Clive Cussler

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Clive Cussler

Postby Penitent » Wed Dec 27, 2006 5:46 pm

This one is not great literature but a lot of fun. The stories usually tie and event occurred centuries ago with events in the present. The most popular stories are the Dirk Pitt, Admiral Sandeker and the NUMA guys. Lots of action, adventure, last minute escapes and cliffhangers. This defines the term “Beach Read”; perfect to unwind without many expectations.

The formula is always the same and it gets old after you have read a few of them. But if you are new; you may be in for a treat! If you must read one try “Sahara”; one of the best.
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Postby Son of the Silver Fox » Sun Dec 31, 2006 2:53 pm

Inca Gold, Atlantis Found and Black Death are all good fun also.
Last edited by Son of the Silver Fox on Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Penitent » Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:09 pm

Yes! I have read Inca Gold and was quite good.
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Postby Monsoon » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:32 am

I've said before on this forum that i had got tired of reading Cusslers books, so here i am two thirds of the way through 'Black Wind' :eek:
Well the general storyline is quite good but i am finding some of the dialogue from Dirk Pitt jnr and his sister Summer to be very cheesy. I also wish Clive Cussler would stop putting himself into the books, oh surprise surprise as if i couldn't guess the tall stranger on the Chinese junk was going to be him.
So far 7/10.
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Postby Penitent » Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:12 am

Yes as we discussed the formula gets old after a while. Besides Cussler is not writing the books anymore. He uses ghost writers and just adds his name to the cover. “Black Wind” was written by his son.
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Postby Matbow » Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:39 pm

Penitent wrote:He uses ghost writers and just adds his name to the cover.


It really annoys me when people do that :twisted:
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Postby Penitent » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:51 pm

I agree. A lot of authors do that recently. Take James Patterson, he is one of the bestselling authors in the US at least. He publishes four to five books a year and I believe he only writes one of them.
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Clive Cussler

Postby Ada » Sat Feb 03, 2007 8:40 am

I like the Cussler books & agree with Penitent "not great literature but a lot of fun". I think his Dirk Pitt has been described as the Indiana Jones of the sea. Over all a very easy read. I'm pretty sure Sahara was made into a movie & it's one of the rare cases of the movie being not bad & recognisable as the story from the book!
I didn't know he used ghost writers. How do you tell? I own 4 of his books & one says: "Copyright Clive Cussler, 1997 .... The right of Clive Cussler to be identified as author of this work has been in accordance with sections 77 & 78 of the Copyright Designs & Patents Act 1988." Does this "identified as author" mean he isn't?
Other books say "Copyright 1978 by Clive Cussler Enterprises Inc." Are the Enterprises the other writers? One also says, The moral right of the author has been asserted. Excuse my ignorance but WTH does that mean?

Without actually checking, I'm sure all WS's books are "Copyright Wilbur Smith (year)" i.e. It's just Wilbur doing the writing.

It is the ghost writers themselves I'm disappointed in. They are under selling themselves & being ripped off by the so called famous authors & the publishers. I know it's hard to get published/recognised but writing under some one else's name is never going to make you known!

Also, Monsoon wrote: "I also wish Clive Cussler would stop putting himself into the books". Its been a while since I read it but doesn't WS mention himself & his own book in The Seventh Scroll? :-k
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Re: Clive Cussler

Postby Matbow » Sat Feb 03, 2007 10:36 am

Ada wrote:Its been a while since I read it but doesn't WS mention himself & his own book in The Seventh Scroll? :-k


He sure does. I quite liked it, especially as he joked about his books having lots of sex in them (IIRC). I imagine it would get tedious if he did it in all of his books though.

I'm not sure if there's an official way to tell whether a books been ghost written:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwriter

Sometimes the ghostwriter will receive partial credit on a book, signified by the phase "with..." or "as told to..." on the cover. Credit for the ghostwriter may also be provided as a "thanks" in a foreword or introduction. For non-fiction books, the ghostwriter may be credited as a 'contributor' or a 'research assistant.' In other cases, the ghostwriter receives no official credit for writing a book or article; in cases where the credited author and/or the publisher wish to conceal the ghostwriter's role, the ghostwriter may be asked to sign a nondisclosure contract that forbids them from revealing their ghostwriting role.


There's an interesting article here written by a top ghost writer which explains why he's happy not to be in the limelight. Quite interesting!
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Postby Penitent » Sat Feb 03, 2007 11:55 am

Ada,

In the case of Clive Cussler the ghostwritter is mentioned on the cover of the books usually like "Clive Cussler with Paul Kempekos". Clive Cussler will be in really big letters and Paul Kempekos in smaller font underneath Clive's name. The copyright as you point out still will belong to Clive. Fair? Probably not, but is also a way for other authors to get published, even though the recognition would be limited.

If Clive's name is the only one on the cover usually means that he actually wrote the book. The same applies to other authors.
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Postby Son of the Silver Fox » Sat Feb 03, 2007 5:24 pm

Penitent wrote:Yes as we discussed the formula gets old after a while. Besides Cussler is not writing the books anymore. He uses ghost writers and just adds his name to the cover. “Black Wind” was written by his son.

I read Black Wind and I liked it. I am happy that somebody can replace an aging author if he can be true to the characters and has the ability to write like the original author.
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Re: Clive Cussler

Postby E-Hoog » Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:38 am

I have almost all Clive's novels, just because they're like James Bond in book-form (except Dirk Pitt does get wounded when shot at). You shouldn't take it too seriously and you'll have a good time reading. I like the books with Paul Kemprecos and Cusslers son, but I think the Oregon Files are utter crap. They (the characters) are just too good. They never make mistakes. Come on... In a way that can also apply to the original Cusslers, but they are more believable somehow. What I also disliked in the Oregon Files (the ones with Craig Dirgo, not the ones with Du Brul) is that at the end of chapters he would write things like: 'They couldn't have known that in twenty-four hours time they were there and there doing this and that.' Yes, lovely, but I'd like to find that out for myself, thanks...
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Re: Clive Cussler

Postby delby » Sun Nov 16, 2008 12:21 am

am tryin so hard with our clive at the min but im just not gettin there !!!
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Re: Clive Cussler

Postby SOELEY » Sun Oct 30, 2016 3:25 pm

E-Hoog wrote:I have almost all Clive's novels, just because they're like James Bond in book-form (except Dirk Pitt does get wounded when shot at). You shouldn't take it too seriously and you'll have a good time reading. I like the books with Paul Kemprecos and Cusslers son, but I think the Oregon Files are utter crap. They (the characters) are just too good. They never make mistakes. Come on... In a way that can also apply to the original Cusslers, but they are more believable somehow. What I also disliked in the Oregon Files (the ones with Craig Dirgo, not the ones with Du Brul) is that at the end of chapters he would write things like: 'They couldn't have known that in twenty-four hours time they were there and there doing this and that.' Yes, lovely, but I'd like to find that out for myself, thanks...


It's been a while since this thread was active, but I just had to comment on Golden Buddha (Oregon Files #1) written with Craig Dirgo. After completing the Dirk Pitt series, which I really enjoyed (yes the earlier books were better, but the later ones are not too bad). I decided to go for the Oregon Files, purely because they had been in one of the Pitt books. What a load of rubbish! I could tell straight away that CC hadn't written it, I'd be surprised if he did any of it at all? You would think if he's going to put his name to it he would actually read it and approve it first? It had a promising start with the description of the Oregon ship disguised as a derelict. But the plot was weak and full of holes, found plenty of bad reviews about #1 & 2, but apparently 3 & 4 are much better.
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Re: Clive Cussler

Postby E-Hoog » Tue Nov 01, 2016 1:29 am

I only read 1&2, so maybe one day I should give 3 a go... Maybe... 1&2 were not good. Especially golden buddha, as you mentioned
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Re: Clive Cussler

Postby SOELEY » Sat Jun 03, 2017 5:01 am

I have just finished reading #3 in the Oregon series. Dark Watch is much much better than 1 & 2, looks like the reviews were correct. So much so I will continue and read the whole series now.
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Re: Clive Cussler

Postby E-Hoog » Sun Jun 04, 2017 4:18 pm

Good to know, thanks for sharing! I might give them a go as well. Did you also read the Kurt Austin series of Clive Cussler? Those are not bad either.
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Re: Clive Cussler

Postby SOELEY » Mon Jun 05, 2017 6:12 am

E-Hoog wrote:Good to know, thanks for sharing! I might give them a go as well. Did you also read the Kurt Austin series of Clive Cussler? Those are not bad either.


No, not yet. But they are on my 'To read' list.
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