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Fantasy. Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. It is July 2003. In the middle of its maiden voyage, the luxury cruise ship Emerald Dolphin suddenly catches fire and sinks. What caused it? Why didn't the alarms go off? What was its connection to the revolutionary new engines powering the ship? NUMA special projects director Dirk Pitt races to rescue the passengers and investigate the disaster, but he has no idea of the bizarre events that are about to engulf him.Before the next few weeks are over, Pitt will find himself confronted by an extraordinary series of monsters, both human and mechanical, modern and ancient. He will tread upon territory previously known only to legend. And, at the end of it all, though many lives will be lost, and many saved, it is Pitt's own life that will be changed forever...Filled with dazzling suspense and breathtaking action, Valhalla Rising is Cussler at the height of his storytelling powers.… (more)
User reviews
Pitt and his trusty pal Al Giordino track the sinking to the boardroom door of a multinational conglomerate called Cerberus, whose evil CEO has designs on the world's oil supply. He'll do anything to keep Egan's advanced engines and secret formula for frictionless oil off the market--even sabotage another vessel, this time a luxury passenger submarine. By the time our heroes have foiled the mastermind's nefarious plots, they've also uncovered the existence of a working submarine nearly a century before one actually existed--irrefutable proof of a Viking landing on the Hudson River--and the remains of the British sailor who inspired Jules Verne's Captain Nemo.
- Full of adventure, viking history and literary speculation with the author making an appearance. Dirk Pitt, underwater scientist and adventurer, working for the National Underwater Maritime Admin., uncovers a plot to control the world's oil supply.
NUMA hotdogger Dirk Pitt once again saves the day, thwarting the uber-bad guys at every
Lots of new high tech stuff for the techie buffs, pretty girls and lots of actrion.
Uber bad guy Zale sets out to corner the petroleum market and prevent new technoloy that will reduce the world's reliance on oil using mass murder as a political tool. But a Zale insider and Dirk Pitt see to it that that doesn't happen. And Dirk meets his son and daughter he didn't know he had. I've already met them as I'm reading the books out of sequence.
Good read. Lots of fun and a few typos.
Pitt and his trusty pal Al Giordino track the sinking to the boardroom door of a multinational conglomerate called Cerberus, whose evil CEO has designs on the world's oil supply. He'll do anything to keep Egan's advanced engines and secret formula for frictionless oil off the market--even sabotage another vessel, this time a luxury passenger submarine. By the time our heroes have foiled the mastermind's nefarious plots, they've also uncovered the existence of a working submarine nearly a century before one actually existed--irrefutable proof of a Viking landing on the Hudson River--and the remains of the British sailor who inspired Jules Verne's Captain Nemo.
In the early 11th-Century, a fleet of ships from Iceland sail past Vinland to the entrance of the Hudson Bay and find sanctuary in a large underground cove that has a passage almost to the palisades above and is carved out by the explorers. The resulting settlement only last a few years before a conflict with the Native Americans results in its destruction. In the 1880s, a US Naval ship is destroyed by a metallic sea monster that has portholes in which the captain sees man face looking out at him. In 2003, Dirk Pitt spearheads NUMA efforts to rescue passengers on two ocean liners that were targeted by an oil and natural gas cartel’s CEO that wants to discredit the revolutionary magnetohydrodynamic engines installed on both by a reclusive genus scientist—that dies in the first liner’s disaster—to help his efforts control all North American oils resources and supplies then to shut out foreign oil. Along with figuring out where the deceased scientist’s lab was Pitt must deal with a plot to destroy the World Trade Center with a natural gas tanker while Loren Smith must deal with bribed officials to investigate the evil CEO in a Congressional hearing. After evidence from St. Julian Perlmutter found in Jules Verne’s home, Pitt finds the cove found by the Vikings that not only contains their longships but the actual Captain Nemo’s Nautilus with a prototype of the revolutionary engines that the reclusive scientist deciphered and improved. At the end of the book when Pitt attempts for the third time to propose marriage to Smith, he is interrupted by the surprise arrival of his until then unknown children, twins Dirk Jr. and Summer, by Summer Moran.
Let me start with addressing the WTC plot first by saying this book was originally published in August 2001, a mere three weeks before terror attacks so Cussler was not attempting to profit off a real-life situation. As for the actual events in the book and of the overall series, there are a lot of retcons throughout this book that void the events in Raise the Titanic! and add to the events of Pacific Vortex, especially the former with the introduction of the Pitt twins that were set up throughout the book by Cussler having Dirk think about how he was getting old. As to the actual narrative of the book, I found this book not up to Cussler at his best. The main antagonist is really the CEO’s terror cell leader who I did not mention above because he is not memorable compared to other characters that he shares traits with throughout the overall series. Honestly, this is more an investigation into the reclusive scientist’s life with stopping an evil plot as a side quest type of deal.
Valhalla Rising is a book that read like a mishmash of plots and events that were intended to build to the future of the series, but also discredited events from the previous books. This is the penultimate book that Clive Cussler solely wrote himself before his son Dirk would become his coauthor, which makes one wonder if the quality of this book and the next made his publisher want to give him help. Overall, not this is not the worst book of the series—far from it compared to the very first books—but things throughout the novel felt off.
**Spoiler alert below **
I also found this very interesting that Zale wanted to blow up the world trade center towers, and the book was released in August 2001... eerie...