Spartan Gold

Spartan Gold – by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood

This is the first book that I’ve read by Clive Cussler that he co-authored with Grant Blackwood.  I believe Cussler has “written” with about 7 or 8 different authors in the last 15 years or so.  This has led many, myself included, to believe that Cussler probably had very little to do with this book, other than grant his name to the title so the book could sell more copies.

The Cussler “formula” is definitely here.  These books with Blackwood are labeled “The Fargo Adventures” that focus on husband and wife explorers Sam and Remi Fargo.  Like other Cussler heroes, they usually encounter some long-lost ancient treasure only to cross paths some very sinister beings that are after the same plunder for far more dubious purposes.

In our story, the Fargos discover a German submarine from World War II in the marshes of the East Coast of the U.S.  One thing leads to another, and they end up searching for some lost wine bottles that belonged to none other than Napoleon himself.  Seems there are also some evil forces from the Middle East that are after the same treasure, and they’ll stop at nothing, including eliminating the Fargos by murder.  What’s so important about these wine bottles?  As I recall, they were “coded” with instructions as to where to find some kind of treasure.  It’s not like they were needed to save the planet, or prevent some sort of geothermal disaster or anything.  It seems as though Sam and Remi want to risk their lives for nothing other than the sake of adventure.

The plot itself really isn’t too bad.  Like most Cussler stories, it borders on the imaginative and the unbelievable. Our husband and wife protagonists are what you might expect – they seem to be quite knowledgeable about everything and have absolutely no fear of anything.  Because we have a husband and wife here, there’s no need for any romantic interludes, which commonly occur when Cussler has a “solo” hero.

What bothered me the most about the book is the seemingly ease of the linear progression of the story.  Since our characters are, in a sense, on a global treasure hunt, there are many clues that need to be discovered and many mysteries that need to be unlocked.  It seems they’re able to proceed through this labyrinth with unbelievable simplicity, and there’s not much imagination or creativity that go into the scenes.   We’ll see, for example, Sam and Remi show up at some “expert’s” door with lots of questions.  The expert, at first, can’t seem to help them, but then says something like “Oh Wait!  I think I DO know something that can help you!”  And they then manage to give our heroes a huge piece to the puzzle that allows them to easily transfer to the next location and the next conundrum.  And on and on and on.

Then there’s the fact that these wine bottles have some sort of ridiculous “code” embedded on them that is supposed to lead to a treasure.  So the reader has to read about the clues on the bottles, and then hear Sam and Remi “process” the solutions out loud within the pages that, again, just seemed incredibly unrealistic and detailed.

The book is very lightweight and does what it needs to move forward.  It might even make an interesting movie or television show if proper care went into it.  It just seemed as though it moved too briskly and was too frothy for me to really care that much.

If you’re “new” to Cussler, I would recommend his solo Dirk Pitt novels (up until about the year 2000).  I also enjoy his Numa Files series and his Isaac Bell adventures.   I’m not sure I would want to read another one of the Fargo escapades anytime soon unless I get really really bored.