Typhoon Fury

September 1, 2017
Juan Cabrillo and the Oregon's crew are imperiled by Filipino communist guerrillas armed with deadly aquatic drones in Cussler and long-time co-writer Morrison's (The Emperor's Revenge, 2016, etc.) latest spy-ship adventure. Owned by the Corporation, which conducts missions for the CIA and is led by ex-CIA operative Langston Overholt IV, the Oregon looks like a derelict freighter but is powered by magnetohydrodynamic engines and carries exotic weaponry like Exocet missiles and a 120mm cannon. The ship is in the Pacific when Cabrillo's called to find a top-secret thumb drive sought by both the Ghost Dragon triad and the Chinese Ministry of State Security. That problem solved, Cabrillo and crew are told Salvador Locsin, the communist New People's Army chief in the Philippines, has uncovered a lost Imperial Japanese WWII-era superdrug, Typhoon, developed from an exotic Philippine orchid. Typhoon is said to generate superhuman strength and provide "quick blood clotting and accelerated tissue regeneration," sure to trigger chaos if it gets into the wrong hands. Cussler and Morrison's superfast scene shifting via dozens of short chapters means tighten your seat belts, because the narrative never slows. Purloined art by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Raphael, Gauguin, and Cezanne bankrolls the assorted communist enterprises. Locsin is also searching for the WWII sunken ship USS Pearsall, which was carrying barrels of Typhoon. Were Americans tied to the killer drug? Or was it another of the "obscene medical experiments" of the Imperial Army's nefarious Unit 731? Along the way, the Oregon is imperiled by Locsin's just-add-water drone, the "the size and shape of a Jet Ski" with a "hundred pounds of Semtex inside." A good portion of the book's first half is scene-setting, then Cabrillo and company pull out the M-4s and Glocks and start settling scores. Corregidor's abandoned WWII tunnels and isolated Philippine jungle islands provide the background, but there's zero character development and much macho, self-referential, and repartee-laden dialogue. Cussler and Morrison will always entertain when you're tired of binge-watching TV action shows.

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September 25, 2017
Bestseller Cussler’s fast-paced 12th Oregon Files novel (after 2016’s The Emperor’s Revenge, also coauthored with Morrison) opens in the midst of the second battle of Corregidor in 1945. During a U.S. attack on one of the mountainous island’s many caves, Capt. John Hayward, who’s searching for a secret Japanese laboratory, observes that the enemy soldiers who pour out of the cave’s tunnels are furious fighters who don’t drop even when grievously wounded by gunfire. After finding the secret lab, Hayward succeeds in grabbing a file marked Project Typhoon just before the place blows up. In the present, Juan Cabrillo, the captain of the intelligence ship Oregon, is involved in a mission whose object is to find a memory stick containing the names of all Chinese secret agents operating in the U.S. No surprise, Juan’s present-day operation connects to the secret project on Corregidor, and soon he and his crew are fighting to recover thousands of doses of a potent compound that turns men into supersoldiers. Expertly drawn characters and a well-constructed plot make this one of Cussler’s better efforts. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency.

June 1, 2017

Bad news for Juan Cabrillo and the Oregon crew. A Filipino rebel leader is not only using them to finance the insurgency but has discovered a drug developed yet never used by the Japanese during World War II that makes mega-warriors of ordinary soldiers. Not so far-fetched given Norman Ohler's recent Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 23, 2018
Veteran actor Brick’s dramatic rendition of book 12 in Cussler’s Oregon Files series enhances the nonstop action on board Capt. Juan Cabrillo’s camouflaged vessel, the Oregon. The book, which opens in the battle of Corregidor in 1945, features a double dose of villains—the sadistic Filipino Communist leader Salvador Locsin and his foe, sociopathic South American mercenary Gerhard Brekker—each with his own horde of homicidal minions. Both Locsin and Brekker are searching for the long-secret formula for typhoon, a steroid concoction that turns humans into superbeings, albeit with horrific withdrawals. They want to use the drug, whereas Cabrillo wants to destroy it. Actor Brick uses his natural speech for Cabrillo and company, adds a touch of Tagalog to Locsin’s threats, and employs a snarling if undetermined accent for Brekker’s ripostes. Both female leads are effectively represented in his performance—ex-Interpol art historian Beth Anders, searching for a half-billion dollars’ worth of stolen paintings, sounds eager and vulnerable, while her bodyguard, Raven Malloy, is impressively confident and tough. Brick’s best moments are during the novel’s slam-bang final confrontation, with the villains battling Cabrillo and each other and the Oregon suffering severe damage while a genuine typhoon rages. This rollicking audiobook will leave listeners bracing for more. A Putnam hardcover.