|
|
Executive Times |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
2007 Book Reviews |
|||
|
|
The
Navigator by Clive Cussler |
|||
|
Rating: |
** |
|||
|
|
(Mildly Recommended) |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Click on
title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Consistent The latest
predictable and formulaic novel from Clive Cussler
is titled The
Navigator, and is part of the Kurt Austin series. As expected, the good
guys are consistently virtuous, and the bad guys are ruthlessly evil. The
competence of the good guys overcomes all avarice. Readers who want this
clarity and enjoy adventure tales will enjoy The
Navigator, while readers who prefer more brain engagement will find
little exercise on these pages. Here’s an excerpt, all of Chapter 2, pp.
38-40: The
pavement shook under the treads of the twenty-five-ton Bradley Fighting Vehicle, warning of
the troop carrier’s approach long before it rumbled into view. By the time
the vehicle had turned the corner and rolled down the boulevard, the man
who’d been making his way along the deserted storefronts had slipped into an
alley. He ducked into a doorway, where he would be invisible to the vehicle’s
night vision scope. The
man watched the vehicle until it disappeared around another corner before he
ventured from the alley. The thud of bombs that had presaged the advance of
the American-led forces had stopped. The rattle of small-arms fire was
constant but sporadic. Except for the firefights that ensued as the invaders
mopped up pockets of resistance, there had been a pause in the battle as the
coalition and the remnants of the defenders considered their next step. He
passed a defaced statue of Saddam Hussein, and walked another ten minutes
until he came to a side street. Using a penlight that cast a thin red beam,
he studied a city map, then he tucked the map and
light back into his pocket and turned down the street. Although
he was a big man, several inches over six feet, he moved through the
pitch-dark city as silently as a shadow. His stealth was a skill he had
developed through weeks of training at a camp run by former members of the
French Foreign Legion, U.S. Delta Force, and British Special Ops. He could
infiltrate the most heavily guarded installation to carry out his mission.
Although he was adept in the use of a dozen different methods of
assassination, his weapon of choice was the crushing strength in his large,
thick-fingered hands. He
had come a long way from his humble beginnings. His family had been living
in a small town in the south of It
almost hadn’t happened. He had strangled an annoying coworker to death over a
petty argument. Charged with murder, he had languished in jail while
headlines made much of the fact that he was the son of the man who had been One
day, the man who would become his benefactor arrived at the jailhouse in a
chauffeur-driven car. He sat in the cell and told the young man, “You have a
proud and glorious past and a great future.” The
youth listened with rapt attention as the stranger talked about the family’s
service to the state. He knew that the youth’s father had been put out of
work after the garrote machine was retired in 1974, ho~ he had changed his
name and retreated to a small farm, where the family pursued a pitiful,
subsistence living, and died, penniless and brokenhearted, leaving a widow
and child. His
benefactor wanted the young man to work for him. He paid off the jailers and
the judge, gave the grieving family more money than the dead chicken plucker could have earned in a hundred lifetimes, and
the charges against the young man disappeared. He was sent to a private
school, where he learned several languages, and, after he graduated, he was
trained in military skills. The professional killers who took him under their
wing recognized, as had his benefactor, that he was a talented student. Soon
he was being sent on solo missions to remove those who were selected by his
benefactor. The phone call would come with instructions, the mission would
be carried out, and money would be deposited in his Swiss bank account. Before
coming to He
had been disappointed to learn that his assignment was not to kill but to
arrange for the removal of an object from the He
studied the map again and grunted with satisfaction. He was minutes away from
his destination. Having “grunted
with satisfaction,” you know this character is one of the bad guys. Kurt
would never grunt. I’ve wondered why Mattel hasn’t come out with a Kurt Austin
action figure doll to be sold with each book. Maybe attracting younger
readers would be another way to extend this brand. In the meantime, those
readers looking for consistent writing packed with action and adventure will
enjoy The
Navigator. Steve Hopkins,
July 25, 2007 |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
Go to Executive Times
Archives |
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the August 2007
issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The
Navigator.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
