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Fans of action-hero Kurt Austin of the National Underwater and Maritime Agency expect imaginative plotting, but it never comes down the chute in this seventh NUMA Files novel from bestseller Cussler and Shamus-winner Kemprecos (after Polar Shift). Austin and his team are hunting icebergs when they chance upon a pirate raid aimed at stealing a priceless Phoenician antiquity launched by a stereotypical megalomaniacal villain, Viktor Baltazar, who believes he's a descendant of King Solomon. Baltazar and Austin joust continually (once, literally!) over the antique, which may be connected to the lost ark of the covenant, Thomas Jefferson and the suspicious death of Meriwether Lewis. Sequences including the attempted human sacrifice of the requisite gorgeous female U.N. investigator are all too predictable, and the writing ("The Filipino's lips curved like slices of liverwurst in a frying pan") is often less than Cussler's best. (June)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Clive Cussler is the author of many New York Times bestsellers, most recently The Spy and Lost Empire. He lives in Arizona.
Paul Kemprecos has coauthored all five previous NUMA Files novels with Cussler and is a Shamus Award-winning author of six underwater detective thrillers.
Cussler is an internationally recognized authority on shipwrecks and the founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, (NUMA) a 501C3 non-profit organization (named after the fictional Federal agency in his novels) that dedicates itself to preserving American maritime and naval history. He and his crew of marine experts and NUMA volunteers have discovered more than 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites including the first submarine to sink a ship in battle, the Confederacy's Hunley, and its victim, the Union's Housatonic; the U-20, the U-boat that sank the Lusitania; the Cumberland, which was sunk by the famous ironclad, Merrimack; the renowned Confederate raider Florida; the Navy airship, Akron, the Republic of Texas Navy warship, Zavala, found under a parking lot in Galveston, and the Carpathia, which sank almost six years to-the-day after plucking Titanic's survivors from the sea.
In September, 1998, NUMA - which turns over all artifacts to state and Federal authorities, or donates them to museums and universities - launched its own web site for those wishing more information about maritime history or wishing to make donations to the organization. (www.numa.net).
In addition to being the Chairman of NUMA, Cussler is also a fellow in both the Explorers Club of New York and the Royal Geographic Society in London. He has been honored with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration.
Cussler's books have been published in more than 40 languages in more than 100 countries. The author lives in Arizona.
Biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA)
The Board of Governors of the Maritime College, State University of New York, considered Cussler's 1996 nonfiction book, The Sea Hunters, equivalent to a Ph.D. thesis and awarded Cussler a Doctor of Letters degree in 1997.
Cussler is a fellow in the Explorers Club of New York and the Royal Geographic Society in London, and has been granted the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration.
Anonymous
Posted June 30, 2009
I picked up a Cussler book one day in the mark downs and I am hooked. I have read many of the Dirk Pitt adventures and also Kurt Austin,the Numa files. They are all exciting and quite informative books. Cussler always inserts truthes into his books as well as fiction.The Navigator starts in Iraq after the fall of Saddham Hussein and the sacking of the Baghdad museum.It takes the reader on a journey in search of an ancient Phoenician statue intertwined with our own Thomas Jefferson. It's a great book as are all Cussler's books.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 15, 2009
Great story that mixes fact with fiction along with adventure. I always find the Cussler books very fun to read because it takes me to places I have seen or would like to see. It also transports me to other times and places setting the "stage" for the main story. The charectors are fun to imagine and at times are bigger than life like most lead charectors can be. I like the twists and turns in the story line and to see how things come together at the climax of the story.
I would recommend any of the other Clive Cussler books.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 16, 2012
Classic Kurt and joe.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Now don't misunderstand me, I love B&N and I buy all my physical and ebooks from them without fail. I just don't understand why this book (The Navigator), that is on the bargain shelf at BN stores for $3.99, in hardcover no less, is $8.99 in ebook form. It is amazing that BN has allowed the greedy publishers/writers to brow beat them into charging more than $10 per ebook. Shame on the publishers/writers for believing that ebook readers are dumb enough to blindly pay more than $10 bucks for an ebook. I hope that ebook readers aren't so stupid, I mean why did you (ebook reader) start reading ebooks in the first place? Bottom line...it was because of the fantastically low price. Come on folks, are you mindless sheep or what? If you pay more than $10 bucks for an ebook then you deserve to be ripped off by the publishers/writers. Let's send them all a message, I for one will not buy an ebook that costs more than $10. Shoot there are so many fantastic books written by great authors that are in ebook form that are $10 bucks or less, even free. How about it folks, you going to be mindless drones, blind sheep afraid to stand up against something that is obviously wrong? Do you have more money than common sense? Are you so eager to through away your money? If you are why don't you do something good like give your money to the poor. Believe me you would feel better doing that than blindly plopping it down on an over priced electronic book.
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Posted June 6, 2009
I prefer the Dick character for this aventures
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 13, 2009
If you are after something light and not too taxing on the brain to read on a snowy, wet winters day this is a great book. If you are after a literary masterpiece this is not for you. The action is fast paced but the characters are over the top and the writing and plot are definitely not up to the standard of the older Cussler Dirk Pitt novels. It is still a fun read but not as good as the "oldies".
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Posted September 7, 2007
The Kurt Austin series is definitely the class of the Cussler spinoffs. Though the plot is pretty standard ancient mystery affecting modern day, the combination of such varied people as Thomas Jefferson and King Solomon is quite well done. My only disappointment in the finale, where for once Cussler et al do leave a little to the imagination.
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Posted June 30, 2007
I¿ll leave it to others to lay out the plot and tell the story. The 'He' could refer to either Cussler or Austin. Clive Cussler has been writing these books for better than thirty years, and I've read them all. Admittedly, they are somewhat similar, but there is just enough new in each book to make them just a little different. The books always provide a little bit of a history lesson. I haven¿t checked them all out, but the few I have looked into seem to be based on more fact then fiction. While the original character Dirk Pitt has gotten a little stale, Kurt Austin is 'the man'. There is a little of all the super spies, and adventurer's in Austin. There is nothing he can't do, no lady he can't charm, nor any villain he can't best. Of course, should Austin stumble a bit, and he does from time to time, there is always Zavala, his trusty sidekick, to help him out. While some of Kurt's adventures, 'i.e.: the Jousting on a bridge, without railings, over a 300 ft gorge, are a little far fetched', his books are just a fun read. Nothing serious here, just a fun way to pass some time. Don't go to the beach without it.
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Posted June 8, 2009
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Overview
A search for a relic that could change history?A hunt for the truth that few will survive?