A while back I reran the review I posted 15 years ago for SPARTAN GOLD, the first novel in Clive Cussler’s series about married treasure hunters and adventurers Sam and Remi Fargo. I never got back to the series, but reading that review again prompted me to do so. I picked up the second book, LOST EMPIRE, once again written by Cussler and Grant Blackwood and available on Amazon in e-book, audio, paperback, and hardcover editions. Cussler had several collaborators on the Fargo series, and I’m assuming they did the bulk of the actual writing, with Cussler contributing to the plots.
LOST EMPIRE is actually kind of a hard book to describe because it really has a
kitchen sink plot. It opens with a ship sailing from London in 1864, jumps to
Sam and Remi finding the bell from a sunken ship off the coast of Zanzibar,
then back around the world to Mexico where the newly elected president of the
country sends a sinister assassin after the Fargos. From there, the action
bounces back and forth from California to Madagascar to Krakatoa (which is
actually west of Java, not east, no matter what the movie title says). We get a
bunch of running, jumping, swimming, car chases, fighting, and an underground
encounter with a den of crocodiles that’s a pretty good scene. Not
surprisingly, there’s even a cameo appearance by Clive Cussler his own self as
he gives Sam and Remi a hand in their adventure. The whole thing revolves
around a 19th Century British secret agent, cryptography, a lost
Confederate ship, and the origins of the Aztec Empire.
As I’ve mentioned before, Livia and I have a saying whenever we’re watching a
movie or TV show where the plot gets so convoluted and silly that you have to
just accept it for it is: “Sure. Why not?” LOST EMPIRE is a “Sure. Why not?”
book. I guess the plot makes sense, but I don’t really know because eventually
I stopped trying to keep up with it and just went along for the ride. The
action scenes are well-done, the settings are colorful, Sam and Remi are very
likable protagonists, and the villains are suitably despicable.
I’ve been told by several friends that the entries where Cussler collaborated
with Thomas Perry are the best books in the series. Maybe I’ll skip ahead to
them. The next book appears to be a direct sequel to this one, though, and I
have just enough OCD to feel like I ought to read it. We’ll see. For now, I
enjoyed LOST EMPIRE and am glad I read it, but it didn’t win me over
completely. Take that for what it’s worth.
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