Rating: 
Summary: Always fun.
Review: I always hate how stilted Cussler's dialogue is, but every story is great fun and full of adventure, albeit unbelievable adventure! And where did he come up with those names for his characters in this book??? Mason Jar??? Really. But the suspense and adventure are as good as any other of his books. I can always count on them to be entertaining stories!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Work. A Great Read
Review: Clive's most recent books have been very much influenced by archealogist Graham Hancock. In 1997, a true life sunken city was found off the coast of Okinawa in 70 feet of water. What is so amazing about this city is that not only does it have pyramids, but also a Greek style ampitheater with an area called "the stage" that has to be seen to be truly awed. It's Grahams summarization, based on this city ans several others recently discovered off of India, Malta, and Florida, that there is a missing chapter of human history. He goes on that 11,600 years ago, we were in an ice age. Then suddenly, quite suddenly, the ice age ended. The oceans rose 360 feet and a large amount of the human race was wiped out. Then, as in the present day, 75% of the human population lived within 50 miles of a shoreline (think New York, L.A., Houston, Chicago et. al.).
We not only see Graham's influence in Atlantis Found, but either Graham plagiarizes Cussler, or vice versa, because certain phrases are shared.
Moving on to Trojan Odyssey, Dirk's children make an astounding find in a Caribbean reef. This eventually leads to Dirk and Al geeting involved, and predictably coming to the recue. There is some long coming twists at the end of the book, but Cussler seems influenced by Clancy in these changes. Well worth the price. Read it and love it as I do.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Same Ole Cussler
Review: Sigh. For something like twenty years these have been my guilty pleasures. I've eagerly bought each new Dirk Pitt adventure the week, or even the day, it was released. This will probably be the last.The copyright on this book is held by something called "Sandecker, RLLLP", which seems to mean that it wasn't written by Clive himself. The writing in the first 2/3 of the book is simply terrible. The plot is sketchy and formulaic: historic nautical event, modern disaster averted by our heroes while finding some artifact, trip to Perlmutter's, research by Yaeger, etc., etc. It usually works for me, but this time it felt like the author was going through the motions. The dialogue is even more stiff than usual -- and that's saying something for a Cussler book! Even the character names are ... weak -- Specter, a pair named Dodge & Ford, a island native named Moreau (as least he's not a doctor). One of the hallmarks of the older Cussler books was his accuracy and the chance to learn a little something. Here, the book loses ALL credibility when in the first 25-50 pages, you have a meteorologist simply make up a name for a hurricane. I can't imagine Clive, who's spent his share of time on the sea, either not knowing or not thinking his readers would know about the pre-ordained list of hurricane names from the NOAA or whomever. A small factual quibble perhaps, but to me it was quite telling. That said, I still got sucked in and was up until 2:30 last night finishing the darn thing. If it weren't for one semi-cliff hanger, I might have thought this was to be the last Pitt book. I guess it's not. When does the next one come out? Hopefully, Clive will write it himself. By then, I'll probably have forgotten how bad most of this book was and be ready to jump back on the band wagon. Sigh.
Rating:
Summary: trojan odyssey
Review: I totally enjoyed it. I still find Dirk Pitt to be the quintessential hero - the books have more action than james bond. Thought the hurricane was exciting. Cussler's books are always great escapism - some maybe better than others, but you are always assured of a fun read & this selection was no exception.
Rating: 
Summary: Trojan Odyssey
Review: I've enjoyed Cussler's books in the past. (although his recent penchant for including himself in a cameo appearance in his novels is a little bizaar!) I did not care for this latest effort. In fact after reading about 1/4 of the book I just closed it up and said "Nope, I'm not going to waste my time with this drivel. Seems like he wrote it just to meet a deadline. Nothing new or exciting really. So, I'm thinking Cussler is off my list of authors to seek out for awhile.
Rating:
Summary: More of the Same
Review: While I have always enjoyed Cussler's work for what it is, a light read where the good guys always win and have some fun blowing stuff up along the way, this latest novel is just too formula driven from the same mold as all the others. There are even scenes in this book which are cookie cutters from others, specifically the yacht chase from Sahara. I enjoyed reading Dirk and Al in action one more time, I just wish the story had been a touch more original.
Rating:
Summary: Only half way though -- not sure if I can finish
Review: I've only read the first half of Trojan Odyssey but I'm not sure that I can finish it. The writing is that bad. The dialog is stiff and unnatural. The plot seems to be going nowhere. There is lots of "filler" that doesn't add to the story -- it just makes it longer and more difficult to read. Several pages in the first half of the book are devoted to an airplane designed to fly into hurricanes to gather weather information. The plane is literally torn to pieces, but a NUMA helicopter is able to enter the eye of the storm to drop Dirk and Al onto a floating hotel without sustaining any damage? Once our heroes arrive at the hotel, they have only two or three hours before the second wall of the worst hurricane ever recorded hits full force. It never happens. They hook up the cables and the hotel is safely pulled out of danger at a speed of one to two knots! I read an interview in the local paper with Mr. Cussler and based on it I believe that his son is taking over the series. Was this book perhaps written by him instead of Clive? It definitely doesn't appear to be written by the same person who wrote Sahara and Inca Gold.
Rating: 
Summary: Ooops Clive!
Review: After reading some of the less flattering reviews I decided to read Trojan Odyssey for myself, not believing one of my favorite guilty pleasures could have missed so badly. Sad to say, though many of the "Cussler" gimmicks are still included, they seem weak, over done and flat in the overall plot this time. Dirk's kids are just not interesting and after spending so much time with them before the plot takes any real "action" I wanted to send them to their room for quiet time. Dirk (Sr.) is getting long in the tooth and would be better served if replaced permenantly with Kurt Austin ( a doppleganger to be sure, but hey, no insufferable offspring yet.). Maybe Clive is stretching himself too thin these days, maybe his flare for exciting thrillers is running dry. Whatever it is, I hope this is only a blip, and if he needs three or four years between books to get back in top form, I'm willing to wait before crossing him off my must read list - after all, so many books, so little time!
Rating:
Summary: Clive Rocks!
Review: Taking historical fact and creating an exciting story is something all of my history teachers could never do. Cussler does it again. After you finish this one - check out PARADISE MADE by eric steeves. I think it might be a pen name.
Rating:
Summary: Okay, I just don't get it...
Review: Why is this guy so popular? I've struggled through a few of his novels and I've been pretty stunned by the quality of writing - Mr. Cussler can't seem to be able to keep a plot line straight half the time - he contradicts himself from chapter to chapter, he brings back dead characters without even bothering to explain their reappearance, and his character development is non-existent. This story is particularly bad and the characters are one-dimensional and more stereotypical than ever. We have Dirk Pitt's drop-dead gorgeous daughter Summer 'giggling helplessly' over and over again while the muscular, dashing Dirk Jr. (who has the personality of mud) keeps a cool head and solves impossible problems, a bunch of evil female druids who are coincidentally man-haters, and the dull and grizzly main action figures themselves, Dirk Sr. and sidekick Al (predictably boring in his commitment -over and over again- to bachelorhood). Don't get me wrong - I am all about entertaining, fiction-for-fun books, beach reading that you don't have to think about to enjoy, but this is so bad that it's downright frustrating. My conclusion is that Clive Cussler has gotten as bored with his characters as we are, but he's not motivated enough to create some new blood - why should he when the same old tired cast can reappear in retreads yet again and still sell?
|
