Books like Black Wind

You know what you're getting with a Clive Cussler novel. The format's all a bit 'cut and paste' - whoever is introduced in the first section will die and leave behind some dastardly way of destroying the world, then NUMA will stumble across it and almost avert disaster but the baddies will win round one and then all the same cat and mouse will happen again but this time NUMA will save the world in the nick of time. Still usually the series is a good escapist read but this one was just... dull! Far, far too long and drawn out, with long (dull) breaks in the action. When there was action, although as unbelievable as ever, it lacked the humour and character development to pull it through. One of my main irritations with this book is that Cussler has written himself in as a character. Usually this is done a bit tongue-in-cheek and he's a hapless bus driver or something, but this time he actually had a proper hero part and it was just *cringe* This book will deter me from reading any of the others (especially if they're Dirk Jr and Summer based) for a long time!