Series Update
Talk Book Discussion : Shadow Tyrants by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison
This group has been archived. Find out more.
Join LibraryThing to post.
1Andrew-theQM
We are now on book 13 of this series (with book 14 due to be published in November), but where are we up to in the series.
2Carol420
Overall Book Ratings Thus Far
Golden Buddha – 4.00
Sacred Stone– 3.83
Dark Watch – 4.42
Skeleton Coast – 4.08
Plague Ship – 4.00
Corsair – 3.79
Silent Sea– 3.92
The Jungle – 4.08
Mirage– 4.75
Piranha - 3.79
The Emperor’s Revenge - 4.55
Typhoon Fury – 4.04
Shadow Tyrants -
Golden Buddha by Clive Cussler & Craig Dirgo – Read and Discussed on Leafmarks
The Oregon Files Book #1
Juan Cabrillo is Chairman of the “Corporation”, a special US Government-sponsored group that operates out of a ship called the Oregon; a marvel of scientific research equipment bristling with state-of-the-art weaponry – but disguised as a heap of junk. The Oregon, has a personality and a characterization all it's own.
Cabrillo and his crew are mercenaries with a conscience. They are able to cross the high seas in their rusting tub unmolested, seeking out those beyond the arms of the law and dealing out justice to any who would plot chaos on a global scale.
In this first addition…a priceless object and an ¬entire country’s fate rest in the hands of Juan Cabrillo and his crew.
They have been charged by the CIA with finding the Golden Buddha, a statue of the utmost importance to Buddhism in spite of its somewhat shady history. If they find it, the exiled Dalai Lama will be able to return to Tibet.
There are others that also want the Buddha for darker purposes. The list of characters is long and sometimes confusing.
The Oregon crew manages to play the Russians and the Chinese off against one another and restore the Dalai Lama in the end.
Since this was read and discussed on a different site that is no longer in existence I will use quotes and viewpoints from the 5 people that I found that are a usual part of the group that posted on Goodreads.
“Different from the Dirk Pitt books I'm most familiar with, this has an ensemble cast. Yes, it still has the classic cars and the detailed technical descriptions, but you don't get the same character building. I am guessing that will happen as I get to know the members of the team better in later books. In any case, it was an interesting, enjoyable read that I would recommend to readers who enjoy action adventure (or as my favorite used bookstore labels it, Men's Fiction...lol.”
“One of the negatives of this book for me was that, with the exception of Cabrillo, you never really get to know any of them very well. That may be because this is the first book in the series and is more an introduction to the characters that any sort of development. The book is filled with non-stop action and the plot was very unique.
The authors created some great battles, set in exciting locales, in an engrossing story. If you are looking for an exciting action/adventure novel, this is probably a book you would enjoy. “
“This reads a little bit like a script for a new version of the Mission: Impossible series: a lot of snippets of action in various places with many characters I had difficulty keeping straight, and a complicated plot to put the Dalai Lama back on the throne which relied a lot on misrepresentation and tricks. Though there was quite some action in the book, somehow the story did not really grab me. It felt like a reasonable plot, but the execution was not really well done.”
According to Goodreads there was 1 5 star rating, 1 -3 star rating and 3-4star ratings giving the book an overall rating of 4.00. We all said we liked the third book more with a different co-author.
Sacred Stone by Clive Cussler & Craig Dirgo
The Oregon Files Book #2
This “Oregon Files” takes place on land, much of it in the Middle East…and because it takes place almost entirely on the land, The Oregon itself is mostly absent from this particular plot.
Two opposing groups seek a 50,000-year-old radioactive meteorite known as the Sacred Stone.
Muslim extremists have stolen a nuclear device and need the stone to give them the power to vaporize any city in the west.
A megalomaniacal industrialist leads a group seeking to carry out the utter annihilation of Islam itself.
Caught between the two militant factions is Juan Cabrillo and his crew, who must do whatever they can to stop them and recover the Sacred Stones.
I thought the opening of this book featuring Lief Erickson and his men finding the cave and first discovering what the stone was capable of was brilliant.
The 6 regular members of the discussion group that posted reviews on Goodreads gave Sacred Stone 5 – 4 star ratings and 1- 3 star for an over all rating of 3.83
Their comments:
“The story itself was a fun, easy read with spy action and thriller components. I am looking forward to getting to know the crew of The Oregon better as I definitely see the people, and their various talents/personalities, as a major strength of the series.”
“This book is filled with nonstop action and would make a great movie.”
“I have read all 11 of the books in the Oregon Files series and thoroughly enjoyed each and every one. This was a reread and I have to say the fast-paced action of this story, the crew of the Oregon, and the details the authors pay to the historical and factual settings make this one of my absolutely favorite series.”
Dark Watch by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #3
Cabrillo's newest employers are a consortium of Japanese shipping tycoons who are being threatened by pirates.
The plot includes commercial freighters that are disappearing, missiles that North Korea is selling to Syria, bad guys planting a bomb on a ship that the U.S. wants to destroy, the sinking of a research vessel, covert operations from any number of nations, and the threat of diseases such as typhoid and cholera that could run rampant
As the Oregon crew learns more, Juan realizes that this case of brazen piracy is much more than just this obvious piratical front.
He may be in too deep to pull off this caper as the opponents have heavy sponsors from around the globe using pirates to increase and hide the lucrative international slave trade.
Along with all this other excitement we have an about to erupt volcano and a missing crew member.
There were 6 participants with 5 people in the discussion
Overall average rating of 4.42
Skeleton Coast by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #4
Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the covert ship, Oregon, have barely escaped a mission on the Congo River when they intercept a mayday from a defenseless boat under fire off the African coast.
While saving Sloane Macintyre - who's looking for a long-submerged ship Cabrillo learns that Sloane and her assistant has recently visited a crazy fisherman who claims to have been attacked on the open sea by giant metal snakes .
What begins as a snake hunt leads Cabrillo onto the trail of a deranged militant and his followers who plan to unleash the power of nature itself against all who oppose them.
Like all Cussler novels, this one begins with a story from the past. It seems that millions of dollars worth of diamonds disappeared off the African coast a hundred years ago during a storm that may have buried the ship and it’s cargo under tons of sand.
The ship also intercepts a piece of a satellite phone conversation regarding a kidnapped industrialist.
Juan Cabrillo decides to send in a team to rescue him, sure of a handsome reward. The same people who kidnapped the American businessman and one of his employees are also involved in an even bigger scheme that threatens millions of lives, and it also ties together with Sloane’s diamond hunt.
The entire book is one action filled page after another.
There were 6 participants in the discussion
Overall Average rating 4.08
Plague Ship by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #5
Capt. Juan Cabrillo, and the crew of the “Oregon” take on a group known as the Responsivists.
The Responsivists publicly promote a program of global population control, but are secretly planning a devastating attack on the human race utilizing a virulent virus found aboard an ancient ship that may or may not be…Noah's Ark.
The chief villain is a doctor who heads the Responsivists and a self made billionaire that is later revealed to be the doctors son-in-law.
This is not too surprising as many of the bad guys actually turn out to be who they said they were.
The Responsivists, have taken control of a luxury cruise liner to start their plan is to release a deadly virus that will render half of the world's population sterile and thrust the rest of the world into anarchy.
To make matters worse, a son of one of the “Oregon” crew members has joined the rebel group. Now it's up to the Corporation to free the son and stop the Responsivists' plan.
Using high-tech tools such as a Soviet space satellite launched during the Cold War, Cabrillo and his team set about stopping the cult before it's too late.
There were 6 participants in the group discussion. Almost everyone gave the book a 4 star rating with an overall average of 4.00
Some of the comments made by participants about the story were s follows:
"I think there was too much time spent on some of the sections, like Max's escape. There was also a lot of time spent on weaponry descriptions that made to book longer, but not necessarily better."
"Great action. The authors kept us guessing what would happen next and that kept me reading. This series has a fantastic cast of characters and it was interesting to see the backgrounds of some of the lesser featured ones."
"Always an interesting ride that keeps me wanting to turn the page"
"I like reading about how they get out of tight situations and I also like the different areas they travel too"
"I enjoyed the link in with the ark and the cult link. Also enjoy the group of characters brought together and the wider group within this book."
Corsair by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #6
200 Years ago:
A corsair is a variety of pirate, known for fights off the Barbary Coast more than 200 years ago… ruling the high seas, pillaging ships and capturing their crews.
One such pirate was named Sulieman Al-Jama. In a duel with an American ship, Al-Jama's ship is severely damaged.
An American, Henry Lafayette, boarded Al-Jama's ship and fought with him.
When the two fall into the water… Lafayette manages to pull Al-Jama to safety. For two years, the men lived together.
Al-Jama and Lafayette agreed that Christians and Muslims could live together without fighting. Al-Jama wrote his beliefs down and stored them away… but his writings were lost over time.
Present Day:
There is a new pirate terrorizing the seas, also calling himself Suleiman al Jama, and he's got big plans that will do anything but make peace.
Although Cabrillo is a ship's captain; the story was a lot more land based than much of Cussler's work.
While heading for a peace conference in Libya, the American Secretary of State's plane crashes in the desert.
Given the terrorist traditions of the area, her government suspect foul play and send Cabrillo to check if she may have survived.
He arrives at the scene of the wreckage to discover that it has all been staged and the apparent accident may have been nothing of the kind. He suspects that the Secretary of State has been kidnapped to disrupt the peace process.
Other events seem to back up Cabrillo's suspicions, when an unrelated group of American archaeologists are reported missing.
There is also a sudden flurry of activity at a couple of points in the desert nearby which had been abandoned for many years until recently.
The discovery of a Russian made helicopter that even the Libyan government claim to know nothing about make Cabrillo certain that terrorists are using the area for their base of operations, almost certainly in an attempt to stop the peace conference from going ahead.
Juan Cabrillo is hired to find the remnants of a crashed plane. But this wasn’t just any plane crash.
The Libyan foreign minister seems to have plans of his own, which is why the CIA thought to hire Cabrillo rather than to trust the Libyans to investigate the crash.
They’re back with a vengeance here, infesting the waters of Asia and Africa and becoming a terrorist threat like no other.
The Libyans are after something…something centuries old, and only Cabrillo can find the answers.
There were 6 people participating in the discussion
Overall Average rating of 3.79
The Silent Sea by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #7
On December 7, 1941, five brothers exploring a shaft on a small island off the coast of Washington state make an exciting discovery, only to be interrupted by news of Pearl Harbor.
0 years later comes Juan Cabrillo and his crew chasing the remnants of a crashed satellite in the Argentine jungle, makes a shocking discovery of their own.
His search to untangle the mystery leads him first to that small island and its secret, and then much further back, to an ancient Chinese expedition, and a curse that seems to have survived for over five hundred years.
As the danger escalated the two seemingly unrelated incidents, sixty years apart began to draw together. With the Chinese and Argentineans involved, plus the freezing Antarctic coastline Cabrillo and his team were stretched to the limit.
If that isn’t enough we encounter a shocking revelations of a five hundred year old curse,
In Antarctica we find that Argentina and China have claimed sovereignty over the continent, and built a secret base capable of taking over the world as we know it.
Unfortunately, there are other contenders for this great prize. The Argentineans’ and Chinese aren't willing to relinquish their claim to the resources buried under the sea…. a huge 300 foot Chinese junk might hold the key to untold riches.
The fact that these two authors are able to tie in a tragic accident in Oregon, a missing 13th Century Chinese junk, a disaster at a base camp in Antarctica and devious doings by an Argentine junta. is a wonder in itself.
There is lots of action, lots of thrills, and as with all Cussleer’s books, lots of interesting history.
There were 6 participants in the discussion
Overall Average Rating of 3.92.
The Jungle by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
Oregon File Series Book #8
Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon have undergone many hair-raising adventures before - but never one quite like this.
We learn that jungles come in many forms: there are the steamy rainforests of the Burmese highland. There are the lies, and betrayals of the world of covert operations. And there are the dark and twisted thoughts of a man bent on near-global domination. To pull off their latest mission, Cabrillo and his crew of the Oregon must survive them all.
A devastating new weapon unleashed in thirteenth-century China . . . a daring rescue mission in the snowbound mountains along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border . . . a woman gone missing in the jungles of Northern Thailand and Myanmar . . . For Cabrillo, all of these events will come together -leading to the greatest threat against US security that the country has ever known.
We meet a super computer that appears to have a conscience… and a good thing it does as it was designed to hack any firewall in the world and grab information including the most top secret nuclear codes of the United States.
The Oregon has a new crew member Marion MacDugle (MacD). Mac D started out on a less than honest note as he had been given no choice but to cooperate with the religious zealot that built the computer or his five year old daughter would die.
There were 6 participants in this discussion.
Mirage by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
Oregon Files Series Book #9
In October 1943, a U.S. destroyer sailed out of Philadelphia and supposedly vanished, the result of a Navy experiment with electromagnetic radiation.
The story was considered a hoax-but now Juan Cabrillo and his Oregon colleagues aren't so sure..
There is talk of a new weapon soon to be sold, something very dangerous to America's interests, and the rumors link it to the great inventor Nikola Tesla, who was working with the Navy when he died in 1943.
Was he responsible for the experiment? Are his notes in the hands of enemies?
As Cabrillo races to find the truth, he discovers there is even more at stake than he could have imagined-but by the time he realizes it, he may already be too late...
The book opens with a James Bond action sequence. Disguised as a mobster, Juan Cabrillo infiltrates a Siberian prison intending to engineer Adm. Yuri Borodin’s escape, courtesy of C-4 secreted in an artificial leg. Bang!
Next comes a high-tension rope ride from a remotely piloted chopper to a souped-up snowmobile.
It’s a $25 million payoff, but Borodin ends up dead. The admiral’s last words—"Aral....Eerie boat....Tesla".
This sends Juan down a dangerous trail since Borodin was imprisoned by a corrupt Russian Admiral, Pytor Kenin, and apparently, said corrupt Admitral is up to no good in Uzbekistan.
Cabrillo’s chairman of the Corporation and the Oregon crew are the “go-anywhere, get-it-done CIA-style group” on call when things go off kilter….which of course they do.
The story is riddled with shootouts, knife fights and super-tech spying, including a rocket ride to the top of a giant skyscraper by Cabrillo.
The battle takes them from the Aral Sea to the U.S., and includes discovering a wreck that was George Westinghouse’s yacht. It disappeared more than a century ago while participating in an experiment carried out by Westinghouse’s friend, the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla.
And along the way we have a detour to rescue a billion dollars of purloined Iraqi aid money being smuggled to Indonesia.
We re-meet memorable character, L’Enfant; the horribly burn-scarred criminal.
Cabrillo and company confront assassins, torpedo duels and undersea rescues, decipher Tesla’s invention of an optical cloaking device and then battle the Serb genius’ weaponized technology. That means destroying the Tesla-based device-equipped stealth ship tasked to sink an U.S. aircraft carrier en route to prevent Chinese-Japanese hostilities over islands sitting atop an oil patch.
There were 6 discussion participants.
Overall Average Rating was 4.75
Piranha by Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison
Oregon Files Series Book #10
In 1902, the volcano Mt. Pelée erupts on the island of Martinique, wiping out an entire city of thirty thousand—and sinking a ship carrying a German scientist on the verge of an astonishing breakthrough.
More than a century later, Juan Cabrillo will have to deal with that scientist’s legacy.
During a covert operation, Cabrillo and the crew meticulously fake the sinking of the Oregon—but when an unknown adversary tracks them down despite their planning and attempts to assassinate them,
Cabrillo and his team struggle to fight back against an enemy who seems to be able to anticipate their every move.
They discover that a traitorous American weapons designer has completed the German scientist’s work, and now wields extraordinary power, sending the Oregon on a race against time to stop an attack that could lead to one man ruling over the largest empire the world has ever known.
There were 6 participants in the discussion.
Overall Average Rating: 3.79.
The Emperor’s Revenge by Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison
Oregon Files Series Book #11
When a bank heist during the Monaco Grand Prix decimates the Corporation’s “offshore” account, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon find themselves unexpectedly vulnerable.
Without his usual financial assets, Juan must trust a woman from his past, an old friend from his days with the CIA, to help him keep his team safe.
Together, they’ll face a mysterious hacker with a brutal vendetta.
It is only after the hunt begins that the enormity of the plan comes into focus: the bank theft is just the first step in a plot that will result in the deaths of millions and bring the world’s economies to a standstill.
The catalyst for the scheme…a stunning document stolen during Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia
Two hundred years later, it may be the thing that brings Europe to its knees.
There were 6 participants in the discussion
Overall Average Rating of 4.55.
Typhoon Fury by Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison
Oregon Files series Book #12
Hired to search for a collection of paintings worth half a billion dollars, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon soon find themselves in much deeper waters.
The vicious leader of a Filipino insurgency is not only using them to finance his attacks, he has stumbled upon one of the most lethal secrets of World War II: a Japanese-developed drug, designed, but never used, to turn soldiers into super-warriors.
To stop him, the Oregon must not only take on the rebel commander, but a South African mercenary intent on getting his own hands on the drug… a massive swarm of torpedo drones targeting the U.S. Navy…an approaching megastorm, and just possibly, a war that could envelop the entire Asian continent.
There were 6 people in the discussion
Overall Average Rating 4.04
Golden Buddha – 4.00
Sacred Stone– 3.83
Dark Watch – 4.42
Skeleton Coast – 4.08
Plague Ship – 4.00
Corsair – 3.79
Silent Sea– 3.92
The Jungle – 4.08
Mirage– 4.75
Piranha - 3.79
The Emperor’s Revenge - 4.55
Typhoon Fury – 4.04
Shadow Tyrants -
Golden Buddha by Clive Cussler & Craig Dirgo – Read and Discussed on Leafmarks
The Oregon Files Book #1
Juan Cabrillo is Chairman of the “Corporation”, a special US Government-sponsored group that operates out of a ship called the Oregon; a marvel of scientific research equipment bristling with state-of-the-art weaponry – but disguised as a heap of junk. The Oregon, has a personality and a characterization all it's own.
Cabrillo and his crew are mercenaries with a conscience. They are able to cross the high seas in their rusting tub unmolested, seeking out those beyond the arms of the law and dealing out justice to any who would plot chaos on a global scale.
In this first addition…a priceless object and an ¬entire country’s fate rest in the hands of Juan Cabrillo and his crew.
They have been charged by the CIA with finding the Golden Buddha, a statue of the utmost importance to Buddhism in spite of its somewhat shady history. If they find it, the exiled Dalai Lama will be able to return to Tibet.
There are others that also want the Buddha for darker purposes. The list of characters is long and sometimes confusing.
The Oregon crew manages to play the Russians and the Chinese off against one another and restore the Dalai Lama in the end.
Since this was read and discussed on a different site that is no longer in existence I will use quotes and viewpoints from the 5 people that I found that are a usual part of the group that posted on Goodreads.
“Different from the Dirk Pitt books I'm most familiar with, this has an ensemble cast. Yes, it still has the classic cars and the detailed technical descriptions, but you don't get the same character building. I am guessing that will happen as I get to know the members of the team better in later books. In any case, it was an interesting, enjoyable read that I would recommend to readers who enjoy action adventure (or as my favorite used bookstore labels it, Men's Fiction...lol.”
“One of the negatives of this book for me was that, with the exception of Cabrillo, you never really get to know any of them very well. That may be because this is the first book in the series and is more an introduction to the characters that any sort of development. The book is filled with non-stop action and the plot was very unique.
The authors created some great battles, set in exciting locales, in an engrossing story. If you are looking for an exciting action/adventure novel, this is probably a book you would enjoy. “
“This reads a little bit like a script for a new version of the Mission: Impossible series: a lot of snippets of action in various places with many characters I had difficulty keeping straight, and a complicated plot to put the Dalai Lama back on the throne which relied a lot on misrepresentation and tricks. Though there was quite some action in the book, somehow the story did not really grab me. It felt like a reasonable plot, but the execution was not really well done.”
According to Goodreads there was 1 5 star rating, 1 -3 star rating and 3-4star ratings giving the book an overall rating of 4.00. We all said we liked the third book more with a different co-author.
Sacred Stone by Clive Cussler & Craig Dirgo
The Oregon Files Book #2
This “Oregon Files” takes place on land, much of it in the Middle East…and because it takes place almost entirely on the land, The Oregon itself is mostly absent from this particular plot.
Two opposing groups seek a 50,000-year-old radioactive meteorite known as the Sacred Stone.
Muslim extremists have stolen a nuclear device and need the stone to give them the power to vaporize any city in the west.
A megalomaniacal industrialist leads a group seeking to carry out the utter annihilation of Islam itself.
Caught between the two militant factions is Juan Cabrillo and his crew, who must do whatever they can to stop them and recover the Sacred Stones.
I thought the opening of this book featuring Lief Erickson and his men finding the cave and first discovering what the stone was capable of was brilliant.
The 6 regular members of the discussion group that posted reviews on Goodreads gave Sacred Stone 5 – 4 star ratings and 1- 3 star for an over all rating of 3.83
Their comments:
“The story itself was a fun, easy read with spy action and thriller components. I am looking forward to getting to know the crew of The Oregon better as I definitely see the people, and their various talents/personalities, as a major strength of the series.”
“This book is filled with nonstop action and would make a great movie.”
“I have read all 11 of the books in the Oregon Files series and thoroughly enjoyed each and every one. This was a reread and I have to say the fast-paced action of this story, the crew of the Oregon, and the details the authors pay to the historical and factual settings make this one of my absolutely favorite series.”
Dark Watch by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #3
Cabrillo's newest employers are a consortium of Japanese shipping tycoons who are being threatened by pirates.
The plot includes commercial freighters that are disappearing, missiles that North Korea is selling to Syria, bad guys planting a bomb on a ship that the U.S. wants to destroy, the sinking of a research vessel, covert operations from any number of nations, and the threat of diseases such as typhoid and cholera that could run rampant
As the Oregon crew learns more, Juan realizes that this case of brazen piracy is much more than just this obvious piratical front.
He may be in too deep to pull off this caper as the opponents have heavy sponsors from around the globe using pirates to increase and hide the lucrative international slave trade.
Along with all this other excitement we have an about to erupt volcano and a missing crew member.
There were 6 participants with 5 people in the discussion
Overall average rating of 4.42
Skeleton Coast by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #4
Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the covert ship, Oregon, have barely escaped a mission on the Congo River when they intercept a mayday from a defenseless boat under fire off the African coast.
While saving Sloane Macintyre - who's looking for a long-submerged ship Cabrillo learns that Sloane and her assistant has recently visited a crazy fisherman who claims to have been attacked on the open sea by giant metal snakes .
What begins as a snake hunt leads Cabrillo onto the trail of a deranged militant and his followers who plan to unleash the power of nature itself against all who oppose them.
Like all Cussler novels, this one begins with a story from the past. It seems that millions of dollars worth of diamonds disappeared off the African coast a hundred years ago during a storm that may have buried the ship and it’s cargo under tons of sand.
The ship also intercepts a piece of a satellite phone conversation regarding a kidnapped industrialist.
Juan Cabrillo decides to send in a team to rescue him, sure of a handsome reward. The same people who kidnapped the American businessman and one of his employees are also involved in an even bigger scheme that threatens millions of lives, and it also ties together with Sloane’s diamond hunt.
The entire book is one action filled page after another.
There were 6 participants in the discussion
Overall Average rating 4.08
Plague Ship by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #5
Capt. Juan Cabrillo, and the crew of the “Oregon” take on a group known as the Responsivists.
The Responsivists publicly promote a program of global population control, but are secretly planning a devastating attack on the human race utilizing a virulent virus found aboard an ancient ship that may or may not be…Noah's Ark.
The chief villain is a doctor who heads the Responsivists and a self made billionaire that is later revealed to be the doctors son-in-law.
This is not too surprising as many of the bad guys actually turn out to be who they said they were.
The Responsivists, have taken control of a luxury cruise liner to start their plan is to release a deadly virus that will render half of the world's population sterile and thrust the rest of the world into anarchy.
To make matters worse, a son of one of the “Oregon” crew members has joined the rebel group. Now it's up to the Corporation to free the son and stop the Responsivists' plan.
Using high-tech tools such as a Soviet space satellite launched during the Cold War, Cabrillo and his team set about stopping the cult before it's too late.
There were 6 participants in the group discussion. Almost everyone gave the book a 4 star rating with an overall average of 4.00
Some of the comments made by participants about the story were s follows:
"I think there was too much time spent on some of the sections, like Max's escape. There was also a lot of time spent on weaponry descriptions that made to book longer, but not necessarily better."
"Great action. The authors kept us guessing what would happen next and that kept me reading. This series has a fantastic cast of characters and it was interesting to see the backgrounds of some of the lesser featured ones."
"Always an interesting ride that keeps me wanting to turn the page"
"I like reading about how they get out of tight situations and I also like the different areas they travel too"
"I enjoyed the link in with the ark and the cult link. Also enjoy the group of characters brought together and the wider group within this book."
Corsair by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #6
200 Years ago:
A corsair is a variety of pirate, known for fights off the Barbary Coast more than 200 years ago… ruling the high seas, pillaging ships and capturing their crews.
One such pirate was named Sulieman Al-Jama. In a duel with an American ship, Al-Jama's ship is severely damaged.
An American, Henry Lafayette, boarded Al-Jama's ship and fought with him.
When the two fall into the water… Lafayette manages to pull Al-Jama to safety. For two years, the men lived together.
Al-Jama and Lafayette agreed that Christians and Muslims could live together without fighting. Al-Jama wrote his beliefs down and stored them away… but his writings were lost over time.
Present Day:
There is a new pirate terrorizing the seas, also calling himself Suleiman al Jama, and he's got big plans that will do anything but make peace.
Although Cabrillo is a ship's captain; the story was a lot more land based than much of Cussler's work.
While heading for a peace conference in Libya, the American Secretary of State's plane crashes in the desert.
Given the terrorist traditions of the area, her government suspect foul play and send Cabrillo to check if she may have survived.
He arrives at the scene of the wreckage to discover that it has all been staged and the apparent accident may have been nothing of the kind. He suspects that the Secretary of State has been kidnapped to disrupt the peace process.
Other events seem to back up Cabrillo's suspicions, when an unrelated group of American archaeologists are reported missing.
There is also a sudden flurry of activity at a couple of points in the desert nearby which had been abandoned for many years until recently.
The discovery of a Russian made helicopter that even the Libyan government claim to know nothing about make Cabrillo certain that terrorists are using the area for their base of operations, almost certainly in an attempt to stop the peace conference from going ahead.
Juan Cabrillo is hired to find the remnants of a crashed plane. But this wasn’t just any plane crash.
The Libyan foreign minister seems to have plans of his own, which is why the CIA thought to hire Cabrillo rather than to trust the Libyans to investigate the crash.
They’re back with a vengeance here, infesting the waters of Asia and Africa and becoming a terrorist threat like no other.
The Libyans are after something…something centuries old, and only Cabrillo can find the answers.
There were 6 people participating in the discussion
Overall Average rating of 3.79
The Silent Sea by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
The Oregon Files Book #7
On December 7, 1941, five brothers exploring a shaft on a small island off the coast of Washington state make an exciting discovery, only to be interrupted by news of Pearl Harbor.
0 years later comes Juan Cabrillo and his crew chasing the remnants of a crashed satellite in the Argentine jungle, makes a shocking discovery of their own.
His search to untangle the mystery leads him first to that small island and its secret, and then much further back, to an ancient Chinese expedition, and a curse that seems to have survived for over five hundred years.
As the danger escalated the two seemingly unrelated incidents, sixty years apart began to draw together. With the Chinese and Argentineans involved, plus the freezing Antarctic coastline Cabrillo and his team were stretched to the limit.
If that isn’t enough we encounter a shocking revelations of a five hundred year old curse,
In Antarctica we find that Argentina and China have claimed sovereignty over the continent, and built a secret base capable of taking over the world as we know it.
Unfortunately, there are other contenders for this great prize. The Argentineans’ and Chinese aren't willing to relinquish their claim to the resources buried under the sea…. a huge 300 foot Chinese junk might hold the key to untold riches.
The fact that these two authors are able to tie in a tragic accident in Oregon, a missing 13th Century Chinese junk, a disaster at a base camp in Antarctica and devious doings by an Argentine junta. is a wonder in itself.
There is lots of action, lots of thrills, and as with all Cussleer’s books, lots of interesting history.
There were 6 participants in the discussion
Overall Average Rating of 3.92.
The Jungle by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
Oregon File Series Book #8
Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon have undergone many hair-raising adventures before - but never one quite like this.
We learn that jungles come in many forms: there are the steamy rainforests of the Burmese highland. There are the lies, and betrayals of the world of covert operations. And there are the dark and twisted thoughts of a man bent on near-global domination. To pull off their latest mission, Cabrillo and his crew of the Oregon must survive them all.
A devastating new weapon unleashed in thirteenth-century China . . . a daring rescue mission in the snowbound mountains along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border . . . a woman gone missing in the jungles of Northern Thailand and Myanmar . . . For Cabrillo, all of these events will come together -leading to the greatest threat against US security that the country has ever known.
We meet a super computer that appears to have a conscience… and a good thing it does as it was designed to hack any firewall in the world and grab information including the most top secret nuclear codes of the United States.
The Oregon has a new crew member Marion MacDugle (MacD). Mac D started out on a less than honest note as he had been given no choice but to cooperate with the religious zealot that built the computer or his five year old daughter would die.
There were 6 participants in this discussion.
Mirage by Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul
Oregon Files Series Book #9
In October 1943, a U.S. destroyer sailed out of Philadelphia and supposedly vanished, the result of a Navy experiment with electromagnetic radiation.
The story was considered a hoax-but now Juan Cabrillo and his Oregon colleagues aren't so sure..
There is talk of a new weapon soon to be sold, something very dangerous to America's interests, and the rumors link it to the great inventor Nikola Tesla, who was working with the Navy when he died in 1943.
Was he responsible for the experiment? Are his notes in the hands of enemies?
As Cabrillo races to find the truth, he discovers there is even more at stake than he could have imagined-but by the time he realizes it, he may already be too late...
The book opens with a James Bond action sequence. Disguised as a mobster, Juan Cabrillo infiltrates a Siberian prison intending to engineer Adm. Yuri Borodin’s escape, courtesy of C-4 secreted in an artificial leg. Bang!
Next comes a high-tension rope ride from a remotely piloted chopper to a souped-up snowmobile.
It’s a $25 million payoff, but Borodin ends up dead. The admiral’s last words—"Aral....Eerie boat....Tesla".
This sends Juan down a dangerous trail since Borodin was imprisoned by a corrupt Russian Admiral, Pytor Kenin, and apparently, said corrupt Admitral is up to no good in Uzbekistan.
Cabrillo’s chairman of the Corporation and the Oregon crew are the “go-anywhere, get-it-done CIA-style group” on call when things go off kilter….which of course they do.
The story is riddled with shootouts, knife fights and super-tech spying, including a rocket ride to the top of a giant skyscraper by Cabrillo.
The battle takes them from the Aral Sea to the U.S., and includes discovering a wreck that was George Westinghouse’s yacht. It disappeared more than a century ago while participating in an experiment carried out by Westinghouse’s friend, the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla.
And along the way we have a detour to rescue a billion dollars of purloined Iraqi aid money being smuggled to Indonesia.
We re-meet memorable character, L’Enfant; the horribly burn-scarred criminal.
Cabrillo and company confront assassins, torpedo duels and undersea rescues, decipher Tesla’s invention of an optical cloaking device and then battle the Serb genius’ weaponized technology. That means destroying the Tesla-based device-equipped stealth ship tasked to sink an U.S. aircraft carrier en route to prevent Chinese-Japanese hostilities over islands sitting atop an oil patch.
There were 6 discussion participants.
Overall Average Rating was 4.75
Piranha by Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison
Oregon Files Series Book #10
In 1902, the volcano Mt. Pelée erupts on the island of Martinique, wiping out an entire city of thirty thousand—and sinking a ship carrying a German scientist on the verge of an astonishing breakthrough.
More than a century later, Juan Cabrillo will have to deal with that scientist’s legacy.
During a covert operation, Cabrillo and the crew meticulously fake the sinking of the Oregon—but when an unknown adversary tracks them down despite their planning and attempts to assassinate them,
Cabrillo and his team struggle to fight back against an enemy who seems to be able to anticipate their every move.
They discover that a traitorous American weapons designer has completed the German scientist’s work, and now wields extraordinary power, sending the Oregon on a race against time to stop an attack that could lead to one man ruling over the largest empire the world has ever known.
There were 6 participants in the discussion.
Overall Average Rating: 3.79.
The Emperor’s Revenge by Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison
Oregon Files Series Book #11
When a bank heist during the Monaco Grand Prix decimates the Corporation’s “offshore” account, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon find themselves unexpectedly vulnerable.
Without his usual financial assets, Juan must trust a woman from his past, an old friend from his days with the CIA, to help him keep his team safe.
Together, they’ll face a mysterious hacker with a brutal vendetta.
It is only after the hunt begins that the enormity of the plan comes into focus: the bank theft is just the first step in a plot that will result in the deaths of millions and bring the world’s economies to a standstill.
The catalyst for the scheme…a stunning document stolen during Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia
Two hundred years later, it may be the thing that brings Europe to its knees.
There were 6 participants in the discussion
Overall Average Rating of 4.55.
Typhoon Fury by Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison
Oregon Files series Book #12
Hired to search for a collection of paintings worth half a billion dollars, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon soon find themselves in much deeper waters.
The vicious leader of a Filipino insurgency is not only using them to finance his attacks, he has stumbled upon one of the most lethal secrets of World War II: a Japanese-developed drug, designed, but never used, to turn soldiers into super-warriors.
To stop him, the Oregon must not only take on the rebel commander, but a South African mercenary intent on getting his own hands on the drug… a massive swarm of torpedo drones targeting the U.S. Navy…an approaching megastorm, and just possibly, a war that could envelop the entire Asian continent.
There were 6 people in the discussion
Overall Average Rating 4.04
3Andrew-theQM
Quite the range, from 3.79 (twice) to 4.75. After the first underwhelming one written with Boyd Morrison they seem to have improved considerably. Hopefully this one keeps that up.
>2 Carol420: Thanks for this great job Carol, helps the grey cells no end! 👏👏👏🙌
>2 Carol420: Thanks for this great job Carol, helps the grey cells no end! 👏👏👏🙌
5EadieB
>2 Carol420: Thanks! Helps greatly!
6Carol420
>5 EadieB: You don't have any gray cells that need any help?:)
>3 Andrew-theQM: >4 Sergeirocks: >5 EadieB: I'll tell you a story about these and ALL my other Library Thing files. Two weeks ago...thanks to my old gray cells that can use all the help the can get...I accidentally clicked on something and every file in the LibraryThing file...including the file itself...POOF...Gone. I had been meaning to back them up but the gray cells said "Oh you don't need to bother with doing that." I should have know when I heard them snickering that they were up to no good. Here I sat. Nothing would reinstate them...no amount of tears...no amount of begging...no amount of 4 letter colorful words...they were gone, gone, gone. But hey...I found that I could search everything that was already on the site and recreate them. It took the better part of the 2 weeks but they are mostly reborn from the ashes. One of the biggest challenges was that it wasn't just this site but 4 others that I do similar things for. I am extremely careful now. I find myself checking on them almost hourly just to be sure they are behaving.
>3 Andrew-theQM: >4 Sergeirocks: >5 EadieB: I'll tell you a story about these and ALL my other Library Thing files. Two weeks ago...thanks to my old gray cells that can use all the help the can get...I accidentally clicked on something and every file in the LibraryThing file...including the file itself...POOF...Gone. I had been meaning to back them up but the gray cells said "Oh you don't need to bother with doing that." I should have know when I heard them snickering that they were up to no good. Here I sat. Nothing would reinstate them...no amount of tears...no amount of begging...no amount of 4 letter colorful words...they were gone, gone, gone. But hey...I found that I could search everything that was already on the site and recreate them. It took the better part of the 2 weeks but they are mostly reborn from the ashes. One of the biggest challenges was that it wasn't just this site but 4 others that I do similar things for. I am extremely careful now. I find myself checking on them almost hourly just to be sure they are behaving.
7Sergeirocks
>6 Carol420: 😮😧😥🤕
8EadieB
>6 Carol420: I need all the help I can get. I have grey cells but forgot they were there!
9Andrew-theQM
>6 Carol420: Computers and technology! 😡🤬 🙈 Some of the biggest stresses out there.
10Carol420
>8 EadieB: I know what you mean. Sometimes I forget what I forgot:) >9 Andrew-theQM: I agree. Even people that understand them sometimes don't understand them:)
