Zero Hour

May 13, 2013
Kurt Austin and best pal Joe Zavala, those grown-up Hardy Boys, contend with Maxmillian Thero, a hideously disfigured mad scientist, in Cussler's action-packed, fun-filled 11th NUMA Files adventure (after 2012's The Storm, also coauthored with Brown). Thero has invented a machine that in theory draws on "background fields" to produce "zero-point energy," which could solve the planet's energy needs, though it also has the potential to unleash earthquakes and affect the movement of the continental plates. So what direction will Theo's madness take? He's out to destroy the world, of courseâor at least parts of it. The authors provide the usual deserted volcanic-island lair, tricked-out ships, diving exploits, and plenty of thugs and minions to give Kurt a few problems, to say nothing of a beautiful woman scientist along for the love-interest role. Readers new to Cussler should be prepared for zero believability. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency.

May 1, 2013
The latest from Cussler (The Storm, 2012, etc.). Cussler stalwart Kurt Austin is attending a Sydney, Australia, symposium when a boring session sends him to the Opera House's steps. He meets cute with a beautiful young theoretical physicist, Hayley Anderson, but before Austin finishes flirting, a boat-helicopter chase rages across the harbor. The boat crashes. Austin spears the helicopter with a burning boat hook. Very Bond initial opening, especially since it develops that the fetching Hayley is enmeshed in spycraft. Papers disappear amid the destruction, and Cecil Bradshaw, of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, arrives on the scene. Austin is dismissed, but he's intrigued. He calls his National Underwater and Marine Agency cohort Joe Zavala. They follow clues to a flooded, toxic Outback pit mine. Hayley's trapped in the pit. Bradshaw's wounded. An ASIO team's dead. With that, Austin and NUMA are drafted to thwart mad genius Maxmillian Thero's attempt to tap into zero-point energy: the physics of "drawing energy from background fields that are supposedly all around us." It's Tesla's Dynamic Theory of Gravity, once put into practice by a Tesla assistant, only to cause San Francisco's 1906 earthquake. The toxic mine pit was a test site. Heard Island, isolated in the Roaring Forties, is the site of the supergenerator with power sufficient to crack Australia in two. Cussler's usual supertech gadgetry is limited herein, except for a derelict cruise ship converted into a submarine. Russians are involved, and Uncle Sam too, but other nations are oblivious. The action continues post-boat-helicopter shootout with a neutrino wave sinking a NUMA ship, then there's a hovercraft-snowmobile set piece battle and a shootout in the volcanic island's bowels, which, in addition to the Tesla-inspired doomsday generator, holds a diamond mine to finance the experiment. A C-minus effort.

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May 15, 2013
Even if Kurt Austin, of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), isn't looking for trouble, it somehow has a way of finding him. Attending a conference in Sydney, Austin just happens to be nearby when a powerboat crashes into the Sydney Opera House. Kurt pulls an injured man out of the wreckage; the man dies but not before muttering a cryptic message ( The heart . . . of Tartarus ) that Austin immediately recognizes as a reference to the deepest prison of the underworld. Then, after Austin notices that the dead man has symptoms of the bends, he starts looking for a mystery deep under the water, but he doesn't expect to find a Bondian megalomaniac who has harnessed the massively destructive power of zero-point energy and is threatening to wreak havoc upon the planet. Unless, of course, Austin and his NUMA team can stop him. The NUMA books are sort of midrange Cussler, not as well crafted as his Isaac Bell series but more exciting than the Oregon Files. Fans of the previous NUMA adventures will find much to enjoy here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)