Trojan Odyssey (Dirk Pitt Book 17) - Clive Cussler

Title: Trojan Odyssey
Author: Clive Cussler
Genre: Adventure
Published: 2003
Formats: Hardback/Paperback/Ebook


Available at:
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Review:
"Trojan Odyssey" is one of Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt adventure novels, a series of books which kept me thoroughly entertained as a teenager. I have to admit that over the last 10 years I more or less stopped reading them, not because of a lack of enjoyment, but because I had begun to increase the range of books I was reading. However, when I saw this book in a local library I decided that I may as well try and re-ignite old pleasures.

The story starts with a Hurricane in the Caribbean threatening a floating super hotel in the Caribbean. Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino soon get involved to try and avert the potential tragedy that is brewing and in doing so unwittingly unlock the beginning of an adventure which results in them being pitted against a sinister corporation. I can’t really reveal much more than this without ruining the twists and turns of the story.

I actually found the plot to be a little bit too silly at times. It basically reminded me of some of the more outrageous aspects of the James Bond movies that starred Roger Moore. The comic elements of the Dirk Pitt novels do tend to help the reader to accept the ludicrous plot points but sometimes this novel went a bit too far into the absurd. None of this was helped by the fact that several of the side stories seemed to be very weakly related to each other and I think several of them could easily have been cut without affecting the story. However, one redeeming feature of the plot is that there are some interesting sections of the novel about Homer's Odyssey in which it is claimed that this story was actually set in Britain.

The writing itself is pure Cussler, it is fast paced, action packed and full of humour. The relationship between Pitt and Giordino continues to be thoroughly and I really enjoyed the signs that both of them were now beginning to get older, and that they were equally self-aware of this fact. I am not sure that Dirk’s son and daughter who are obviously being set up to replace the ageing pair are going to engage me in the same manner but I will need to wait and see.

Overall, this was an entertaining entry in the Dirk Pitt series of novels but it was probably one of the least enjoyable. Not because it wasn't engaging, funny or action packed, but because it was just missing the odd element of realism. I can forgive that in a fantasy book, but in a novel set in the real world, it just detracted from the story’s impact. There was still enough here however to ensure that I will likely return to the world of Dirk Pitt sooner rather than later.