Lost City

Lost City by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos

For those who have never read a Clive Cussler book, his novels are a heckuva lot of fun.  Cussler started writing novels in the early 1970s using the same central cast of characters for all of his books.  His main protagonist was Dirk Pitt, A handsome, dark-haired, green-eyed swashbuckler who was a member of the fictitious National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA).  Dirk and his cronies always found themselves in a midst of some oceanic crisis - some natural, most manmade, some a combination of both.  The baddies in these books are always really bad, and Cussler always included a lot of gruesome details in what these meanies were trying to do to bring the world to its knees.  But these villains never heard of Dirk Pitt.  Pitt always saves the day, with his rugged good looks, ability to kick the bad guys’ ass, a wealth of smarts, and usually a beautiful girl or two in his arms that he would always save from some peril within the last few chapters of these stories.  Think of an American James Bond surrounded by a lot of water.

For whatever reason, starting around the early 1990’s, Cussler introduced another warrior as a central character in many of his books named Kurt Austin.  Kurt is basically exactly the same character as Dirk Pitt.  The only difference that I can tell is that Austin has “Platinum blonde hair and Coral Blue eyes” as opposed to Dirk’s black hair and green eyes.   These characters don’t live in parallel universes either.  Like Dirk Pitt, Kurt Austin works for NUMA, and their paths may cross occasionally in some of the books.  I’m not sure why Cussler decided to start doing this.  Maybe Dirk Pitt was having too many adventures?  Possibly, as Cussler still continued to churn out Dirk Pitt stories at a frantic pace as well during all this time.

So this particular story is a Kurt Austin adventure (many Kurt Austin books, including this one, are co-penned with Paul Kemprecos), but I honestly can’t see any difference between one of these books and a Dirk Pitt novel.  Like Pitt, Austin has a similar “supporting cast” of brains and brawn that help him through his adventures.

Adventures?  You better believe it.  In this particular book, there are several different plot lines  going through the story, and Cussler ties them up nicely at the end, as he usually does.  For what it’s worth, the plot revolves around Dirk…..I mean Kurt, finding himself up against a strange, autocratic family that have made their money creating and selling the latest weapons of technology over the past several centuries, going back as early as the spear.  There’s another story here about some poisonous oceanic plant called Gorgonweed, that is multiplying at a lightning pace, and if Dirk…..I mean Kurt and company don’t move quick, it’s likely to turn the entire oceans to a murky sludge.  The plot is mostly irrelevant, however.  Again, it’s the thrill of the ride the entices you in one of these yarns.

Again, there’s usually something like this in every Cussler novel.  The one drawback to these escapades is that these adventures seem to always take place in or around some sort large body of water, since this is where our hero's spend the majority of their time in their jobs.  So sometimes the catastrophes can wear thin and get a bit redundant.  For example, when we’re introduced to an oceanic laboratory that somehow exists about 80 feet under a glacier (yes, you read that right), and we’re then led through the erie, damp, dark, claustrophobic hallways near the beginning of the story….well, you know something’s gonna happen soon, and it ain’t gonna be good.

Also, in order to really enjoy a lot of Cussler novels (especially this one), you really need to suspend your disbelief and throw out every notion of reality.  These books are flat out imaginative, wild and are an incredible stretch of the imagination.  I find that I have to usually “pause” a bit between these books.  They can be a bit too far fetched and repetitive at times, but I would definitely recommend  most of Cussler’s books for all.  Including this one.  I’m glad Kurt and company save the planet one more time.