Rating: 
Summary: Like all Cusslers, fun but horribly written
Review: To begin with, Cussler's novel (the first one of his I read) is actually rather good. It is pretty fun to read, and the plot is actually pretty good. It involves corny action-hero type Dirk Pitt (great name) who along with his pal Al Giordino from NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) must stop Neo-Nazis from taking over the world with super-sized Noah's arkish ships. That being said, the reason this book gets three stars as opposed to four or five is because of the writing. Clive Cussler needs to re-enroll in English 101, as he is one of the hokiest and, well, worst writers I have ever seen. First of all, he persists in using rediculous similies such as "[His eyes] reminded her of the color of a coral reef beneath smooth water" (actually from another book, Serpent) and is absolutely horrible at describing the mechanical objects he so often uses. Don't get me wrong, I love his books and buy them whenever I have the chance, but I still shudder whenever I hear his horrible, horrible writing. Keep the plots, but learn to write!
Rating: 
Summary: trash, pure trash
Review: Where to start with this lamentable effort. Well, don't buy it would be a good place. It's dreadful and I'm going to give away quite a bit of the plot in this opinion to show you just how stupid it is. If you don't want it spoilt for you, then stop now, but I did warn you. Cussler has sunk to a real low by writing this book, and his biggest mistake as far as I can see is attempting to leave the confines of the narrow world he usually inhabits, to write about things in the real world, which he knows nothing about. If you've never read anything by Cussler, buy one of his early novels, as they are much better. They all revolve around a fellow called Dirk Pitt, an underwater secret agent, who makes Superman seem a bit like Mickey Mouse - get the picture. The plot has more holes in it than a very holey thing (Metaphors fail me). The story goes something like this - Some bloke discovers an extraordinary artefact 9100 years old. Lots of people try to kill him and all he tells of his find, but Dirk Pitt pops up and saves them all. These artefacts have been left by the Atlanteans to warn of impending doom, but things are not so simple. Oh no, Mr Cussler has a race of super nazis living under the South Pole and plotting to take over the world. Ludicrously, he would have the poor dumb reader believe that although 275,000 people are involved in the plot, none of the world's intelligence agencies have been able to penetrate the organisation during its 50 years of existence. Puhleease Clive, the National Enquirer would seem to be more your speed. Fortunately for us, Pitt uncovers the plot, convinces the entire US version of the MOD of it's genuineness in about 20 minutes, then saves our bacon pretty much single handedly. On the back of the book, some wag has penned "From the Grand Master of adventure fiction comes heart-pounding action and intrigue - And the answer to one of the great mysteries in human history". What a laugh. The "Answer" is that Atlantis was destroyed 9,000 years ago by, get this, a comet greater than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Sheesh, and nobody realised until now. Pitt sees more combat in this book than you average Vietnam Vet, receiving in separate incidents, err, well, cuts to his hands, feet and head actually. Two of his unarmed mates successfully take on a helicopter gunship and six heavily armed mercenaries, who we are led to believe are all ex SAS or similar. This is just stupid and I was getting very bored by that point. However, this was one of my holiday books, bought for easy reading by the pool, so it had be finished, but at 7 pounds I wished I'd bought a bottle of Raki (Greek alcohol) and half poisoned myself instead. Cussler likes to show off his technical diving knowledge, and as he has led a number of successful exploration expeditions you'd expect this to be done well. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. I suspect he is just so patronising that he assumes the reader won't realise when BS is being waved under their nose. He has Pitt diving in mine shafts using totally ludicrous equipment just to make it sound exciting. I can genuinely say anyone who dived using the gear he suggests would be laughed at if they left the confines of a swimming pool (A solo dive in an overhead environment, using a single regulator on a twinset, for anyone that understands). In the technical diving world he would firmly be described as a "Stroke" (Origin unknown, either about to look like a stroke victim due to bad diving practice, or a total W**ker are the favourite guesses) Name dropping and gross egotism are a couple of other of Cussler's little faults. He has himself making two cameo appearances to aid Pitt's bid to save the world. How arrogant can he possibly get I ask myself? Well, we all know he actually fantasises that he's Pitt, so I suppose there's room for him to get worse yet. He also drops in the names of expensive wines, at 60 ukpounds a throw, just to rub the readers nose in the fact that he's loaded and we aren't. Martin Ray Cabernet Sauvignon - "An excellent choice Sir, not many of our Patrons know it exists" says the waiter. Ho ho, Clive did though, didn't he, and just had to share his expertise. Well if its anything like his diving expertise it'll probably taste like urine, 60 pounds or not. He then goes on to denigrate Gallo, the stuff most of us in the UK would consider a decent wine at 3 to 4 pounds a bottle. Snob. So what else was good about the book. His characters are all nearly identical, apart from the token women who wet their knickers every time Dirk enters the room. Wooden, soulless, boring, with stunted dialogue and not a swear word amongst them. It's almost impossible to tell the difference between the Nazis and the Americans as they behave pretty much in the same fashion. They all lead a bourgeois existence that died with F Scott Fitzgerald, but at least he had the wit and feeling to mock the world he inhabited. Cussler's literary skills are very limited too. Quote - "A long lost race who discovered the world" said Giordino, philosophically - On that evidence Cussler wouldn't know philosophy if it swallowed him whole. This sums up his absence of talent and lack of ability to convey emotion or thought for me, and I won't be reading another of his books unless I wind up in jail with no other option. This dreadful offering is Mills and Boon (Trashy Romantic Ladies novels in the UK) for the boys, at its worst.
Rating: 
Summary: Plenty of action!
Review: Usual Clive Clusser, plenty of action. The book was good, action-packed.
Rating:
Summary: If only he could write
Review: This is the first Clive Cussler book I've read and from the very first page I was hooked. This book has a wonderfully eerie and ingenious introduction. But the more I read, the more irritated at his writing style, or lack of it, I became. I can't recall reading more wooden dialogue in my life. It is painful. His sentence structure and phrasing would have been red penciled by my sophomore English teacher. I found myself wanting to rewrite almost every paragraph, and groaning out loud, but I couldn't put it down. If only he could combine his clever ideas, action, impressive technical knowledge and eye for detail with a writing style that was not cringe-inducing, I would read another.
Rating: 
Summary: Atlantis Found
Review: Atlantis Found written by Clive Cussler is a Dirk Pitt novel. This is the fifteenth in a series of action-adventure books that involve our hero Dirk Pitt against the bad guys. What Cussler does is weave in some truth with his fiction to make the fabric of the novel believable and this is no exception. Engaging from the start, this adventure is dramatic and involves some exotic locations. The concept of this book is that we are to find, or rather Dirk Pitt is to find Atlantis. Cussler follows his adventure formula to a "T" as he starts out in the past with a adventure that lead in to something that Pitt will find later in the book. As the clues and the excitement mount the bad guys try to get rid of Pitt, but Pitt has more bounce than a super ball. Pitt seems to find a way to foil the criminal element and use their weapons against them. Cussler has some intricate plotting and builds the suspense to a fever pitch as Pitt connects the clues and all of the incidences Cussler has put in the way. Of course there has to be some time limit till the whole world reaches Armageddon. And by the narrowist of margins you wonder if our hero can accomplish the task. Of course, Pitt has his best friend Al Giordino and the whole NUMA team for support making the odds more even. This is a very engaging story and will grab you as you are engrossed in the story till the end. The prose moves well as there aren't many dry spots, but the narrative is true Cussler till the end. As Pitt is a more mature in the book, we can feel his limitations in the writing making for a more believable good guy. As Pitt takes on the bad guys, wins the battle, the spoils go to Pitt and so does the girl. You'll find this book has dazziling suspense with an adventure/ mystery quality to it. The is a good read, intricately diabolical, sprinkled with mystery and spiced with just enough suspense.
Rating:
Summary: Politically incorrect, historically questionable, but fun!
Review: I hadn't read any Cussler, let alone any Dirk Pitt novels before. This one caught my attention because the Atlantis theme coincides with my interest in humankind's prehistory. Fairly early on though I decided I would need to set my disbelief to one side and just go with the flow if I wanted to derive any enjoyment from this book. Anthropologists will surely hurl this pot boiler across the room and issue indignant snorts at the notion that almost the entire human race was wiped out in 7,000 B.C. Furthermore, during the denouement, the tactics employed to thwart the villains are somewhat farcical when a simpler solution is staring us in the face! But Cussler never intended to give us an accurate history lesson, and let's get onto the plot! This is a rollicking adventure where our rugged and handsome hero knocks the preverbial out of sinister foreigners with funny accents and discovers the lost continent of Atlantis, almost without breaking sweat. Dirk Pitt is definitely up there with Indiana Jones and James Bond and probably hasn't got far to go to give Superman a run for his money. He's the kind of mega-tough guy who, if his lungs start to hurt, he spits them out and gets on with saving civilisation as we know it. He always has a witty line in repartee on his tongue too, and don't the ladies just lap it up! In real life he would probably come over as Leisure Suit Larry's more dangerous brother and would be regarded as rather corny by any streetwise modern woman. The womem in Dirk Pitt's world however are invariably beautiful and frequently in need of rescue by our invincible square-jawed hero, which, of course, he invariably accomplishes in the nick of time. But enough irony and nitpicking! The action (and boy, is there plenty of that!) is very competently described and I defy anyone not to devour this hefty tome (500+ pages) in a flurry of undemanding but enjoyable page turning. I swear you will shiver as Cussler depicts the numbing effects of wind-chill on our hero! So, classic literature this ain't, but I enjoyed it all the same and have no regrets about buying my first ticket into the rather simplistic but pretty damn entertaining world of Dirk Pitt.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but follows the same formula as the rest
Review: The 15th book in the Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler is an enjoyable, if sometimes annoying read. I'll skip over the plot details as you can read a much better version in the book description. The Dirk Pitt series has always been full of action and suspense with a dash of humor thrown in and this book doesn't dissapoint. Sometimes it's difficult to put the book down because you want to see how things will turn out for our heroes or what will happen next. My only problem with this book, and the entire series, is that the books follow the same formula. Something happens in the past, beautiful woman investigating/connected to it gets in trouble, Dirk Pitt steps in and saves the day, several times. A plot is discovered that could change/destroy the world, Dirk and friends try and stop it. It seems that almost all of the Dirk Pitt books follow this general formula. This is a decent book and a very worthwhile read, but it doesn't really have any real depth to it. A kind of book that is good to read on a plane or while waiting for someone, but one that really doesn't hold up well.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely a great book.
Review: Atlantis Found was a book that I greatly enjoyed reading. It is easy to get caught up in the novel's plot, and the climax was the most captivating of all the books I have read. Some critics complained about the factual info given in Atlantis Found, but some background information has to be given for a reader to sufficiently comprehend this book. Although I would not necessarily say that Atlantis Found is a book for everyone, anyone who enjoys a great action book or movie should consider reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed it !!
Review: I happened to accidently find this book while waiting at the airport. After a few pages, I was hooked! Since reading Atlantis Found, I've read 5 others of Cussler's books. So far Cyclops and Atlantis Found are my favorites.
Rating: 
Summary: "If you dont have anything nice to say..."
Review: Alright, I'll admit that Clive Cussler has been, and always will be, a "popular fiction" writer, i.e. books that dont require thought. But his past books were NEVER this bad! I actually enjoyed his early novels, but Cussler's writing has become nothing but shoddy junk. Atlantis found is shallow and cliche. The only highlight I can find is that it isn't (thank god) tedious. But what bothered me the most was his need to explain things such as Precession, Diffusion (in relation to the populating of North America), and even sky charts (among many other things) for goodness sakes! I understand some people may not have ever heard of, say, the Theory of Diffusion, but they are capable of looking it up! Cussler need not badly attempt to work the definition into the story!! Ugh. Nothing bothered me more than that.
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