Clive Cussler Novels

Silver Moon

Silver Moon

Adventurer
So, who else out there is a huge Clive Cussler fan? I've been reading the Dirk Pitt novels since "Raise the Titanic" first hit the stands in the mid-1970's (and long before Ballard found the real sunken ship). I found the follow ups to that, "Vixen O3" and "Night Probe" to be just as excllent. (Then the quality declided from excellent to very good until "Treasure" came along).

What surprises me is that, despite constantly being on the New York Times best seller list, how few people I know actually read these. And it isn't just my circle of friends too, it was obvious from listening to Ebert & Roper's review of the movie Sahara that they were both totally unfamiliar with these books.

I'm currently reading "Black Wind" and am sorry to say that I am disappointed with it. It seems that his co-author and son Dirk Cussler was the primary writer on this one and his made Dirk Pitt Junior and his sidekick Jack the main characters. So its essentially a Clive Custler want-to-be novel with Dirk and Al knockoffs, using the same "campaign world" that we all know and love but with a different DM running the story. That was the same conclusion I came to after reading the first four Kurt Austin novels by Cussler and Kemprecos (haven't picked up the fifth yet), where Kurt and his buddy Joe are essentially Dirk and Al knockoffs.

The Oregon Files novels by Cussler and Dirgo on the other hand I'm totally sold on. I'll take a spin-off with original characters over a knock-off any day of the week. I thorougly enjoyed both "Golden Buddha" and "Sacred Stone" and am looking forward to the next book in this series.

So, what are the throughts from the rest of you?
 

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I got turned on to Cussler in the early 90's and have read most of his novels. I have not read "Black Wind" but just recently read both "Golden Buddha" and "Sacred Stone" and thoroughly enjoyed both of them. Yes his novels sometimes follow the same "forumula," but they are always an enjoyable read.
 

I started reading Cussler after watching the movie, Raise the Titanic. I thought that there had to be material in the book that could explain the plot holes of the movie.
Glad that I did that. :)
I've been a fan since then. I tyried reading the NUMA Files series and was a bit disapointed with them. Way too much a knockoff of Pitt. glad to hear that that people like the Oregon Files series. i've been thinking about picking them up but was afraid they would be more of a knockoff style.
Of all the Dirk Pitt stories my fav is Treasure. I just wish that Cussler would do a follow up story dealing with some of the information found in the scrolls from that novel.
 

I've only read Atlantis Found myself (cos I'm very interested in anything to do with Atlantis), and found it to be very enjoyable, and I loved the movie Sahara. What I like about both stories is that they would be very easy to run as adventures for modern day set rpg, like Spycraft. NUMA would make a great addition to the Spycraft world imho.
 

Well, I finished "Black Wind". Part 3 of the book (the final 200 pages) reads very like a classic Cussler novel so you probably won't be disappointed overall. I'm giving it a thumbs up.
 

I have a large collection of Dirk Pitt novels. I've read about half of them. Someday I'll get back to reading them. I enjoyed reading the ones I did, but liked the older books better. i believe the newest book I've read was Inca Gold. When Clive himself started showing up in the books to help out Dirk, I got a bad taste in my mouth.

But, over all, I've enjoyed them. Like many others, the first one I read was Raise the Titanic.
 

Something about Clive Cussler's books has always put me off reading them, and I don't know what it is.

However, I really enjoyed the film of Sahara, so I am intending to give him a try. Obviously, I don't know if the book is anything like the film!
 

I was really hooked on them in the late 80's/early 90;s, but I haven't read any lately....even though I recently bought a lot of 12 or so on eBay. They're on my list to read.

I think he's an author whose main fans are in their 50's and 60's....kinda like Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, Ken Follett....guys who dominated the bestsellers lists 10-20 years ago.

I highly recommend him along with the others I listed.
 

Undead Pete said:
I think he's an author whose main fans are in their 50's and 60's....kinda like Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, Ken Follett....guys who dominated the bestsellers lists 10-20 years ago.
Click to expand...

Late 30's here, but I may not be typical of his fans.
 

I read a bunch of these back in high school in my Clancy/Nelson DeMille/Ludlum phase. The early ones were great fun, but he lost me when he put himself in one of his books! IIRC, Dirk Pitt meets the author at a classic car rally.

That's pretty self-indulgent. Just as bad as what they did in Ocean's 12.

Are the recent books better?
 

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