A review by hauntedjen
Raise the Titanic! by Clive Cussler

4.0

I think I was in high school when Kate Winslet stood on the bow of the Titanic and let Leonardo DiCaprio take her in his arms as their doomed love affair began onscreen. I saw not only what the Titanic looked like from its final resting place on the bottom of the sea, but also James Cameron's lovingly crafted vision of the Titanic when she sailed on her maiden voyage. This said, Clive Cussler's original imagining of the raising of the Titanic was breathtaking. It was not hard to believe in a world where even her location on the sea floor was as yet undiscovered. The first discovery of debris from the ship elicited excitement, and the final cresting of her decks above the waves brought tears to my eyes. Cussler gave us an amazing interconnected plot and the best crew in the world to undertake the salvaging of the most amazing ship in "Raise the Titanic!" a decade before she was actually located. Could I go back in a time machine to 1975, I would rather had discovered her with Clive Cussler than James Cameron! (My only caveat to my endorsement is this: The character of Dana Seagram could be completely removed from the book with no qualms from me. She's a 1975 vision of what an 1988 independent working woman and wife would be like, and she is a disappointing, selfish, awful human being, much less, woman. Thank goodness that Mr. Cussler has grown past this view of women in subsequent years.)