Helen Writings
As always, Clive Cussler’s latest novel stays right on top of current geopolitical events. Arctic Drift, set in 2011, centers on global warming and the financial crisis.
The villain this time around is a Canadian billionaire named Mitchell Goyette who is publicly admired for his green industry empire. However, covertly he is heavily invested in the dirty oil and gas industries.
The United States faces a financial meltdown, aggravated by the threat of an international boycott if the country does not decrease its carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants. Canada holds the key to America’s salvation in the form or an enormous wealth of natural gas reserves.
The sitting American president, who in 2011 is neither Democratic nor Republican but an independent, hopes to use Canadian natural gas to replace coal for producing electricity and even for powering cars converted to run on natural gas.
This desperate American play gets exploited by the industrialist Goyette to the fullest. Officially, he is the hero of the green movement because of his heavy investments in wind power and carbon dioxide sequestering. Unofficially, he holds a major interest in the Athabasca oil sands of Alberta, as well as the entire Melville natural gas field in the Canadian Arctic.
The unconscionable Goyette strikes a deal with the American government to sell nearly limitless supplies of Melville natural gas at market value, which would help the U.S. avert the escalating energy crisis, a financial meltdown, and an international trade boycott. But when Goyette is able to secretly work out a better deal with China, he does not hesitate to break his agreement with the U.S. and leave the southern neighbor high and dry.
(In reality, it seems a little farfetched that the American government would not have had an iron-clad, legally binding, written contract in place for a deal of this magnitude and importance. But it makes for a good story.)
However, Goyette’s double-dealing with the U.S. and China may actually be the least of his crimes. He’s also guilty of assassination, bribing politicians, creating toxic waste that kills people and wildlife, and almost instigating a war between the U.S. and Canada.
What Goyette does not count on, of course, is Dirk Pitt, the hero of 20 Clive Cussler books, including this latest installment. In the end, good prevails over evil.
Arctic Drift is a seamless joint effort between Clive Cussler and son, Dirk Cussler. It is difficult to tell their penmanship apart. Whatever sections of the book were written by Dirk Cussler, he did an outstanding job of emulating his father’s inimitable style. (Oxymoron intended!)
All in all, Arctic Drift is an excellent action thriller. It’s does not have the cover-to-cover non-stop action of some of the older Dirk Pitt novels by Cussler, but it does have quite enough action, plus the story line is brilliant and intriguing and keeps you wanting to read more. And as always in Dirk Pitt’s world, the villains are as clever as they are evil, and the heroes as pure as Arctic snow.
Britt Hellman lives in North Carolina with her husband and three children. She runs her own copywriting business from home. Clive Cussler has been one of her favorite writers since she read his Trojan Odyssey, a Dirk Pitt Novel, in 2003. She writes reviews like this one on Arctic Drift for the fun of sharing that excitement.
Tags: action, book, Entertainment, Literature, story
Posted in Literature · November 15th, 2009 · Comments (0)