Clive Cussler
Dragon

The fear of a nuclear war accompanied the world throughout the long period of the so-called Cold War, between the United States and the Soviet Union. Many developed ideas about a post-atomic society, where the rules of normal civilian life had been swept away along with entire cities and nations, and they projected these fears into novels, films, books, and even cartoons (did someone say "Fist of the North Star"?), almost as if to "exorcise" a terror that was anything but imaginary and unattainable.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the "bipolar world," these anxieties have diminished, and distrust of the atom has shifted to a purely "civil" level, i.e., in relation to energy production and the danger that nuclear plants present in various countries around the world may, due to malfunctions or accidents, cause significant environmental disasters (of course, before 1989, there was already Chernobyl, which gave huge impetus to the reflection on the safety/nuclear energy issue).

In this whole scenario, the plots of spy novels obviously needed updating, as continuing with the old America vs. U.S.S.R. scheme was now impossible, so the good Clive Cussler thought to bring the nuclear nightmare to another level, introducing a new political entity into the international espionage game and seasoning everything with the usual dose of action and twists.

But let's proceed in order and provide the usual summary of the work: during World War II, a plane with a very important cargo for the fate of the conflict crashes into the sea near the Japanese coast, where it will remain forgotten by history for almost fifty years. In 1993, a new giant, Japan, dominates the world stage, which, risen from its ashes stronger than ever, threatens the economic supremacy of the West through a bold foreign policy aimed on one hand at installing Japanese enterprises on foreign soil, managed entirely by Japanese personnel, and on the other at preventing the penetration of non-native companies at home.

The country most affected by this strategy is the United States, increasingly submerged by Japanese participation in the productive life of the country, but for the homeland of Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino, the protagonists of the story, the danger is not only related to the market and the economy. Indeed, members of Congress, in order to curb the disintegration of U.S. capital, would like to implement protectionist maneuvers to the detriment of Japanese companies, provoking the ire of a megalomaniac and highly dangerous Japanese industrial magnate who, with the open support of the local underworld and the covert backing of the government, aims to create a new empire through the realization of the "Kaiten Project" that envisions the placement of various nuclear bombs, inserted into Japanese-made cars, within the United States and European countries to threaten their detonation if the entire world does not surrender to Japanese power.

All possible resources will be mobilized to solve the problem, including Pitt and Giordino, who will be engaged in daring rescues, incredible escapes, and fascinating underwater journeys. Once again, Cussler has hit the mark, offering a truly captivating and engaging mix of action, espionage, and adventure, capable of dragging the reader to the four corners of the globe with disarming ease, placing them in superb pristine settings, as demonstrated by Pitt's escape from the abyss, at a depth of more than five thousand meters, aboard a sophisticated NUMA machine (trust me, the description of the abyss is so well made that you'll almost be able to smell the salt!).

The sea is the true protagonist of the story, poetic and terrifying as only an immense natural force can be, but alongside it move well-structured and built characters, never banal or predictable, such as Hideki Suma, the villain of the moment, a modern Hitler capable of endangering the lives of millions of people just to follow his racial ravings, or Moro Kamatori, who hides his schizoid madness behind a distorted vision of samurai ethics.

In conclusion, we find ourselves in the presence of a novel written with passion and capable of fully achieving the goal of entertaining the reader, offering them a simple yet well-crafted and structured story, rich in twists and breathtaking actions, alternated, however, with light and amusing fragments, such as, for example, Cussler's cameo on page 218, where he challenges Pitt in a vintage car race. Well, having said that, I recommend reading it to all those looking for a smooth and adventurous novel, capable of awakening that romantic spirit that the daily routine inevitably leads to suppress.