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Hold onto your seats and prepare for another rousing adventure with the globe-trotting team from NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency. With Dirk Pitt now safely ensconced in the position of director of NUMA, it's up to Kurt Austin to save the beautiful archeologist Skye Labelle when she and several other scientists are trapped in a subglacial observatory in the French Alps. Not saved in the rescue is the body of an aviator frozen in the glacier above Lac du Dormeur. Skye escapes, though, with an ancient helmet found near the aviator, and it is this helmet that leads to further trouble for both Skye and Kurt. Traced to the Fauchards, a family of renowned munitions makers, the helmet holds the key to secrets long buried but still dangerous to the world as a whole. While Skye attempts to unravel the history of the helmet, Kurt joins forces with NUMA specialist Joe Zavala to perform another rescue, this time involving Paul Trout, an ocean geologist, and his wife Gamay, a marine biologist, both of whom work for NUMA. The Trouts were last seen navigating the waters north of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge over a submerged sea mountain called the Atlantic Massif. Their task was to investigate a mysterious algae that is growing by leaps and bounds and threatening to take over the ocean waters. Their disappearance, along with that of their submersible ship, the Alvin, coincides with an attack by wild red-eyed men on the Alvin's mothership, the Atlantis. When Kurt and Zavala find tracks of a huge crawling machine on the seabed near the underwater Lost City, they suspect that the Alvin has been literally swallowed up by a larger submersible. The hunt for answers leads to crossed paths for Kurt and Skye when it appears that the Fauchards are behind the troubles plaguing both the pretty archeologist and the Trouts. Things look grim for the pair when they're captured and held prisoner in the Fauchards' gothic castle. Will the powerful Racine Fauchard and her twisted son Emil win this battle of good versus evil, or will Kurt Austin and his NUMA pals prevail in the end. Only the reader knows! Cussler and Kemprecos serve up another fine adventure story in LOST CITY. Whether their heroes are running from a pack of mutant humans on a well-guarded island or flying a World War I biplane across the French countryside, the stakes are always high and the future uncertain at best. Don't look for a depth of characterization here; Cussler skims past emotions and portrays his heroes as bigger than life, more in the super-hero never-say-die mode than as flesh-and-blood real life people. Cussler knows his science, though, and metes it out in palatable measures meant to inform the reader while fleshing out the plot. His style works well for those who enjoy a modern day version of the perils of Pauline. The NUMA books are just plain fun reading, and LOST CITY is no exception.
Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, April 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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