Book Review – Clive Cussler’s “Shock Wave”

Today we’re taking a look at Clive Cussler‘s Shock Wave, the thirteenth book in Cussler’s main series of books.

The events in this story loosely follow those from Inca Gold and the previous books.

Shock Wave begins with a prologue that takes place in 1856.

Captain Charles “Billy” Scaggs is one of the top naval captains in England.  He’s in charge of the Gladiator, a transport carrying a cargo of prisoners bound for prisons in Australia when his ship is hit by a storm while sailing through the Bass Strait between Tasmania and southern Australia.  When the ship doesn’t arrive in its destination two weeks later, it’s presumed to be permanently lost at sea.

In reality, the Gladiator survived the storm but it was badly damaged.  The captain ordered the remains of the ship to be converted into a raft.  The prisoners and as many provisions as possible were transferred to the raft before the remains of the ship finally sank.  Captain Scaggs set a course for New Zealand, but it was an agonizing slow pace.  Food and fresh water began to run low, and the prisoners grew restless while sitting in the hot sun all day.  It was just a matter of time before they rebelled and tried to attack Captain Scaggs and his crew.  The rebellion was stopped, but most of the prisoners were killed, and nearly all of the captain’s crew was either killed or injured.

The remains of the raft and its crew finally land on a deserted island.  It takes two years before Captain Scaggs and a couple of able-bodied men can build a strong enough raft to sail to Australia.  Two of the convicts, Jess Dorsett and Betsy Fletcher, get married and remain behind on the island.  They have a couple of kids and discover a source of valuable diamonds.  Their sons ultimately receive passage to England where they both receive top educations, and Jess and Betsy begin a trading business with passing ships.  In time, their company will ultimately expand into the diamond exchange and become one of the richest companies in the world.

Fast forward to January of 2000.

The cruise ship Polar Queen has dropped a load of passengers off at Seymour Island, an island off the coast of Antarctica.  Led by marine biologist Maeve Fletcher, the small group of people go sightseeing at an old whaling station.  When they enter a cave that was used by the whaling crew, suddenly they’re hit by a mysterious “disease” that causes tremendous pressure on their head and ears.  The attack ends just as mysteriously as it began, and everybody who was inside the cave soon recovers.  However, the few people who were outside of the cave had died from the strange attack.

The same goes true for the nearby flock of penguins.  Thousands of the birds had all suddenly dropped dead.  To make matters worse, the Polar Queen fails to return to the coast and pick up the shore excursion as planned.  The survivors have to stay inside of the cave and hope for a miracle, or they’ll all eventually die from exposure to the elements.

Help arrives by the name of Dirk Pitt, the special projects director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA).  NUMA had a ship in the area and Pitt happened to overfly the island and spot the abandoned boat that ferried people to the island.  He landed the helicopter and discovered Maeve and the other people.  With the help of Al Giordino, the two of them shuttled the survivors to the NUMA ship, and they all make a full recovery.

Once the passengers are rescued, Dirk and Al fly around the area and eventually locate the Polar Queen.  The ship’s crew is dead and the boat is heading towards an iceberg.  Dirk makes a daring jump from the helicopter to the ship, and he manages to maneuver the ship away from the iceberg.  He then discovers that not everybody on board the ship is dead.  Deirdre Dorsett just happened to be in the ship’s freezer when the mysterious “disease” struck the ship and killed whatever passengers and crew that were still on board.

When Deirdre arrives on the NUMA ship, we learn that she and Maeve are sisters.  Maeve had taken the family name of Fletcher from her great-grandmother, Betsy Fletcher.  It’s clear though that there’s some bad blood between the girls, but we don’t know why they dislike each other.

Before Dirk can ask Maeve about her relationship to her sister, he and Al Giordino are summoned by Admiral James Sandecker, the head of NUMA, and ordered to return to NUMA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, there’s another sudden attack by the mysterious killing disease.  A passing ship spots a nearby cargo ship that isn’t answering any radio calls.  A boarding party soon discovers that the entire crew is dead.  All of them died while still manning their positions on the ship.  Whatever killed them was a horrific experience.  Before anything else is noticed, suddenly the cargo ship explodes in a tremendous fireball.  The entire boarding party is killed, and they go down with the ship.  The surviving crew on the other ship spot a futuristic yacht racing away from the scene.

At NUMA’s headquarters, the mysterious deaths in the Pacific Ocean are discussed.  It’s theorized that the disease is actually a form of an acoustic plague, but it’s not yet known how the plague forms or what’s responsible for creating it.  When Al Giordino researches the futuristic yacht, he discovers that it’s owned by Boudicca Dorsett, the third sister of Maeve and Deirdre.  The girls’ father is none other than Arthur Dorsett, the ruthless owner of Dorsett Consolidated Mining Company, one of the top gemstone mining companies in the world.  Arthur Dorsett has incredibly deep pockets and his reach knows no boundaries.

It’s soon discovered that the acoustic plague is caused by the convergence of sound waves from one of four sources around the Pacific:  Gladiator Island, one of the Commander Islands, Kunghit Island, and Easter Island.  Coincidentally, all of those islands have mining operations operated by Dorsett’s company.  Since Kunghit Island is part of Canada, Dirk Pitt decides to infiltrate and research the island himself, hopefully finding a clue as to the acoustic plague.

Using the help of Mason Broadmoor, a Native American fisherman, he and Dirk infiltrate the Dorsett mining operation on the island.  There Dirk meets with a disgruntled employee (Clive Cussler) and is given a tour of the mine and the acoustic equipment used to speed up the digging process.  When Dirk tries to leave the island, his cover is blown and he’s briefly captured by Boudicca Dorsett.  Dirk escapes with the help of Mason, and the two of them make a clean getaway.

Back in the U.S., Dirk reunites with Maeve while at a party, and he helps her escape from the Dorsett workers assigned to keep an eye on her.  Back at Dirk’s home, Maeve explains that her two sons were kidnapped by Arthur Dorsett.  If she doesn’t do as instructed, then Dorsett is likely to kill them.  Of course, Dirk isn’t going to allow for that to happen.  He hatches a plan where he, Al and Maeve will covertly infiltrate Arthur Dorsett’s home on Gladiator Island and rescue Maeve’s boys, removing them from the equation.

That plan is fouled when the gang is intercepted before they could board the NUMA ship Ocean Angler in New Zealand.  It turns out that Dorsett had a spy in NUMA, but it’s never revealed who was doing the spying.  The three of them are placed in front of Arthur Dorsett himself on board his yacht.  When questioned about his motives, Arthur reveals that he intends on flooding the market with diamonds, making them nearly worthless.  He’s been purchasing companies that have been mining colored gemstones, such as rubies and emeralds.  He intends on doing a massive marketing campaign for the colored gemstones and raise demand for them.  Since Dorsett owns about 80% of the colored gemstone mining companies, he’s poised to make a fortune.  Deirdre and Boudicca are in on the plan, but Maeve has been against her family’s actions for years.

Dorestt then decides to kill Dirk, Al and Maeve by stranding them on a small boat in the middle of the vacant Tasmanian Sea, in the direct path of an approaching tropical cyclone.  It’s a death warrant.  Using their sailing and survival skills, Dirk and Al manage to keep their boat afloat during the cyclone, and the three of them survive.  They then spend some time floating on the water, surviving by catching fish and drinking rainwater.  They eventually spot and land on a small deserted island.

On the island, they discover the wrecked remains of another sailboat.  Using parts of both boats, the gang assembles a new vessel and makes sail for Gladiator Island.

Meanwhile, NUMA computer expert Hiram Yaeger has run simulations and discovered that he can accurately predict when the acoustic waves will converge and create the deadly acoustic plague.  Their next convergence is going to take place on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.  Admiral Sandecker tries to warn the President of the United States, but Dorsett’s reach into the U.S. government sways the president’s opinion on the matter.  The admiral is on his own if he’s to save the people in Oahu.

It turns out that Admiral Sandecker creates a plan of using a giant satellite dish to reflect the sound waves and redirect them back to its source.  A satellite dish is disassembled in Hawaii and transported and reassembled off the coast of Oahu.  It’s placed into position moments before the deadly sound waves arrive.  The sound waves hit the satellite dish and are successfully sent back to Gladiator Island.

In the southern Pacific Ocean, Dirk, Al and Maeve infiltrate Gladiator Island.  They beat and kill their way through Dorsett’s security force.  Inside of the house, Dirk beats and kills Arthur Dorsett and then Al Giordino gets his revenge against Boudicca.  After Boudicca is killed, it’s revealed that “she” is really a man.

Dirk, Al, Maeve and her two boys make their way to Arthur Dorsett’s yacht.  The yacht also serves as a mobile helipad, and the plan is to use Dorsett’s helicopter to flee the island.  At that moment the acoustic waves strike Gladiator Island and shake the island’s two volcanoes, causing them to erupt.  To make matters worse, Deirdre was hiding on the yacht.  She shoots and fatally wounds Maeve, and Dirk attacks and mortally wounds Deirdre.  Dirk had also been injured, and he forces Al to fly away with Maeve’s boys on the helicopter before the deadly ash cloud from the volcanoes reaches the yacht.

Al takes off and flies away just ash cloud hits the yacht.  Dirk had managed to get the yacht’s engines started and the ship underway.  He barely survives the effects of the pyroclastic ash cloud, but Maeve dies from that and her gunshot injury.  Al later returns with Admiral Sandecker (he had flown to New Zealand on a supersonic military jet), and they rescue Dirk from the yacht.

Shock Wave ends with Dirk Pitt recovering in the hospital and then returning home to a celebration.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So is Clive Cussler’s Shock Wave a good story?

Yes and no.

In Shock Wave, Cussler returns to his roots and focuses much of the action on the water.  There are tales of fierce storms, people surviving on rafts, hungry sharks, a variety of ships from large vessels to personal watercraft, and even a sea serpent named Basil.  Shock Wave also involves its share of aircraft, though it’s mostly helicopters this time around.

It’s really the diabolical plot of the villain where this story fails.  There’s no question that Arthur Dorsett and two of his daughters are evil people.  No problems there.  But considering that Arthur Dorsett is already filthy rich, why does he want to become even more wealthy?  All that’s really mentioned is that he just wants to be an extremely wealthy person, and he’s willing to murder people to make that become a reality.

Arthur Dorsett is not using his acoustic convergence to wreck economies or sink ships.  Nor is he plotting to become the leader of a country.  He just wants to go from being very rich to being super rich at the cost of angering the major diamond companies.  This story could have been salvaged if the other diamond companies went to war against Dorsett, putting private armies against each other, just like drug cartels.

Unfortunately, that does not happen.  Cussler has a lame plot involving the villain, and that weakness downgrades the entire book.  This story could have been much better if Arthur Dorsett had alternate plans.

Shock Wave is still a decent story, just don’t get your hopes up for a good villain.