Dirk Pitt by any other name

Note: Although Epinions is calling this book Numa Files, the book depicted in the product image is Blue Gold: A Novel From The NUMA Files by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos. That's what this opinion is based upon.

By way of background, Clive Cussler is known for his adventure mysteries set in a naval/oceanographic context. The best-selling author of Raise the Titanic! and others, most of his novels involve swashbuckler Dirk Pitt, an oceanographer with the fictitious National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) who embodies bits of James Bond, MacGyver, Jacques Cousteau, and Cassanova.

With the "NUMA Files" series, Cussler introduces another hero, Kurt Austin, which he pens with the help of Paul Kemprecos, who is also an author of undersea adventures. In Cussler's world, NUMA is involved in most of the major events in the world, especially those dealing with global domination and destruction. So it seems natural that Cussler would showcase some of the other heroic NUMA figures beyond Dirk Pitt and his immediate colleagues.

In Blue Gold the mysterious death of a group of whales off the coast of San Diego leads Kurt Austin and his sidekick Jose "Joe" Zavala to discover a global plot to control the world's fresh water supply. Simultaneously, husband and wife team of Paul and Gamay Trout, who also work for NUMA, discover a tribe of mysteriously advanced people in the Venezuelan rain forest that is somehow tied to the plot thousands of miles away. Austin, Zavala, and the Trouts must unravel the mystery before the world's water supply is controlled by a multinational monopoly.

An extremely fast and entertaining read, Blue Gold is unmistakably Cussler. Not only are is the book structured just like all of his previous works, but the writing style, co-authored or not, is recognizable. Cussler's novels start out with a prologue, which is usually set in the distant past, followed by the body of the novel set in present day. The events between the past and the future seem totally unrelated, but he always works them together to form a perfect causal relationship. The books always end with an epilogue that reinforces the notion that problem presented in the beginning is just a memory and that the world is safe.

Cussler's writing style is very vivid and descriptive, with an uncanny attention to the smallest detail. With a few short paragraphs, he manages to summarize even the most complex scientific principles, historical events, or mechanical workings. His knowledge of the appearance, history, and operation of classic automobiles (of which he is a real-life collector), aircraft, and especially ocean-going vessels is nothing short of amazing.

However, despite his skill, Blue Gold isn't necessarily Cussler gold. It's well-written and has all the elements of his other novels, but it's starting to show some of the same plot weakness that his recent "Dirk Pitt" novels suffer from. The story, while imaginative in subject, isn't very complex. The villans wear black hats and the NUMA team members wear white ones. Once you've gotten past the initial twists and turns of the story, the plot gets more and more predictable. There's no surprise ending, and just like the other novels, the evil are punished and the good are better off.

Also, the characters of Austin and Zavala, in addition to being very one-dimensional, are carbon copies of Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino from the main series. Both Pitt and Austin share the love of collecting (Pitt collects antique cars and Austin collects antique dueling pistols), women, and of the sea. Giordino and Zavala are the loyal friends who offer companionship and protection. The Trout characters are unique, but I wish Cussler had stepped out on a limb and made the Austin/Zavala characters different from Pitt/Giordino.

Fans of Cussler who expect his appearance in Blue Gold will be disappointed (Cussler frequently has a cameo appearance as a minor character in his novels). And fortunately, there's no meeting between Dirk Pitt and Kurt Austin, although many of the other familiar characters (such as the head of NUMA, Admiral Sandecker) are there.

Blue Gold is a fun read, and something that a fan of Cussler's would be remiss for missing. But like Tom Clancy's "Op Center" series, it's not quite the same as the main line novels. For those who are unfamiliar with Cussler's novels, it can be read as a self-contained work (as all of his books are). Old and new readers alike will appreciate his descriptive style and historical puzzles but will probably conclude as I have that the story is too shallow. Recommended, but it's not one of his better books.