Book Review: Inca Gold by Clive Cussler

Inca Gold by Clive Cussler
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I haven't read a Clive Cussler book in a long time and after finishing Darkly Dreaming Dexter I was in the mood for an adventure.
I have several of the Dirk Pitt novels on my shelf that I've bought and not got around to reading yet so I flicked through a few until I settled on one that I liked the look of.
Inca Gold opens in the 16th Century, where Francis Drake is busy pirating his way through the Spanish fleet. He comes across a jade box containing secrets of an Inca treasure and sends it with his second-in-command back to England. Only, the ship is caught in a tidal wave and the treasure is lost forever. Cue Dirk Pitt and NUMA.
There's one thing that can always be guaranteed with Cussler's novels, a swashbuckling adventure. The characters of Pitt and Giordino are like old friends to me now and I enjoy the relationship that they have. As I've read other novels featuring the characters I know how long they have been friends for, so I don't need to know it again but if Inca Gold is your first foray into this world then it's essential information.
The best parts of this book are the action and adventure elements. Pitt and Giordino travel through an underground river, fight the bad guys, explore underwater caves and save the girl. All of these are heart pounding and exciting. It's the stuff in between that lets it down. The dialogue between all of the characters reads like a dodgy movie script, as if it's meant to be heard by other people and not just a conversation.
There's also far too many characters, all with strange names that obviously paint them as bad guys. People are unnecessarily introduced, even so far as the last third of the book. As always, the author himself pops up, which I find a bit cheesy and clichéd. The situations the characters find themselves in are also a bit ridiculous and they always seem to survive, despite the odds against them.
I think I'll also add that Cussler is quite sexist. The females generally are to be saved and are there to make Pitt and Giordino feel good about themselves. They also spend a lot of time crying.
By the time I was halfway through this book, I was counting the pages to the end.
So overall, it was alright, but I've read better by Clive Cussler, so I'll probably delve into another one when I'm craving an adventure.

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