Book Review: Artic Drift by Clive & Dirk Cussler

Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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 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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