Trojan Odyssey

October 27, 2003
Adventure tales for boys (and girls) of all ages have no more vigorous champion today than Cussler, who has kept the spirit of Joe and Frank Hardy alive, albeit on a grander scale, in numerous bestsellers. This 17th Dirk Pitt extravaganza finds Cussler (literally, as he makes a cameo at book's end) and his entourage of paint-by-number characters in fine fettle, foiling a dastardly plot by outlandish villains to launch a new ice age, and at the same time demonstrating that the Achaeans were not Greeks but Celts, and that Troy was a town in what's now England. After a prelude set during the Trojan War, the novel proper starts with a roar, as a monstrous hurricane sweeps toward the Caribbean, endangering not only Pitt's twin son and daughter, engaged in undersea exploration, but also the Ocean Wanderer
, a luxury floating hotel owned by a mysterious billionaire known as Specter. In a manly manner, Pitt and his longtime sidekick, Al Giordino, both of NUMA (the National Underwater and Marine Agency), save the hotel and Pitt's grown kids, but not before those kids discover a trove of underwater relics that indicate that the Celts, aka Achaeans, reached the New World millennia ago. And the Celts are still here, in the guise of a female Druidic cult linked to Specter and aiming for world domination by altering ocean currents via a vast underground mechanism in Nicaragua, which will plunge the earth into cold, then selling a new type of cheap fuel cell to supply needed heat. The action never flags, the heroics never halt and the bodies pile up as Pitt and Co. take on the villains; some big changes in Pitt's personal life close the book. Cussler's legions of fans are going to march into bookstores the day this title appears; expect whopping sales. 750,000 first printing; $750,000 ad/promo.

Dirk Pitt's two long-lost children are called in to help investigate a brown tide off the shore of Nicaragua. Their findings lead to a mysterious corporation with sinister plans and the possibility of finding the real location of Troy. The adventure is spiced by cliff-hangers, an evil organization worthy of a James Bond movie, and offbeat bits of humor--such as puns about two colleagues named Ford and Dodge. Ron McLarty gives the story a straightforward, tough-guy narration that moves briskly. The novel is a transition, setting up changes in Pitt's life and bringing in a new generation of adventurers. TROJAN ODYSSEY delivers excitement throughout. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine