Atlantis Found (A Dirk Pitt Novel)

When mysterious black obsidian skulls and other artefacts of an exceedingly ancient culture begin to turn up in odd places, Pitt jumps in with both feet. It soon becomes dangerously apparent that a powerful, amoral group of fanatics calling itself the Fourth Empire wants the strange discoveries to remain underground. Pitt teams up with a beautiful red-haired expert in ancient languages to decipher the meaning of the artefacts. They were made 10 millennia ago in a then-temperate Antarctica by a seafaring civilization advanced enough to predict its own destruction by a comet impact. Now the Fourth Empire (whose literal and figurative progenitor comes as no surprise) is predicting a similar disaster in only a matter of months and preparing to take control of the Earth.

Cussler's known for hands-on research--his hobbies are the backbone of Pitt's adventures: Flying, climbing, diving, racing. His scientific and historical riffs that fill in the background of Atlantis Found are the weakest parts of the book--they're Pitt-less, and give every discovery in the book away early. But what the heck--Cussler's not the king of suspense, he's the emperor of non-stop action. Atlantis Found bounces along on a good-humoured techno-joyride and for Cussler's legion of fans, that will be more than enough. --Barrie Trinkle

But Cussler never intended to give us an accurate history lesson, and let's get onto the plot! This is a rollicking adventure where our rugged and handsome hero knocks the preverbial out of sinister foreigners with funny accents and discovers the lost continent of Atlantis, almost without breaking sweat. Dirk Pitt is definitely up there with Indiana Jones and James Bond and probably hasn't got far to go to give Superman a run for his money. He's the kind of mega-tough guy who, if his lungs start to hurt when the going gets tough, he spits them out and gets on with saving civilisation as we know it. He always has a witty line in repartee on his tongue too, and don't the ladies just lap it up! In real life he would probably come over as Leisure Suit Larry's more dangerous brother and would be regarded as rather corny by any streetwise modern woman. The womem in Dirk Pitt's world however are invariably beautiful and frequently in need of rescue by our invincible square-jawed hero, which, of course, he invariably accomplishes in the nick of time.

But enough irony and nitpicking! The action (and boy, is there plenty of that!) is very competently described and I defy anyone not to devour this hefty tome (500+ pages) in a flurry of undemanding but enjoyable page turning. I swear you will shiver as Cussler depicts the numbing effects of wind-chill on our hero!

So, classic literature this ain't, but I enjoyed it all the same and have no regrets about buying my first ticket into the rather simplistic but pretty damn entertaining world of Dirk Pitt.


Very disappointing ...   April 21, 2004
 1 out of 4 found this review helpful

I read all kinds of books, am very open minded and enjoy an hour or two ofescapism as much as anyone. This book just made me dizzy and wishing forthe torture to end! They say too much of a good thing is bad for you andin this case, it's just too much of everything. I shall stick to authorslike Michael Cordy, Robert Doherty and James Rollins from now on!


Cracking Adventure   February 28, 2004
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I've been a fan of Clive Cussler and his main hero Dirk Pitt, since i picked up a copy of "Inca Gold" a few years back, and i've been steadily going through his back catalogue (which are all good by the way) ever since.
I finally got up to "Atlantis Found" and it's by way and afar the best one yet. The opening teaser chapters are just fantastic, setting up an intriguing premise that you are trying to work out all the way through the novel, with the help of a few clues laid down along the way by Mr Cussler. Dirk is as heroic as ever along with his best pal Giordino, and its a guaranteed page turner.It's so film like in it's storytelling, that as I was reading it I could just imagine it up on the big screen with all it's glorious set pieces and action scenes. The finale, on the ice plateaus of Antartica, is just one of the best endings of a book ever. I literally couldn't put it down. In fact i've already re-read it.
If you love a good action adventure novel, then this is it.

I recommend this with no hesitation, go buy it now and enjoy.