"Raise the Titanic"

Written by Clive Cussler
373 pages
Overall Grade: A-

I first started reading Dirk Pitt novels when I was in middle school. I was trying lots of new books out from all different genres, and I honestly think the librarian was tired of giving me suggestions so she told me to read a book about 400 pages long. I think she was thinking it might slow me down and give her a break. Ha! Boy, was she wrong! I tore through that thing in one weekend and I’ve been a Clive Cussler fan ever since. I will also admit to having quite a crush on Dirk Pitt for a number of years in middle and early high school. Who could blame me? He’s supposed to be this rugged, handsome, virile man who can fly a plane, sail a boat, drive in a car chase, in any of his classic automobiles that he collects I might add, all in the same day, and look salacious the whole time while doing it. Who wouldn’t be impressed right? Anyway, like I said I’ve been a fan ever since. I even convinced my husband to read one of Pitt’s adventures and now he loves them too. We currently have 17 of Cussler’s books on our shelf, and I’ve read all but a couple. There’s really everything you could want in a book: mystery, adventure, a little romance here and there, and quite a bit of humor.

Cussler started writing his Dirk Pitt adventures in the 1970’s and Raise the Titanic is Cussler’s fourth book. What’s great about this “series”, and I use the term loosely, is while they all center on a single main character and there is a chronological sequence you do not need to read them in order to appreciate the books. The first one I read was Valhalla Rising which was published in 2001 and I didn’t know until after I’d read it that there were more books in the “series”.  I will also say this about Cussler’s writing: he is not the cleanest of writers. They are not Harlequin romance novels by any means, but there are some “adult situations” in some of his books and I would not recommend them to anyone below the age of 17 (I say 17 because that’s the age you can go see a rated-R movie with no adult). Also, in certain situations he can have a tendency to make his characters use some profanity, but compared to some other authors I’ve read, it’s really not that bad.

 As to Raise the Titanic in particular, it is one of my favorite of his I’ve read so far, probably in the top 3. What strikes me so how ahead of the curve Cussler actually was on this one. Raise the Titanic was published in 1976, the first pictures taken of the Titanic were in 1985, and the movie was made in 1997. Of course since he wrote the book before they found the Titanic and were able to take photos of her, not all of his information is right, but really who cares? The book is so much fun! It was also written before the fall of the Soviet Union, so the Russians are the bad guys, as they are in quite a few of Pitt’s adventures. But who could blame Cussler for using the Russians as his villains, darn commies.

All of Cussler’s novels take something from the past whether it’s the legend of El Dorado, what really happened to Abe Lincoln, or the hidden mystery of the Titanic and weaves it in to “present day” adventures. I love stories like this. I love it when writers take a little liberty with history and make something new and exciting. Clive Cussler really is a master at this. Interestingly enough Cussler owns all of the classic cars Pitt uses in the books, the back cover usually has him pictured next to them. And Cussler himself is an avid sailor and has been on many salvage operations. He is very knowledgeable about the sea, sailing, and much of what he writes about. Click here for a link to Cussler's biography and website.

My last note is this, while I do love the Dirk Pitt novels because they are original and entertaining, I do not like some of the other novels Cussler has written. He has a series with a main character called Austin something and well he’s really just a blonde Dirk Pitt. Honestly I would’ve rather Cussler just retired Dirk and moved on to something completely different, but alas he already has such a fan base I can see why he wanted to milk it. I just don’t think Austin’s character is original enough and no one will ever be as cool as Dirk Pitt, I’m just saying.

So anyway, Raise the Titanic is great. You should read it. And that’s the way it is. J

"It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish." -S. I. Hayakawa