I quite like the world of archaeological thriller series. I thought it went back as far as The Da Vinci Code, yet I was totally wrong. It goes way back and apparently Clive Cussler is one of the leading exponents of the craft. I read one of his a few months back that I found in my dads collection. It was a little out of date in terms of values and beliefs, so I decided to give the benefit of doubt and read his latest, unbelievably the twenty-fifth book in the series. Obviously this author churns them out at a rate of knots, so maybe the ideas are getting a little pushed at times.

Now I like these sort of thrillers that have a past that is painstakingly unpicked in the modern day. This one concerns an Egyptian Princess from the Tutankhamen era who fled Egypt and found her way into Celtic tradition. Dirk Pitt and his faithful companion Al Giordino come across an environmental crisis whilst probing the depths of a reservoir in El Salvador. This combines with another disaster in Detroit and we have another adventure beginning. This travels the world over from New Dehli to Loch Ness and finally to Ireland to a place more famous for Luke Skywalker 😉

So how did I find the book? Well it was a really entertaining read, but still seemed dated. There’s not a lot of character development, although that might be from not reading the series. The back story isn’t quite as good as I expected, no huge discovery that’s of earth shattering proportions. It was a decent read and I’m sure will appeal to his millions of fans, but it left me with a meh. It was a little formulated. The best bits are the pseudo science that come out along with the archaeological bits.

As I say it was a decent read and those of you who like this sort of adventure will lap it up. To me the genre has moved on to be more clever and this struggles to catch up.

Another enjoyable thrill ride from Clive Cussler and son.

The whole book from start to end is action packed and delivers the adventure that it promises. It's quite fast paced and a lot happens in just one book.
I enjoyed the way the ancient world was tied into the story and I liked following both Dirk Pitt and his son in their adventures as the story kept shifting from one to the other.
It had an interesting and exciting storyline. At parts I felt like I was watching a movie and that only attests to how well described some scenes are.
The love interest takes a backseat to the main plot, which allows the story to flow fluidly and I liked that about this book.
This was my first Clive Cussler book and I would definitely reread it at some point and already picked up two of his other books which I plan on reading in the near future. I would recommend it to anyone who loves adventure and has an interest in ancient civilisations like me.

This was a fun, quick read. The Cussler books are pretty formulaic after all these years but they are still fun. Especially as an audiobook on a long car ride.

This was my first Clive Cussler and it was very exciting.

Felt pretty formulaic and as I listen still a bit on the sexist side. You’d think the elder Pitt would have evolved by now.

Aside from that the link between Egypt and Ireland was quite interesting and so were some of the descriptions for locations.

I didn’t enjoy this one as much, but due to the formula and quick chapters you could read it quite quickly.

While it was a good story, the believability of the plot and the actions reminded me of why I had quit reading this series years ago.

So, I have concerns about this book. It is a book that brings up very real issues of gender imbalance while being misogynistic portrayals of its characters. It also makes the person who is bringing up the gender imbalances into the evil unhinged villain who has turned evil because of a nervous breakdown after a series of abuses by men of her and one of her daughters.

As I write this I keep dropping the number of stars on this review. I had started at three and the more I write the worse I feel about this book. It even ends with a giant middle finger at the person who actually solved this puzzle who is the daughter of the person credited with the solution.

I've been reading these books since high school and they used to be more misogynystic and then got better. This one, however, elevates very real problems of women's rights to the point of being a hysterical evil female, I feel caters to the men who feel that feminism is a dirty word and that people who support it want to emasculate men. This is just obscene.