Best Characters Part I

Great books are usually a solid combination of plot and character. Thus, I feel it is important for me to lay out some of the greatest characters in fiction.

1) Bubba - Dennis Lehane
Why: Lehane has created some solid secondary characters but he topped himself with Bubba who defies any conventional labels. He is (among other things) a psychopathic gun dealer who kills without conscience and whose apartment is rigged with landmines. Whew. A charmer you would love to bring home to mom...and he is one of the good guys?! Bubba only loves two people, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, and helps them in Lehane's early books. Bubba may not be a star but he certainly leaves and impression and give Lehane credit for not overutilizing the character. He leaves you wanting more Bubba, not sick of him.

2) Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino - Clive Cussler
Why: Why not just one of them? Try picking Redford or Newman - not possible. They are a tag team hell-bent on doing what they believe is right. Naturally they end up saving the world multiple times and killing more bad guys than most small-market dictators. However, they are the epitome of the self-deprecating heroes who never sought the spotlight but made a real difference. They had the best peak (1976 - 1999) of any characters and within that peak the ten year run of Cyclops (1986) - Shock Wave (1996) remains one of the best stretches of thriller fiction in history. Quick with the one liner and endlessly sacrificial, these two had the adventures of a lifetime, thankfully dragging readers alongside.

3) Pete Bondurant - James Ellroy
Why: A pimp, shakedown artist, thug and murderer who ultimately proves he has a heart, Bondurant is one of a kind. He works for Howard Hughes, the CIA, Jimmy Hoffa and the mob and does so with a reckless abandon all his one. Big Pete, haunted by the fact that he murdered his own brother - and did not care!?, is one of the most compelling and morally ambiguous protagonists in modern fiction.

4) Lisbeth Salander - Stieg Larsson
Why: Lisbeth, the heroine of Larsson's Millenium Trilogy is a marvel of character. She is damaged, flawed, peerlessly brave and incredibly intelligent. In an era of strong women in fiction, she may be the strongest. From getting revenge on her rapist to brutally beating a serial killer and going right at evil head on, Salander does not shy away from anything. Thankfully, of course, for the reader.

5) Bernie Gunther - Philip Kerr
Why: Sarcastic, brutal and a complete thug almost as bad as the Nazi's he despises, Bernie is one of a kind. Truly a symbol of justice in the Nazi era (and beyond) he proved just how terrible a person had to be to survive - and thrive - in that time. The hero of six novels, Bernie is about to make his seventh (and final?) appearence in the fall. Here's hoping he is good as ever.

Interlude - Whatever happened to Clive Cussler?

In lieu of a regular book review, I decided instead to ask a simple question: What happened to you, Clive Cussler? You used to be so cool, now your books are better used as sun protection on the beach then as beach reads. It did not always go like this; as I posted a little while ago, you've written some of the most fantastically entertaining novels around. Sahara is a personal favourite of mine and has been for a long time. Most of your Dirk Pitt books have been thrilling, adventurous reads that I have torn through with reckless abandon. However, times have certainly changed my old friend. Take for example your most recent "Clive Cussler" Dirk Pitt novel. Most of it, is, in fact written by your son Dirk whom I am sure is a nice fellow. He is not, on the other hand, a novelist of your caliber. The book will go along at a tight pace, then hit a patch which appears to have been written by a slightly imaginative fourth grader. I know you want your son to carry on your legacy Clive, and for sure it is easy money, but your readers deserve better.

Another problem has become the recycling of plots which is not surprising given the fact you are writing five or six ongoing series. All written with collaborators who do not share your prosaic gifts. Clive you used to make the incredible possible and somewhat plausible. Now, you've just given up trying to write semi-three dimensional characters. Let's compare your villians from a couple of books shall we? In Shock Wave (one of your better efforts) the bad guy is played by Arthur Dorsett, a man shrewdly intent on collapsing the diamond industry to propagate his fortune with rare gems. The murderous effects of his mining technology are unintentional but he ultimately views them as necessary to make his profits. In another of your efforts, the first with your son, Black Wind, the villain is named Kang - a man who intends to fire biological weapons at Los Angeles and blame Japan. In order to unify Korea. Okay...

I used to look forward to a new Cussler like I looked forward to Christmas. It was always my favourite book of the year. I tore through them and re-read each with eager anticipation of discovering a new avenue of thought I had previously missed. Now, I glance at them in the bestseller section and wonder who is still putting them there.

The essential Cussler begins at Raise the Titanic and ends with Atlantis Found (barely squeaks through). These 12 books are Cussler writing with imaginative history woven with action. These 12 books are about a man who saves the world...a lot. These 12 books take place before Dirk Pitt's grown children show up, which was a very regrettable plot point.

I read my first Cussler in some time, The Chase and halfway through I realized why I was enjoying it so much: he wrote it solo. No interruptions from other authors. When it ended I was happy he wrote a solid one - off book. Alas, I saw on Amazon.com that he intends to continue working with the character in new adventures, and with a writing partner.

Clive, when did you become the James Patterson of adventure fiction? Please Clive, come back to writing good books that actually make sense. Here's an idea, very hot, very edgy: start at the beginning. Look at all the reinventions of old characters that have breathed life into dying series: Bond, Star Trek, Batman... Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino still have life left in them, and adventures to endure with stoic humor. Maybe you cut back to one book a year and trim some unecessary characters, but at least it will be one book worth reading. Quality Clive, not quantity. I know the money is crazy, but give the fans who wait breathlessly for your work a treat: a Dirk Pitt book just written by Clive Cussler and set in the early 90's. Otherwise you may as well just kill off the character and start over, but please, do it on your own.

A "NEW" APPROACH

In the last little while I have posted more infrequently than Steve Nash on Dwight Howard. A grevious lack of time is the only excuse I can offer. Perhaps I took on too much, or perhaps I just did not have a wonderful flow of ideas I expected to. Well, in any event I am going to try and post at least once a week with an "AWESOME BOOK" of the week which I will review and write about. These will be books I have read over the course of my life and enjoyed in one way or another. Just a note about my reading habits in case anyone worries they are being left out: I read non-fiction true accounts, history, mystery, thrillers and some horror. I apologize if those are not really your cup of tea...without further ado, here is book #1.

Sahara by Clive Cussler


I decided to start off with a book which hooked me on reading. Now, Clive Cussler does not write the most "realistic" fiction but this book is a staggering achievement. His hero of over twenty thrillers, Dirk Pitt faces just about everything the world can throw at him in this rip-roaring page turner. This is the definition of what a novel should be. It is well written, contains characters who are more than just stock "good guys" and "villians" and at times the suspense is gut wrenching. A quick summary: A red tide out of Africa is threatening to decimate the world's population, Dirk Pitt and longtime confederates Rudy Gunn and Al Giordino agree to ride up a river into Mali and the source of the outbreak. Along the way they have a few run ins with corrupt African dictators, one of the best imagined war standoffs in novel history and a heart shattering conclusion. If you need a beach read, grab this book. It takes you by the throat and refuses to let go for five hundred plus pages. Many will know Clive Cussler only by the moderately entertaining mass market novels he "co-writes" but this way Cussler in his heyday. This book has something for everyone - a love story, action, heroism and a scene in which the intrepid heroes walk across the blazing Sahara desert. Truly, this among all the other novels he wrote remains the gold standard of Dirk Pitt novels. Highly, highly recommended. I was once asked what one novel I would take to a desert island: this is it.