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I will admit that I am not shy about blowing my own horn, especially when it comes to
finding new authors. I am not ashamed to let people know that I was reading Thomas Pynchon
and Cormac McCarthy before anyone else knew about them, or more recently, Craig Holden and
Mo Hayder. But fair is fair. There are authors who get by me all the time, and when I find
one that I wish I had started reading 10 years ago or more, it's time to 'fess up. So
gather round, children, here comes my confession.
Clive Cussler has been at it for quite a while, now. I was peripherally aware of his
books, such a CYCLOPS and INCA GOLD, but had never read one. I have no excuse. I just
never got as far as picking one up and cracking the binding. Well, I celebrated the new
year by reading his latest, ATLANTIS FOUND and now I've got some catching up to do ---
like about 14 books worth.
ATLANTIS FOUND begins in 7120 BC, when a comet smacks into our planet with aftereffects
that we are still feeling. This, by the way, is where you're going to get hooked on Clive
Cussler, if you are not already. He only dwells on ancient history for a little over six
pages, but after reading his description of the comet and its aftermath, you will be lying
awake at night listening for the cosmic whistle of one of these bad boys as it
approaches...and wondering if we haven't been told about it so that we will all go
quietly, instead of in a state of mass panic.
Cussler, after scaring your dinner out of you with that description, jumps forward to
1858, where an icebound ship is discovered with mysterious artifacts of an ancient,
heretofore unknown civilization on board. However, the ship and its cargo are soon lost
again to the Antarctic elements.
Cussler then brings us to the very near future --- 2001 --- when a cavern full of strange
inscriptions is discovered in a Colorado mine. As a team of anthropologists examines the
inscriptions, an explosion seals them deep beneath the earth.
It is then, rising like a deus ex machina from the dust, that Dirk Pitt arrives. Part
James Bond, part Tom Swift and part Clive Cussler, Pitt is the notable --- and possibly
the only --- exception to the rule that one of the three biggest lies in the world is
"I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." Pitt is an
"employee" of NUMA --- the National Underwater and Marine Agency --- though at
times he appears to function more as a free agent. Only the most blockheaded, shortsighted
bureaucrat would ever try to reign him in, for Pitt is the quintessential soldier, friend,
lover, scientist, explorer and adventurer rolled into one, with the advantage of being
smarter and faster than anyone else.
Pitt finds himself on a research ship being attacked by a Nazi U-boat that has not been
seen in 56 years, attempts a daring rescue off of the coast of Argentina, and is part of a
two-man attack upon a facility that is attempting to launch a cataclysm the likes of which
have not been seen in almost 9000 years. And all of it is linked to that comet. But Pitt
does not have long to dwell on such matters. He has only ten minutes to save the
world.
Is Pitt lucky? Sure. Is he too good to be true? Maybe. But who cares? Cussler is extremely
sure-footed, keeping just the right balance of class, romance and action to keep his
readers enthralled. Whoever said that picture is worth a thousand words has never read
Cussler. ATLANTIS FOUND makes any special-effects laden film seem stodgy by comparison.
Besides, if a film as good and as exciting as this book were made, the viewers would never
see the final scene --- they would be down at the local hospital, lying on a gurney,
sipping oxygen in a drafty hallway. As far as I'm concerned, I won't have time for any
movies. I have a Clive Cussler backlist to catch up on. And if the other Dirk Pitt books
are even half as good as ATLANTIS FOUND, it will be time
well-spent.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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