When I post a review to Amazon, I try to keep it upbeat and positive. On my own blog, I don't have to be quite so subdued. Golden Buddha was a piece of drivel that was truly awful! The number of times in my life that I put a book aside without finishing it can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Chalk up one more for that very small count. Here's the review:
How sad! I’m a Dirk Pitt fan from way, way back. For my money, Clive Cussler is a former heavyweight world champion in the thriller department! But in Golden Buddha, he’s reduced himself to the status of an overweight, out of shape punch drunk fighter that just doesn’t know when to hang up the gloves and retire!
As a musican and former guitar teacher I took personal insult at one point in the story! Cussler would have his readers believe it is possible for a collection of non-musician mercenaries to substitute themselves for a professional band, lip-synch three sets of rock music and fake the instrument playing sufficiently well to stand up to the scrutiny of a few hundred people in close proximity at a private party! Give your head a shake, Clive!
For Juan Cabrillo, the chairman of the Corporation, a collection of high-tech wizards and mercenaries, think Mr Phelps of former Mission Impossible fame! Monica Crabtree is a slutty version of Barbara Bain with boobs on steroids! If that comparison seems a little silly, keep it in mind when you try reading Golden Buddha if you feel like you’ve got a few hours to blow on something that just doesn’t make the grade! Some of the one liners will give you a wan smile or two but, frankly, I was generally uncertain as to whether Cussler was trying to be serious or trying to satirize himself and the thriller genre. It doesn’t matter – whichever one you believe it is - Cussler didn’t succeed anyway!
The thing that makes me angrier than anything else is that I’ve already purchased The Trojan Odyssey. I'll read it but unless Cussler pulls a real rabbit out of his hat, he’s off my list for good! Maybe I can persuade a second hand book store to give me a buck or two to take them off my hands.
About Me
- Backcountry Muse
- I fancy myself a quiet homebody type that works hard at success in any endeavour that I find catches my interest enough to warrant the effort - computers and discussion groups; reading and reviewing books; wilderness backcountry canoeing, camping and hiking; my work as an investment representative with Edward Jones; music and choral singing in a professional chamber group, The John Laing Singers. Educated originally in Applied Math and Theoretical Physics, I went on to obtain a professional accounting designation and my Canadian Securities licence, but perhaps the most important thing I've learned in life is that it ends all too soon and balance along the way is the most important thing that one can achieve.
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