Point of View

There is no narrator, per se. The story is related by the characters and the nature of their dialogue, with the characters pretty much telling their own story. The feelings and thoughts of the characters, as well as description of the action, are revealed by the author in the text. Cussler is objective in his description of facts and events. There is no overkill in the text, as points are not repeated over and over. Much of this may by due to the fact that there is much dialogue. Instead of the author presenting and explaining facts and events with a lot of background text, the characters do this through their dialogue. This has the effect of making the reader feel like he is sitting at the meeting table during their discussions.

It is obvious that Cussler is fond of his Dirk Pitt character. He seems...