Polar Shift: A Novel from the Numa Files

Any novel from Clive Cussler is worth a read if you want escapism and adventure. This one is no exception with the usual mix of humour, evil villians intent on world domination and a pretty girl. As always the science is plausible even if the dwarf mammoths are a little far fetched. What really lets this one down, I thought, is a limp ending. Cussler normally keeps the tension going for a while with twist or two but this one just stopped with the hero (Kurt Austin) winning at the first attempt. It won't stop me reading more of Mr Cusler's excellent novels, however. More please.........

Not my favorite work by a good writer (1/2 people found this helpful)

Bulging muscles blond hair, and fighting orcas who are trying to eat him... Not exactly the sort of deep meaningful characterization for a protagonist I am looking for in a book, but the action was fun. The pacing wasn't bad. It is a good read, so don't be turned off by my opinion if you are a Cussler fan. I loved raise the titanic.

Heart-Pounding Surprises Threaten Kurt Austin and the NUMA Special Assignments Team (1/1 people found this helpful)

I strongly encourage you to listen to the unabridged CD narrated by Scott Brick instead of reading this book. Brick has a wonderful way with voices and accents that give the story depth and suspense you won't find on the printed page.

The book opens in the closing days of the Second World War in East Prussia as a shadowy Austrian escorts a renowned Hungarian scientist away from the advancing Soviets. The Austrian turns out to be a member of the resistance who wants the scientist's knowledge to remain secret from governments that might use that knowledge to create super weapons. This part of the story is as vivid as any great World War II spy novel I've read.

Moving to the present, an enormous container ship finds itself facing unprecedented large waves. How will it survive? You'll find yourself enjoying some of the strong emotions that A Perfect Storm provided.

Kurt Austin is leading a kayak race when he's suddenly attacked by a killer whale. That shouldn't be happening. What's going on?
Next, the Trouts are off taking some sea water samples when they find themselves unexpectedly drawn into a giant whirlpool. The rescue attempt is simply scintillating!

From there, you'll learn a lot about geology and how the Earth creates electromagnetic waves.

Kurt Austin soon perceives that there's a hidden key to the mysterious events and it all seems to be tied up to a beautiful young scientist who has a theory she's trying to prove about the extinction of woolly mammoths. Others get the same idea ahead of Austin. Can he arrive in time to save her? What other surprises await him?

As an interlude, you'll also experience a most unusual Civil War reenactment.

Starting the book with so many interesting incidents sets a high expectation for what's to come. Unfortunately, the book's ending offers a high octane threat to keep you interested . . . but the resolution doesn't satisfy the desire for one more great sequence to cap what is otherwise an extremely interesting thriller.

The book has a very interesting theme about the potential to use resources for good or evil purposes. I encourage you to draw on that theme to think about resources that are almost always used in harmful ways. How could those resources be used instead for almost always helpful results?

Enjoy this whale of a tale or two!

Another Terrific Read (4/8 people found this helpful)

Clive Cussler was born in 1931 and grew up in Alhambra, California. He attended Pasadena City College before joining the Air Force. He went on to a successful advertising career, winning many national honours for his copywriting. He has also explored the deserts of the American Southwest in search of lost gold mines, dived in isolated lakes in the Rocky Mountains looking for lost aircraft and hunted under the sea for shipwrecks of historic significance, discovering and identifying more than sixty. He is married with three children, and divides his time between Colorado and Arizona. His credentials as a best selling author cannot be doubted and he has a large `stable' of best selling adventure novels.

Polar shift is the name for a phenomenon that may have occurred countless times in the life of the plant earth. At the very least it disorients birds and animals and does untold damage to electrical equipment. At its worst many of the worlds `natural' disasters, earthquakes, eruptions and climatic changes. can be attributed to it. If we follow it to its conclusions the worst thing that this phenomenon could cause is the demise of all living things.

A lifetime ago an eccentric Hungarian discovered how to artificially trigger a Polar Shift, but then his work was lost from sight, or so it was thought. Now the leader of a group of people plans to use the work to give the world's industrialized nations a jolt and then reverse the shift back again. What he does not realise is that the shift cannot be reversed. Once it starts there is nothing anyone can do to stop

Another Winner for the Author (4/7 people found this helpful)

Polar Shift: A Novel from the Numa Files

Clive Cussler

Reader Reviews:

Ripping yarn, poor finish! (0/0 people found this helpful)

Not my favorite work by a good writer (1/2 people found this helpful)

Heart-Pounding Surprises Threaten Kurt Austin and the NUMA Special Assignments Team (1/1 people found this helpful)

Another Terrific Read (4/8 people found this helpful)

Another Winner for the Author (4/7 people found this helpful)

Similar Products

Categories