The latest Juan Cabrillo adventure Mirage co-authored by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul is exactly what we expect in an Oregon Files story. The novel is full of action adventure, from the first page to the last.
In this Oregon Files #9 Jack Du Brul takes us from the freezing Siberian cold, to the much shrunken Aral Sea, to the Atlantic and the Bermuda, and finally to the South China Sea for the climax. Juan Cabrillo, as the Chairman of The Corporation which operates the super-spy ship Oregon has his hands full with the rogue Russian Admiral Pytor Kenin in the Mirage.
In this novel Du Brul and Cussler have spun a story around a mysterious invisible ship, supposed to have been envisioned by Nikola Tesla and engineered to start a war between China, Japan and the US by the villain. There is also a sub-plot about Iraqi billions in a container, which looks to have been inspired by the 2010 movie, The A-Team.
Of late, Cussler’s stories and The Oregon Files in particular seem to be comically unrealistic. Agreed that a storyteller is entitled to take liberties with facts to spin a good one, but if the writer is inconsistent and starts to mix up his own conceptions, the story becomes a bit cartoonish.
For instance, in the Mirage, Cabrillo is averse to landing the Sikorsky on a converted car-carrier for the fear of buckling her deck and damaging the helicopter. But earlier he has no such qualms about safety when he actually lands the same helicopter on the submerged hull of an overturned cruise ship. Even if we forget about buckling, the question about the submerged hull’s stability is conveniently forgotten.
Leaving such inconsistencies aside, the Mirage is a fun book to read. It takes us on an adventure trip which can make us forget the present and keep us engaged for hours - like when we are stuck at the airport with the winter disarray.
I used Grammarly's proofreading software because “Grammarly, utterly, betterly, makes it writerly”
In this Oregon Files #9 Jack Du Brul takes us from the freezing Siberian cold, to the much shrunken Aral Sea, to the Atlantic and the Bermuda, and finally to the South China Sea for the climax. Juan Cabrillo, as the Chairman of The Corporation which operates the super-spy ship Oregon has his hands full with the rogue Russian Admiral Pytor Kenin in the Mirage.
In this novel Du Brul and Cussler have spun a story around a mysterious invisible ship, supposed to have been envisioned by Nikola Tesla and engineered to start a war between China, Japan and the US by the villain. There is also a sub-plot about Iraqi billions in a container, which looks to have been inspired by the 2010 movie, The A-Team.
Of late, Cussler’s stories and The Oregon Files in particular seem to be comically unrealistic. Agreed that a storyteller is entitled to take liberties with facts to spin a good one, but if the writer is inconsistent and starts to mix up his own conceptions, the story becomes a bit cartoonish.
For instance, in the Mirage, Cabrillo is averse to landing the Sikorsky on a converted car-carrier for the fear of buckling her deck and damaging the helicopter. But earlier he has no such qualms about safety when he actually lands the same helicopter on the submerged hull of an overturned cruise ship. Even if we forget about buckling, the question about the submerged hull’s stability is conveniently forgotten.
Leaving such inconsistencies aside, the Mirage is a fun book to read. It takes us on an adventure trip which can make us forget the present and keep us engaged for hours - like when we are stuck at the airport with the winter disarray.
I used Grammarly's proofreading software because “Grammarly, utterly, betterly, makes it writerly”
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