Can you recommend his best books?
Any recommendations for other good action/suspense books?
I’ve read a few of his books. They are easy reads and not of the best quality. That said they are not bad if you want an easy read. You can find some pretty big holes in the plots, but still an ok read.
However, if you want what I think is a good action book is Stephen Hunter. He’s written a couple of books about a sniper and his father. He weaves two different lives together pretty well and has written a number of good action books. You may have a hard time finding his books though as they are not that popular. He is also the movie critic for the Washington Post.
Raise the Titanic was okay. Everything else I ever read by him sucked grest huge ballocks.
Do I read his books? Yes. They’re a guilty pleasure.
Can I recommend them? No, not really. They’re just too damn formulaic. Read one, you’ve read them all.
Sahara and Raise the Titanic are the only books of his I can think of that have been or are being considered for adaptation to film. Make of that what you will. (Not that the movie version of Raise the Titanic didn’t suck, but I digress.)
As an extra advantage, I think those two books are both early enough that they don’t contain those annoying Clive Cussler self-inserts, but I may be mistaken.
That’s because Cussler didn’t like one of the movies, one I never saw, and has refused to allow anyone else to make a film. At least that’s how I understand it. And now I’m wondering why I actually know something like that.
Cussler is generally a fun read - like an Ah-nuld movie, you know the good guys are going to kick ass and save the day. Good airplane reading - not too intellectually strenuous.
If you’re into shipwrecks, The Sea Hunters is a neat book. Cussler’s hobby is finding missing shipwrecks (often famous ships like the civil war submarine, CSS Hunley). The book contains several fictionalized accounts of a ship’s last moments, followed by a section detailing Cussler’s involvement in discovering the wreck. He wrote a sequel, but I haven’t read it. I love the TV series as well.
I am an unashamed Cussler fan.
Yes, his books are far from profound, the dialouge can get cheesy. But they’re fun. Perfect beach-reading, plane-traveling stuff.
They’re actually adapting Sahara into a movie for next summer. So maybe you can start with that one.
And Cussler did in fact write himself in that book…
I will freely admit that Cussler’s books:
[ul]All use the same formula
Don’t have internal consistency
Have massive plot holes
Stretch credibility well past the breaking point[/ul]
Yet I really like to read them. At first I thought the guy was a major egomaniac, a nutjob or both by casting himself in the novels and listing himself as the founder of a government agency he made up in his books. Then I read a longer bio and a few interviews and took back everything.
He is a guy that doesn’t take himself (or his books) too seriously. He has fun writing them and it shows in his work. One thing he does take seriously, his “cause” if you will, is NUMA, a nonprofit outfit that is “dedicated to preserving our maritime heritage through the discovery, archaeological survey and conservation of shipwreck artifacts”. He has funded (and usually goes on) dozens of hunts for historic shipwrecks, finding several.
yep, i read cussler. my favourite is nightprobe. sahara, treasure, and inca gold are rather good. basicly mr cussler writes the books to support his diving and classic car passion. it works out rather well for him.
i have fallen for james rollins and matt reilly for " 'coater non stop action rides."
I liked Vixen 03 a lot, myself.
I too am an unashamed fan, though it seems each successive book gets more and more outlandish, stretching my willingness to suspend my disbelief (I believe it was Sahara where Pitt and Giordino make a rather outlandish discovery in the desert, but I shan’t spoil it). I’ve read all his stuff, blowing right through each book - not a lot of deep thought required, outside of wondering how many chicks I could score if I was Dirk Pitt.
I like Cussler. Like others have said, light, fun reading. He seems to have abandoned Dirk in favor of Kurt Austin, however, has anyone else noticed this? Will there be another Dirk Pitt book, or has Dirk settled into married life and left the NUMA banner in Austin’s capable hands?
THere’s a new Dirk Pitt coming out shortly. I think it’s in November, but don’t quote me on the. Trojan Odyssey, it’s called.
I liked most of them, especially Vixen 03, Raise the Titanic (it was a lot better than the movie) and especially Night Probe. I haven’t read the last several, however. The plots seemed to be getting more and more unbelievable, but what bothered me more was Cussler writing himself into the books in ever more pivotal roles.
Eric
I think Cussler sucks.
I used to like Robert Ludlum too, until I started guessing the plots in the first 100 pages.
Cussler’s stuff is fun, light reading. Just try not to think too much when you read them and you’ll be fine.
I think his earlier stuff is better than his later ones; partially because of his gratuitous insertion of himself into the books as a deus ex machina in most of them. Try Raise the Titanic and Night Probe as others have suggested. Cyclops is really, really silly fun (even if it brings new meaning to the phrase “implasuable”). I liked Pacific Vortex myself.
Deep Six has the absolute silliest plot you will ever read.
I discovered James Rollins and he does have the action/adventure formula down. I’ve liked all of his stuff except for Subterranian which didn’t do anything for me. (When you find the protaganist so annoying that you continually hope she is the next one to be offed, it’s hard to enjoy the book.)
Read Amazonia yet?
I’ve always enjoyed Cussler… I remember particularly liking Deep Six, but I haven’ t read it in years.
My favorite thing about his books is the first 4 chapters, each of which is separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years from the other one… it would be a fun thing to parody…
“A mysterious stowaway on the Lusitania… a sexy and talented air traffic controller in Sydney… Xenophon… and Og, the Homo Erectus who first learned to control fire… only Clive Cussler could bring them together into Dirk Pitt’s most excitingest adventure ever!!!”
Yep, Cussler is a guilty pleasure of mine. I like his older Pitt books best, the latest ones have been a little too much.
He is a hell of a nice guy too. I met him in Denver once and he was very gracious and down-to-earth. He even signed something for my dad.
I don’t read the non-Pitt books. Pitt is the book, if you ask me. And such a hottie! 
tanstaafl, i forgot about cyclops. that was a fun read. makes me wonder if there isn’t something to it…
i did read “amazonia.” so very good. matt reilly did a sim. book with “temple.” i snagged mr rollins new book “ice hunt” out of the box in the book store, no need to shelve.
i wait for the austin books to go to paperback. pitt’s books i’ll still go with the hardback.
what a lucky duck ejsgirl. i’ll bet it was great meeting him. i bet he doesn’t throw fits about the table being wrong or the chair not right or i never use that kind of pen. he seems like the “don’t make a huge fuss” kind of guy.
Didn’t realize that Ice Hunt was out yet. I’ll have to go look for it. And thanks for the tip on Matt Reilly; I’ll check him out too.