Mere hours after the printing of Odins Cleft, the 472-page marine technothriller he spent most of the year crafting, veteran author Clive Cussler came to the sudden realization that the novel was actually in no way thrilling. Even while I was writing it, I could barely keep myself from putting it down. My knuckles were unwhitened the whole time, and my pulse barely pounded at all, said Cussler, who described the book as far from taut, or even tight, in any way. Cracking good yarn, my ass. How could this book come from me, the author of such page-turning bestsellers as Raise The Titanic, Pacific Vortex!, and The Storm, a novel from the NUMA files due out in paperback this spring? Although the book has already gone to press, Cusslers publisher has agreed to let him rewrite the final chapter, in which hero Dirk Pitt Jr. engages a corrupt administrator in witty repartee following their two-hour crosstown pursuit in Toyota Priuses. 