Action-packed as per usual. Al and Dirk are a hoot. Dirk is still not as awesome as I remember him being in later novels....still a bit of a chauvinist in this one. There's something Al does late in the novel that rubbed me the wrong way too but...spoilers. 

I think the main thing that bothered me about this book and took it down to a three star, despite the action, humor and the fascinating tech and action......was a major part of the plot. 

I'm sorry, but I just cannot suspend my disbelief enough to believe that the Japanese (even a group of corrupt nationalists) would build nukes on their soil and unleash them on the world. I'm not Japanese and I'm not an expert but as someone who has consumed a fair amount of media from there for more than half of my life.......I just don't buy it. Destruction and the sheer terror and devastation from the end of WW2 rocked the nation and is still affecting them. Those themes and hubris and etc are major parts of fiction still. So....I dunno. I know it's just a story. I know the Cussler's are always set a few years in the future and could be argued as an alternate future I suppose.....but still, I just don't buy it. 

[Also, I dunno, you can tell this was a boomer writing a book involving the Japanese, that's all I'm gonna say to leave off.]