Clive Cussler’s, Raise the Titanic, incorporates the mystic of the Titanic legend to provide the reader with an exciting book involving cold war espionage. Even though a fictional work, and written in 1976 this book’s two intertwined plots have become real possibilities. The U.S. government wants to raise the Titanic because materials on board may help the U.S. to build a missile defense system. When written the location of the sunken Titanic was unknown, but approximately ten years after publication, Bob Ballard found the Titanic. She has not yet been raised, but she has been thoroughly explored. Also today the U.S. and Russian governments are experiencing tension as the result of the U.S. decision to deploy a missile defense system.
Cussler writes both fiction and non-fiction. Predominantly his topics revolve around underwater exploration, the discovery of ancient wrecks, and the salvage of those wrecks. In real life his organization, the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), looks for significant historical shipwrecks. In his books NUMA is a Federal agency that does underwater exploration, and various other activities for the government. In his NUMA File novels he has two parallel series. Dirk Pitt is the protagonist in the one series and Kurt Austin is the protagonist in the other series. Cussler’s third series, the Oregon Files involves a mercenary team that works out of an old ship, and does jobs for the U.S. government.
Raise the Titanic is the fourth book in the Dirk Pitt series. This book differs from later Dirk Pitt books in that this story leans towards the serious espionage genre. Dirk seems a bit more callous than in later books. The later books strike me as more tongue in cheek, and fun. I enjoyed reading this book, but it was not the humorous swashbuckling adventure that his later books embrace.
The mark of a good book series is that the characters evolve. Nothing turns me off more in an author than lack of character growth. I can only read so many books in a series where the character continues to make the same mistakes time after time. I applaud Cussler on his character growth of Dirk Pitt over the years.
I enjoyed reading this book, the plot was developed, and the technical aspects well researched. I did not enjoy the Dirk Pitt character as much as in the later books, but that is to be expected. This was earlier in the character development, and in my opinion the character has improved and developed with each writing.
BGS 9/19/2008
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