Vixen 03 - Clive Cussler (Audiobook)

Audiobook Reader:  Michael Pritchard

Books on Tape, 1993

Originally published by Viking Press, 1978

Listened to April 2012, at age 34

First time listened to

This is the fifth book in the “Dirk Pitt” series of novels.  This is the first book that feels like the author has hit his stride.  A reasonable place to start.

Publisher’s summary via Books On Tape:

Vixen 03, a plane bound for the Pacific, vanishes. She carries 36 Doomsday bombs, so called for their contents.... germs of unbelievable potency. Panic is in the air.

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. The group's lethal mission: to sail a battleship 75 miles up the Potomac and blast Washington, D.C. to kingdom come. Only Dirk can stop it. 

Reactions:

Overall:

I listened to this book over quite a while ago, over a long time in short little snatches here and there.  And then I moved, and started to try and get ahead of the mountain of jobs on my to-do list around the new house.  As a result, this is a really short review.

·       At least one female character (Congresswoman Smith) is starting to verge on being a real person.  There’s not nearly as much of the blatant stereotyping or misogeny as in the early books.

·       The plot flowed well.  We got to see Dirk being all heroic and solving mysteries.  The plot didn't seem forced.

·       The book felt like I've been expecting the Dirk Pitt books to feel like.  I think Mr. Cussler hit his stride here, and from now on, most of these books will be variations on this formula. (edit Oct. 2013:  boy was I wrong.  There's a large section of books where presidents and other big players take up huge swathes of the books and things keep getting bigger before they start to settle down to the scale of this book)

·       The audiobook reader did well.  I have no complaints there.

Rating: 3

Other Opinions:

Not much out there.  If you’ve found or written something more, please leave me a note in the comments.  I’d like to read more.

Audiobook version:

Audiobook Heaven

Nice plot synopsis.  The reviewer apparently didn’t follow the story early on.

Dead tree version:

Chamber of Reviews

Incredibly detailed plot summary, with a little bit of review at the end.  Similar thoughts to mine.