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Kurt Austin puts the NUMAA team on a case involving a hideous series of medical experiments, an extraordinarily ambitious Chinese criminal organization, and a secret new virus that threatens to set off a worldwide pandemic.Tags
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Owls Head 2021 - #2 Continuing my bizarre tradition of reading a Cussler novel on every vacation, up next in the NUMA Files series - MEDUSA! Creepily appropriate as, believe it or not, this 2010 novel is about a race for a cure for a Chinese-based ......yup......CORONAVIRUS!!!! The typical scrapes and near-death experiences of Austin, Zavala & Trouts abound......(making me certain i'd never want to be friends with this crew - not wise!). Lots of excitement.....learned some about jellyfish.....an underwater laboratory.....and of course the occasionally sappy sexual tension moments between our swashbuckling heroes and the attractive scientists they work to save. All in all a nice fun ride. No regrets!
I found Medusa slow reading in parts due to the lack of action. I do enjoy the underwater scenes and always learn something new about them. I also thought the ending was somewhat rushed, especially the final battle between Austin and the villain, and then the story ended a few pages later. Both Kurt and Joe have love interests in this story, and carryover characters make appearances.
It's funny that this story was written in 2009, and the COVID virus spread from China a little over ten years later, and the impact of the spreading virus mentioned in the story actually occurred in some countries. Weird, huh?
All in all, I enjoyed the tale and look forward to reading another NUMA episode by Clive Cussler et al.
It's funny that this story was written in 2009, and the COVID virus spread from China a little over ten years later, and the impact of the spreading virus mentioned in the story actually occurred in some countries. Weird, huh?
All in all, I enjoyed the tale and look forward to reading another NUMA episode by Clive Cussler et al.
This is another classic Clive Cussler story with NUMA people in the center of it. This one has Kurt and Joe in place of Dirk and Al. Very similar characters but still a fun story to listen too.
A severe strain of the flu has broke out in remote China and it appears to be a very dangerous strain. It spreads fast and has a high mortality rate and no treatments seem to have any effect on it. The government is trying it's best to quarantine the area but it is only a matter of time before it breaks out and moves to more populated areas, quite possibly moving from an epidemic to a world wide pandemic.
A US biomedical research group has a strong lead on finding a cure and is trying desperately to get it completed in time to prevent the show more disaster. When the project is nearing completion, the entire lab, with all its scientists and research disappeared. Austin gets called in to find them and save the world.
Fun story and better written than many of action stories in the similar vein. I think most of these NUMA stories would make great movies like the old James Bonds. show less
A severe strain of the flu has broke out in remote China and it appears to be a very dangerous strain. It spreads fast and has a high mortality rate and no treatments seem to have any effect on it. The government is trying it's best to quarantine the area but it is only a matter of time before it breaks out and moves to more populated areas, quite possibly moving from an epidemic to a world wide pandemic.
A US biomedical research group has a strong lead on finding a cure and is trying desperately to get it completed in time to prevent the show more disaster. When the project is nearing completion, the entire lab, with all its scientists and research disappeared. Austin gets called in to find them and save the world.
Fun story and better written than many of action stories in the similar vein. I think most of these NUMA stories would make great movies like the old James Bonds. show less
The plot looks predictable in the beginning but surprises you in the end. Story line is the type of thing you could read in the newspaper. I have always loved Clive Cussler's books and this one is no exception.
I have always enjoyed Clive Cussler's novels, and this one was the same. It was a reasonably good story, and a fairly quick read. I did find that this book had several rather campy references to earlier books, and introduced characters such as Dirk Pitt and Admiral Sandecker from his earlier novels, with very little purpose in moving forward the story. The story would have been stronger without them.
I also felt that while the characters of Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala were fun, they didn't hold a candle to Dirk Pitt, having lost a lot of that larger than life quality which drove most of Clive Cussler's earlier books, and without that quality, the books lost some of their charm.
Still a good story, and worth reading.
I also felt that while the characters of Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala were fun, they didn't hold a candle to Dirk Pitt, having lost a lot of that larger than life quality which drove most of Clive Cussler's earlier books, and without that quality, the books lost some of their charm.
Still a good story, and worth reading.
Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala of NUMA and their underwater vehicles B3 and Bubbles are attacked by a mysterious submersible when they take a scientist with them on an exploration. The scientist is head of an undersea laboratory, Davy Jones’s Locker, which disappears at the same time. The Navy asks NUMA for help in retrieving the laboratory. Of course, as in most of Cussler’s books, the future of the planet depends on Austin and NUMA, this time in safeguarding the vaccine to an epidemic. Our heroes are larger than life, their love interests of this adventure smart, petite, beautiful and a bit helpless, and the Asian enemy cruel but no match for our heroes. One of the enemies is shot near the end of the book, and then….
“The body was show more shipped to a warehouse where the receiver complained about the quality of the merchandise. The corpse was dissected, immersed in acetone to eliminate all traces of moisture, and then given a bath of polymers. The muscles and bones were touched up with paint, and the body bent into a standing position, the arm cocked and ready to smash a tennis ball.
When the transformed corpse arrived in London to join other bodies in an exhibition that would take it to Paris and New York, a tennis racket was placed in the boney hand. In time, his skinned body would adorn T-shirts, key chains, refrigerator magnets, even the cover of the catalog sold at the traveling exhibition. “
This part is pretty hilarious, more so as I have just been to the Bodies exhibition in Las Vegas. And indeed, all those sportive corpses are Asian, so maybe….. show less
“The body was show more shipped to a warehouse where the receiver complained about the quality of the merchandise. The corpse was dissected, immersed in acetone to eliminate all traces of moisture, and then given a bath of polymers. The muscles and bones were touched up with paint, and the body bent into a standing position, the arm cocked and ready to smash a tennis ball.
When the transformed corpse arrived in London to join other bodies in an exhibition that would take it to Paris and New York, a tennis racket was placed in the boney hand. In time, his skinned body would adorn T-shirts, key chains, refrigerator magnets, even the cover of the catalog sold at the traveling exhibition. “
This part is pretty hilarious, more so as I have just been to the Bodies exhibition in Las Vegas. And indeed, all those sportive corpses are Asian, so maybe….. show less
SPOILERS
Kurt Austin is the head of the special assignments team for NUMA. This is the same job that Dirk and his mate Al Giordino were doing for many years before Dirk got married to Lori and his kids showed up. (Valhalla Rising) But I guess it was inevitable - that things had to change.
Dirk Pitt now has a non-active role as the Director of NUMA and Admiral Sandecker is now the Vice President of the USA.
In this book Kurt and his team (Joe Zavala, Paul & Gamay Trout) are investigating the cause of a new flu outbreak in China. Then Kurt learns that one Chinese Triad gang developed the flu and released it. They intended to destabilise the Chinese government and bring the Triads into power.
This triad has 3 leaders - a set of triplets. Each show more is in charge of a different area of the business. One triplet is in Shanghai, another is in Hong Kong and the third is in USA.
The triad has hijacked a private laboratory that was hidden underwater in the Melanesian area of the Pacific Ocean, nor far from the island of Pohnpei.
Kurt and Joe are charged with finding out what happened to the laboratory and to do anything they can to rescue the scientists being held there. Paul and Gamay must do whatever they can to trace the origin of this new strain of flu, and find a vaccine for it. Part of the vaccine is derived from the toxic venoms of jellyfish - hence the title name Medusa.
The action runs from DC to Florida to Boston to the Caribbean, to Pohnpei to Shanghai. This is another excellent adventure. It is also entirely appropriate to have an adventure story about a flu of unknown origin at the exact same time as the world is also battling a flu of "supposedly" unknown origin.
Posted on 12 March 2020 - one day after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the W.H.O. show less
Kurt Austin is the head of the special assignments team for NUMA. This is the same job that Dirk and his mate Al Giordino were doing for many years before Dirk got married to Lori and his kids showed up. (Valhalla Rising) But I guess it was inevitable - that things had to change.
Dirk Pitt now has a non-active role as the Director of NUMA and Admiral Sandecker is now the Vice President of the USA.
In this book Kurt and his team (Joe Zavala, Paul & Gamay Trout) are investigating the cause of a new flu outbreak in China. Then Kurt learns that one Chinese Triad gang developed the flu and released it. They intended to destabilise the Chinese government and bring the Triads into power.
This triad has 3 leaders - a set of triplets. Each show more is in charge of a different area of the business. One triplet is in Shanghai, another is in Hong Kong and the third is in USA.
The triad has hijacked a private laboratory that was hidden underwater in the Melanesian area of the Pacific Ocean, nor far from the island of Pohnpei.
Kurt and Joe are charged with finding out what happened to the laboratory and to do anything they can to rescue the scientists being held there. Paul and Gamay must do whatever they can to trace the origin of this new strain of flu, and find a vaccine for it. Part of the vaccine is derived from the toxic venoms of jellyfish - hence the title name Medusa.
The action runs from DC to Florida to Boston to the Caribbean, to Pohnpei to Shanghai. This is another excellent adventure. It is also entirely appropriate to have an adventure story about a flu of unknown origin at the exact same time as the world is also battling a flu of "supposedly" unknown origin.
Posted on 12 March 2020 - one day after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the W.H.O. show less
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Author Information
Clive Cussler was born in Aurora, Illinois on July 15, 1931. He attended Pasadena City College for two years before enlisting in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. After his discharge from the military, he worked first as a copywriter and later as a creative director for two of the nation's most successful advertising agencies. At show more that time, he wrote and produced radio and television commercials that won numerous international awards, including one at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. He began writing in 1965 and published his first novel featuring Dirk Pitt in 1973. His first non-fiction work, The Sea Hunters, was published in 1996. He has written over 50 books including the Dirk Pitt series, the NUMA Files series, Oregon Files series, Isaac Bell series, and the Fargo Adventure series. He is the Chairman of NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency), a non-profit group which he founded. He and his crew of marine experts and NUMA volunteers have discovered over 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites. Clive Cussler died on February 24, 2020 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
21+ Works 17,335 Members
Paul Kemprecos, a Shamus Award-winning author of six underwater detective thrillers, has coauthored all six NUMA Files novels with Clive Cussler. He currently lives in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. (Bowker Author Biography)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Medusa
- Original title
- Medusa
- Original publication date
- 2009-06 (1e édition originale américaine) (1e édition originale américaine); 2012-10-31 (1e traduction et édition française, Grand format, Grasset) (1e traduction et édition française, Grand format, Grasset)
- People/Characters
- Kurt Austin; Joe Zavala
- Epigraph
- "If the epidemic continues its mathematical rate of acceleration, civilization could easily disappear from the earth."
---Dr. Victor Vaughn,
The American Experience, "Influenza 1918"
"Wash inside of nose with soap and water each night and morning; force yourself to sneeze night and morning, then breathe deeply; do not wear a muffler; take sharp walks regularly and walk home from work; eat plenty of por... (show all)ridge."
---Influenza prevention advice in
the News of the World 1918 - First words
- In all his years sailing the worlds ocean, Captain Horatio Dobbs had never known the sea to be so barren.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Dooley goosed the throttle, and the boat raced across the blue-green waters of the bay to the distant mainland.
- Original language*
- Anglais (Etats-Unis) (Etats-Unis)
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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