Blue Gold

Clive Cussler

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

Kurt Austin and his crew slake their thirst for action as they attempt to drown an eco-extortionist's plan to control the world's freshwater supply.

An investigationinto the deaths of rare whales leads Kurt Austin , National Underwater & Marine Agency crew leader, to the Mexican coast where someone tries to put him and his mini-sub permanently out of commission. Meanwhile, in South America's lush hills, a murderous cadre of bio-pirates is intent on stealing medicinal secrets worth millions.

Soon Austin realises they're working the opposite ends of the same grand scheme. A Californian agribusiness tycoon is poised to rise to power by monopolising the earth's vastly depleted freshwater reserves and ultimately dominate the world.

Review by Chrissi (310701) Rating (7/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 7/10
Written in collaboration with Paul Kemprecos, as part of the NUMA series, this is a Kurt Austin story. I am not as fond of Austin as I am of Dirk Pitt, but there you go, perhaps he is in semi-retirement by now, he's had a bit of a hard life, has Dirk, you know.

Once again, a megalomaniac is trying to do grievous harm to the world in some strange and convoluted way, that no one has yet figured out.

This story starts out with a powerboat race which goes a bit pear shaped, Austin, all blond hair and flashing eyes gets all bent out of shape when he loses the race because of a pod of dead whales. (i.e. someone has killed the whales, and they need to be punished...)

The investigation into the deaths of the whales takes Kurt south of the border and into warm water, while his friends are up the Amazon investigating something completely unrelated and then find themselves held captive on behalf of the white goddess, a rather unpleasant tribe of natives who worship a woman and the wreckage of a jet powered aeroplane.

With the usual high powered stunts and electrical trickery that we expect from a Clive Cussler novel, this one does not disappoint, but how many more heroes can we have with strange coloured eyes and dramatic lines in dire situations?

And one more thing - there is not a single woman in any of Clive Cussler's books who is normal, they are all supermodels with exotic hair, (whatever happened to "brown" as a hair colour - or is it an advertisement for L'Oreal?), genius IQ's, and a swift line in weaponry and karate kicks, or is this just an American thing?
Chrissi ( 31st July 2001)