Rating: Summary: Clive Cussler just keeps getting better! Review: Clive Cussler has done it again! His latest book, "Atlantis Found" has the crew back together again. Dirk, Al, Rudy, Admiral Sandecker and the others work together to solve this latest mystery of ships frozen in time, black skulls carved out of obsidian scattered all over the world and the fiends out to cause mass destruction. In his usual way of having you on the edge of your chair and gulping a deep breath because you didn't know that you were holding it, Mr. Cussler brings everything together in a clear, educational, entertaining manner. The word play between the main characters makes you laugh out loud as you have come to know the characters from previous books and know the continuing harassment covers true friendships. Mr. Cussler's books always have you wondering when he is going to pop up as one of the characters himself. This book will not disappoint a true Clive Cussler fan. He is the best!
Rating: Summary: aaaahhhh Dirk Pitt! Review: The ultimate guilty pleasure. With 10 clichés per page he would have failed my freshman English class. We all know Cussler can't write his way out of a rice paper bag, but who cares? He writes a great story and you just gotta love Dirk Pitt.
Rating: Summary: you gotta be loyal to love it Review: True, the readers who are used to Crichton's over-the-head scientific "facts", and Grisham's law babble might find a lot of flaws with Cussler's writing, but for a Dirk Pitt fan, or anyone who has an imagination and wants to just forget his/herself for a while, this book is a lot of fun. If you still have problems with the book, my suggestion is to read a couple of the older ones (Deep Six, Treasure) till you find within yourself a devotion to Dirk Pitt and the crew. Then you might see the light. To Mr. Cussler: Don't let this one set you back! Keep writing them, and I'll keep buying them!
Rating: Summary: Badly written, poorly edited, but bound to become a movie. Review: My interest in this book stemmed from my seeing a piece on Discovery (or was it The Learning Channel) a few years ago about 'the orange peel theory', which hypothesizes that some natural cataclysm caused the Earth's crust to slip at the molten mantle and shift about 2000 miles on the core some 10.000-odd years ago, causing at once the quick-freezing of the Asian Mammoths, the end of the last Ice Age in North America, and the disappearance of Atlantis, the latter beneath Antarctic ice. Maybe Cussler saw the same piece and decided to base a novel on it. The orange peel theory could have made a good premise for a novel, but 'Atlantis Found' doesn't come close to fulfilling that potential. I, too, am unable to finish the book. The California reader's take on the book is correct (see 'Improbable...', below). For a fan of Clancy's technodramas, and earlier of Fleming's, this book is a nightmare of bad research and technological inconsistencies. For example, on p. 53, shortly after making his first appearance, super-hero Dirk Pitt, swimming through the 'icy cold water' of the mine, 'stayed warm inside his DUI Norseman dry suit.' [What is this, a commercial?] Then, on p. 78, safely out of the mine, he is described as 'the bruised and fatigued man in the torn diver's wet suit.' Which was it, Cussler? A wet suit or a dry suit? They are technically different. Then, a bit later, Pitt dons yet another dry suit, explaining why he prefers it to the wet suit. Rule No. 1 of technodrama: Get the technology right! And why is the water so cold? According to earlier text, the temperature in the mine increases the deeper one goes, and the water level decades ago reached just a few feet below the 1200' level where another character was working. If the air and rock are warm, that cold water needs explaining. Finally, as a lover of the logic of English I am offended to read a sentence such as: 'They [the ancients] discovered that the stars Betelguese, Sirius, and Procyon remain in permanent positions, while other constellations move imperceptibly over thousands of years.' If they discovered that stellar motion, they perceived it. How can it then be imperceptible? Still more annoying is that Cussler put that sentence in the voice of a computer named Max. No self-respecting talking computer would be so illogical. This book seeks to target us Tom Clancy fans, and it will bomb with us. Heck, we even get upset when Clancy refers to a WWII Japanese flying boat as a 'Kawasaki H8K,' since the H8K 'Emily' was a Kawanishi aircraft (some say the best 4-engine flying boat in the war), not a Kawasaki. For us, Atlantis Found is a nightmare. But Atlantis Found is crazy enough, and has enough far-flung exotic settings, that I expect Hollywood to make it into a huge action film. I suspect that movie potential to be the reason the book was written. Sure hope the film turns out better than the book. [Apologies for the many single quotation marks. The Amazon review software is converting my regular quotation marks into '"'.]
Rating: Summary: Atlantis Found Review: Pure enjoyment, just a fun book to read. Dirk Pitt fans are sure to love it, I can't wait for the next book.
Rating: Summary: Great Book Review: Clive Cussler does a great job in this book. All my freinds love it too. Clive Cussler really keeps the reader focused in the high action parts of the book!
Rating: Summary: Great Fun and Diversion Review: This is a great airplane book. Excellent diversion that keeps you hooked. The mental imagery is vivid and exact. Can't wait to see the movie.
Rating: Summary: Good, but... Review: As an avid Cussler fan, I eagerly awaited the next Cussler adventure. When it arrived under the tree Christmas morning, I quickly lost myself in the story. Typical of Cussler, the book was full of adventure and believable historical fiction. Only Clive could pull together a pre-historical civilization and the Fourth Reich into one plausible adventure. The Only problem was Atlantis did not seem as tight as previous offerings. Small inconsistencies kept me looking back, rather than simply moving forward in the plot. For example, in the early mine rescue, Dirk is wearing a drysuit. When he returns to the mine later, Cussler states Dirk is wearing a drysuit instead of the wetsuit he had on earlier. I felt like this book received no serious proof-reading. Small quirks aside, any Cussler fan will enjoy this book. And for all of Al's fans out there, he finally gets the woman! I look forward to the next Pitt novel, and hope for another Autin adventure.
Rating: Summary: Cussler Has A New Customer In Me! Review: Forget the negative reviews on this page...this story was absolutely captivating! If you like adventure, getting lost in the past and the future then this is the book for you. I have never read any of authors previous works but I will definitely hunt them down now. People who left reviews and said the story was just too way out there to make it believeable...WAKE UP! A story is supposed to be just that. This book made me want to be there in the story. It took past history and embellished to make it all the more interesting. I highly recommend this book for all the adventurists out there who want to go on the roller coaster ride this book takes you on!
Rating: Summary: okay, deep literature it ain't.... Review: ...but who cares. This book is 544 of solid rocking fun. The action does not let up for a page, Dirk is always Dirk and Al is in rare form. It's all there, fun, action, larger than life heroism, an evil madman out to literally destroy the world. What more can you ask for in a holiday read? I loved it. I have read every Pitt novel, this may not be my favorite, but I loved the ancient Amenes, Pat, Loren, Sandecker, even the Wolfs, you just want to jump into the pages and kill them yourself. This book will never be required in LIT/341, future generations will not study it for inner meanings and deep philosophical messages. So what? Enjoy yourself, get lost in adventure, quit being so damn stuffy, have a great time, have a fantasy or two, and read Dirk Pitt again and again. This is a great book.
|