Thriller

These aren't "great literature" but they are fun and I enjoy the audiobooks. This is the fourth adventure for Sam and Remi Fargo, the multimillion dollar amateur treasure hunting couple. One of their friends, a professor from Germany has found something spectacular in a field. It's a perfectly preserved battlefield filled with dead huns. Little does the professor know though, that he s being watched. When he is kidnapped they fear that he was on to something greater, Atilla the Hun's burial and treasure chamber. It quickly becomes a fast paced action adventure novel that has the Fargos racing across the European and Russian continent to find the treasure before some other unsavory types do. Entertaining - I will continue to read the series. ( )

Not at all pleased. It seemed to me to be too easy for all the action and the characters were all static. this was my first Fargo adventure and I don't know if I'll try the others very soon. ( )

This stand-alone international action/adventure novel is part of the Fargo Adventure series. Like the vast majority of Clive Cussler's books, it has historical undertones, but the setting is contemporary.

Sam and Remi Fargo are a husband and wife team with a peculiar hobby. They happen to be treasure hunters... but not the typical sense of the term, because it isn't for monetary gain, as they already happen to be rich. They like to recover artifacts of great historical value, and donate such findings to museums to preserve them for future generations. When a friend discovers a vast amount of the bodies of Hun warriors from about 450 AD, he enlists the Fargos' help in excavating. In doing so, a vital clue is discovered... a clue that may lead them to the fabled tomb of Attila the Hun, and the vast treasures that he was supposedly buried with. But Sam and Remi soon realize that they aren't the only ones who want the treasure. There are others on the hunt as well, who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

I enjoyed this book greatly. The history incorporated within and the geography of the many places the Fargos visit in this book were skillfully researched, and were laid out in a way that enthralled the reader rather than boring them. Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry are geniuses of the writing world. The only slight complaint was that it left a small question unanswered (Where do Consolidated Enterprises fit in, and how did they keep finding the Fargos?), but it tied up all of the other loose ends nicely, and that question may be answered in the next book in the series, so it will not effect my rating or overall opinion. Five stars. ( )

There's no other author that can capture an adventure in words the way that Clive Cussler does. The Tombs, the fourth book in the Fargo Adventures, is unfortunately not one of those books. Believe me, the writing is first-class and it was an entertaining adventure, but let's be honest here ... the story felt a little recycled and simplified. I don't mind it when authors work with a formula to sell more books, it's a business, after all, but when you know that an author is able to do better, then it's just a let-down to read something so undeserving.

Now I don't know how involved Clive Cussler was when it came to the writing of this book (I don't know how involved co-author Thomas Perry was either), but there was seriously something lacking in The Tombs. I'm not a demanding reader, I enjoy all genres except erotica, and I give all authors a fair shot. Clive Cussler is one of those authors that I've grown to love and enjoy, so after I read The Tombs I wasn't beside myself to get this review up. I mean, yeah, I do put up reviews of bad books often enough, but after wasting so much time reading it, I just didn't have the energy to put my feelings into words. Even now, after months had passed since I read the book, I'm not very optimistic about having to type up this review.

How can I put this plainly? If you haven't read Clive Cussler yet, and you pick up this book first, you won't continue reading his work. Simple. That being said, if you're familiar with his older stuff, you might give his books a chance again. I am a fan of Cussler, so I'll keep on reading his work, but I'm not happy about The Tombs whatsoever and I won't advise anyone to buy (or read) it unless they've been following the Fargo Adventures from the beginning.

(review originally published on www.killeraphrodite.com) ( )