Great Escapes Entertain While the Epilogue Lands with an Embarrassing Thud
|
I love Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul, but if they don't do better in future books in the Oregon Files series they won't keep me as a reader.
The base story of Plague Ship could have only come from the imaginative mind of Clive Cussler. Jack Du Brul is a brilliant writer when it comes to describing difficult escapes.
Unfortunately, the base story overwhelmed Jack Du Brul so that the book is threadbare in character development, almost devoid of menace derived from the villain's plots, and missing obvious elements to make the book's premises more credible. I found myself wondering why the book was so poorly constructed except in the excellent escape sequences involving the crew of the Oregon.
The book opens with a historical sketch involving a Nazi reconnaissance plane looking for a convoy headed for Russia. I liked the opening. But in the epilogue, Du Brul fails to make enough of a connection between the two sections for the concept to work. I doubt if Cussler even read the two sections. A rookie editor could have made suggestions that would have helped.
From there the book picks up as the Oregon's crew seeks to verify for the CIA that the Russians are selling advanced torpedoes to the Iranians. It
is a grand adventure, and an even grander escape. The book drifts sideways on locating a derelict vessel littered with dead bodies. The book then dives downward quality-wise in describing a cult that favors reducing the world's population. Except for interruptions for interesting escapes, I found the rest of the book to be less and less interesting.
In giving the book three stars, I would say Plague Ship went from five stars down to dribbling along at two stars and ending at one star in the epilogue.
I wouldn't suggest that you avoid this book, but don't have very high expectations either.
|
|
|
