Arctic Drift (Dirk Pitt)

by Clive Cussler

2009

Status

Available

Publication

Berkley Books (2009), Edition: Reprint, 593 pages

Description

A potential breakthrough discovery to reverse global warming . . . a series of unexplained sudden deaths in British Columbia . . . a rash of international incidents between the United States and one of its closest allies that threatens to erupt into an actual shooting war . . . NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his children, Dirk. Jr. and Summer, have reason to believe there's a connection here somewhere, but they also know they have very little time to find it before events escalate out of control. Their only real clue might just be a mysterious silvery mineral traced to a long-ago expedition in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. But no one survived from that doomed mission, captain and crew perished to a man--and if Pitt and his colleague Al Giordino aren't careful, the very same fate may await them.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member dswaddell
Dirk and family act to stop a mad industrialist who is willing to stop at nothing to continue making money while solving the mystory of the lost arctic expedition. Very good reading.
LibraryThing member MSWallack
I enjoyed Arctic Drift more than I've enjoyed the last few Dirk Pitt novels. I suspect that can be attributed to the fact that this book was a more straight-forward story with less of the eye-rolling moments that have become a bit too common in some of the Dirk Pitt books. I also liked that Pitt is
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starting to recognize that he's getting older (and act, at times, accordingly). Finally, the use of Dirk and Summer at the beginning of the story and then giving way to Pitt and Giordano (and others) later, worked much better than forcing all of the characters to have roles throughout the story.
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LibraryThing member meroof30
This was an interesting blend of historical facts and fiction. However, iIt seems to me that the characters had survival skills that bordered on the miraculous, or just plain unbelievable. Still, the book kept my interest and I would definitely consider another Cussler book (this was my second).
LibraryThing member ulfhjorr
Another light, fast read from Cussler. I was somewhat surprised to see that this was the 20th Dirk Pitt novel until reflecting on the fact that these books are largely cookie-cutter productions. That's not too detract from the fact that they are fun reads, but really, pick up any of the books in
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the series and you'll get the flavor of them all. (Pick up more than one, and you may become tired of the same idiosyncrasies, like the author's cameo, which get somewhat old after multiple iterations.)
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LibraryThing member Grandeplease
Entertaining, but disappointingly a bit sloppy. The good - the story line at its core is imaginative and it is a fun read. The bad - superfluous and poorly developed characters, Dirk Pitt's twin children. Daughter falls madly in love in moments. Technical error or unexplained - diver descends 100+
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feet and inspects the ocean floor and then in an emergency ascends without decompressing or suffering the "bends".
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LibraryThing member hahansen
I am a Cussler fan and have read many of his books. I have enjoyed them all, except this one. I have come to the conclusion that someone else is writing these books with his name on them. This one has his son Dirk as co author. A militant Greenpeace fanatic could have helped him. This book is
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boring, lacking in anything close to reality. (except for the ice) I have read my last co-authored book by this author. I have noticed this same problem with some of the other authors who have tagged onto the Cussler name, but none have been so disappointing as this one. I look forward too, and pay a high price for a Clive Cussler novel, so it is a bitter pill to swallow.
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LibraryThing member pierthinker
Clive Cussler has been writing novels since 1973. His Dirk Pitt novels are very successful and he has made the bestseller lists many times. This is the first Cussler book I have read.

I enjoy adventure stories and I am as keen as anyone to suspend belief to allow some technological or other
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contrived MacGuffin to warp the narrative as we go. I was disappointed with this book. After so many novels in the series I expected a relatively mature milieu, a rounded set of characters and strong, intricate plotting.

To me this book reads like a young adult novel aimed at jocks-who-don’t-read. The plot takes too long to get going and there are endless senseless killings to establish the bad guys. The central conceit of near-war between the USA and Canada never feels believeable.

Many people read and enjoy Clive Cussler and I can sort of see what they get out of it without actualy getting it myself. Perhaps I am just a little bit too grown up for this particular techno-thriller fantasy(?)
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LibraryThing member DavidLErickson
In 1849, Captain James Fitzpatrick, commander of the British exploration ship Erebus, abandons his ice locked ship and many of his men, driven crazy by some unseen force. In the teeth of a blizzard he leads his remaining crew across broken ice to their sister ship, HMS Terror. Thus begins the
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tale.

Jumping to 2008 and Steve Miller is captaining his trawler through the Northwest Passage when a white fog envelopes his boat, killing him and his crewman. Just by chance, Dirt and Summer Pitt are taking water samples and come across the Steve Miller's boat and soon NUMA and their father, Dirk Pitt, are embroiled in a conspiracy that could bring nations, such as the United States, to its knees.

True to Cussler norm this novel is an adventurous read. It moved along at a good pace, never dwadling, and the story unfolded in a breath taking fashion. Of course there were numerous seat-of-the-pants scenes, but thankfully, they were reasonably realistic, not like the unbelievably incredible scenes I've been bombarded with in other Cussler novels. BTW, I'm not reading his series in order.

Cussler kept his characters in character, which was nice, and presented the reader with a certifiable arch-villain, of the crazy-greedy type, and his psychopath muscle who makes crazy man's desires happen.

There were only a handful of grammatical errors, yet despite this I enjoyed this read more than other Cussler novels that were too unbelievable and seemed canned. I have my favorites ( I especially like the Isaac Bell novels) and this isn't one of them, but it was well worth my time.
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LibraryThing member readafew
As the title suggests, this one takes place primarily in the Arctic Ocean. A billionaire megalomaniac has brought the US and Canada to the brink of war merely to make a buck. He has a reputation as a Green man but that is only his public persona. The man is willing to do or say anything that would
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further his quest for more money and power. Dirk, Al and family all run into the machinations of Goyette. This helps them Pitt put the picture together faster, maybe fast enough to stop the madman.

This is another Pitt adventure and as such is about the same as the others. Different story pushing things along and I enjoy listening to the books while driving. This one is pretty strong about anti-carbon output.
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LibraryThing member LindaGail
Story about 2 ships that 180 years ago tried to sail through the Northwest Passage in the Arctic but became stuck in the ice. One of the ships had on it rhuthenium, a special metal that years later would prove to help with photosenthensis and eliminate carbon dioxide created by global warming.
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However, a devious millionaire in Canada does everything possible, including killing many people and bribing every Canadian official necessary to make sure that he has the rights to all of the rhutenium in the world. Action packed
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LibraryThing member pre20cenbooks
Felt the chill, the risk, the exciting discovery, the tactical efforts to move across frozen land. Another thrilling quick read for me when I needed some excitement for a few days. Write on Mr. Cussler and son!!
LibraryThing member TrgLlyLibrarian
As far as I can tell, this book is really not supposed to be taken too seriously. It's a thriller with lots of explosions and death, but the heroes remain upbeat and the author even writes himself into the story (I've never read Clive Cussler before). I had a hard time empathizing with the
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characters; their attitudes did not match the intensity of the situations they were in. Also very clunky expository dialogue. But I might recommend it to someone as a light read.
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LibraryThing member Alan1946
Amazon Description.
A potential breakthrough discovery to reverse global warming; a series of unexplained sudden deaths in British Colombia; a rash of international incidents between the United States and one of its closest allies that threatens to erupt into an actual shooting war.
NUMA director
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Dirk Pitt and his children, Dirk. Jr. and Summer, have reason to believe there's a connection here somewhere, but they also know they have very little time to find it before events escalate out of control. Their only real clue might just be a mysterious silvery mineral traced to a long-ago expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage. But no one survived from that doomed mission; captain and crew perished to a man and if Pitt and his colleague Al Giordino aren't careful, the very same fate may await them.
Filled with the breathtaking suspense and audacious imagination that have become his hallmarks, this is a tour de force, further proof that when it comes to adventure writing, nobody beats Clive Cussler.
Review.

I had forgotten just how quickly Cussler draws you into a story and then keeps hold of you until the last page. There is nearly always a historical link at the start of these books and in this case it is the ill-fated Franklin expedition to find The North West Passage. I have no idea when a documentary I saw recently was made, but it showed one of the two of Franklin’s ships to have been found on the seabed not too far from King William Island off the coast of Canada. Pitt and Giordino find the wreck of the Terror, one of those two ships, as part of the story, although they also find the other one later one, and giving you that information is not a spoiler!
Almost the whole story takes place in the freezing sea off the coast of Canada, not a glamorous location by any means, but one that still brings out the great excitement that Cussler manages to generate in all his stories. He appears briefly himself, as he does in other of his novels, but as usual goes unrecognised despite giving his name as he does in other tales! It is fast paced with much action and some great descriptions of the conditions in that part of the world. Pitt is again thrown up against a very dangerous foe in Clay Zak, who is backed by an extremely rich, greedy and conniving backer whose only concern is himself and no-one else – he meets a very timely end as Pitt, against all the odds, manages to overcome the problems and, again, helps the world, in this case with regard to energy resources. A great read.
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LibraryThing member Carol420
Dirk Pitt always finds the way to stop the evil doers. I cannot always figure out what he will do, but I know he will do it. Always a good read.
LibraryThing member jaknowles
Great book
LibraryThing member sdramsey
A fun adventure romp, but the inclusion of Canada as an antagonist state was actually kind of funny to me (yes, I’m Canadian). :)
LibraryThing member mattries37315
Global warming is causing the Artic ice sheet to melt opening the Artic Ocean for the once fabled Northwest Passage and a Canadian businessman plans to do anything including ruining relations between Canada and the United States to exploit resources in the region. Artic Drift is the twentieth book
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of Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series and third with his son Dirk, finds NUMA navigating the quickly troubling waters around Canada to solve not only the threat facing the entire globe but peace between longtime international friends.

The plot begins in the year 1847, when the Franklin Expedition becomes stranded trying to find the Northwest Passage and they experience a harsh winter during which the men are seemingly going mad. Their stranded ships, Erebus and Terror, are loaded with a mysterious, unidentified silvery metal. The story switches to the present day as the United States is in a major energy crisis due to other nations, including Canada, restricting oil and natural gas production due to global warming. The resulting loss of northern icecap has opens resources in the Artic Ocean that a Canadian businessman, Mitchell Goyette, looks to exploit for his bottom line while publicly being seen as an environment-first businessman. Using his extensive bribery network that has ensnared the bellicosely patriotic Canadian Prime Minister and the natural resources Minister that he uses to get the fossil fuel deals he wants and sets up faux “environmental saving” businesses to hide his activities. When President initiates a nationwide effort by the government and scientists to find a solution to crisis, a scientist at George Washington University accidentally discovers a process to break down carbon dioxide but her assistant on the payroll of Goyette informs the businessman’s hitman Clay Zak who attempts to kill her. But wanting to keep the United States out of the Artic, Goyette sets up incidents that appear to be American businesses and military threatening Canadian citizens which quickly spirals into various other international incidents between the two nations almost to the verge of military action. During this Dirk Junior and Summer are studying the waters off Alaska and British Columbia when they come across a boat of dead fishermen who have all died of asphyxiation, one of whom is the brother of a Canadian wildlife scientist Trevor Miller. The three investigate the mysterious deaths under the cover of the Pitt’s NUMA & Canadian sponsored research and find Goyette’s recently opened carbon dioxide storing facility is a front for dumping it into the sea and save a cruise ship from a massive cloud of carbon dioxide. Meanwhile the GWU scientist has meal while Dirk Senior and Loren, telling them of her breakthrough and the need for a rare element in the platinum group. After Dirk Senior saves the scientist after her lab is firebombed by Zak, he goes searching for the element and finds himself in a race with Zak who is attempting to find the element as well so Goyette and corner the market. The trail leads to the Artic and the failed Franklin Expedition. Dirk Senior joins a NUMA expedition to explore ocean floor for thermal vents taking Rudy Gunn’s alongside Al Giordino and Jack Dahlgren. The NUMA ship flying under Canadian colors and avoiding various Canadian government ships get to the area where the missing expedition might have come to an end to find a Goyette owned cargo ship lead by Zak looking for the same thing. Dirk Senior and Zak confront one another in the haul of the Erebus with Zak dying and Pitt coming out very much the worse for wear, but thanks to the arrival of a U.S. sub the NUMA crew gets control of the cargo ship with evidence of the illegal activities to Alaskan waters which leads to the decrease in tensions. As the Canadian government is shaken by the bribery scandal, Trevor Miller gets revenge on Goyette in his own country club. Dirk Senior’s search for the rare element came to not, but the NUMA Artic expedition hits on a motherload of platinum group elements thus allowing the GWU breakthrough to go full speed ahead on combating carbon dioxide.

Since Dirk Cussler joined his father in writing the series, the narratives have been some of the best in the series and this book is no exception. While Dirk and his children tackle the same problem and antagonists, they do so without interaction from the other allowing their respective subplots to develop independently to independent resolutions without attempting to bring together in some complicated way. Having Dirk Senior not able to save the day though his actions were a nice change of pace, but the NUMA discovery would have played out better if the Cussler’s hadn’t changed Rudy’s character to be forgetful about bringing samples back to headquarters to be studied. Though once again the antagonist was a greedy businessman, a trope for many books now, however the main actions were caused by his hired hitman who was one of the better henchmen villains of the series. The only other complaint would be the retconning of the fuel cell technology from Trojan Odyssey that was to solve global warming, though maybe because that book was bad it was decided to ignore somethings about it.

Artic Drift continues the string of strong books that began with Dirk Cussler joined his father Clive in writing the series. Though there are the usual clichés, the overall narrative over comes these and gives the reader an enjoyable time.
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LibraryThing member buffalogr
This story was stretched out way too much but I stuck with it. The good and the evil in the Canadian North was the setting and the goal was solution of the world's global warming problem...awwww, don't it make you feel all warm and fruzzy inside? And, in the little mini-plots, just when you think
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that the hero is done for, a solution appears. Funny, that the director or a major DC agency has time to get out and play in the arctic...and his deputy too. Who's running the shop? Talking to Congress, cajoling Senators? Incredible.
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LibraryThing member Rockhead515
Very cool.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2008-011

Physical description

593 p.; 4.31 inches

ISBN

9780425231456

Barcode

1601974

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