Dead Cant Rant

This is one of the sloppiest-written books I have ever had the misfortune of wasting precious time to read. I had hoped to be entertained as it is a Cussler book — I mean, this is THE Clive Cussler we’re talking about. However, as this was the first Cussler book I’ve read, I can only hope it was written by the co-author using Cussler’s universe and characters, otherwise (a) Cussler is a very bad writer, and (b) the fans who can’t wait to get more are apparently very simple minded and easy to entertain.

The plot twists and the science are both very interesting, but the character development is almost non-existent; all of the NUMA agents have the same “daredevil” attitude, and all the villains are of the megalomaniacal bent. Completely unrealistic. (although I recently read a study that claimed virtually all of the “heroes” in popular fiction are sociopaths — this novel could be that study’s Exhibit A) The writing is stilted and the transitions jarring, and dialogue between characters will go on for a page or more without any context causing you to lose track of who is speaking to whom.

Besides, if you find out about a plot that will effectively annihilate the world, wouldn’t you at some point talk to, oh I don’t know, the President? Maybe get some additional help from the NSA, CIA, military, FBI, and other governments as well? Wouldn’t these folks be priority 1 targets? Wouldn’t there be better ways to deal with stopping this than staging BS visits to try and “talk” the bad guys out of going forward with their plans to destroy the planet? Wouldn’t there be something better to do than to visit a Civil War re-enactment to track down the head of the agency so you can brief him hours before the event is supposed to happen? Shouldn’t you have done that earlier? Especially when the re-enactment scene exists solely to demonstrate the author’s “superior” knowledge of Manassas and the historical relevance of steamer race cars. Who cares?

I mean, really, this is just an incredibly bad book. The only thing worse than reading it would have been actually reading it to the end. What a ridiculous waste of life energy. It should be a crime to be suckered into reading a book like this. I’m thinking class-action lawsuit for undue suffering and mental anguish.