Spartan Gold (Fargo Adventures)
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Product Description
Product Description
Thousands of years ago, the mighty Persian king Xerxes the Great was said to have raided the Treasury at Delphi, carrying away two solid gold pillars as a tribute to his glory.
In 1800, while crossing the Pennine Alps, Napoleon Bonaparte and his army stumble across the pillars. Unable to transport them, Napoleon created an inscrutable map on the labels of twelve bottles of rare wine. When Napoleon dies, the bottles disappear - and the gold pillars are lost once again.
Treasure-hunters Sam and Remi Fargo are exploring the Great Pocomoke Swamp in Delaware when they are shocked to discover a German U-boat. Inside, they find a bottle taken from Napoleon's 'lost cellar'. Fascinated, the Fargos set out to find the rest of the collection. But another connoisseur of sorts has been looking for the bottle they've just found. Not for the wine. He wants what the bottle may lead to.
For he is Hadeon Bondaruk - a half-Russian, half-Persian millionaire - and he claims descent from King Xerxes himself.
And the treasure will be his, no matter what . . .
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.About the Author
Clive Cussler is the author or co-author of a great number of bestselling novels, including twenty Dirk Pitt® novels, eight NUMA® Files adventures, and six Oregon Files books. He has written three works of non fiction and a historical adventure series, which began with The Chase. He lives in Arizona. www.clivecussler.co.uk
Grant Blackwood, US Navy veteran and author of the Briggs Tanner series, lives in Colorado.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Okay, I'll admit I was fairly sceptical about this one going in. Cussler's novels have, excluding The Chase, been heading downhill for a while now, and starting yet another new series, with yet another 'co-author' (I assume this is like Clancy, where the big name comes up with an idea and the little name does the hard work of actually writing it). The beginning backed up my idea - the main characters, Mr & Mrs Fargo, are conveniently and unbelievably rich in order to fund their treasure hunting lifestyle, and have a set up not all that unlike the Corporation in Cussler's Oregon Files series - a team of computer whizzes to back them up, training in black ops and the old friend in the CIA.
It started a little cringe worthy - the characters are two dimensional and have very little that I can identify with (except that they own iPhones, and more on that later), and just don't feel natural - they are very much like film characters - there's nothing going on inside their heads, and it's all action and no emotion. There's a dynamic between them, as always with the double-header Cusslers (Pitt/Giordino, Austin/Zavala. Dirk/Summer), and that they are married makes it a little more personal, but in places gets too annoying. One of the running gags involves Sam saying 'aren't I always' and Remi replying 'except that time when' - once is cute but it happens again and again.
In a similar vein, everywhere the characters travel they greet a local in the local language and ask them if they can speak English - exactly the same exchange just in a different language - and every time the person can speak it perfectly. Really irritating. Another irritating repetition is that every settlement is referred to as 'home to x number of souls', which to me seems an utterly bizarre way to give population data.
The novel spends a lot of time dealing with history, which is informative and possibly vital to the plot but there is too much of it - it's like every little section starts with a mini-essay on the background of the part of the world, and it's just too educational. There are also technological errors - one moment they talk on their iPhones, the next they have to navigate by 'dead reckoning' as they have no GPS, then the next they explicitly mention that their iPhones have GPS. As an iPhone user that really grated.
However, towards the end of the novel things begin to get better. The history begins to tail off and the action too after a point, leaving the plot more gripping - however the whole thing seems to speed up as well. The Fargos spend a good part of the novel working out the solutions to the first few clues, but then it takes barely any time at all to race through the last couple (and the earlier plot point about the clues not being in sequence is forgotten), which seems like the author hasn't planned these parts as well.
There's a second Fargo book coming later this year, but I'm not yet convinced that they live up to the Cussler mantle - I don't know if his novels have gone downhill or I'm just growing out of them, but since Atlantis Found things seem less believable. I'll wait and see how I feel before ordering the next book.
It started a little cringe worthy - the characters are two dimensional and have very little that I can identify with (except that they own iPhones, and more on that later), and just don't feel natural - they are very much like film characters - there's nothing going on inside their heads, and it's all action and no emotion. There's a dynamic between them, as always with the double-header Cusslers (Pitt/Giordino, Austin/Zavala. Dirk/Summer), and that they are married makes it a little more personal, but in places gets too annoying. One of the running gags involves Sam saying 'aren't I always' and Remi replying 'except that time when' - once is cute but it happens again and again.
In a similar vein, everywhere the characters travel they greet a local in the local language and ask them if they can speak English - exactly the same exchange just in a different language - and every time the person can speak it perfectly. Really irritating. Another irritating repetition is that every settlement is referred to as 'home to x number of souls', which to me seems an utterly bizarre way to give population data.
The novel spends a lot of time dealing with history, which is informative and possibly vital to the plot but there is too much of it - it's like every little section starts with a mini-essay on the background of the part of the world, and it's just too educational. There are also technological errors - one moment they talk on their iPhones, the next they have to navigate by 'dead reckoning' as they have no GPS, then the next they explicitly mention that their iPhones have GPS. As an iPhone user that really grated.
However, towards the end of the novel things begin to get better. The history begins to tail off and the action too after a point, leaving the plot more gripping - however the whole thing seems to speed up as well. The Fargos spend a good part of the novel working out the solutions to the first few clues, but then it takes barely any time at all to race through the last couple (and the earlier plot point about the clues not being in sequence is forgotten), which seems like the author hasn't planned these parts as well.
There's a second Fargo book coming later this year, but I'm not yet convinced that they live up to the Cussler mantle - I don't know if his novels have gone downhill or I'm just growing out of them, but since Atlantis Found things seem less believable. I'll wait and see how I feel before ordering the next book.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is dreadful! But I still finished it!?
I can't explain why I did, but I did. I have to put it down to the fact that it was SO bad that I wanted to see what was bad on the next page.
Like other reviews here I became very annoyed with the constant, overly specific "Sam checked on his iPhone..." and "Then they both checked on their iPhones" or "She used the MacBook Air..." Apple product placements. And it wasn't just Apple either - every bit of tech, boat, or car in the book was very specifically noted like this. Perhaps the next book he'll supply the full model numbers too so we can shop for things with our iPhone shopping app.
Then there were the continuous new characters who all spoke perfect English. One of my favorites was the opener from one of the main protagonists: "Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais?", and the response was "Yes I do, but your French is amazing!" WTH!? Even I can say that and it's the only bit of French I know! Apart from croissant. Anyway...
Oh yes, and this is my favorite bit: All the Russian gangsters that are chasing them? They don't speak Russian! No, they speak Russian-accented English! Amongst themselves. The heroes are forever overhearing the Russians talking to themselves and it's always in Russian-accented English. Ridiculous.
Don't get me started on the plot holes. There are so many that it makes the entire story obsolete by page 20.
And then there is the use of 'shined'. I lost count of the amount of times it was written, such as "They shined their torches up the tunnel...". Is this good English? I'm pretty sure it isn't. 'Shone' is good English, 'Shined' isn't. Not in this tense.
And he wrote himself into the book! Apparently this is common with CC. I think it's another indication that a 10-year old wrote this book for their Creative Writing project. In fact, this book reminds me of exactly that - one of the awful stories I wrote at junior school that my mum keeps in a drawer.
This book IS a page-turner, but only because you want to see how bad it gets on the next page. Honestly.
I can't explain why I did, but I did. I have to put it down to the fact that it was SO bad that I wanted to see what was bad on the next page.
Like other reviews here I became very annoyed with the constant, overly specific "Sam checked on his iPhone..." and "Then they both checked on their iPhones" or "She used the MacBook Air..." Apple product placements. And it wasn't just Apple either - every bit of tech, boat, or car in the book was very specifically noted like this. Perhaps the next book he'll supply the full model numbers too so we can shop for things with our iPhone shopping app.
Then there were the continuous new characters who all spoke perfect English. One of my favorites was the opener from one of the main protagonists: "Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais?", and the response was "Yes I do, but your French is amazing!" WTH!? Even I can say that and it's the only bit of French I know! Apart from croissant. Anyway...
Oh yes, and this is my favorite bit: All the Russian gangsters that are chasing them? They don't speak Russian! No, they speak Russian-accented English! Amongst themselves. The heroes are forever overhearing the Russians talking to themselves and it's always in Russian-accented English. Ridiculous.
Don't get me started on the plot holes. There are so many that it makes the entire story obsolete by page 20.
And then there is the use of 'shined'. I lost count of the amount of times it was written, such as "They shined their torches up the tunnel...". Is this good English? I'm pretty sure it isn't. 'Shone' is good English, 'Shined' isn't. Not in this tense.
And he wrote himself into the book! Apparently this is common with CC. I think it's another indication that a 10-year old wrote this book for their Creative Writing project. In fact, this book reminds me of exactly that - one of the awful stories I wrote at junior school that my mum keeps in a drawer.
This book IS a page-turner, but only because you want to see how bad it gets on the next page. Honestly.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As usual Clive Cussler has produced another winner. Introducing a new set of 'heroes' it was very hard to put down, always wanting to know what what over the page. I look forward to the next one.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Was this really written by CC?
Having enjoyed reading most of Clive Cussler's previous offerings, I was surprised at how poor, and essentially two dimensional this was. Read more
Published 16 days ago by A. Hickson
Worst Cussler ever!
The problem with Clive using ghost writers for most of his books these days is it's impossible to know what you're going to get. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Adrian Matthews
As sponsored by Apple...
This was a good, fun adventure for a pre-bedtime read. Not at all strenuous on the brain HOWEVER I was driven slightly mad by the constant mentions of Apple products (Iphone,... Read more
Published 3 months ago by BathBun
CUSSLER GOING DOWN HILL
What is happening to Cussler? Like many of the other reviewers I didn't really enjoy this book, the plot is so ridiculous as to be almost slapstick, the Fargo characters are... Read more
Published 4 months ago by NJ Gay
Spartan Gold
All Clive Cussler books are brilliant, try and start at the begining of his series and you will not be dissapointed
Published 6 months ago by Ian Johnson
Not as good as it could have been
As others have said, not one of Cussler's best.
The story would be fine if only the author would concentrate on that and not fill out the pages with boring and irrelevant... Read more
The story would be fine if only the author would concentrate on that and not fill out the pages with boring and irrelevant... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Davey Jones
spartan gold
Nice to have some new characters from the Cussler collection. Enjoyed this one a lot - excellent book for my holiday reading!
Published 9 months ago by kate
Subtitled 'Superman and wife go hunting'
Because that's what its like. Superman and wife between them can do just about any amazing feat you ever dreamed of; in fact they're so good at everything, you lose all sense of... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Luke Bluewolf
A Dissapointment
As the of this review says, I was disappointed with Spartan Gold. I love reading Clive Cussler but this book was as if it was written by a completely different author. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Edward Carnby
Didn't like it, sorry.
This was my first Cussler book and it looks like I chose the wrong one. I bought this book upon its release. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Heavenly Body II
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