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Book Review: Arctic Drift,
a Dirk Pitt Novel, by Clive Cussler
As usual, Clive Cussler stays right on top of current world events in his latest Dirk
Pitt novel, Arctic Drift. This time, not surprisingly,
the book set in the year 2011 revolves around the financial crisis and global warming.
The villain this time around is a Canadian billionaire named Mitchell Goyette who is
publicly admired for his green industry empire. However, covertly he is heavily invested
in the dirty oil and gas industries.
The United States faces a financial meltdown, aggravated by the threat of an international
boycott if the country does not decrease its carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired
power plants. Canada holds the key to America's salvation in the form or an enormous
wealth of natural gas reserves.
The American president in 2011, when the story takes place, plans to use natural gas from
Canada to replace both coal and automobile gasoline, thereby killing two birds with one
stone. The nation would make huge savings by cutting down on expensive oil imports, and
simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions by burning a cleaner fuel.
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.)
But Goyette's double-dealing with China and the U.S. pales in comparison to some of his
other crimes, which include political assassination, intentional dumping of toxic waste
that kills humans and wildlife, theft, vandalizing, bribery of high ranking officials, and
worst of all, nearly instigating a war between Canada and the U.S.
The only fly in Goyette's ointment goes by the name of Dirk Pitt, Clive Cussler's action
hero of 35 years. In the end Pitt prevails over Goyette, and multiple crises are averted.
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.)
All in all, Arctic Drift is an excellent action thriller.
It's does not have the cover-to-cover non-stop action of some of the older Dirk Pitt
novels by Cussler, but it does have quite enough action, plus the story line is brilliant
and intriguing and keeps you wanting to read more. And as always in Dirk Pitt's world, the
villains are as clever as they are evil, and the heroes as pure as Arctic snow.
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