in trojan odyssey on page138 dirk is thinking about th efirst time he met summer. he said he was seated in a bar on waikiki beach with admrial sandecker's daughter. admarial sandercker doesn't have a daughter. on page22 in pacific vortex he's sitting in the bar with admiral hunter's daughter,adrian. can you find any other mistakes? w:

Yes, that was a mistake that wasn't picked up by the editors, but I'd like to point out that Admiral Sandecker does in fact have a daughter. She lives in Hong Kong.

I came across a few grammatical errors in my recent reading of Sahara and Flood Tide. Nothing major however :)

hey dirk, is that in TO? I haven't finished White Death yet so i assume it's not in any other previous books i have read.

tonym5,

Its in Shock Wave det:

I'm reading Sea Hunters II, and I might have found a few errors in one of the chapters, but I'm not sure.

In the chapter on the story of L'Amiable, he makes references to Florida like its already a state, and this is supposed to take place in the mid 1600s - Florida won't become a state until the 1828 (I think). And would the Mississippi River have already received its name at that time?

Yes, there are a lot of errata. Not only that, mistakes that wrench you out of the story.

I don't think that Cussler is being edited very closely.
Anybody can make mistakes, and anybody, especially in their 70's still putting out these novels is going to.

I blame the publishing company for letting this stuff get through. Every writer needs a good editor. Apparently, they are either afraid to edit Cussler, or are just too lazy, figuring that they're going to make a mint no matter what.

An example of the latest.
In T.O. (which I have signed, btw) I put so many little post-it's as I was going through that when my wife read it, was so annoyed, she ripped them out.

Anyway here's the example:
PG 63, 3rd full paragraph...
We meet the hotel executive director. He is first described as, "A bald headed man." Later in THE SAME PARAGRAPH he has "graying temples below a thick mass of neatly brushed blond hair."

So? Is he bald or does he have all this thick hair? I was trying to get a mental image as I was reading. Threw me for a loop.

There were many other things, and if anyone really wants to know I'll go through the book again and find them.

And, this is not to mention the techincal goofs. These are quite annoying when talking about aircraft (esp. helicopters) that I've flown, or flown in, and he has the thing all wrong.

Then there's the old "it's on the left" and all of a sudden "it's on the right!" How jolting!

What do you all think?

(btw, don't get me wrong...I love Cussler, I just think he should have the simple decency for his publisher (making all those $) to give him a good editor!)

PM

Like what?? (I'm sort of a helo buff!)

I think I found a few in White Death, but I'm not sure. Let me look.
Ugh!! Now I can't find them. I remember one was when Neal through his cigar over the side of the boat, and a few sentences later, he has one in his hand again.

In the end of trojan oddessey Clive says Loren father is there at the wedding isn
't loren father dead u fond that out in Vixon 03 :wacko: :wacko: :wacko: t:

Heres one from Vallhalla Rising.
In the study there is a trap door covered by a carpet.If Elmore Egan were to use it to get to his lab in the cavern.........how does the carpet get back in place?
Both Kelly and Josh said they followed him many times trying to discover where he went,wouldnt they notice a carpet all bunched up in the middle of the floor.
Maybe it was nailed to the exact outline of the trap door but doesnt Dirk pull it aside?
Pg 519
*The rug in the center of the room suddenly rose from the floor as if a ghost were inside and then flew aside*
So it wasn't nailed down.Hmmmm

Warning! ... Below is a mistake that is found in "Lost City".

^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^


And this one from Lost city;
pg 218
*Emil let out a mighty scream that echoed throughout the vault and he dropped the gun*
*By then Austin was back on his feet.He picked out a point on Emils jaw and put all his weight and power behind a hard right cross that almost seperated Fauchards head from it's shoulders.The gun dropped to the floor and Emil crumpled in a heap next to his companion.*
Now there is only one gun in this scene and it belonged to Fauchard but somehow he managed to drop it twice.

I found some in Serpent:

I remember there being some on pages 79 and 101, but now I can't remember what they were.

In chapters 16 and 18, when Gamay and Dr. Chi are riding in the Hummer, it switches back and forth between getting called a Hummer and a Humvee. And when it's called a Humvee, it's spelled HumVee, which should be Humvee.

On pg. 138, the person's name switches between Don Ortega and Juan Ortega.

;)
Good posts guys.
As a pretend author myself, it is terribly hard to see your own typos and inconsisties (was that a spelling error?) As you might know, his agent, or editor, or publisher should be looking out for him. That's what they get paid for, after all.

Cussler did all the hard lifting.

Those suits can be leaches making money off of an author. Especially one as well established is Clive.

However, I must say, if one does not get annoyed by the jarring errata (as I tend to do) it can be kind of fun to spot them.

Keep up the good work.

Is "Don" not sometimes used as "mister" or "sir"?

Another from Serpent:

p. 389 - Paul Trout is going to call Dr. Chi to leave a message, however on p. 386 he says he's already left a message.

I love the line on p. 401 where Austin says: "That looks like the Chrysler experimental car built by Ghia. Too bad Pitt isn't here. He'd go through hell and high water to add a one-of-a-kind to his collection."

Fire Ice page 69 bottom of the page Petrov is said to have been born the ONLY SON of a poor fisherman. Four lines further down the same page he Never saw his parents or siblings again.
things that make you go Hmmmmmm

I'm going on memory so this may or maynot be correct.

In one of the later books (maybe even med caper) Clive talks about when Dirk met Summer how it was before his NUMA days when he was still in the airforce, however in Pacific Vortex Admiral Sandecker joins Pitt to re-assign him to the Navy and sends the assistant special projects director to help Dirk :unsure:

I found a bunch in Blue Gold. Now I have to go find them.

You're right. My mistake. From dictionary.com: Don Abbr. D. Used as a courtesy title before the name of a man in a Spanish-speaking area.

And this one from Fire Ice.These are things an editor or proofreader would notice.
Page 154-155

QUOTE

They slipped through the hole and flashed their lights around.The beams faded into nothingness except for a grayish reflection over their heads.They swam up several feet until their tanks scraped against concrete.Swimming a few feet below the ceiling,they proceeded through the murky water.
After a few minutes,the ceiling disappeared and they swam up until their heads emerged into the open.They were in complete darkness.Austin removed the regulator from his mouth and took a tentative breath.The air was musty but breathable.They switched on their lights and saw they were near the edge of a man-made pool.

END QUOTE

There's one inconsitency that stood out for me - can't remember in what specific books this appear so you'll have to just bear with me here.

You presumably all know of Al's stealing of Sandecker's cigars without ever getting caught, right? Right. In one of the books it's explained by Al hiring an ex-spy (or some such) to do his stealing for him, and a few books later it turns out Al buys his cigars from the same place as Sandecker.

I suppose Al could have changed his method of aquiring the cigars over the years, but for some reason that really annoyed me.

w: Welcome aboard.


I know what you mean about Al and the cigars, it got a little confusing but like you said he probably changed his methods as he got older ;)

Welcome Jhoony,

Are you referring to this excerpt from Valhalla Rising?

Sandecker idly knocked the ashes of his cigar into a large brass ashtray. "It looks to me like what we'd thought was just a devastating tragedy has turned into a hideous crime-" He stopped as a blank look that turned to exasperation crossed his face.

Giordino had pulled out a cigar from his breast pocket that was the exact mate to the admiral's, and slowly lit it.

"You were saying," prompted Hill, not knowing the behind-the-scenes dance between Sandecker and Giordino and their cigars. The admiral was almost certain Al was stealing his cigars, but he could never prove it. None ever appeared to be missing. He never caught on that Giordino was secretly buying his cigars from the same source in Nicaragua.

"I was saying," Sandecker spoke slowly, giving the evil eye to Giordino, "that we have a grievous crime on our hands."

Cheers ... p:

Yes indeed, that was the very quote.

Thanks for the welcome to the both of you.


That whole thing really rubbed me the wrong way...I don't know, it's been a long runnning gag, and all of a sudden I'm getting all mixed up.

Then, of course, there's been a few "wait, what?"-moments in the books, but nothing major to thow me off track.

SPOILERS (though if you haven't read Pacific Vortex or Valhalla Rising, shame on you!)
Actually, this is a big one. I've looked around to see if anyone else has noticed--even mentioned it to some die hard fans, and no one sees this as a hiccup...

In Pacific Vortex, which tells the entire tale of Dirk's greatest lost love, Summer Moran, the mysterious and exotic Summer only has 3 encounters with Pitt. 1) In the bar, which leads to a walk on the beach where she tries to kill him. He takes her back to the hotel, searches here, interrogates her, but she escapes; 2) When she rescues him from her father's assassins by cutting his bonds (he doesn't see her, but smells her perfume); and 3) In the undersea caverns of Kanoli less than half an hour before the seamount is destroyed.

Never mind that it's not much of a foundation for true love; where exactly did the extremely fertile Ms. Moran receive a deposit of Dirk Pitt's genetic material?

Pacific Vortex is a short book, and I for one wouldn't object at all to a re-release with "newly discovered" material. Stephen King completly rewrote The Gunslinger to make it fit better, so I for one would welcome some augmentation to the "first" Dirk Pitt adventure. Or perhaps there's a darker explanation...maybe Dirk Jr. and Summer Jr. don't know the true story about their origins...hmmm

added-- I just found the thread where this was brought up. I guess I should have read the whole forum before jumping in. However, the answer wasn't very satisfying.

There is a constant list of errors:

Sandecker's Age
How long can one be 60? He's been turning 60 since 1985. So many times is his age mentioned that it is funny. He was 58 in Inca Gold. He was 62 in AF (If I recall right)

Vertical Zoneation
Dirk Pitt is 6-2 in RTT
Every other book he is 6-3

AL's Pinky
Never once is it mention that Al is missing his left pinky outside of PV. How many times has CC accounted the big hands of Al?

Kurt's Eyes being Opaline
All the itmes in the Numa series where Kurt has the same colour eyes as Dirk. I cant recall the page but it is there. That is when his eyes are Blue (Kurt) Dirk (Green) (My definition of colour and translucent glass / Opal tones may be confused here)

The biggy is Cyclops and Sahara and the descussions about the moon.
In Cyclops they were on the moon since Neil (more or less revisiting and setting shop around 1982 or 83 and coming home 6 years or so later). In Sahara when the (story crutch & lovable) St. Julian visits the tomb of the secret records where the "fake moon landing" films & records where hidden.

If I am wrong on the above thats alright -- this is a forum, I expect no one will care or even read this other than my ego, not a novel where 150 million books and a half billion people will read. I expect that CC does these things to stir the pot. Like george lucas says if you ask him a question about Star Wars inconsistencies he replies "What are you, a fan?"


Don't get me started on Tom Clancy or Henry David Thoreau or i'd be here all night.

Thats an interesting observation, Newport Beach Police.

In Atlantis Found, I missed reading who the enemy informant was inside NUMA.
Was it ever revealed who it was??

I'm trying to remember.Are you sure it was Atlantis Found?

About the mole at Numa, that was the first question I asked when I joined the CCDB. It is in Atlantis Found. It was never revealed who it was. I think in Iceberg there was also a spy.

Chapter 26 in Atlantis found:

Should this not be Madagascar, in stead of Mozambique. To confuse things, there is an island, Mozambique island, but this is very small. The country Mozambique is solidly part of the Southern African East Coast.

Some differ from me, but I believe this is an error.

I agree, it should be Madagascar.

If you look at the size of Greenland, it is comparable to Madagascar and therefore it fits the context of the excerpt you quoted as "large islands"

You must be a local to pick that up ;)

In Lost City I want to know how they went from not knowing who was behind everthing to knowing in less than 3 pages. Bottom of 333 to middle 336.Check it out.

James H.

Or know my geography. Hmm well sort of......

If your neighbouring country suddenly detaches itself and become an island you would notice... ;)


Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world, and is approx a quarter of the size of Greenland, or approx the size of Texas or France.

Since this has been mentioned ;) , in Vixen03 a baobab tree is hollowed out to hide someone spying on Fawkes, only problem is baobabs do not grow in Natal.

Valhalla Rising pg 483:
Quote:
*St.Julien Perlmutter did not travel with the foul smelling rabble,as he called the common public.He detested airplanes and airports,preferring to travel by boat.....*
End Quote


White Death pg 287
Quote:
*Finding space aboard a plane to accommodate his substantial bulk was not a problem;he simply reserved two seats*
End Quote

Interesting find, Heep. I wonder how Perlmutter fits down the aisle between the seat rows? :P

I contemplated that myself. I came to two conclusions, or perspectives:

1) Elsie Wolf was that "mole" - I thought this as a possiblity as she was there in the NUMA offices stealing the file, and to my way of thinking, she had to be recognized to get past the security
2) it simply was never revealed.

Dave

The name Florida comes from Pascua Florida, which is what Ponce de Leon named the region when he "discovered" it. it means Floral Passover. I don't know if the Spaniards continued to call it Pascua FLorida or simply Florida, but I would guess the name was in common usage before it became part of the Union.

Gotta read the book again to find where, but in Night Probe, he mentions the Canadian city of Moose Jaw as being in Alberta. In actual fact, it's in Saskatchewan.