Monday, May 9, 2011

Which Clive Cussler book is your all-time favorite?

I recently finished reading Clive Cussler’s 1975 novel, “Iceberg,” and I recommend it to anyone in the audience with a taste for a good adventure tale.

Originally published by Dodd, Mead & Co., this adventure novel is the second to feature Cussler’s famous character, Dirk Pitt. If you’re reading Cussler’s novels in chronological order, as many of his fans choose to do, then “Iceberg” comes after 1973’s “The Mediterranean Caper” and before 1976’s “Raise the Titanic!”

In “Iceberg,” Pitt is called to the North Atlantic to investigate a luxury yacht that’s found encased inside a large iceberg. The yacht disappeared some time back while its occupants were on their way to a top-secret meeting in Washington, D.C. When Pitt finds his way inside the yacht, he and a companion discover the bodies of the crew, burned to death at their posts.

Before it’s all said and done, Pitt finds himself in the middle of a plot in which an insane multi-millionaire is attempting to overthrow several South American countries in hopes of upsetting the balance of world power.

By my count, this makes the sixth Cussler book that I’ve read, so I’ve got a long way to go in my quest to read all of his books. Those that I’ve read include:

- The Mediterranean Caper (1973)
- Iceberg (1975)
- Pacific Vortex (1983)
- Inca Gold (1994)
- Flood Tide (1997)
- Sacred Stone (2004)

Of those six, I would say that “Inca Gold” was my favorite, followed by “Flood Tide.”

Those that I haven’t read include:
- Raise the Titanic! (1976)
- Vixen 03 (1978)
- Night Probe (1981)
- Deep Six (1984)
- Cyclops (1986)
- Treasure (1988)
- Dragon (1990)
- Sahara (1992)
- Shock Wave (1996)
- The Sea Hunters: True Adventures With Famous Shipwrecks (1996)
- Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed (1998)
- Atlantis Found (1999)
- Serpent (1999)
- Blue Gold (2000)
- Valhalla Rising (2001)
- Fire Ice (2002)
- The Sea Hunters II: Diving the World’s Seas for Famous Shipwrecks (2002)
- Golden Buddha (2003)
- Trojan Odyssey (2003)
- White Death (2003)
- Black Wind (2004)
- Lost City (2004)
- Dark Watch (2005)
- Polar Shift (2005)
- The Adventures of Vin Fiz (2006)
- Skeleton Coast (2006)
- Treasure of Khan (2006)
- The Chase (2007)
- The Navigator (2007)
- Artic Drift (2008)
- Plague Ship (2008)
- Corsair (2009)
- Medusa (2009)
- Spartan Gold (2009)
- The Wrecker (2009)
- The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy (2010)
- Crescent Dawn (2010)
- The Lost Empire (2010)
- The Silent Sea (2010)
- The Spy (2010)
- The Jungle (2011)

In the end, how many of Cussler’s books have you had a chance to read? Which did you like or dislike? Which would you recommend and why? Which of his books is your all-time favorite and why? Let us know in the comments section below.

1 comment:

  1. I had read only couple of Clive Cussler's books. Of these I liked Inca Gold and Raise the Titanic!.

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