Rating: 
Summary: The best he's ever written!
Review: One of Clive Cussler's earlier books, "Vixen 03" is still his best. This novel is great because it combines the wild action sequences Cussler is noted for with a truly interesting story and characters with depth. The plot of "Vixen" is diverse. There are many different strands of the story, from Cussler's hero Dirk Pitt and his sidekick Al Giordino, to members of an African terrorist organization: from various officials in the United States government to the South African Defense Ministry. All of the storylines eventually blend together seamlessly into an amazing story that makes one wonder how anyone could write such a huge, tight tale. The best part, however, lies with the depth of the dozens of characters that Cussler creates for this adventure. All the characters in the story have been written with a quality that makes the story, however fantastic, seem realistic. Even the villians are created with human touch, unlike the corny, comicstrip-like evil guys that populate Cusslers early and latest novels. Simply the best Cussler novel there is. And weirdly prophetic, too. After reading this book, find out what happened to the actual U.S.S. Iowa! The similarity is scary.
Rating:
Summary: The best he's ever written!
Review: One of Clive Cussler's earlier books, "Vixen 03" is still his best. This novel is great because it combines the wild action sequences Cussler is noted for with a truly interesting story and characters with depth.
The plot of "Vixen" is diverse. There are many different strands of the story, from Cussler's hero Dirk Pitt and his sidekick Al Giordino, to members of an African terrorist organization: from various officials in the United States government to the South African Defense Ministry. All of the storylines eventually blend together seamlessly into an amazing story that makes one wonder how anyone could write such a huge, tight tale.
The best part, however, lies with the depth of the dozens of characters that Cussler creates for this adventure. All the characters in the story have been written with a quality that makes the story, however fantastic, seem realistic. Even the villians are created with human touch, unlike the corny, comicstrip-like evil guys that populate Cusslers early and latest novels.
Simply the best Cussler novel there is. And weirdly prophetic, too. After reading this book, find out what happened to the actual U.S.S. Iowa! The similarity is scary.
Rating:
Summary: Very good book. Quick reading and suspensful.
Review: A real page-turner. I loved it. One of the first, but one of the best
Rating: 
Summary: Love Cussler!
Review: Clive Cussler is one of my favorite writers - I wish I had the time and energy to write reviews for all of his books. My father got me hooked (we're both scuba divers) about ten years ago, and I own all of his books to date. They're so well written, narratively, but there are a few things that bug me overall: - Dirk Pitt never ages! - There's a lot of exposition through dialogue. - Some of the scenarios, especially the "bad guys" are so outdated - example, Vixen 03 was written to be set in 1988 and it shows. - Likewise for the technology. But as I said, Cussler is one of my favorite authors, and I'll continue to read anything he pens.
Rating:
Summary: Cussler delivers....as usual!
Review: Clive Cussler never fails to excite, and intrigue. This is one of his BEST books! If you're a Cussler fan who's never read Vixen, or just the average adventure/spy/action novel fan, this book is a sure fire hit.
Rating: 
Summary: Early "Pitt", but worth the read
Review: Dirk Pitt is just getting started and his character is a bit rough around the edges, but, as usual its a FUN book to read. I always wonder how Pitt is going to solve the mystery, and, he never fails. If you want a good book to sit on the beach and read on a weekend, this will fill the bill. If you like Cussler, you won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: The dullest of the Dirk Pitt novels.
Review: Having read most of the Dirk Pitt Novels to date, I have to say that Vixen 03 was the least enthralling. Maybe because it is the most plausible or perhaps most mundane of Cussler's Pitt scenarios, It reads almost like a typical young adult novel of low caliber action.
Rating:
Summary: Politics disrupts the flow of Vixen O3
Review: I am a big Cussler fan. I've read five of his books so far, and "Cyclops" is still my favourite. "Vixen O3" is not, in my opinion, one of Cussler's best because many of the chapters deal with the politics of the African Army of Revolution attempting to overthrow the white government in South Africa. These "political sections" of the book tend to take some of the energy away from the overall story. I'm used to reading about Dirk Pitt's undersea and airborne adventures. Every time the story went back to politics, I became somewhat bored and couldn't wait until I reached a chapter that had Pitt and his fellow NUMA comrades in it. As was the case in "Iceberg", one of the male characters in "Vixen 03" turns out to be a woman. I hope Cussler breaks away from this weird pattern in the newer books that I haven't read yet. Despite the weaknesses just mentioned, the politics of the story mesh well with the interesting parts of the story near the end of the book. While some chapters were slow, others were much more intense. After reading "Raise the Titanic", I was really looking forward to reading about the salvaging of the plane (the Vixen 03) at the bottom of a Colorado lake. Unfortuately, the salvage began and ended within a five-page chapter. I really like the undersea adventures that take place in Cussler's books. I felt cheated when the whole salvage operation took place in such a short time. Overall, I think that the real Cussler fans will still enjoy "Vixen 03". For those of you who are new to his work, I suggest you first try one of his other books...I really do recommend "Cyclops". Now there's a page-turner!
Rating:
Summary: Politics disrupts the flow of Vixen O3
Review: I am a big Cussler fan. I've read five of his books so far, and "Cyclops" is still my favourite. "Vixen O3" is not, in my opinion, one of Cussler's best because many of the chapters deal with the politics of the African Army of Revolution attempting to overthrow the white government in South Africa. These "political sections" of the book tend to take some of the energy away from the overall story. I'm used to reading about Dirk Pitt's undersea and airborne adventures. Every time the story went back to politics, I became somewhat bored and couldn't wait until I reached a chapter that had Pitt and his fellow NUMA comrades in it. As was the case in "Iceberg", one of the male characters in "Vixen 03" turns out to be a woman. I hope Cussler breaks away from this weird pattern in the newer books that I haven't read yet. Despite the weaknesses just mentioned, the politics of the story mesh well with the interesting parts of the story near the end of the book. While some chapters were slow, others were much more intense. After reading "Raise the Titanic", I was really looking forward to reading about the salvaging of the plane (the Vixen 03) at the bottom of a Colorado lake. Unfortuately, the salvage began and ended within a five-page chapter. I really like the undersea adventures that take place in Cussler's books. I felt cheated when the whole salvage operation took place in such a short time. Overall, I think that the real Cussler fans will still enjoy "Vixen 03". For those of you who are new to his work, I suggest you first try one of his other books...I really do recommend "Cyclops". Now there's a page-turner!
Rating:
Summary: Politics and Slight Factual Inaccuracies spoil it !
Review: I am a huge Cussler fan, this being my eighth Pitt adventure, most of which are the later offerings. The storyline in Vixen holds more for me than the latest books, as did "Deep six", being a bit more of a plot than simply the spectacular heroics in the later books, however, I must agree with Jeff that due to the fact that it was written in the middle eigthies(the height of South Africa's Political and Humanitarian Embarrasment), Clive seems to be using his great influence to spread his political viewpoint, which he is more than entitled to do, but it is at the expense of a well rounded story, although a comment was passed at the end that outsiders didn't understand the struggle in SA, this holds true for a great many South Africans as well. There are also a few inaccuracies regarding the South African side of the story - eg. There is no International airport at Pretoria, only in Johannesburg, and people don't refer to each other in South Africa as "Herr" anything,(the minister of Defence was often referred to as Herr Minister), South Africans are not, after all, German. Otherwise I was quite impressed with the rest of the book, and as Usual, Dirk Pitt kicks some proverbial A_s, which makes it all worthwhile at the end.
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