- Dragon -
by Clive Cussler
Simon
& Schuster, 1990
Price on dust jacket $21.95
Number line 10-1
ISBN # 0-671-62619-1
From the dust jacket, "August 1945: A lone B-29
takes off from Alaska for the long flight to Japan,
bearing the third atomic bomb as back-up to the Hiroshima
and Nagasaki bombs. Shot down just short of its target,
the plane crashes into the sea, taking its secret
to the bottom. In the aftermath of the war, its very
existence is denied, then forgotten. October 1993:
A new Japanese empire has emerged, one relying upon
financial power rather than military prowess. An uneasy
America, increasingly under siege from the economic
might of its "ally," remains unaware of
the lengths to which some Japanese may be willing
to go to ensure Japan's dominance. Unaware, that is,
until a huge Japanese auto carrier carrying thousands
of "Murmoto" cars made by the mysterious
Hideki Suma is destroyed - by a nuclear explosion...
In Dragon, his most thrilling and entertaining novel
to date, Clive Cussler deftly mixes recent history
with some of our deepest fears. He has created a masterpiece
of suspense, in which it is once again up to the inimitable
Dirk Pitt to defuse a terrifying threat to world peace.
From the icy Alaska coast to a tropical paradise in
the Pacific, Dragon describes an astonishing and brutal
conspiracy, aimed at forcing the West into final acceptance
of Japan's world leadership. With infinite patience
and ruthlessness, the conspirators have laid their
plans so well that America lies helpless before the
complex Japanese plot... Dirk Pitt, Cussler's brilliantly
conceived hero - described by The New York Times Book
Review as an "endearing blend of Boy Scout, Doc
Savage, and James Bond" - is the one man who
can foil the conspirators and stop the Japanese plan
before Armageddon is unleashed. Whether exploring
the ocean floor five kilometers below the surface,
or fighting an evil samurai-inspired Japanese thug,
saber against traditional katana to the death, Pitt
is always one step ahead of his adversaries. From
the secret underground vault where he uncovers Nazi
treasurers protected for decades by instantly fatal
nerve gas, to a hardware store in a suburban Maryland
town where he fends off an attack by ninja-suited
warriors, Pitt is a virtual one-man army of skill
and daring, reacting to every crisis with his usual
charm, good humor, and brilliant inventiveness, as
successful with the ladies as he is in his feats of
derring-do. But can any one man defeat the cunning
and might of the new Japan when it mobilizes its vast
technological resources and its ancient warrior traditions?
For Dirk Pitt, in his biggest adventure yet, the answer
could mean death. For the United States - defeat and
enslavement."
In
Dragon, Clive Cussler has Dirk Pitt in one of his
most incredible adventures.