by Clive Cussler
James Bond-like adventure starring Dirk Pitt
Reviewed by: Twelve
About Twelve
One must wonder how Clive Cussler gets his ideas. The back cover of Valhalla Rising reads that this is Cussler's "most audacious novel yet", and this is no lie. It's extremely hard to do what he does in this book: blend together current and past events, classic works of literature, historical fiction, and a modern day style hero to make them work in a readable plot. It isn't even as if these points have much to do with one another either.
For example, take Dirk Pitt, the hero of Valhalla Rising. Pitt is basically an American James Bond, complete with witty lines, fawning women, and an intellectual mind mixed with controlled savagery. Action involving Pitt is very much over the top, in which he jumps from one extremely dangerous situation to another with minimal injury. Faithful readers of the many books involving Dirk Pitt know that with his uncanny sense for trouble, he's always bound to provide great adventures for those who like that kind of reading. Of course, Cussler, perhaps in jest, tries to apply the illusion of realism when he writes "This is not a James Bond movie" in the beginning of the fourty-eighth chapter.
Next, Cussler asks us to believe in a bit of his historical fiction, as he entertains the hypothesis of Vikings "discovering" America in the 11th century. He does a good job building up this miniature story, even writing a chapter based on the point of view of one of these Vikings. Carrying the tale right before they are obliterated by surrounding Native American tribes, Cussler shows off his knowledge of Viking ship engineering by writing such details as "next came oak planks that were hewn into thin strakes running with the grain and which curved gracefully before being joined at the stern and stem posts". True evidence of such claims may not be found in abundance, but Cussler writes the scenario so well that you'll want to believe it did.
Last but not least, Cussler pays homage to the great Jules Verne, writer of the science-fiction patriarchs Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. In Valhalla Rising, the scientific ideas expounded in Verne's books have the potential of actually being true and non-fiction. As it has been said that the science-fiction of yesterday will one day become reality, the author does an admirable job pushing Verne's ideas without making them feel fake.
Yes, you might be wondering how all of these opening premises work together in Valhalla Rising. To write how it does would be spoiling too much, but this is where Cussler's genius comes into play. He DOES make it all work together and he DOES tie it into a thrilling story that you'll want to finish. Not only does the mysterious tie-in of all of these ideas make for a turn-pager in itself, but you have to remember that Dirk Pitt is very much like James Bond. Therefore, he'll have some kind of maniacal villain that you'll love to see go down. This time around, it's a chronic over-achiever named Curtis Merlin Zale, who seeks to control the world's oil and directly influence the American government. Zale is, naturally, a very important tying bond to almost every corner of this wild plot.
Cliver Cussler always flirts around with other genres in his Dirk Pitt books, but never has he gone as far as he goes in Valhalla Rising. It is an adventure fiction that'll only be boring to those who find run-of-the-mill to be exciting.
Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: Valhalla Rising
Copyright © by Twelve, 2002
Reviewed by Twelve
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