Author of the Dirk Pitt series, one of which (Dragon) was the book that made me swear off ever again staying up to finish a novel (I got better).
Enjoy all those sweet, sweet classic cars in the afterlife, Clive.
Cussler was a hack, but I’ve read damn near everything he ever wrote by himself.
RIP, Clive.
Yeah, I read most of his books and enjoyed them greatly. James Bond wanted to be Dirk Pitt when he grew up.
I read quite a few of the Dirk Pitt books, too. RIP.
I think I read three pages of one of his books. De mortuis etc. Glad he brought joy to others, and RIP.
I loved Cussler’s books in my teenage years. Not great literature, but very enjoyable. RIP.
He used to be my go-to author for trips where I needed something fast and lightweight on a long airplane trip, I purchased pretty much everything he wrote as it came out.
Either he changed or I changed but I did not seek out his work in the last several years. I suspect that, after he began collaborating with many others, he dilluted his brand a bit much for me. I did like a few of the related stories and his non-fiction, however.
Perhaps now, his estate will allow his books to be made into decent movies. Raise the Titanic sucked balls. Sahara was not too bad and, IMHO, Matthew McConaughey was a decent Dirk Pitt.
I suspect a great writing team could do wonders with many of CCs novels
Wow, I just remembered this.
Treasure was the very first book I ever heard on Radio Reader, which was a really big part of my day before I moved to North Carolina in 1993. I still miss Dick Estell’s voice. I remember thinking that he was editing out the sexy bits for the radio, then I read Treasure and found out, no, Clive edited out the sexy bits himself. It was an odd choice for a grown up writing for grown ups, but it worked for him, I guess.
I see from this listing that that would have been late 1988.
I read a few of his books, they were enjoyable pulp adventures, as was the Sahara movie. Beyond that, I’ve always wanted to visit his museum in Colorado; hopefully it will carry on for a while and I’ll get a chance.
Seconded. I read most of his Pitt novels, NUMA novels, and the Oregon files. On that latter, I’m sorry I’ll never find out what the new Oregon would be like.
Did anyone else who read him notice that many times the “older, white haired character” had a dachshund, or someone else did, getting the breed a brief mention? I love dachshunds, and my current dog is named Mauser, for one of the dogs in a book of his.
RIP.
As others have said he was good at producing entertaining stories if not “great literature”.
I just purchased the first three Pitt books. I haven’t read them in over 25 years.
Cussler is always entertaining.
RIP
I once read a Dirk Pitt book, and for some reason it reminded me of Tom Swift.
I enjoyed a good many of his books, but in the Dictionary entry for Formulaic, one will find his picture.
I’ve read every Dirk Pitt book. I tried his other series which he co-wrote with other authors and I didn’t finish them. His writing was a product of his time and I don’t excuse his short comings.
But, I never heard anything bad about the man, I enjoyed his Pitt books, and I am sad that I’ll never see another new “DIRK PITT” adventure.
Also, I respect his tastes in cars and his shipwreck finds.
Rest In Peace, sir.
Clive Cussler is one of my guilty pleasures. I have been able to find most of his post-2000 output (either alone or in collaboration) on audio, and have listened to just about all of it. I just finished The Final Option (the most recent Oregon Files novel) a couple of days ago. I think there are only two recent books listed on his website that I haven’t read yet. They’re great time-killers for my daily commute.
Cussler wrote what I call “weapons porn” – he finds weapons or sea- or air-craft that’s weird or interesting or obscure and finds a way to work it into his novels. I think he started up the whole Isaac Bell series (set in the first couple of decades of the 20th century) mostly because he wanted to throw in railroad technology, as well (although he also got to use aircraft, motion picture, and radio technology, as well).
It IS formulaic, but Cussler didn’t just write about people using the nifty war toys – he found ways for his heroes to be resourceful and clever, as well. It was all wish-fulfillment, but very well done. I found Raise the Titanic pretty boring (surprising, considering the topic), but Sahara is a truly entertaining Bad Movie. Cussler’s novels are highly cinemnatic, and apparently the only reason more of them haven’t been filmed is that he was kinda a PITA to work with. Maybe, now that he’s gone, they will film some others.
His universe was an alternative, off-kilter one. Somebody should compile a list of the ways it differs from our world – Napoleon didn’t die on St. Helena, LIncoln isn’t where we think his body is, there were ancient Chinese lasers, the Lincoln Memorial got blown up, and so on and so on. I thought that he’d just sort of ignore the fact that the Titanic was unraisable after they actually found the ship, but his most recent Isaac Bell novel, The Titanic Secret, shows that in the Cusslerv erse the Titanic WAS raised from the ocean depths in one piece. Why not?
If Cussler didn’t make you say “Oh, come ON! I can’t believe you’d do that!” at least once I the course of the book, he wasn’t doing his job, whether it was sentient computers or Neutrino Telescopes or Super-Strong, Super-Healing villains, Cussler would go into James Bond territory and beyond in wonderfully ludicrous adventures.
I’m sure they’ve got a stack of still-to-be-written stories that his son* and other collaborators will spend years producing. But with Cussler’s passing, we’re stuck with Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs to be producing our Ludicrous Thrillers from here on.
*I still can’t believe that he named his son after his favorite character, Dirk Pitt.
He refined the art of the swashbuckler. Nobody picks up a Dirk Pitt novel expecting profound literature, it’s a fast page-turner with plenty of excitement.
I always wanted an orange-faced Doxa dive watch. Old ones are hard to come by and pricy; these days Doxa makes modern versions that are not cheap, but look to be pretty awesome mechanical dive watches, like an Omega Seamaster. If I weren’t so attached to my Apple Watch, I would have a Doxa in my collection.
That reminds me, I haven’t read a Dirk Pitt novel in ages–they are good audiobooks for running since there is plenty of action.