Corsair (Oregon Files) by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul



This is my first Clive Cussler book.

For years I have seen Clive Cussler books sitting there in the book racks - one bestseller after another and I never quite got the itch to buy one. Finally, a family member handed Corsair (Oregon Files) to me and I gave it a tumble.

I've done a bit of peeking at the other reviews and have found that lots of people felt this one was not up to Cussler's usual standards. That could be, I really have no way to judge as this is my first. But, I can say that this book was long on action, very short on believability and full of entertaining, but pointless scenes that didn't advance the plot but did pad the book's length.

Positives:

Commodore Stephen Decatur (1779-1820)
This is not a book that fools around with misbegotten sentiments for the "poor" Somali pirates and Islamic terrorists. Pirates are summarily dealt with and a fictional comment from a real world historical figure (Stephen Decatur) says the following about the Barbary Pirates, which can certainly be applied to terrorists today: "They hate us because we are different from them. But, most important, they hate us because they think they have the right to hate us." (p. 20)

Negatives:

The vehicles are oversized versions of the Batmobile and the Batboat. They have loads and loads and loads of weapons, secret compartments and assorted cables, winches, computers and gas masks stuck in those vehicles. Plus, like the BatVehicles, these vehicles cannot be destroyed and are infinitely adaptable. For me, it got old. The whole train scene was entertaining but is the epitome of this problem.

The captain, Juan Cabrillo owes a debt to Captain Kirk as well. Check out this quote about what Juan would do: " 'That's easy...Take out the bad guys, find the tomb, and somehow manage to bed a local Bedouin girl." (p. 434)

So, now that I've read one, will I be reading any more Clive Cussler books? Maybe, since so many reviewers on Amazon.com noted the things that I thought were annoying. Perhaps an older Dirk Pitt was the place to start.

I rated this book 3 stars out of 5 stars. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Corsair (Oregon Files).

 Reviewed on June 24, 2010.

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