Clive Cussler is the author that got me into the “techno thriller” field. From him I got into reading James Rollins, Jack Du Brul, Andy McDermott, David Golemon, Dan Brown, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Matt Reilly, Craig Dirgo, David Gibbins, and others (all fodder for future posts).
I recall seeing his books on the shelves at my parent’s home, but never read them. But in the mid-’90s, with no new Doc Savage books coming out, someone mentioned Cussler’s work, referring to his character Dirk Pitt as something of a “modern Doc Savage.” So I checked him out. As is usual for me, I started with the first works and moved my way up. I liked what I read.
The novels all had a basic formula. We started with a scene in the past, always with a nautical theme (a lost voyage from an ancient civilization or the like), then a shift to modern times. But the time was always a few years in the future. There was always a little science fictional element (not something unusual, just a decade or so in the near future). You usually had an almost over-the-top James Bond-like villain with some wild scheme that threatened the world. Pitt and his buddy Al Giordino were two real tough guys who weren’t dumb, who figured out the scheme and put a stop to it (and the villain). And then a final tie-in with that stuff from the past.
Dirk Pitt was interesting. A former Air Force officer, a diver and now a top head at the fictional National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), Pitt lived in an abandoned hanger near a D.C. airport, which housed his collection of classic cars (and a few other items). One car always featured in each novel. (Cussler is into classic cars and was usually featured on the back cover with the car used in the book.) Pitt is tall (over 6 feet), with green eyes. And he always seems to be wearing a Doxa dive watch.
There were a few wild things and ideas. In one book, the U.S. and Canada merged as the United States of North America, which held through the next book or two, then was quietly dropped. In another, it was revealed the U.S. maintained a secret base on the moon to defend it from the commies.
At some point — I think around the time that Dirk Pitt moved up to Director of NUMA, and his two children more or less became the main characters — a lot of this was toned down. The wild science was no longer there. The over-the-top villains disappeared. (In one recent book, the villain was just a corrupt CEO, who got bumped off not by Dirk and co., but some minor character.) Even the ancient nautical prologues seem tacked on and not properly tied into the main story by the end or were just squandered ideas. Sigh.
Before that, Cussler branched out with some other series, all with co-authors. Even the Dirk Pitt novels are co-written with his son, Dirk Cussler. It’s not clear how much of these are written by each author, as his co-writers are almost all writers in their own right. In most of the series, the co-writers have changed over time.
First you have the NUMA Files series, started when it seemed clear that Dirk Pitt (who with the rest aged kind of normally) was getting old. That series offered the team of Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala (almost like a younger version of Dirk and Al), along with the scientist couple of Paul and Gamay Trout.
Next is the Oregon Files series, which focuses on a team of former CIA-agents operating out of a disguised derelict cargo ship. They were introduced in one of the Dirk Pitt books. All are pretty good. They were first co-authored by Craig Dirgo, now by Jack Du Brul.
Then there is the Isaac Bell series, which is set in the early 20th century and focuses on Bell, the lead investigator for the fictional Van Dorn Detective Agency. Unlike the prior series, nautical matters don’t play a big part. In this series, we often see the villain in action, without knowing who he is at first. And usually there is a follow-on part set years or decades after the main action, to sort of put an end to the story.
And finally, there is the Fargo Adventures, which focus on a Sam and Remi Fargo, a couple who are professional treasure hunters. Again, nautical stuff doesn’t play in, and there seems nothing to link either the Fargo or Bell series to the world of NUMA.
Now, there have been a couple of Dirk Pitt movies. The first, Raise the Titanic isn’t too good. The second, Sahara, is pretty good, but they made too many changes. They turned NUMA into a salvage group, and Matt McConaughey is no Dirk Pitt, just as Steve Zahn is no Al Giordino. So for me, I just think of these two characters as someone other then Dirk and Al.
I do find it interesting that Cussler has even formed a group called NUMA, which actually goes out and finds shipwrecks and has had a good record of doing so. He’s even co-authored a couple of non-fiction works on their successes.
So check him out. Maybe you’ll agree with some of us that Dirk Pitt is a kind of modern Doc Savage.
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