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Title: The Navigator: A Kurt Austin Adventure (The Numa Files)
ISBN: 159413264X
Author:
Clive Cussler
Paul Kemprecos
Publicate Date: 2008-07-15
Publish: 2008-07-15
List Price: $13.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.77
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.47
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.15
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The Navigator
This Cussler was absolutely fascinating, and educational. Hard to leave it for the next time in my car.
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2: Extremely Disappointing
Cussler can do (and has done) much better.
I approached The Navigator with the very low standards I normally impose on paperbacks I buy at an airport, but they were still far too high for this silly book.
The Navigator's characters are one dimensional at their best, and the plot's utter predictability is relieved only its occasional resort to absurd and implausible devices such as the jousting scene at the end.
There are many better ways to waste your time than reading The Navigator.
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3: Mundane
I hadn't read Cussler before so was looking forward to a good vacation read. I was a bit disappointed by the story line, which sounded fairly typical. Although the book ended well, the predictability was not appreciated. So I thought it was pretty average.
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4: Fast-Paced, Predictable and Eminently Readable
There's nothing like a good Clive Cussler story for adventure, pacing and setting. Even those he has co-authored -- as he has The Navigator with Paul Kemprecos -- are real page-turners. Reading Cussler's Dirk Pitt and Kurt Austin novels is a guilty pleasure of many of my friends who would not want to admit in public that they enjoy him.
Cussler does not, however, excel at characterization. Those who populate his stories are cardboard cut-out figures stood against exotic and sometimes threatening backdrops. They have one-page resumes that are impressive both for their power and for their narrow focus. Never do his characters stop to question their orders, assess their loyalties or doubt their abilities. Never does one of his characters emerge from the considerable danger and violence through which he or she passes with any different character or personality than at the outset of the tale.
For those of us who enjoy reading stories for story's sake, that's a forgivable sin. But it does make the novels less literary, less stimulating and more predictable.
The Navigator is bothered by one other shortcoming that has not always been endemic to Cussler's work. The story line is a straight line with very few, if indeed any, surprise twists along the way. When you've finished reading the first few dozen pages, I'd bet you will already be able to see the ultimate outcome at least in broad outline. The villain appears early as a villain. You know it the instant you encounter him.
Even with those weaknesses -- and several other, more minor ones including a deeply ingrained gender discrimination characteristic of so many such works -- this is a fine read. The story pulls you through a plot that seldom plods and often races almost too fast to absorb in easy blocks of time.
If you're the type of reader who enjoys straight-forward adventure and isn't at least always concerned about deep characterization or clever plots, you're sure to enjoy this one.
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5: Typical Cussler
If you love Clive Cussler for what he writes, you'll love The Navigator. If you're new to his genre, there are better books to start with.
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