Rating: 
Summary: Unexpectedly Solid
Review: Wow, not a very well liked book. I'm tempted to give it more stars just to bring the average up, but I'll stay true to how I feel.Cussler crafted a world, and is now licensing it out. Truthfully I can't recall the crew of the Golden Buddha from prior novels, but that's neither here nor there. More important is did I enjoy this? Yes. Yes I did. The ship fits Cussler's world perfectly. The crew felt less like individuals and more like cloned personalities, but that's understandable. A ship needs a full crew, and each member is given limited time in the spotlight, so they never fully flesh out - a problem hopefully solved in future "episodes." The caper works. It has twists, it has turns, but it works. Maybe the other reviewers are right, maybe it didn't and I was influenced more by the margarita's and Acapulco sun than I thought, but nothing in this plot felt too "out there." Sure, the ship isn't believable, and the fact that there are experts in everything on it might not work, but it's explained in the plot ($$$), so it works well enough. If you're a Cussler fan itching for a fix I recommend this whole-heartedly. It isn't up to Cussler snuff, but it's written a bit more fluidly than the Kemprecos spinoff. If you aren't a Cussler fan you won't like this. And if you've yet to discover Cussler's work start there, but remember to return here after you've gone through his novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Different But Good
Review: I'm a relativly new Cussler reader and have been backtracking to read his older books and find the Oregon Files refreshing. I like the new group and the slightly different approach to problem solving they bring to the story. I'll definitly look forward to more books in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: don't bother
Review: The Golden Buddha by Clive Cussler Over the years I have been reading most of Clive Cussler's adventure stories. They were always very entertaining and some of the descriptions quite beautiful. The stories are at all times fast moving with good development of their often implausible tales. They had a kind of inner truth which an adventure story achieves by good storytelling. Always good fun! If you are a reader of Clive Cussler's books I need to warn you that "The Golden Buddha" fails on all counts. There is lots of confusing plot, poorly developed, dialogue is so banal that it is an insult to the reader.
Mysterious? The greatest mystery is the question who actually wrote it? Is the name Clive Cussler used only as a brand-name to make a quick buck?
Where is Clive Cussler? Does he still write?
Rating:
Summary: MIGHT BE BETTER ON FILM
Review: This is my first Clive Cussler read. My wife adores the writer and has read all of his books from the Dirk Pitts to the NUMA to this Oregon bunch. I thought I'd give him a try by going with his shortest series, the Oregon crew. Well, don't tell my wife, but if the Dirk Pitt books are like this, I don't know what she's seen in them!
GOLDEN BUDDHA is filled with so many characters, you have to keep referring to the cast of characters in the front of the book just to keep track of who the heck they are. None of them have any real personalities, they merely serve as a kind of Mission Impossible team, donning disguises, coming up with unbelievable weapons, etc., and setting right the wrongs of the world, while getting disgustingly rich doing so. The head guy, Juan Callebro, is about as exciting as doing laundry and the bad guys are so out and out stupid, they offer little suspense or intrigue. If there's anyone who can write a better action novel out there, one need look no further than Matthew Reilly, whose Shane Iforgethislastname books offer non-stop action, a little more fleshed out characters and some incredible action scenes. Cussler may carry the weight of being a best selling novelist for years, but if Golden Buddha is an indication of his skills, I don't feel that motivated to read any more. It might be better filmed as we could dispense with all the sophisticated albeit boring narrative and get to the action.
Rating: 
Summary: It should be the other way around...
Review: I've been a Cussler (Dirk Pitt) fan for many years. TGB is my first venture into non-Pitt Cussler, and I couldn't be more disappointed.
In the novels I enjoy most, the hero or heroes fight against overwhelming odds and vast conspiracies. Here it is the other way around. The good guys have the overwhelming odds and the vast conspiracy. That doesn't work. Would you buy a book about the Yankees sweeping a 4-game series from the Brooklyn High baseball team?
Even Dirk Pitt has been going this way the last few episodes. Pitt has become invincible, and that's just no fun. To me, it's a laziness that a best-selling author gets. He cranks 'em out, knowing that the public will buy them. I watched the same thing happen to another favorite author, Alistair Maclean. His last few books were more about eating and drinking than danger and death.
Fortunately, this disease has not yet struck Owen Parry, and it never did get Patrick O'Brian. There is hope, but unless Cussler is re-born, I'm through with him.
Ray
Rating:
Summary: A terrible read
Review: Having been a long-time Cussler fan, enjoying the Dirk Pitt series, as well as the Kurt Austin series, I eagerly picked up Sacred Stone when I saw it a the local Costco a few months ago. I found it to be a pretty good read with an interesting subject forming the basis for the story. I decided to give Golden Buddha a read. I have to go along with the consensus here that this is simply a terrible book. I think it should be listed as authored by Craig Dirgo and Clive Cussler, instead of the other way around, because clearly most of this book was not written by Clive Cussler.
Throughout all of the Cussler books, there was never a need to insert a cast of characters before. This book actually benefits by it due to the fact that there is virtually no character development that would make the reader take interest in them. Cussler continues his homophobic trend, started early in the Dirk Pitt series, of butch lesbians and "light in the loafers" males. (Funny how none of his major protaganists ever bothered to marry).
The book is also poorly edited. It is often confusing. It is a choppy read, with unnecessary foreshadowing, as pointed out by another reviewer. The part about setting up one of the Corporation's dummy businesses (and we'll go from Andorra to San Marino to Lichtenstein, to Luxembourg, blah, blah, blah) was especially difficult to get through and superfluous to the story.
All of Cussler's work stretches credulity; this book goes far beyond incredulous. The conspiracy with the Russians to set a ruse with the Chinese was simply ridiculous. I guess I just don't find any members of the Corporation to be interesting, nor do I find their mercenary deeds to be noteworthy.
All in all, a book which had a potentially interesting concept, but which fails to be a compelling read.
Rating:
Summary: Like a really bad Bruckenheimer film
Review: Imagine a bunch of rich, perfect, shallow guys and gals dressing up as a cover-rock band so they can steal a piece of art...they have high-tech gadgets, they spew one-liners, they are completely unlikely. This is a Disney-meets-Bruckenheimer film in type. Maybe the worst book I've ever read. No sense of reality, no sense of place, no real characters, and NO intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: My last one
Review: As far as I can tell, I've read every novel that Clive Cussler has written. These include: THE MEDITERRANEAN CAPER,ICEBERG, RAISE THE TITANIC!, VIXEN 03, NIGHT PROBE, PACIFIC VORTEX, DEEP SIX, CYCLOPS, TREASURE, DRAGON, SAHARA, INCA GOLD, SHOCK WAVE, FLOOD TIDE, ATLANTIS FOUND and VALHALLA RISING. I have also read, three novels he wrote with Paul Kemprecos which include: SERPENT, BLUE GOLD, AND FIRE ICE. His most recent novels (particularly the ones he coauthored) fail to meet the richness found in his earlier work. In a long process of excruciating reflection, I have drawn three conclusions regarding GOLDEN BUDDHA (coauthored with Craig Dirgo) that focus on changes in my personal enjoyment of Cussler's recent collaborative writing.
First is intensive character development. Within Cussler's Dirk Pitt series, I gained a great deal of reading enjoyment by viewing the character development. He was able to offer his readers an intensive psychological profile of the main and secondary characters. This process made the characters come alive by having an in depth understanding of their individual and often conflicting motivations. In addition, Cussler was able to move the characters through their aging cycles and thereby produced changes within their psychological profiles. I don't see this intensive character development in GOLDEN BUDDHA or in the other novels Cussler has coauthored. I miss that aspect of this writing.
Throughout the Dirk Pitt series, the impossible seemed possible. Cussler was able to pull together a series of strange and twisted elements within a story. These plot twists and turns emerged from the character's thought processes, dialog, and the reader's knowledge of history and archeology. Within GOLDEN BUDDHA, the characters do very little thinking. They merely heave money at problems. For example, I became annoyed with the sewage system used to transport the Buddha. I don't consider myself particularly creative, but I immediately thought of a more efficient, cheaper, and much less hazardous mode of transit. Dirk Pitt used his head to problem-solve. The characters in GOLDEN BUDDHA merely purchased stuff and staff to achieve goals. I want to read about a character's action, not his use of nearly unlimited financial resources.
In Cussler's earlier work, there was always a surprise element. This is not to suggest that the endings were a surprise but the process to get to the preordained happy ending was nerve-racking. The description of the escape from the Cuban prison in GOLDEN BUDDHA had me sitting on the edge of my chair, but it lacked the intellectual initiative. In addition, it demonstrated that the future challenges within the storyline were going to be solved financially rather than intellectually. Thus, when one reads the description of the Cuban prison escape in GOLDEN BUDDHA, the process for all the other tense moments become anticlimactic. No more edge-sitting.
I suspect that the GOLDEN BUDDHA will be my last Clive Cussler novel.
Rating:
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: Even though I bought the paperback book at HalfPrice Books for significantly less than its $15 cover price, I still feel like I wasted my money. I have enjoyed all of Cussler's fiction (except the books he wrote "with" Paul Kemprecos) but this one is definitely NOT a Cussler book. Tedious, lengthy descriptions, a total lack of character development and weak dialog make this book painful to read. In fact, I put the book down eighty pages from the end -- I just couldn't stand it any more.
I guess I'll forgo any more Cussler books until he returns to writing them without "help" from other authors.
Rating:
Summary: Disjointed, difficult, not worth it
Review: I have read all of cussler's books. I struggled to stay interested with the storyline and characters. The characters were too numerous and you never got any feeling for who they are. There are too many other good cussler novels to purchase.
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