I was recently contacted by Books2Door, an online kids' book store, who offered me a voucher to buy some new books to review. They have loads of kids' books on offer, but also a well-stocked Young Adult category, so I managed to pick up some great titles for myself too. The first thing I added to my basket was this collection of titles from Clive Cussler, which includes four novels : Shock Waves, Flood Tide, Blue Gold and Serpent. The price, if you're interested ? A "whopping" £3.99 ! Bargain !
Once the books arrived, I was keen to jump in, but I came across a bit of a problem. I wasn't online and there was absolutely no way of telling which order they should be read in. I therefore decided it didn't matter and jumped in with Blue Gold. After logging on to the website, I discovered that this is actually the second book in the series and I should have started with Serpent, followed by Blue Gold, which are books 1 and 2 in the NUMA series. The whole series currently contains 16 books. Shock Wave and Flood Tide are books 13 and 14 in a different series featuring Dirk Pitt. This would have been good to know in advance and I don't really understand why this information wasn't easier to find, either on the book covers or on the website.
But back to the book at hand - Blue Gold. Blue Gold is not a form of precious metal, as you might imagine - it's actually water, but that doesn't mean that it's any less valuable, particularly in a world whose water supplies are drying up in certain regions. The book starts with a boat race ending in disaster when it encounters a pod of dead whales, before moving on to a tribe in the South American jungle, led by a mysterious white woman. There's so much going on in the beginning that it's hard to keep track of everything, but you soon start to see how it all links together.
NUMA (National Underwater & Marine Agency) workers Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala start to investigate and undercover some strange goings on off the coast of Mexico, before going further afield. Their hearts are in the right place and they certainly get things done but they reminded me of a water-based version of Crockett and Tubbs (sorry, harking back to my teenage years watching Miami Vice here !), gadding around the world, tracking down the bad guys and not worrying at all about the numerous pieces of aquatic (and even aerial) transportation that get trashed ! I kept thinking to myself that this would be a cracking basis for a great all-action Hollywood blockbuster, with big scary villains, sexy, scantily clad women and an awful lot of explosions going on !
The story is enjoyable and intriguing, if not entirely believable, and there was so much going on that it was hard not to stay focused. That said, I did find many of the characters to be very one-sided, from the ugly and cold-hearted Eastern European villains to the towering, voluptuous villain in her totally over-the-top Viking ship.
I'm looking forward to reading the other novels from the package now. They're ideal for when you want something easy to read that is big on action and needs little brain-power to work things out.
star rating : 4/5
Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.
This book sounds really interesting, I might buy this to read.
ReplyDeleteOh, that would annoy me as well if I didn't know which book to start with, and also that was a strange grouping of 1,2, 13 an 14. A good price though. I don't know this series, is Eddie at 8 too young for it?
ReplyDeleteYes, I think he's too young. I read it as an adult and enjoyed it so it's definitely one for older readers, maybe from teens onwards ?
DeleteI used this website for the first time recently, got a boxset of 18 books for my daughter for £22 great prices
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a great buy ! I'll definitely be heading back over here for Christmas and birthdays :)
DeleteThat is a good price, I would have been frustrated not to be shown the order too, although I have found the same problem in book series I've read before to, and it may have been a lot easier to understand if you had known and read serpent first, but still a good review xx
ReplyDeleteThank you for another helpful review. I buy quite a few books for the children but somehow have missed Books2Door. I've had a browse on their site today and it looks good so I will be getting back to it again.
ReplyDeleteIt was great service too - emails to keep me in the loop and swift delivery :)
Deletethat is annoying not knowing which book comes first. Clive Cussler is always a good read, must pick some more up soon.
ReplyDeleteI'd never read any of his books before but I really like his writing - definitely one to catch up on :)
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