Rating: 
Summary: great action!
Review: It is very refreshing to have a new character in the series. Kurt Austin is younger and not nearly as cynical as Pitt. This was a great action book, but at times I get tired of how ruthless the antagonist is. In all his book they always seem to be without emotions or humanity.
Rating: 
Summary: The snake that sneaks up on you...
Review: As an avid reader of Cussler's books since 1978, I was always wondering about the inner halls of NUMA. I wanted the series to expand, to grow, to see it through eyes of others besides Pitt, Sandecker, Giordino, and Cussler. The magican (Cussler) himself is by far the master of adventure novels. No one in my opinion can hold a candle to the man. Some have tried but the breadth of the NUMA empire is far to great and Cussler keeps his faithful fans gripped from page one of every new edition. Serpent, as it's title implies, is a book that sneaks up on you and you really don't feel its bite till the last page. I was enthralled, hypnotized. The book gave refreshing breadth to the series. Yes, there are similarities between Austin/Zavala and Pitt/Giordino but wouldn't you expect Sandecker to surround himself with these type of people. People who get the job done no matter what the odds. Austin and Zavala race against time to thwart Texas industrialist's Don Halcon attempts to construct his vision of the United States. The reader is plunged into the last moments of the Andrea Doria and doesn't surface for air till an underwater Mayan crypt in Guatemala. Cussler and Kemprecos have woven a fun adventure worthy of the Pitt empire.
Rating:
Summary: Nice start to a new series.
Review: The book introduces a new character and his side kick, the writting style stays true to the Dirk Pitt adventures and is a quality read. I look forward to the new series. Basicaly like his other books new and yet true to form.
Rating: 
Summary: Serpent Slowly Slithers Through Its Plot
Review: Teams of archaeologist around the world are missing. One survivor of a Mexican expedition claims her team was murdered by mysterious assasins. The National Underwater & Marine Agency, (NUMA), goes on the hunt to stop these murderers and to understand their motives. Their quest takes them inside Mayan ruins and to the depths of the sunken Andrea Doria. Serpent is very good in portraying a historical mystery involving Christopher Columbus. It is superb in taking the reader through the perils of a Mexican jungle. The overall plot is too far fetch, removing the readers from their suspension of disbelief. The pace is inconsistent with large pockets of boredom between good portions of suspension. Serpent is a decent beach book. The author is attempting to develop a parallel series to Dirk Pitt, a best selling favorite. This is a weak start. Give us Dirk!
Rating:
Summary: Raiders of the Lost Ark - underwater.
Review: This book is full of action and adventure, and most of it takes place underwater, which is kind of a neat setting, if you are a diver. Nina Kirov goes off in search of ancient ruins, and finds a possible relic that could rock the world, proving that Columbus was not the first to discover America. A sinister organization called "The Brotherhood" also is aware of this relic and will stop at nothing to ensure that this relic, and others like it, never surface (pardon the pun). What bothered me the most about this book is it's unbelievable convenience of action. Before long, Nina has every resource imaginable, including the U.S. government and every research boat she could possibly need at her disposal, along with the best professionals in the world helping her out. Though the research done to write this book must have been phenomenal, (it is typical Clive Cussler after all), it doesn't ring true and it doesn't ring believable. Each horrific encounter of NUMA and the brotherhood is described in fantastic detail, yet the outcome is more than predictable, causing more than a few ho-hums. The characters read like robots, they don't seem to have much emotion at all, even Nina isn't developed enough to spend sufficient time grieving over a tragic slaughter of her favorite mentor and others. I think Clive Cussler, like Tom Clancy, spends too much time focusing on technical jargon and research findings than on developing his characters to the point where the average reader can put him/herself in their place. If you can't place yourself within the story,then you can't relate, and this is a book I just could not relate to. On the other hand, divers, underwater fanatics, and especially marine biologists and oceanographers will love this book. Anyone with an interest in the ocean and ships will fall right into this book. If you are out for a simple pleasurable story, my advice is to look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Was Columbus the First to Make it to Amarica?
Review: Finding a pre-Columbian artifact can be very dangerous in this book. Kurt and Joe attempt to catch a madman who is killing everyone who claims that Columbus wasn't the first one to discover America, and found proof of this. There are lot of twists and turns, and this book will keep you on the edge of your seat all the way to the end. I recommend this book to any one who like action, suspense and archeology. This book made me wonder if Columbus really was the first one discover America.
Rating: 
Summary: Thin entry in NUMA franchise
Review: NUMA, the supposedly research-geared government-funded agenyc that has tackled such boring dilemmas as raising the Titanic or otherwise deterring the dreams of many would-be world concquerors, has its share of heroes. Until now, NUMA has been the home-base of adventurer Dirk Pitt, the legendary creation of real-life submarine archaeologist Clive Cussler. Author Paul Kaprecos tries to carry the franchise a little further by adding new heroes to NUMA's roster - Austin and Zavala, but the result is a pale rip-off of a formula that was getting old when handled by Cussler. In this story, as with many of the Pitt-novels, a modern day crisis has roots or some other connection to an age-old mystery. Here, a Mayan artifact, shipped across the Atlantic on the Andrea Doria, goes down when that ship collides with a Swedish luxury liner. Fast-forward a few decades later: an archeological expedition in North Africa is brutally massacred, leaving only one survivor, a supermodel-esque archeologist who barely escapes death when managing to reach a nearby NUMA research ship. Helping out, and then having to confront the assassins themselves on a follow-up raid, Austin and Zavala pick up the pieces and discover a shadowy cabal that stretches from the age of Christopher Columbus to a shadowy southwest American businessman named Halcon. When the trail leads to a ring that smuggles mayan relics out of South America, Zavala and Austin uncover further proof that America's first "discoverers" had crossed the Atlantic ages earlier than Columbus. Through it all, a band of assassins linked to Halcon follows NUMA, indicating that even these age-old relics are important. With its offbeat NUMA charachters (like the obese St. Julien Perlmutter), the heroes put together an impressive theory to account for the presence of non-Mayan relics in Mayan temples, clues that signal an even bigger pay-off down the line. What kills the book is how thin a story it is, one that will be familiar to anybody who's read the other Cussler novels. The evil Halcon is in turns no more greedy, magalomaniacal and insane than the baddies faced by Dirk Pitt, so his master plan, when revealed, won't exactly come as a surprise. The mystery itself doesn't seem to offer that much appeal. Searching for buries treasure is less NUMA than "Little Rascals" - as say an exotic metal that will power an anti-missile defense ("Raise the Titanic"), a missing nuclear submarine ("Pacific Vortex"), the dommsday bug bacteria ("Vixen") or a treaty that gives Canada to the United States ("Night Probe"). Also, Cussler was better when he put his pieces together - usually a round-up session when the major charachters gather togather and tell what they know, only to have Dirk Pitt put the pieces together in a way that nobody expected. In "Serpent", the mystery involves a "talking stone" whose meaning escaped the Spanish exploerers. Somehow, the rock never becomes more than a mere slab in these pages. The new NUMA novels had an interesting idea - replacing the lone hero with some teamwork and camaraderie. Only, the payoff would have been a more expansive story. Instead, the charachters never become more than fragments of Dirk Pitt, accomplishing together what Pitt would have pulled off alone. Instead, opt for one of Cussler's own Pitt novels.
Rating:
Summary: good clean fun
Review: No one would call Cussler's work great literature, but even we literary snobs need our "trash" reading and for that, Cussler has been my favorite author since Raise the Titanic and Night Probe. Sometimes the dialogue is cheesy and the overuse of adjectives makes you laugh out loud, but to leave it at that would miss the point -- these books are action adventures, so mellow out! Although I liked Kurt and Joe, I miss my old friend Dirk Pitt (and good old Al). The two heros in the new series are so similar that I'm surprised he bothered to introduce new characters. Switch a hobby here and there (dueling pistols for antique cars) and change hair and eye color, and voila, Dirk becomes Kurt. As for the plot, the opening chapters are, as usual, riveting as we watch the horrifying crash of the Andrea Doria. It's a formula that has worked in many other Cussler books. This one pulls all the regular punches and will hold most readers' attention although the plot flags here and there (I too think too many switch offs between Cussler and his co-author). I found the end a bit too tidy -- the excitement wears off around the 2nd two thirds of the novel. Still, for NUMA fans, a worthwhile read which will keep you up at night turning pages.
Rating:
Summary: Have We Met Before?
Review: So, um, here it is: Introducing a New Series, SERPENT A Novel from the NUMA Files. CLIVE CUSSLER with Paul Kemprecos. "Whoa! That's gonna be interesting!" I thought. But I was GREATLY disappointed after I finished reading it. Throughout the whole book, I was thinking that there's going to be some big thing in the storyline that will stun me but in the end it was as though I was cheated out of my money. The plot is set on the fate of Andrea Doria and Columbus and the Mayans. And on an evil megalomaniac named Halcon who wants to do some evil, bad, yucky, no-good, wicked, cruel scheme. Okay, after counting to ten I managed to force myself to cope with ANOTHER megalomaniac in a book by Cussler. But the story just tells you about Andrea Doria, about Columbus about the Mayans and about all the bad guys deserving their deaths. Hey, where's the big punch? Flood Tide was at lest EXCITING to read. This is only nothing more than interesting but not exciting. And why introduce clones of Dirk and Al? And why is the plot element with Gamay so detached from the actual story? And look at the ending! The bad guys are dead, so, er, that's it, see you next time! It all created the impression that it wasn't much of Clive Cussler and mostly Paul Kemprecos who wrote the book. Cussler gave his name on the cover (so that the book would sell) and Kemprecos did the major part of the work. Cussler didn't feel like wasting his trademark hero for that spin-off so here we have the clones. I'm not stating it as the exact truth, it's just what came into my mind after reading it. If you want some real, great Cussler experince then go pick something else and come back to this one later. Anyway, it's not that horrible, at least the teenagers will learn something about pre-Columbian culture or something.
Rating:
Summary: The same but still great
Review: This was very much like a Dirk Pitt adventure. Nonetheless, It was great, full of action and very fast. I am looking forward to reading Blue Gold
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