One of Cussler's best novels
I have read many of Clive Cussler's novels, and I consider this to be one of his best. Since other reviewers have discussed the plot, I will comment on other aspects of the story.

The characters or larger than life, but not ridiculously so. The same is true of the Chairman's ship. What I liked most about the book was that the authors challenged the reader to think about real problems--over population, and provide information of historical events mostly unknown--Unit 731.

Unit 731 is real, and worse than described. Japanese chemical weapons and agents are still being discovered and removed in China. Medical information created by Unit 731, regardless of how horrible the methods used to obtain it, had value. At the end of WWII, the U.S. exempted one or more of senior Japanese officers from war crimes trials in order to obtain Unit 731's files. It took me a long time to finally reach the conclusion that doing so was the best option.

Stalin's Fist is based upon proposed technology. Biological warfare was a real threat during the Cold War. The Soviet Union and the U.S. had large stockpiles of biological agents and delivery systems. Spreading a virus as described in the story is possible. I thought basing the story on an ancient ship was clever.

One commenter noticed that the chief terrorist's wife changed from Heidi to Susan in Chapter 33. Unless you have written a book, it is difficult to understand how this can happen. Sometimes the author or editor decides to change a character's name. Using global search and replace, changing the name is easy--unless you decided to replace a chapter with one from an earlier draft that had the old name. Ooops. I was ready to send the manuscript of my second novel to the publisher, after numerous rereads and reviews by others. I happen to notice that I had reversed the names of two characters in a chapter. I caught the mistake while looking for something else.

Plague Ship is a great adventure read. I am waiting for the authors' next one.

Lee Boyland author of two technothrillers dealing with current events: The Rings of Allah and Behold, an Ashen Horse.

Plague ship
This was an excellent book - very fast reading - actually, so good, hard to put down

Plague Ship delivers action and adventure, even if it doesn't 'float my boat'
I need to qualify my review right at the start and admit I'm not really a fan of this type of novel: which is to say, high concept action adventure novels. I've read about four of the more recent Clive Cussler novels and this is probably the best one I've read. Even so, I found it only marginally entertaining.

Despite my middling thoughts about this novel, I think that if you are a fan of the genre, you'll enjoy it. It has all the ingredients: exotic locales, a bizarre evil plan, cartoonish villains, invincible heroes, daring escapes, heavily armed compounds, big explosions, and lots of henchmen. It's a big budget popcorn novel and if you're a fan, these novels can be fun in the same way that a blockbuster action movie is fun. The plot is little more than filler between action scenes.

So why did I read Plague Ship if I'm not a fan of action novels?

That's a fair question. The answer is: I didn't actually read it. I listened to it as an audio book. The selection of unabridged audio books is limited in my library and I needed something new to listen to in the car. I probably wouldn't have read the novel otherwise.

But I still want to give this novel a fair review. As I noted earlier, this is probably the best Cussler I've read (or listened to) - although I've only read four, none of them Dirk Pitt novels. I found this novel reasonably entertaining, most of the time. Strangely, my interest waned most often during the seemingly endless action sequences. (But of course, if you like chase scenes, you'll find these scenes exciting rather than `bordering on tedious' as I did). I tend to get a little impatient with these sequences because I know the characters will inevitably escape, and I'd prefer that the author just got on with it. In fact, the whole novel is unnecessarily drawn out.

As you might expect, the characters in this novel are wafer thin. There is no moral ambiguity. There are no complexities to character or plot. Everything is cut and dry. The bad guys are bad. The good guys good. (Too good if you ask me). They remind me of the Superfriends because they get along so well and are virtually impossible to kill. Of course, a lot of people like that. It`s good vs evil. That`s what these novels are all about.

Who needs well drawn characters? Why complicate things with moral ambiguity?

This is a novel about big concepts and big action scenes. It's about good guys who ride white horses and save the world from crazy madmen. And there`s nothing wrong with that. If you want big adventure, Plague Ship doesn`t disappoint. I may not be gushing with enthusiasm for the novel (although as I said, it isn`t bad) but if action novels are up your alley, Plague Ship delivers.

Personally I give it 3 stars, but admittedly, complaining that an adventure novel like this has cardboard characters and action scenes that drag on, is a little like saying that I would have preferred the Western novel I read, if it didn`t have so many cowboys in it.

Fans of the genre should add one star to my review to compensate for my `anti-adventure novel` bias. Most Cussler fans will enjoy this novel. Really.

Several fun adventures in one
I've read many Clive Cussler novels, but this is my first read of an "Oregon Files" book. I enjoyed it immensely. There are several short stories woven into the overall thread of the book. First (in the Prologue) we read a short story about a WWII German plane that crashes in northern Norway on a glacier. It's lone survivor finds an ancient boat that he thinks resembles Noah's Ark. This story gets wrapped up at the very end of the book. Next we have the present-day short-story about the Oregon's crew adventures in stealing two state-of-the-art torpedos from the Iranian Navy. Near the end of the wrap-up from this subplot, we get introduced to the main story line with two subthreads: a asthma patient who survives a plague on a cruise ship, and the kidnapping of an Oregon crew member's son. These threads both lead into the main story of how to stop the Responsivists from causing the sterility of half the world's population via a virus. I thought the action was well paced and realistic enough (perhaps a bit silly at times, like a James Bond movie). I really enjoyed reading this book. And if this one isn't as good as the previous Oregon stories (according to other reviews posted here), then I am very much looking forward to reading these other books too.
--Lynellen.com

Oops, Editing Errors!
I read the reviews and concur with many comments that it is not Cussler's best work, but a fun ride for a quick read. However, I didn't see any reference to the editing mistakes in the book. The most notable is the switch in the villian's wife's name - from Heidi to Susan! Oops!