Rating: 
Summary: Dirk Pitt delivers again
Review: I know of no one who writes with more vividness than Clive Cussler. From the opening, the action scenes are remarkable and non stop and Dirk Pitt continues to be one of the great James Bond-like adventures figures of our time.
Cussler's use of the ocean and the history of ocean travel make his books unique among adventure stories. He has also mastered the art of weaving a variety of themes into one compelling action-filled narrative. In this volume we go back and forth from the Vikings in the eleventh century to Jules Verne and the Nautilus in the 19th century to a giant cruise ship being sabotaged with thousands of lives at stake in 2003.
All of this is tied into a giant corporate conspiracy which seems a little more plausible after Enron and other recent scandals. You will be kept guessing on at least three different fronts as Pitt and his team rush from problem to problem and from threat to threat.
The action never stops; the entertainment never stops.
Rating:
Summary: Another great work from Clive Cussler
Review: I am a relative newcomer to Clive Cussler. I picked up the previous novel "Atlantis Found" at an airport while I was on a layover. It was a two day business trip and I simply could not put the book down, I finished that one shortly after returning home. Since then I have devoured nearly all the Cussler novels and eagerly picked up "Valhalla Rising" when it was published.
I have long been a Viking lore buff and so it seemed unbelievably true when I heard the title and it's obvious Viking connection. I was not dissapointed. Although I would have liked a bit more concerning the Viking subplot I was thrilled for all its 500-plus pages.
The plot . Well Cussler is the master of weaving a complex and well structured plot. Basically, it concerns an oil companies efforts to seize a new formula.
Along the way Dirk, and his sidekick Al, manage some hair raising escapes and participate in some exciting action sequences. My favorite action scene in the novel is probably the aeriel dogfight in New York City, and the best escape in my view is the raising of the luxury cruise submarine.
Cusslers novel simply scream to be made into a movie series, and in fact a movie adaptation of the novel "Sahara" is presently in the works.
Cussler has the Pitt novels down to a fine art which leads a number of people to criticise his work as formulaic, but I say, if it aint broke why fix it. I certainly enjoyed "Valhalla Rising" and recommend it to all.
Rating: 
Summary: Deep-Six this one
Review: The beginning sequences of ancient norsemen and a 19th century mystery sub seemed interesting, and I was hoping they would tie together later. Unfortunately, the ideas were never really picked up again, and it seemed as if they were thrown in at the end of the book to "tie" everything together.
Dirk Pitt (the superhero NUMA research engineer) has numerous poorly written escapes from death. He doesn't just get attacked by an old biplane while flying over NYC. He doesn't just get attacked by an old biplane while flying a planeload of children over NYC. He gets attacked by an old biplane while flying a planeload of disabled children over NYC. The story quickly degrades from here, if that is at all possible, into one about an Evil MegaOilCorp out to dominate the USA (and secretly paying off over 100 Congressmen&women/govt agents), as well as numerous ridiculous nautical-themed terrorist attacks.
I payed $0.27 for the book at a thrift shop, and can plainly see why. Deep-six this one.
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.
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