Hard to believe that this book flies under Clive Cussler's banner, and that it has such a high rating on Goodreads. Juan Cabrillo and his gang, the Corporation on their super-ship, the Oregon are back at adventures again. Had any team members actually died, that would have led to some strong character growth as each surviving member of the crew would have had to process those losses.

At the same time, it was interesting to read about how Juan and his team sought to use non-lethal methods to attack the secret training camp at the abandoned monastery; that was pretty cool and well-written, I thought. Cabrillo’s crew have met their most fearsome adversaries a force of bio-hacked soldiers endowed with extreme strength and stamina and an unquenchable appetite for violence.

Clive Cussler was the author of more than eighty books in five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt®, NUMA Files®, Oregon Files®, Isaac Bell®, and Sam and Remi Fargo®. I would recommend reading any one of the dozen novels in the Oregon Files series before Fire Strike. He gets beaten badly, has some broken ribs as well as other bruised bones and tissue, but ends up leading a mission. I enjoy the stories where the Oregon people are in control, we get some character development, and the enemies have no idea what they are dealing with (and are doing the best they can) because, well, they have no idea this ship and crew exists. Yes, its all luck and significant amounts of danger but at the end of the day we feel safe in knowing that our favorite crew will triumph again.

Maybe he could have; I have read military biographies and military history books that have described military personnel undergoing crazy extreme wounds and surviving, so anything is possible, I guess. The book did have a lot of humor scattered throughout; I remember laughing at times while reading, but I do not remember what I found funny.e. even though this is such a sophisticated ship, there is something in each new novel that will sink it), Juan goes solo on missions (which makes no sense, considering the level of talent of the crew and the myriad of injuries he sustains and miraculously can continue to function through the rest of the novel), and, oh yes, he also gets captured somehow in the middle. I felt that the author took Cabrillo to an unbelievable "level" of survivability in this book and it took me out of the moment. Cabrillo’s crew have met their most fearsome adversaries yet: a force of bio-hacked soldiers endowed with extreme strength and stamina and an unquenchable appetite for violence. Although Clive Cussler's novels were pretty generic, they were plotted out well, with almost every situation being necessary to the plot.