Cheap Blue Gold : A Novel from the NUMA Files (NUMA Files (Paperback)) (Book) (Clive Cussler, Paul Kemprecos) Price

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Customer Reviews of Blue Gold : A Novel from the NUMA Files (NUMA Files (Paperback))

BLUE GOLD - Swashbuckler series gets better
The second novel in the new Kurt Austin series, BLUE GOLD, shows signs of developing into a strong understudy to the swashbuckler Dirk Pitt books that so many of us have come to enjoy from Clive Cussler over the last two decades. This second installment opens with a boat race that ends almost tragically in the wake of several dead gray whales. Speeding along at more than 100 knots, Kurt, and his fearless sidekick, Joe Zavala, use their ingenuity to escape a near-death collision. Almost immediately the NUMA boys set out to discover the mystery of the dead mammals.

Solving the puzzle takes Kurt and Joe, and others of the NUMA team, searching for clues in the rain forests of Venezuela, the outback of Alaska, and the shores of Lake Tahoe. Each scene is exciting from start to finish, with the usual suave, clever and heroic personalities prevailing over the bad guys.

After reading SERPENT, the first Kurt Austin novel that Mr. Cussler wrote with Paul Kemprecos, I was hesitant to read BLUE GOLD. SERPENT was a far cry from the NUMA tales Cussler fans have enjoyed. But BLUE GOLD is a giant step forward and definitely worth reading while we wait for the return of Dirk and Al Giordino, the other NUMA heroes, who will save the world again from the next batch of power-hungry villains.

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An improvement over the first, but still not quite the same
I was very critical of the first joint effort by Mr. Cussler and Mr. Kemprecos ("Serpent") because it was subpar by Cussler standards. I also thought he had let himself fall into the "franchise trap", where he stamps his name on books authored by someone else and watches his credibility and reader base suffer. However, I wound up giving Mr. Cussler the benefit of the doubt and read "Blue Gold".

"Blue Gold" is the second novel featuring the NUMA team of Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala. As with the first book, however, one cannot help but continually visualize Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino - the descriptions of the characters are that similar. Oh, there are some minor differences, but they only serve to make you feel that you are reading the adventures of "Pitt Lite" and "Giordino Lite". The Trouts, minor characters spotlighted both here and in "Serpent", are wholly unappealing because they don't bring much to the overall story, other than an excuse to print an extra chapter or two revolving around a chase or escape.

This book is much improved over "Serpent" mostly due to its, shall we say, more judicious use of detail. Whereas "Serpent" was bogged down by mind-numbing, superficial detail, "Blue Gold" is free of most of these anchors. The end result is a story that reads slightly closer to the Cussler adventures we fans are accustomed to, and moves along at a much quicker pace. The plot is average, though the closing sequence is exciting and unique, with an interesting turn of events not typically found in the Dirk Pitt tales.

All in all, the "sophomore" Kurt Austin adventure is an average effort. It is much improved over the first outing in this series, but continues to be vexed by too many similarities in characters and plot. It seems to me that for this series to fly, Mr. Cussler needs to ditch Mr. Kemprecos and just write the stories himself. Also, if he does indeed have this wealth of material for stories, he should have not bothered creating Kurt Austin and stuck with the tried-and-true Dirk Pitt. After all, Cussler claims Pitt to be his "alter ego", and that familiarity has lent itself to great storytelling. Creating a "mirror" alter ego in the persona of Austin has not had the same effect, in my opinion.

I will continue to anticipate and read the Dirk Pitt novels. However, this series has proven to be a general disappointment, and makes me less inclined to shell out a few extra dollars in between Pitt adventures. I hope that Mr. Cussler will realize that he can't keep running with a knockoff version of the character that made him a top-notch author. His reputation will suffer otherwise, and he will quickly find that even lending his name to generate sales won't work the same magic.

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Tarnished
Unlike the Dirk Pitt series, the adventures of Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala in "Blue Gold" are not only well-worn but highly improbable. Granted, the Dirk Pitt series isn't realistic, but the plot was belted out with such panache and humor that a good read was guaranteed. The same cannot be said, however, for Kurt Austin in Blue Gold.

Rarely suspenseful or even exciting, Blue Gold is at best a cure cure for insomnia- definitely not comparable with the sterling Dirk Pitt collection.