Rating: 
Summary: Interesting yet Predictable (CASS PER.2)
Review: The book Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler held my interest well. It had a very simplistic, predictable plot, but it was very well written and held my attention. This book, like other Clive Cussler books, starts out with a mysterious historical event taking place. The story begins in 1035 when the Norsemen came across the North Atlantic to look for new land to settle on. The Norsemen are destroyed and the plot cuts to present day. Dirk Pitt, the director of special projects for the National Underwater Maritime Administration, was the superhero in the story. He saw a ship that caught fire and sank with 2,000 passengers aboard. Pitt saved most of the 2,000 people, including Kelly Egan, the daughter of the inventor of engines that run on seawater. Dirk Pitt and his sidekick Al Giordino use a sub to search for arson clues. The sub is hi-jacked but Pitt and Giordino get away. The story continues and, as predicted, Dirk Pitt solves the mystery and saves the day. The characterization was somewhat strong. Dirk, Al, and the crew from NUMA are in every book but this one has an important guest main character, Kelly Egan. The bad guy of the book and head of the Cerberus Corporation, Curtis Merlin Zale, was an important aspect of the plot. Although the character was not very well developed, his role of the stereotypical bad guy is important for the Cussler formula. Overall, this would be a great book to read on the beach, light, simplistic, predictable, yet very entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Dirk is Back
Review: In Valhalla Rising Clive Cussler gives every character, big or small, a very in depth personality. Dirk Pitt the main character is at his best to stop a company from creating a monopoly in the economic world. While at the same time trying to solve an ancient mystery. This story takes you back in time and around the world. Al Giordino his childhood and most trusted friend. Along with all of the other members of the NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) staff.
I liked this book because of all the action and adventure that takes a reader all around the world. Like all of Cusslers other books you can easily follow the movement of the story from one point to another. Like most of the newer Dirk Pitt novels Cussler takes an active role in the development of the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who has read a Stephen Coonts novel. In my opinion if Dirk Pitt and Jake Grafton ever meet each other they would get along really well. The reasons for this being they are both loyal to there country and to their friends. Each has many resources at their disposal.
Cussler like in his other novels has put a wide range of characters in his book. Some examples of this are Dirk and Giordino are round and dynamic characters. They each have their own personalities and they each change over the coarse of the novel. Then there's flat characters such as some of the mercenaries who just follow orders and don't do anything else. Also their are static characters who after messing with Dirk only have one thin on their minds, revenge. He is also very direct in the way he describes them. He starts with a detailed physical description of the character followed by telling about their psyche.
This novel is told in third person objective. The narrator tells every thing without taking sides in the story. Yet the narrator also gets into the characters psyche. He can tell you what they are thinking in any one perk of the novel.
Cussler also gives very good descriptions of the locations that the novel takes place. Also when they change the location of the story he gives the location, date, and time.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Addition
Review: Clive Cussler's Valhalla Rising is a good addition to the long-running series featuring the intrepid Dirk Pitt. While it does seem to adhere to the formulaic plot of previous Pitt outings, it is still a fantastic read, opening with a maritime disaster that ties in, later in the narrative to the present-day mysteries faced by NUMA Special Projects Director Dirk and his assistant, Al Giordino. Without spoiling the plot, it is sufficient to state that naturally, nothing less than the fate of the world is at stake.Valhalla rising is a fine novel, and fans of the series will not be disappointed by a return of the Dirk Pitt adventure (and an unusual twist at the novel's conclusion)
Rating:
Summary: A fun go around, somewhat marred by the author's ego
Review: After nearly 20 years, Dirk Pitt is a familiar character for escapist readers. Cussler's books of his exploits are the literary equivalent of a good popcorn movie. Just another good book to kick back and enjoy - no big themes, no important messages. It's fluff. But fluff with some substance - Cussler never fails to included an interesting take on history and as the "What If." Cussler tries this time to introduce some more weight to Pitt, giving him musings about still being single, and continuing to mourn loss of the love of his life. Somehow while this is not outrageous to explore, it does clunk along a bit. The rest of the book is formula Cussler, but that's not a bad thing. He sets up a prologue situation that has very little to do with the main plot of the book, throws our heroes into a sequence of adventures where we are brought along for the fun, without the danger or worry of something dire really happening to them. And then, it's back to wrap up what was started in the prologue and tie ends together. The end. One annoying trait, though, that continues here is Cussler's propensity to write himself into the story. Pitt and co. have far too often fortuitously run across Mr. Cussler at a very convenient moment where he can help give the little extra needed to save the day. Once was fun. Twice was indulgent. but beyond that, it's just annoying. A work of great literature? No. But a good beach book.
Rating:
Summary: Cussler does it once again!
Review: Dirk Pitt and friends are back in Cussler's latest instalment! This time, our story begins in 1035 when Viking longboats land on American shores and hoards of treasure is hidden in a cave along the Hudson River. Then in 1894, a mystery undersea vessel attacks the US warship KEARSAGE and disappears! Zoom forward to 2003 when Dirk Pitt and his NUMA crew suddenly find themselves on the scene of a major disaster as the luxury cruise ship EMERALD DOLPHIN catches fire in mysterious circumstances. As they rescue the passengers and use all their resources available to help, a young lady named Kelly Egan is rescued, who is carrying the secrets behind a new kind of oil and a technology invented by her father that could change the world as we know it . . . hmm! Dirk and Al Giordino are soon on the trail of her father Elmore Egan's research and stumble across mega-baddie Curtis Merlin Zale, who has his eyes on the US's oil supply. Then he attempts to sink a submarine cruise ship, also designed by Egan. Dirk and Al's trail leads them to Raoul Island in the Pacific and then the headquarters of Zale's CERBURUS conglomerate in New Jersey. It turns out Zale wants to destroy Egan's research to keep oil profits high, and when his final evil plan to block out foreign oil from the US by engineering a huge terrorist attack is learned, it may be too late!You can surely guess the ending, or can you . . . Also in the tale are Egan's fascination with Jules Verne's stories which tie up with the mystery submarine subplot and his invention Zale wanted to destroy, and the significance of the Viking prologue ties in here well. Overall, if you're after plenty of action, escapism and James Bond style derring-do, Cussler's books are well worth the money. I always buy them the moment they're out - myself and my wife are always fighting over who reads it first. Also, if you like this sort of novel check out Matthew Reilly too.
Rating: 
Summary: Not nearly good
Review: The only reason I finished reading this book was to see how it all tied together. Unfortunately it ended more ridiculously than it began. I won't make the same mistake again.
Rating:
Summary: Another over-the-top Dirk Pitt adventure.
Review: Pitt is back for another over-the-top epic actioner. In "Valhalla", Pitt becomes embroiled with Cerberus, an aggressive petroleum cartel that will do anything to monopolize the flow of oil into America (the baddies are actually Americans. Though it's soon clear that "Valhalla" was written before 9/11, a more baiting author would have easily gone for the "OPEC" panic-button). There prime target is the inventor of a revolutionary form of propulsion that will put a severe dent in the global demand for oil. Luckily for them, the inventor, and his beautiful daughter, are both at sea on a revolutionary cruise ship powered by the inventor's magnetohydrodynamic engines - giving the cartel the opportunity to take out two birds with one stone (or in this case, one fire at sea). To late to save Dr. Egan, deep-diving hero Dirk Pitt arrives to save the plucky Kelly Egan, and become the cartel's latest target. Pitt, the special projects director for the "National Underwater & Marine Agency", isn't a guy to take "no" for an answer (he's also the only hero left who has no problem tossing off bon mots like "I hope you can forgive my tardiness"). In protecting Kelly Egan, and shutting down Cerberus, Pitt will find himself tangling with modern-day pirates in the Pacific, dogfighting a modern-day Red Baron over the streets of Manhattan, suffocating aboard a luxury submarine trapped at the bottom of the ocean and taking on a rogue super-tanker rigged to vaporize a city. He will also have to track down the mysterious hidden lab of Dr. Egan, but luckily for Pitt he and the departed doctor share similar interests. Cussler tosses an army of ruthless mercenaries, a lost Viking colony a mysterious 19th century submariner and ultimately...himself (again) into the mix for another Dirk Pitt adventure. Okay, so it gets a bit wearing at times, and Cussler doesn't so much blaze any new paths as much as follow old ones (he used the bomb-ship idea in the excellent "Cyclops"), while sticking to his trademark brand of pedantry (we always know what everybody is eating, and what they're wearing). Normally, the above would kill the story, but Cussler's brand is actually fun, and he doesn't allow dinner menus and wardrobes to kill the story, which manages to be both consistently action packed yet never a mindless videogame turned novel. There's probably some stuff that could have been tossed out (the Vikings and Jules Verne plot-lines were interesting, but they don't really connect to the story), but adventure fans should enjoy it. Cussler shows he can go deeper into a genre he essentially created.
Rating:
Summary: The integrity of a once great series and character.....
Review: Just to qualify, what is about to be said. I have read all the books, I like the series less and less. The first were alive and fresh, an adventure. The new ones are...
"Oh dear. I think someone was on autopilot writing this. 421 copies available from $0.01. Yep. The plot is too fantastical to even draw you in. The characters are wafer thin. An obsession with details, clothes worn, brands of gadget, etc. instead of eh story...In Sweden, we say 'cake on cake' - not one shipwreck, but 2, then a vintage plane fight over Manhattan, then finding lost viking boats, moored next to Cpt. Nemo's submarine. And an ending, to make you want to puke, it is so saccharin. No, no, no. All very disappointing. This is now the Mills & Boon of adventure. Or the Roger Moore of Bond.
Rating: 
Summary: What genre is this?
Review: My first Clive Cussler read, "Treasure", was, some years back, an "on the edge of your seat" thriller. So, I expected the same from Valhalla Rising. For the first third of the book, it met all expectations...but it went downhill from there. Halfway through the book, I felt like I crossed over into science fiction. At several points, I felt as though the only way that Cussler could make the story to work was to introduce something completely impossible to "rescue" the plot. Plus, I grew tired of every female character being georgeous, and every boat being unlike any ever seen before. Still, if you are looking for something entertaining, it works.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Cusslers best
Review: Like many other reviewers, I can honestly say this one has its cheesy moments. The whole Viking thing comes out of nowhere barely making a connection to the story. You're fumbling through looking for a connection that just isn't there. The "magic" briefcase had me cringing as well. It felt like Cussler had a long chat with William Shatner the night before writing that in. The ending has a suprise twist that was as predictable as it was cheesy. Not recommended as your first Cussler to read. If you plan to read Trojan Odyssey, however cheesy, the ending is a must read, there's some important character intros.
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