Blue Gold

I recently traded in pretty much all my Clive Cussler books, but up til now had only read the Dirk Pitt ones and one of the Oregon files (was not that impressed with the Oregon files ones, the Dirk Pitt ones were good but I figured I probably wouldn't re-read them).  Blue Gold was one that I picked up in Cambridge last term, didn't get round to reading, and so left here to enjoy when I got back.  And I did enjoy it.  I was quite surprised, in fact.

Blue Gold is one of the Kurt Austin books, set in the same world as the Dirk Pitt ones (indeed, in the other Kurt Austin book I've now read, Pitt makes a passing appearance).  It's an adventure story, based loosely around the ocean, and it's certainly an entertaining enough way of passing the time.  The character description sometimes felt a bit forced (particularly the bit about the jazz)--reminded me of my English Lit teachers rule of 'show, don't tell' when it comes to characters.  But other than that, there was a reasonable amount of action, there was a reasonable plot, the science was, well, maybe a little exaggerated, but potentially plausible.  Also, very amused by the giant woman.

In short, Blue Gold is pretty much what you'd expect from a Clive Cussler book.  There's action, beautiful women, a hero and his sidekick...  The Kurt Austin books could, in fact, almost be Dirk Pitt ones, save for a few little details about the two main characters.  So if you're a fan, and you've run out of Dirk Pitt books (although to be fair, there are twenty-odd of them, so you'd have to be an obsessive reader like me for that to happen quickly...) these are just as good.