With the passing of Clive Cussler (1931-2020), the “master” of the techno-thriller, I started to think of revisiting some of his various series. He had started with the Dirk Pitt series, then (with several “co-authors”) kicked off others. I also wonder with his passing will these series continue? As I write this, there are several upcoming volumes for 2021, with the Dirk Pitt series continuing by Cussler’s son. As his various co-authors were writers in their own right, I expect/hope this will be the same with the other series.
So the Fargo Adventures are composed of a dozen works at this point:
- Spartan Gold (2009)
- Lost Empire (2010)
- The Kingdom (2011)
- The Tombs (2012)
- The Mayan Secrets (2013)
- The Eye of Heaven (2014)
- The Solomon Curse (2015)
- Pirate (2016)
- The Romanov Ransom (2017)
- The Gray Ghost (2018)
- The Oracle (2019)
- Wraith of Poseidon (2020)
The first three were co-written by Grant Blackwood, the fourth and fifth by Thomas Perry, the sixth and seventh by Russell Blake, and all the rest are by Robin Burcell. For such a short series, there have been several changes of authors, more so than the others.
We meet the Fargos in the first book: Sam and Remi Fargo, a multi-millionaire married couple. No children so far. Married couples in techno-thriller series are rare, especially with both being involved with the action. Sam owned a successful software company, and cashed out early, taking the millions earned from the sale and established a foundation the couple now runs. They are now professional “treasure hunters,” however, all their finds are turned over to the local governments. Any rewards they receive go back into their foundation for charitable work.
They have no organization behind them. Their home in California serves as their base. There they have some assistants, who mainly do research and provide them with information. The main one is Selma, assisted by a younger pair named Peter and Wendy. Depending on the book, Selma is the main one helping out, and Peter and Wendy may assist (too often they just get mentioned in passing). In the sixth book, the Fargos are assisted by a down-on-his-luck British archaeologist named Lazlo. He appeared in many of the following works, occasionally getting into the action.
Surprisingly, there is little information on the appearance of the Fargos. Some reviewers even noted this, complaining that in the first books, we got more information about their exotic meals than their appearance. That element seems to be absent in recent books, which points to differences in the co-writers. But we still get little info on their appearance until the most recent work.
Now, another point of the series, which I have previously noted, is at first there was never any mention or hint of National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) or other Cussler characters. So this makes this series very much stand alone. At first, there was also not the nautical element that was so prevalent with Cussler’s main series (Pitt, NUMA Files, and Oregon Files). Was this done to appeal to a wider or different audience? Cussler did make a cameo appearance as a character in the first few books, like his other series, but this has been dropped. However, this all changed with the Grey Ghost and Wraith of Poseidon as I’ll note below, putting all his works in the same “Cussler universe.”
Because the series deals with ancient civilizations, there are times when different thriller writers are working with the same civilizations around the same time (Vikings, the Huns, Tibet, Mayans, etc). This gets tricky trying to keep them straight. Villains are usually rivals after the same treasure in this series.
Spartan Gold kicks things off with the Fargos finding a Nazi mini-sub in a Maryland swamp. This leads to a wine bottle that is part of a set that has information leading to Napoleon‘s “Lost Cellar.” More puzzle-based than subsequent novels from the other authors, Spartan Gold has the Fargos, as well as a ruthless Ukrainian crime lord, on the trail. As the first novel, we learn a lot about the Fargos’ background and their associates, which are often overlooked in subsequent books.
Lost Empire also deals with a puzzle, as the Fargos find a bell from a Confederate ship sunk off the east coast of Africa, that somehow ties in with Mexico and the Aztecs, and they run afoul of some bad guys wanting to keep it all a secret. The Kingdom has the Fargos in Tibet, looking for a millionaire’s lost son, and finding a puzzle chest, an ancient balloon, and danger.
Attila the Hun, or at least his tomb, is the focus of The Tombs. The Fargos wind up questing across Europe to find it, also dealing with a Hungarian crime lord after the same thing. A new “character” is introduced: Zoltan the guard dog. But he stays at their home in subsequent books. Mayan Secrets is about the Mayans (big surprise!), when the Fargos find a new Mayan codex, which reveals something that certain people want. This book also revealed that Sam Fargo has CIA experience, which I can’t recall being mentioned previously.
In The Eye of Heaven, the Fargos are in the Arctic when they discover a Viking vessel locked in the ice that contains Aztec artifacts. They are off to learn more, dealing with a ruthless collector they recently crossed. And as noted, we are introduced to Lazlo.
Set in the Solomon Islands, The Solomon Curse has the Fargos assisting another researcher who has discovered a previously unknown sunken city. On a quest to learn more about this, the Fargos, joined by Lazlo, run afoul of the sinister person who is behind the rebel attacks on the islands.
In Pirate, we have the Fargo’s stumple on information about a hidden treasure that leads them around the world, one step ahead (barely) of another who is after the same treasure. In Romanov Ransom, we have yet another story dealing with the former Russian royal family. Here it’s their fortune, which was stolen by the Nazis, and a neo-Nazi group wants to use it to fund a Fourth Reich. But can the Fargo’s find it and keep it from them?
The Gray Ghost deals with a rare English car, and is the first time we get a link to another series as we learn of Isaac Bell being involved with the car. And since the Isaac Bell series was soon linked to the Dirk Pitt series, this now means that the Fargo series is set in the same universe as the rest of Cussler’s series.
A bit of a different story set in Africa is our next adventure, Oracle. We find two storylines that some how link. In one, there are problems at a dig in North Africa funded by the Fargos. In the other, we find the Fargos funding a girls school in Africa, with the help of Peter and Wendy. This I found strange only because it’s an unusual location as there seems no explanation how they came to be doing this. The two storylines connect as the Fargos and others are menaced by several villains.
The most recent work, Wraith of Poseidon, is kind of an “origin” story for the Fargos. The bulk of the story is set 10 years prior, when the two meet: Sam is a former DARPA engineer (and we now learn how he learned his CIA skills), and Remi is a translator. Sam is working on a new invention he hopes to get funded, and I believe is the source of their wealth. This is a change from the original stories where he had started a software company and almost a “retcon.”
In the past, they contend with someone looking for the lost treasure of King Croesus, and his release from prison in the present allows for the storyline to be closed out. We get another connection to other Cussler stories as the couple visits St. Julian Perlmutter, a nautical researcher that Dirk Pitt visits in almost every novel.
The next story will be The Serpeant’s Eye, which will come out in 2021 from Robin Burcell only. So it looks like this series will continue. I’m not sure how Cussler will be credited on the work. I wonder if we’ll see something like other series where this is billed as “Clive Cussler’s Fargo Adventures by Robin Burcell” or something similar.
