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Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt novels often focus on one or more current geopolitical events. The latest one, Arctic Drift, is no different, centering on a worldwide financial crisis in 2011, coupled with global warming woes.
The crook in Arctic Drift is a Canadian energy empire billionaire by the name of Mitchell Goyette who is publicly admired for his green technology businesses, while concealing his heavy involvement in natural gas and oil.
South of the Canadian border, the United States faces a financial crisis of unequaled of proportions, a crisis intensified by the looming boycott of the U.S. by the international community if the country does not cut its greenhouse gas emissions from coal burning and automobiles.
The American president pins his hopes on Canadian natural gas to replace the coal used in many of the country’s electricity generating power plants, as well as the gasoline used in cars. The U.S. would thereby make substantial savings on expensive imported oil, while at the same time being able to meet the international demand to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
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.
Of course, what Goyette fails to take into consideration is Dirk Pitt, the hero of twenty novels by Clive Cussler, including this most recent installment. In the end, Pitt manages to wreak havoc with all of Goyette’s ill-willed plans.
Arctic Drift is an excellent and seamless co-authorship between Clive Cussler and his son, Dirk Cussler. It is hard to tell the penmanship of one apart from the other throughout the book. Whatever sections Dirk Cussler wrote, he did an excellent job of adopting Clive’s inimitable style. (That’s an intentional oxymoron.)
The book is an excellent and thrilling read; perhaps not cover-to-cover on-the-edge-of-your-seat excitement, as some of the older Dirk Pitt adventures. But the book makes up for it with a solid, steady and thoroughly enjoyable story that is brilliantly written, with thugs that are as sharp and capable as they are unscrupulous, and heroes as pure as Arctic ice.
Britt Hellman lives in Western North Carolina with her spouse and three children. She operates her own copywriting business from home. Clive Cussler has been one of her favorite authors since reading 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.
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Posted in Literature · November 16th, 2009 · Comments (0)
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Posted in Writing · November 16th, 2009 · Comments (25)