Rating: 
Summary: typical Cussler: Valhalla Rising
Review: Dirk Pitt is back in another adventure where he is battling the evil corporation that wants to rule the world and making time to save damsels and others from distress. But age is creeping up on him and this one finds him feeling a bit melancholy over lost loves and what might have been. But, those periods are brief as are most of Dirk's times for reflection as he finds himself in one difficult situation after another. As the novel opens, the new luxury cruise ship Emerald Dolphin is on its maiden voyage. Radical in design and style, it has onboard every conceivable state of the art system for its high dollar passengers and crew. It is the first ship carrying the revolutionary electromagnetic engines that have the potential of totally changing the face of transportation. These engines along with newly created oil for them called "Slick 66" by its inventor, Dr. Egan, are a threat to the major oil companies. Dr. Egan and his daughter, Kelly, are onboard for the maiden voyage so that Dr. Egan can keep an eye on his inventions. Things began to go wrong during the night when a fire breaks out aboard the ship. The fire suppression system does not work and the fire is free to spread throughout the giant luxury liner. The horrific fire throws up a giant glow on the horizon where Dirk Pitt is aboard the National Underwater Marine Agency ship Deep Encounter. They head to the scene and launch a massive rescue operation to save the over 2500 hundred passengers and crew of the Emerald Dolphin. In so doing, Dirk unwittingly stumbles onto a plan to kill Dr. Egan, and obtain his notes by a major corporation seeking to dominate the world for their own purposes. Sure, the theme has been done many times and quite a few of those were by Clive Cussler. Even with the planned and somewhat unbelievable storyline surprise at the end of the novel, it is still worth reading. You know, battered and bruised, Dirk will save the day and the lady and that is what makes it so much fun. Sometimes you want that fun read from an author that does not take himself or his readers too seriously.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent
Review:
Cussler, once again, provides readers wtih a good suspenseful tale which features the exploits of Dirk Pitt and his trusting sidekick, Al Giordino. On the plus side, he provides us with a thorough description of various ships and submarines and puts the reader right in the midst of the action. He also gives us some educational insight on pre-Columbus expeditions and a good history lesson. I also get a kick out of the obese St. Julien Perlmutter. He's quite a character. The downside is that he puts Pitt in too many situations that would kill the average Joe 10 times over but somehow, he manages to come away unscathed every single time. If Cussler does this every once in a while, it would be more believable. However, with Pitt, he does it way too often. There were many instances where I simply heard myself saying, 'Aw, gimme a break' while reading a few paragraphs. Overall, a good story with interesting characters. Definitely would recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the $8.00 I spent at HEB
Review: I bought this book around 6pm this evening and just finished it - its 3am now. Yes, this book is a page turner. I acknowledge that Mr. Cussler's work perhaps isn't the literary equal of a Joyce or Austen, but that shouldn't deter you from reading his works. Cussler writes of a vast conspiracy in a way that it seems rather plausible. This conspiracy was intent on dominating the USA, and in the process purchased the votes of several politicians and bureaucrats. Who among us has never wondered if this was the case with some conspiracy that was diametrically opposed to our own views? Finally, he sets the book up for a sequel, and possibly many sequels, if you consider the information revealed in the last half-dozen or so pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: I was not sure what to expect when I picked up this novel as it was my first Cussler. Now, however, I pick up a book of his whenever I can. He mixes a more lifely Bond-esque hero and an amazingly interesting history in this great adventure. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: taltilzing
Review: another great book by Cussler. His descriptions of upstate New York and the viking ship are astounding. The super villian is almost as big as one of the evil Bond girls. Truly another masterpeice.
Rating:
Summary: Pizza For the Brain
Review: "Even when its bad it's still pretty good," This is Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt. Granted this adventure is a little long in someplaces and uneven elsewhere but it is still good. I always recommend to friends to start by reading the mid-80's Dirk Pitt books first. If they like those, they will enjoy the rest of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Preposterous and poorly written
Review: This book was poorly wriiten, filled with cardboard characters, and unbelievable, (and this from a reader who loves fantasy and science fiction). Three examples: We are lead to believe that a consortium of CEO's of major oil companies collectively think that staging outlandish accidents including crashing an oil tanker into San Francisco and killing over 2000 peopke is an acceptable business plan for expanding profits. Only one member has second thoughts. When adrift in the ocean outside of shipping lanes, who arrives to save our hero? None other than the author in a catamaran. That's the best you can do Clive? Why not have him saved by space aliens? At the end of the book the long lost children that our hero didn't know existed appear at his doorstep after their mother dies. Does this have anything to do with the plot? It may link to prior books, but adds nothing to the plot line of this book other than a gratuitous ending. Overall, an embarassment to the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Typical Cussler
Review: I have read literally ALL of Clive Cussler's novels. This one is exactly like the others -- pure mind candy. If you need a mind candy, Cussler always delivers. I hope he never quits.
Rating:
Summary: epitome of tripe (definition - something poor or worthless)
Review: Wow, this book is extremely terrible.
First Cussler book I've ever read. Wouldn't read another.
Really, I would consider the time I spent on this book a waste of time. The writing itself isn't so bad, but there are so many blatant errors in plotting the book didn't hold together. Okay, so Dirk Pitt is supposed to be a genius and a 'James Bond' type and then the author 'makes' him 'stupid' throughout the book so the criminals in the book can 'get away' with their misdeeds without being caugt or suspected before the book ends. Terrible. Let me give you some examples.
A main character tells Dirk that her father's dying wish was that she protect his briefcase. She explains that her father invented a frictionless oil. Later the briefcase mysteriously fills with oil and Dirk says, "Oh, it must've been a prank." Then it happens again and he never makes the connection that "Hey, this must be the special oil the inventor made." Wake up, Dirk!! Then Dirk, Giordino and some woman are stuck on a small sub, well out of shipping lanes and no distress beacon. Hopeless situation and then surprise... Clive Cussler writes himself into the book and saves them as his boat travels very close by the sub. Ridiculous!!
Why didn't you just have them saved by aliens who were going to do science experiments on them? Then they could escape to Mars and build a spaceship and fly back to the safety of earth. By the way, Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt talk to each other and are virtually indistinguishable within the story. Sheesh!!! The story opens with the tragedy of a cruise ship burning and the daring rescue. Dirk learns that the ship had the inventors special engines and that the bad guys sabotaged the ship to discredit the inventor's engines. Later, a submarine cruise ship (stupid idea) has the same engines. Dirk tells the captain that bad guys will sabotage the sub in an effort to discredit. "No way," says captain. "The show must go on."
"Okay," said Dirk, "but at least dispatch some divers to ensure there are no bombs attached to the hull. Then they're way out to sea and they get a message -- "The divers were found dead under the pier. Stabbed to death."
Wait a second, are we saying the cruise sub left without hearing back from the divers whether or not there were bombs on the hull!!!!???? STUPID!!! Utter TRIPE!!! And don't even mention the holographic computer - Max - in the form of a beautiful woman, who hits on Dirk Pitt. Sheesh and double-sheesh. Hey, Cussler, man, if you need some help on your plotting, let me know and I'll give you some hints next time.
Rating:
Summary: Achieves a new level of torpor
Review: I bought this for plane reading. Thirty pages in, I was well-ready to heave it out into the atmosphere, somewhere over the Sierra Nevadas. While Dirk Pitt novels ought never be called "literature", this hits a new low: within the first ten pages, Cussler manages to use the word "hard" three times in one sentence, to brutalize several nominal alliterations, and generally clobbers the English language into oblivion. The plot is meandering at best, and in typical Dirk Pitt fashion serves mostly as a vehicle to convey the ever-intrepid hero from situation to situation where he can save numbers of people/bag a girl/stop a bad guy (or some combination thereof). This is a tired book, with a tired plot and a tired hero. Perhaps it's time for Dirk to sail away to Valhalla. This actually makes Teen People or TV Guide look like quality reading. My advice? Stick with something else--this one's so bad, it's not even soporific. If you need that Cussler fix, try something earlier--if you need a bit of reading for the plane, try just about anything else.
| 
