt is at the cabin of his current girlfriend, Congresswoman Loren Smith, when finds parts from an old aircraft in the garage that Loren believes her deceased eccentric father found while hiking. Bored while not having sex, Pitt begins investigating and stays at the cabin after Loren returns to Washington where she runs afoul of a black congressman who supports the AAR for his own political ends and attempts to blackmail her after getting racy photos of her and Pitt sleeping together. Pitt’s investigation results in him identifying an aircraft that shouldn’t be in Colorado but in the Pacific and along with his friend Al Giordino and an Air Force Colonel Abe Steiger investigate a nearby lake and find the wreck along with the body of Loren’s father—he supposedly blew himself up. Steiger is stonewalled in Washington while Pitt heads to his assignment raising a Union ironclad, but travels to Virginia to talk with the man who assigned the plane’s mission and finds out it carried a deadly biological weapon. Pitt finally informs his boss Admiral Sandecker and NUMA raises the aircraft but find that 8 out of the 36 shells are missing. Pitt, Giordino, and Steiger confront Loren’s neighbors who killed her father and sold them to an arms company for extra money. After conning the arms company Pitt and Steiger track down six of the eight, but the last two were accidently purchased by the AAR but really the South Africans for their terrorist attack. Fawkes with his unwitting black crew and the kidnapped AAR leader in an overhauled battleship go up the Potomac to within range of Washington and start bombarding the capital on December 7. The U.S. government “warned” by the South African Prime Minister launches an attack on the battleship since Fawkes doesn’t know he has two biological weapons. Pitt is able to get onboard the battleship and neutralizes one of the weapons, but the other was already loaded into a tube. The shell is fired, but do to it being a biological warhead it parachutes and a helicopter piloted by Steiger intercepts it and flies it out to the Atlantic. Pitt travels to South Africa to bury Fawkes and meets with the South African Defense Minister, who orchestrated the murder of Fawkes family and who sent the Prime Minister warning, is killed by a member of his own staff and a member of the AAR then buried in Fawkes’ grave.
Set a 1988, Cussler’s guess at the overall situation in the world was off but still made for interesting alternate history in which to set his book’s narrative. The two main plots following Pitt and Fawkes were well written while the two main subplots of the AAR and Loren Smith were underwhelming. Fawkes as a good tragic figure who setup by the Defense Minister was easy to guess, while Loren Smith’s first appearance as Pitt’s on-and-off girlfriend was just showing off Pitt’s sexual greatness and given his characterization in these early books isn’t surprising. The science behind the biological weapon was a little farfetched if one really thought about it, but overall it wasn’t the worst thing in the book. Critically nothing was bad, but there were a lot of things that alright.
Vixen 03 is a nice next installment in the Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler, building up on Raise the Titanic! Overall it’s a good book with only a few bits that were unfortunately off putting but nothing compared to earlier books. While the not the best book of the series I’ve read so far, it’s shows a lot of improvement on Cussler’s part.
Show More
series, Vixen 03, by Clive Cussler finds the intrepid NUMA Special Projects Director racing to first solve a mystery and then racing to save the nation.An Air Force transport plane takes off in a January Colorado blizzard carrying a deadly cargo, but the storm results in the plane crash landing on top of a snow covered lake then sinking. The Pentagon, under orders from Eisenhower, alters the records of the plane to hide its deadly secret. Thirty-four years later in South Africa, Scottish naval captain-turned-farmer Patrick Fawkes goes to a meeting with the South African Defense Minister and discusses the feasibility of a black-op, which Fawkes explains is impossible yet during the meeting his family is murdered during an attack seemingly by the African Army of Revolution run by an American-born black against the white South African government. As a result Fawkes talks the Defense Minister into letting him do the black-op, which the AAR finds out about and gets the info to the American government though they regard it highly unlikely to take place. Meanwhile in Colorado’s Sawatch Mountains, Dirk Pitt is at the cabin of his current girlfriend, Congresswoman Loren Smith, when finds parts from an old aircraft in the garage that Loren believes her deceased eccentric father found while hiking. Bored while not having sex, Pitt begins investigating and stays at the cabin after Loren returns to Washington where she runs afoul of a black congressman who supports the AAR for his own political ends and attempts to blackmail her after getting racy photos of her and Pitt sleeping together. Pitt’s investigation results in him identifying an aircraft that shouldn’t be in Colorado but in the Pacific and along with his friend Al Giordino and an Air Force Colonel Abe Steiger investigate a nearby lake and find the wreck along with the body of Loren’s father—he supposedly blew himself up. Steiger is stonewalled in Washington while Pitt heads to his assignment raising a Union ironclad, but travels to Virginia to talk with the man who assigned the plane’s mission and finds out it carried a deadly biological weapon. Pitt finally informs his boss Admiral Sandecker and NUMA raises the aircraft but find that 8 out of the 36 shells are missing. Pitt, Giordino, and Steiger confront Loren’s neighbors who killed her father and sold them to an arms company for extra money. After conning the arms company Pitt and Steiger track down six of the eight, but the last two were accidently purchased by the AAR but really the South Africans for their terrorist attack. Fawkes with his unwitting black crew and the kidnapped AAR leader in an overhauled battleship go up the Potomac to within range of Washington and start bombarding the capital on December 7. The U.S. government “warned” by the South African Prime Minister launches an attack on the battleship since Fawkes doesn’t know he has two biological weapons. Pitt is able to get onboard the battleship and neutralizes one of the weapons, but the other was already loaded into a tube. The shell is fired, but do to it being a biological warhead it parachutes and a helicopter piloted by Steiger intercepts it and flies it out to the Atlantic. Pitt travels to South Africa to bury Fawkes and meets with the South African Defense Minister, who orchestrated the murder of Fawkes family and who sent the Prime Minister warning, is killed by a member of his own staff and a member of the AAR then buried in Fawkes’ grave.
Set a 1988, Cussler’s guess at the overall situation in the world was off but still made for interesting alternate history in which to set his book’s narrative. The two main plots following Pitt and Fawkes were well written while the two main subplots of the AAR and Loren Smith were underwhelming. Fawkes as a good tragic figure who setup by the Defense Minister was easy to guess, while Loren Smith’s first appearance as Pitt’s on-and-off girlfriend was just showing off Pitt’s sexual greatness and given his characterization in these early books isn’t surprising. The science behind the biological weapon was a little farfetched if one really thought about it, but overall it wasn’t the worst thing in the book. Critically nothing was bad, but there were a lot of things that alright.
Vixen 03 is a nice next installment in the Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler, building up on Raise the Titanic! Overall it’s a good book with only a few bits that were unfortunately off putting but nothing compared to earlier books. While the not the best book of the series I’ve read so far, it’s shows a lot of improvement on Cussler’s part.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Karlstar
I really enjoyed the plot and action of this and the tense, cliffhanger atmosphere. Dirk Pitt again excels!
LibraryThing member jamesjarrett00
Dirk Pitt Novel. The book opens in the early 1950's with an aircrew getting ready for a secret mission in a snow storm. The airplane crashes and is lost to history. Then we move to modern times where Dirk Pitt is on vacation with his girlfriend. While on vacation he finds the plane and wants to
Show More
find out about the history of the plane. The book then looks at an anti-apartheid group that is fighting against South Africa's racist government. We then move on to see a plan the South Africans are putting into place to deal with the rebels. The climax of the book is Washington DC getting shelled by a battleship. I really love the history parts of the book. Those are my favorite parts. The suspense parts are good, but they are not as much my thing. Dirk Pitt, as always, seems invincible, but I still enjoyed the story. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1978-10
Physical description
384 p.; 4.2 inches
ISBN
0553273906 / 9780553273908