NANJAO (for Raise the Titanic -Mod) - In a preface to a later edition, Cussler pays tribute to Robert Ballard.

Cussler also appears to have anticipated the Star Wars Missile Defense system (SDI) by about five years - this book was published in the mid to late '70s.

Dirk Pitt got a lot more violent in the later books. Is this (Night Probe -Mod) the first one where he deliberately shoots/kills the bad guy out of a sense of justice, rather than self defense?

Also, I notice that the energy crisis never showed up in real life (pick pick pick...)

Is this the book with the not really retired British agent?

Yes. And in "Dirk Pitt Revealed", he seems to indicate again that "Brian Shaw" is really James Bond.

In a movie he should (of course) be played by Sean Connery (like in "Never Say Never Again..."). ;-)

Other than "Raise the Titanic!", which was already done (poorly), which book would make the best film?

Is this this the first one where he deliberately shoots/kills the bad guy out of a sense of justice, rather than self defense?

I just read the book again. Whom do you mean? Shaw?

No, Dirk Pitt.

No, I meant - who was Dirk's "victim" ?

The guy he shot in the Railroad car. Or was that Shaw? It's been a while since I read this one.

Yes, that was Shaw who got a nice little headache and a pair of handcuffs. But he was pointing his Beretta on Pitt, so...

OK, then maybe it wasn't this novel, but Pitt definitely got more vigilante/bloodthirsty as the series went on. When was his first deliberate killing in the name of Justice? Was it in Treasure (blowing up the baddie in the fake Library treasure), or in Sahara (making the head baddie drink the polluted water and sticking him out in the desert to die)? I don't seem to recall any vigilante killings in Cyclops.

I believe this (Sahara -Mod) is the first novel that Cussler put himself in.

I don't know why Cussler created this Kurt Austin guy (for the NUMA Files series -Mod). You could change the name to Dirk Pitt, and the dialog and reactions would be exactly the same. There is no difference between Pitt and Austin (except that Pitt collects antique cars and Austin collects antique guns).

Funny fact: The "Stockholm" is still around. After that infamous incident she was repaired and sold to East Germany. There she served as a cruise liner until somewhere in the 80's. Then she was sold to be scraped but no! She was completely rebuilt and is now the cruise liner "Italia Prima". Remember, it's the ship that sunk the "Andrea Doria"...

Hey, the last post doesn't appear in the statistics!

I read a while back that Cussler would not sell the film rights to his books because of his experience with "Raise The Titanic."

Right. But now it seems that a movie based on "Sahara" is in the works! Read here, here and the discussion board here.

All I know is that whoever plays Pitt had d@mn well better have green eyes and black hair.

You bet. Raise the Titanic!, the movie, features about the worst example of miscasting I've ever seen on the big screen.

Sahara...isn't that the one with the really icky bacteria that turns people into bloodthirsty raving maniacs? Bleah. Me, I'd rather see Deep Six or Inca Gold.

Yep, the one with the old Lincoln in the desert. But IIRC the chemical waste caused the madness, the mutated bacterium (?) just killed nearly all the important algae in the oceans. Btw, that's in some way similar to an explanation of Moses' red Nile. I posted links on the RM/Passover board.

Electron's right. The mutated bacteria (actually it's a Red Tide) was going to wipe out life on earth by killing O₂ producing plankton.

Incidentally, the mutated red tide was caused by the pollution.

Oh. OK, thanks for the corrections (been a longer while since I visited my Cussler-fan aunt than I thought).

Anyhow...bacterium, chemical waste, whatever, the bloodcrazed maniacs part is still deeply icky.

Equal rights for zombies!

So, which novel was it where Pitt started dispensing vigilante justice? Was it, in fact Sahara? Or an earlier one?

Anyone read Valhalla Rising yet? I'm not sure what I think about it...

Nit from Atlantis Found: Type XXI boats like the (of course fictional) U-2015 did not have a deck gun.

NANJAO from Fire Ice: Here we have the India class and the NR-1.

Potential anti-nit. Maybe the Fourth Reichers in Atlantis Found modified the U-2015 to put a gun on?

After all, if you're going to destroy the world, so you can rule the remnants, you want to be able to defend yourself until you can put your Evil Unstoppable Plan^OMT into motion.

ScottN,

What does ^OMT stand for?

"Official Management Terminology". It's a carry over from the "Tough Guide to SF-Land" over on the SF Novels board. I just like the sound of it.

I think the Reichers were keeping a very low profile until they were discovered. Any open attacks by ancient U-Boats would have been contraproductive to the EUP.

Adding a gun isn't easy. Those boats were designed entirely for underwater attacks with torpedoes. The deck guns were already obsolete then and removed from most other boats. Such a nice 8.8 or 10.5cm piece needs a stable mount point and because there wasn't one in the initial design of the type XXI the Reichers would have to do quite a bit of remodeling the entire boat. Such a gun is bad for speed and noise.

Just started "Havana Storm". The entire novel is a continuity nit, as if the events of "Cyclops" had never happened.

Yet Dirk has the washtub from "Cyclops" in his hangar.

I'm in the middle of "Dragon" right now. (Yes, I'm trying to get caught up.) I've noticed a nit. When Dirk, Hiram, and Percy are examining a computer generated model of a car for a place to insert a bomb, the computer generated model has a drive shaft. The problem is that the car used for the model is an '89 Ford Taurus which was front wheel drive.

Hey! I like the film version of Raise the Titanic!

We never said it was a bad movie... We just said it was horribly miscast.