Treasure of Khan: Dirk Pitt Series, Book 19 [Kindle Edition]

As the book opens, Kublai Khan's forces are preparing to subdue Japan. But a storm intervenes and the invading fleet is destroyed. One of the ships makes it unexpectedly to a faraway isle . . . and eventually returns. Next, as the Japanese march through China in 1937, a British archeologist finds a clue to the burial site of Kublai Khan. From there, Dirk Pitt, Sr. and Al Giordino are on Lake Baikal in Siberia helping to measure lake currents when an underwater avalanche sets off a rolling tower of water that threatens a boat that doesn't hear the warning to clear the lake. Dirk and Al ride the rescue . . . but find themselves facing new threats before the next dawn. These new troubles lead towards Mongolia and a rendezvous with history. Along the way, the world faces another crisis that only Dirk and Al can solve. Before the book is over, you'll travel to the Middle East, across the Gobi desert, through the ocean next to the big island of Hawaii, and into the corridors of power in Washington, D.C.

Here's the good news: Treasure of Khan is mostly about Dirk Senior and Al Giordino rather than Dirk Junior and Summer. Here's the bad news: The swagger is mostly missing.

Treasure of Khan follows the proven Clive Cussler recipe for a Dirk Pitt Adventure, but in a coolly scientific way, rather than with passion. The physical action is often strangely cerebral rather than gut-wrenching. That's the main disappointment in this book.

But many of the elements work well: Opening sequences from historical times that create and illuminate modern mysteries; excellent choices of technical solutions to complex, time-limited problems; great looks at vintage vehicles; explaining about scientific phenomena that can create bizarre results; and dressing the modern villains in historical color. In many ways, Treasure of Khan may be the best researched and explained of the Dirk Pitt books.

The plot to tie it all together barely works, however. Any reader will punch big holes in this plot. It often makes almost no sense, except to tie together story strands that might otherwise have remained untied. The problem is that the authors have probably tried to tie a few too many things together. A more focused story would have been more interesting and compelling.

Another lesson of this book is that forays away from water should be brief. An extended desert journey just slows the story down.

Any Clive Cussler fan will be glad to have read this book, even if it isn't the best one in the series.

"I've never yet found drinking in a bar to be a waste of time....."
(Albert Giordino)

In the year of 1281 a "gods' wind" destroyed the fleet that has been sent by Kublai Khan for an invasion of Nippon.....

.....656 years afterwards the Imperial Japanese Army succeded in forcing ahead from her Chinese satellite state Mandshukuo, that was founded n 1932, to Shang-Tu and occupied the eastern part of the so called "Mongolia Interior".....

These historical facts are serving the authors for two opening short stories and background of the 19th adventure around Dirk Pitt, meanwhile married an head of the "National Underwater & Marine Agency" an his buddy Al Giordino. At the beginning of the plot (Which starts, regarding the publication of the novel, in the near future, namely June 2007) the two NUMA-veterans are saving a patrol exploration team from an enormous wave on the sibirian Baikal Lake. The overnight disappearance of the rescued explorers is followed by several mysterious earthquakes in the Gulf of Persia, which cause a big loss of petrol production and a huge rise in prizes. Meanwhile Dirk Sr. an Al pickup the trail that leads them in the Republic of Mongolia, Pitt Jr., his sister Summer and their colleague Jack Dahlgren are discovering an archeological sensation in the Keliuli Bay of Hawaii....

With "Treasure of Khan" Clive Cussler and his son Dirk again are presenting a plentiful action and tension loaded thriller that connects three different time levels in an intelligent way. Beside usual technical details and ironic elements the original and logical story this time also shows a cameo scene with Clive Cussler (together with his "Dachshund") as a bus driving development aid worker. Apart from Admiral James Sandecker, meanwhile US-Vice President, also heavy weighted St. Julien Perlmutter, NUMA-Vice President Rudi Gunn and computer freak Hiram Yeager are appearing as old acquaintances.

A good recommendation for all timedivers and fans of Cussler, Pitt, NUMA etc. or those who are still willing to become...

Ein Geschenk für Fans von Clive Cussler! Das scheint süchtig zu machen, denn jedes Buch wird mit einer großen Freude entgegengenommen und danach verschlungen. Da ist kein Ranking mehr möglich! Scheinen alle sehr gut zu sein! Die Freude war enorm groß!