Rating: 
Summary: There's Still Life in the Old Guy!!!
Review: Granted there are logical errors--yes, Loren's father being alive was an error, just like no mention of the Titanic occuring in Vahalla Rising. But these are not the reason why anyone reads a Dirk Pitt novel!! Like an old fashioned roller coaster, people read Pitt because he is fun, exciting, and a good escape from a world that would be a little less interesting if he wasn't around. Perhaps Cussler did have some problems while writing this opus--notice the dedication--and in an early interview Cussler has said he was slowing down and having trouble writing. Yet even with all this, Trojan Odyssey is a fast, fun, amazing work. Perhaps, in the future, young Dirk will replace his father as the Special Project director and we'll have a new generation of Pitt adventures!
Rating: 
Summary: Are you NEW to Cussler & Dirk Pitt or OLD?
Review: If Dirk Pitt is OLD to you . . .Then this book shows it. OK, the basic storyline is fun and rumbles along with the typical sociopathic private corporation with its private security force and its plans to make a fortune while incidentally creating a global disaster. The ancient shipwreck story is straight out of Homer (of the Odyssey, not Simpson, but with Cussler you never know) by way of Cambridge, England. So where do the signs of age creep in? First, the finale really doesn't involve much of a shoot-'em-up and Pitt (and even some of the bad guys) seem actually to avoid killing people - unless absolutely necessary. Then Loren's father shows up at an intimate event and neither Dirk nor Loren nor Cussler (who also shows up) remembers to say "Welcome to Washington Mr Smith. How come you managed to come back from the dead after being found in a submerged plane wreck several novels ago?" OK I still had fun reading it, but zero points for editing and nowhere near as good as Inca Gold. If Dirk Pitt is NEW to you . . . These books are fun to read but don't expect a lot of depth. We are talking airport books with lots of action but very linear plot development and close to zero character development. Cussler is pretty good on technical stuff like boats, guns and diving equipment. At least, I think he is, but I'm not sure. His books abound with lots of bizarre technical errors on other subjects. In one book he talks of "square acres". In this book, he gets into the chemistry of a revolutionary new fuel cell based at one point on ammonia and oxygen and at another on nitrogen and oxygen. Let's just say he's being inconsistent and not even discuss feasibility (it is supposed to be fiction after all). At least the hypothetical science is no more misinformed than in his other books. But let me say this, I enjoy reading Cussler's books - just don't look for a lot of depth. Cussler claims that he wanted Dirk Pitt to be a kind of underwater James Bond and he comes close to that goal. When he strays from his area of expertise (boats, guns and diving), Cussler tries to impress us with Pitt's sophistication in all matters - just as Ian Fleming would with 007. But come on! Chardonnay with steak! And it might be nice to see Pitt order something foreign, like a biriani or a moussaka or paella for a change. You won't see it because Cussler also has a barely disguised xenophobia that runs through all his plots - OK Bond killed his share of Russians in the SMERSH days, but only in the line of duty and Bond would have been shaken, not stirred, by Dirk's ordering a frou-frou white wine with a blood-red steak. As I said earlier on for the OLD readers, try Inca Gold. Maybe you'll get hooked. Just take it for what it is - fun - and don't get too serious about it.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Dirk Pitt
Review: I have read all of the Dirk Pitt novels and I would count this one the one that departs from the typical Cussler yarn the most. Dirk is much more introspective, soul searching, etc. The story itself I would rate as a little better than the average Dirk Pitt novel. I would recommend this as a must read for Pitt fans because of the changes that he experiences during the book. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here.
Rating: 
Summary: What a POS!
Review: I realize this is fiction, and I realize an author can take liberty with his works, but I have to admit: I am used to authors who try to remember what has happened in their own previous creations. Cussler obviously doesn't care anymore. For one, how can Loren's father be present when Dirk found his DEAD BODY at the bottom of a lake in Vixen 03?! And HOW can Cussler write that Loren strayed and returned when Dirk slept with how many women?! Pot meet Kettle! And finally, I never understood how the twins exist at all since Dirk and Summer never had sex! I'm going to attempt to forget that this book was ever written!
Rating: 
Summary: Why Dirk Pitt is real.
Review: People have followed over 20 years of Dirk Pitt's life through 17 books. In his younger days he did a lot of crazy stuff with ease. In the more recent books there have been hints of aging. Sure it happens to everybody, but not characters from a book... Trojan Odyssey really brings the issue to light. They're all getting older. Dirk Pitt doesn't do nearly as many death-defying stunts in this book as in earlier ones. He's not immortal, he's getting old and decides to settle down. I absolutely love the big ending. I actually got tearry-eyed. Especially the last paragraph.
My main advice is don't finish the book at 3:00am with nobody to babble to but a cat sleeping next to you on the couch. He won't care and you be left saying 'wow, i can't beleive it.'
BTW Pay attention to Sandecker's hint on p.305 second to last paragraph.
Rating:
Summary: Not best Cussler but not bad
Review: This book was not my favorite Dirk Pitt Novel but I think it ends well. The action is a little less intense than his other books but Cussler still has chases and clashes with the "evil doer" I would recommend anyone that has read the other books to read this one but new readers should read earlier Cussler novels because because there is history some history revealed in this book.
Rating:
Summary: TROJAN ENDS ONE GREAT CAREER, AND STARTS A NEW ONE!!
Review: THOUGH NOT HIS BEST DIRK PITT NOVEL, CERTAINLY MORE THAN SATISFYING FOR THIS READER!
HEY, WE ALL GET OLD, EVEN DIRK PITT, AL GIORDANO, AND 007 AGE. WHY DO YOU THINK WE'RE ON THE 5TH ACTOR PLAYING ENIGMATIC JAMES BOND? MAYBE WE JUST DIDN'T EXPECT, OR CAN'T EXPECT OUR MIDDLE-AGED HERO SHOWING HIS AGE, LIKE THE REST OF US DO, HA? HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU WAKE UP WITH BACKACHES?
ISN'T DIRK, AL, AND CLIVE TO BE ALLOWED THE SAME GRACE WITH GROWING OLD AS THE REST OF US ARE?
OVERALL, ENOUGH ACTION, SHOOTOUTS, RESCUES, ETC. TO KEEP ANY READER HAPPY.
I WON'T GIVE AWAY THE ENDING, EXCEPT TO SAY, I FOUND IT A FITTING, HAPPY, AND EXPECTED ENDING FOR A THRILLING, ACTION, FILLED CAREER, FOR BOTH CHARACTERS, WITH A HINT, THAT CUSSLER WILL BE COMBINING DIRK PITT, AL GIORDANO, KURT AUSTIN, AND JOE ZAVALA TOGETHER IN HIS NEXT FEW BOOKS.
THIS IS SOMETHING I LOOK FORWARD TO READING WITH GREAT ANTICIPATION!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't start here...
Review: Although Clive Cussler can still spin a good yarn, this was basically a disappointing book. Clive Cussler's work has gone way downhill, and the character development is shockingly thin. The introduction of Summer Jr. and Dirk Jr. at the end of the last book could have presented an opportunity for Mr. Cussler to pump some life in to a series that is getting very tired - instead, he squandered that by leaving them as one-dimensional clones of their parents: who cares? Also, it was totally obvious that someone (Mr. Cussler's editor?) forced him to insert a paragraph that led the reader away from thinking something bizarre was going on between Dirk's children. This book needed another good edit (lots of obvious typographical mistakes and inconsistencies) and needed to trade character quantity for depth. Finally, the "shocking" change in Dirk's personal life at the end is a really obvious attempt to pump some life in to this series (just like introducing Dirk's children). Because I was hugely disappointed by this book, I am not optimistic about Mr. Cussler's next effort. Also, I was a bit disturbed by the three (?) snide political references to President Clinton and liberals in the book. What's that about? They were wildly inappropriate. If you're a fan of Mr. Cussler, go ahead and give it a try (but try to pick it up from the library or wait for paperback). If you've never read Mr. Cussler, do yourself a huge favor and choose a different book to start.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: A huge disappointment. Like so many continuing series this one has lost steam and it's time to put Dirk to bed. Trojan Odyssey will lecture you, tease you with some action, and then ultimately bore you into oblivion. The addition of Dirk Jr. and Summer II adds nothing to the story and if you read this book you might, as I did, suspect something hinky going on between the the twins. Overall just a really bad book.
Rating:
Summary: Very light reading
Review: If you are looking to feed your mind, this is the curly-cheese fries of literature. The author takes an interesting theory on the location of Troy and turns it into a bad James Bond movie. If you've read any of Cussler's previous novels, you'll have no problem predicting each of the unlikely coincidences which lead to a showdown between Pitt and Specter. For the uninitiated, let me give you a taste of what you're missing: Dirk Pitt's twin children, who look, act and have the same first names as their parents, get caught in the worst hurricane, ever. Nearby, a giant, floating hotel is on the brink of being crushed against a rocky shoreline. The owner of the hotel is "Specter", the leader of a druid cult out to create a global disaster so that they can corner the market on a new energy source. Pitt's kids discover a celtic relic on the wrong side of the ocean, which threatens to rewrite ancient history. A history which happens to be related to the druid cult. The story zips along like a 500 page comic book, thanks to the author's lack of character development. Instead, most people are described by their eye-color and a description of their outfits. The bad guys (or gals?) wear color-coded jumpsuits and paint all of their vehicles lavender (if only Bin Laden was this crafty). The good guys ride around in turquoise planes and ships. The story is very uneven. One minute Dirk sees a woman with wet hair and deduces that there must be a bomb on his boat, the next minute he can't decide if a bikini-clad bombshell pulled off a sinking Odyssey gunboat might be dangerous. As with other recent Pitt novels, the author can't make up his mind which previous Pitt adventures to negate and which to keep in the Pitt timeline.
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