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scijessreads's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars, if only for one of my favorite lines: "artifacts sitting in the rain [must] qualify as underwater stolen goods."
sianw1992's review against another edition
2.0
I haven't read a Clive Cussler book in a long time and after finishing Darkly Dreaming Dexter I was in the mood for an adventure.
I have several of the Dirk Pitt novels on my shelf that I've bought and not got around to reading yet so I flicked through a few until I settled on one that I liked the look of.
Inca Gold opens in the 16th Century, where Francis Drake is busy pirating his way through the Spanish fleet. He comes across a jade box containing secrets of an Inca treasure and sends it with his second-in-command back to England. Only, the ship is caught in a tidal wave and the treasure is lost forever. Cue Dirk Pitt and NUMA.
There's one thing that can always be guaranteed with Cussler's novels, a swashbuckling adventure. The characters of Pitt and Giordino are like old friends to me now and I enjoy the relationship that they have. As I've read other novels featuring the characters I know how long they have been friends for, so I don't need to know it again but if Inca Gold is your first foray into this world then it's essential information.
The best parts of this book are the action and adventure elements. Pitt and Giordino travel through an underground river, fight the bad guys, explore underwater caves and save the girl. All of these are heart pounding and exciting. It's the stuff in between that lets it down. The dialogue between all of the characters reads like a dodgy movie script, as if it's meant to be heard by other people and not just a conversation.
There's also far too many characters, all with strange names that obviously paint them as bad guys. People are unnecessarily introduced, even so far as the last third of the book. As always, the author himself pops up, which I find a bit cheesy and clichéd. The situations the characters find themselves in are also a bit ridiculous and they always seem to survive, despite the odds against them.
I think I'll also add that Cussler is quite sexist. The females generally are to be saved and are there to make Pitt and Giordino feel good about themselves. They also spend a lot of time crying.
By the time I was halfway through this book, I was counting the pages to the end.
So overall, it was alright, but I've read better by Clive Cussler, so I'll probably delve into another one when I'm craving an adventure.
I have several of the Dirk Pitt novels on my shelf that I've bought and not got around to reading yet so I flicked through a few until I settled on one that I liked the look of.
Inca Gold opens in the 16th Century, where Francis Drake is busy pirating his way through the Spanish fleet. He comes across a jade box containing secrets of an Inca treasure and sends it with his second-in-command back to England. Only, the ship is caught in a tidal wave and the treasure is lost forever. Cue Dirk Pitt and NUMA.
There's one thing that can always be guaranteed with Cussler's novels, a swashbuckling adventure. The characters of Pitt and Giordino are like old friends to me now and I enjoy the relationship that they have. As I've read other novels featuring the characters I know how long they have been friends for, so I don't need to know it again but if Inca Gold is your first foray into this world then it's essential information.
The best parts of this book are the action and adventure elements. Pitt and Giordino travel through an underground river, fight the bad guys, explore underwater caves and save the girl. All of these are heart pounding and exciting. It's the stuff in between that lets it down. The dialogue between all of the characters reads like a dodgy movie script, as if it's meant to be heard by other people and not just a conversation.
There's also far too many characters, all with strange names that obviously paint them as bad guys. People are unnecessarily introduced, even so far as the last third of the book. As always, the author himself pops up, which I find a bit cheesy and clichéd. The situations the characters find themselves in are also a bit ridiculous and they always seem to survive, despite the odds against them.
I think I'll also add that Cussler is quite sexist. The females generally are to be saved and are there to make Pitt and Giordino feel good about themselves. They also spend a lot of time crying.
By the time I was halfway through this book, I was counting the pages to the end.
So overall, it was alright, but I've read better by Clive Cussler, so I'll probably delve into another one when I'm craving an adventure.
johnlambrechts's review against another edition
5.0
Action packed, very adventurous, fun plot. Surprised no movie yet. Would be a great movie too.
keen23's review against another edition
4.0
This is exactly what you'd expect from an adventure book written in the 1990's by a male author who cranks out lots of books. It's regressive. The female characters are there as arm candy and for perky boobs. The male characters know all and solve all. The big baddies are really big baddies.
gossamerwingedgazelle's review against another edition
4.0
The plot felt a bit off at the beginning, but the story was good. Overall, a very enjoyable read. My biggest issue was the weird metric.... If everything is in metric, then don't give us feet, etc. If you are going to give us feet, then skip the metric. It was weird and annoying.
zama04's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
professorfate's review against another edition
4.0
It was Dirk Pitt, so I loved it, but I had two quibbles with it.
First: there were spots where scenes just went on for too long. The pacing wasn't as tight as the earlier books. I think this was when (on my first read through the series), I noticed the books started to bloat some.
Secondly: Any time a measurement was given, it was given in meters or kilometers, and was then immediately followed by the American equivalent in parentheses. This ruined the flow of the narrative for me, and got annoying after a while. If America has switched to the metrics system (as it said on the first page), then use the metric system.
First: there were spots where scenes just went on for too long. The pacing wasn't as tight as the earlier books. I think this was when (on my first read through the series), I noticed the books started to bloat some.
Secondly: Any time a measurement was given, it was given in meters or kilometers, and was then immediately followed by the American equivalent in parentheses. This ruined the flow of the narrative for me, and got annoying after a while. If America has switched to the metrics system (as it said on the first page), then use the metric system.
socorrobaptista's review against another edition
4.0
Este livro pertencia a uma biblioteca escolar, que ia se desfazer dele. Decidi lê-lo. Foi divertido, embora eu pessoalmente não acredite que tal aventura seja possível.
mommagypsy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
5.0