Posted on January 11, 2010 by Nayab Naseer

Medusa is one of Clive Cussler’s latest novels, featuring Kurt Austin of NUMA, upon which all of Cussler’s novels base itself.

The story deals with a deadly virus originating in remote China, a virus so deadly that the entire future of mankind is at stake. A top secret US government sponsored undersea lab conducts biomedical research based on a rare jellyfish known as the Blue Medusa, and this lab has the solution to contain the deadly virus. Howevewr, the lab is hijacked and towed off to an undisclosed location by a group of Chinese criminal gang who wants to monopolize the cure for themselves so that they can take over China and eventually the world. Simultaneous with the hijack of the undresea lab, a bathysphere containing Joe Zavala of NUMA is also attacked and Kurt Austin manages to resue the occupants from the jaws of death. Sensing a connection between these two events, Kurt Austin gets into the act and tries to retrieve the lab and secure the cure for mankind.

Medusa is not one of Cussler’s best work. The plot is hackneyed and too predictable. The characterization, something that made Cussler famous in the first place is hollow and even the description of events and the style leaves much to be desired.