SERPENT



When Kurt Austin rescues beautiful marine archaeologist Nina Kirov off the coast of Morocco, he becomes the next target of Texas industrialist Don Halcon. A madman bent on carving a new nation out of the southwestern United States and Mexico, Halcon's scheme hinges on Nina's recent discovery involving Christopher Columbus, and a priceless pre-Columbian antiquity buried in the battered remains of the sunken Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria. Only Kurt Austin and his crack NUMA team stand between Halcon and the Andrea Doria's silent steel hull -- and if their deadly mission fails, Halcon will ride to power on a wave of death and destruction.


BLUE GOLD



Planet earth is a paradox - a lush, fertile world three-quarters-covered by water, yet in danger of running dry. Fresh water is disappearing from overuse and pollution and the only hope lies in desalination, a process to convert salt water into fresh. Francesca Carval is a brilliant scientist whose newest discovery will save the human race. She has perfected the process of desalination, and is flying to a conference in Rio to announce it to the world. Then a group of terrorists attempts to hijack her plane which crashes in the Venezuelan jungle. Francesca is taken in and protected by a native tribe: she is not heard from again. Ten years later, Kurt Austin and his NUMA team come across the mysterious death of a pod of grey whales off the coast of California. The path leads Austin to the heart of South America where he discovers Francesca, the 'white goddess' of the jungle, living among the tribe that took her in. At the same time Austin stumbles upon a group that aims to control the world's fresh water supply, and which will kill anyone who stands in its way.


FIRE ICE



In the heart of the old Soviet Union, a mining tycoon has proclaimed himself czar of Russia. Claiming Romanov ancestry and backed by billions of dollars, he is determined to overthrow the already shaky Russian government-and U.S. opposition doesn't bother him one bit. A little crisis of their own should distract the Americans for a while, and he knows just the thing. . . .


WHITE DEATH



A confrontation between a radical environmentalist group and a Danish cruiser has forced Austin and colleague Joe Zavala to come to the rescue of a shipful of trapped men; but when the two of them investigate further, they discover that something far more sinister is at work. A shadowy multinational corporation is attempting to wrest control of the very seas themselves-no matter what havoc results-and is killing anyone who attempts to stop them. When Austin's boat blows up and he just barely survives, it seems certain he is the next in line to die-but he cannot stop now. For the environmental disaster has already begun, and only he and NUMA stand in the way.


LOST CITY



An enzyme that will dramatically prolong life has been discovered two thousand feet down in the North Atlantic, in an area known as "Lost City." But why are the people attempting to harvest it getting killed? Why are the scientists in a remote Greek laboratory disappearing one by one? What does this all have to do with a body found frozen in the ice high up in the Alps? To Kurt Austin, leader of NUMA's Special Assignments Team, and his colleague Joe Zavala, it's clear they have their work cut out for them, but it may be even bigger than they think-in fact, it may be their greatest challenge of all. . . .

How do you rate any of these books in the NUMA FILES series so far?

I've only read two so far. (White Death and Fire Ice) I just started on Serpent. So far I've like all of them very much.

I read them all and very enjoyed every one of them the first 4 i read 2-3 times and lost city once only in 3 days thou :P
i hope cc will write more of austin and his crew :)

Serpent reminded me of Aaron Burr's attempt to take mexico and part of the united states but i found the story an enjoyable read. Blue Gold i loved very much because of my reverence for anything about the ocean and hydrology. Fire Ice was another enjoyable read with a new source of energy that could be tapped for use. White Death was a good read educating me about biotech and its abuse of our environment whether it be agricultural or aquacultural. Will start reading Lost City tonight. Kurt is no Dirk Pitt but he does bring a different approach and his background in intelligence gives him a depth of knowledge that can fill in the gaps and spaces when it comes to the adventures he finds himself in.

Well lets see.
I tried reading Serpent again Mel I really did.I just couldn't get into it.
I am however re-reading Blue/Gold at the moment,so far so good.
I will try to re-read the rest of them in sequence and give my reviews in turn.
Lost City I found to be the best book of the series by far.Great story line good action and they seem to have found the right formula.

I am actually looking forward to the next book in line.
Rob


p.s............Good job Mel th: way to go girl w:

Thanks Rob,

Lost City was the best so far th: Blue Gold comes in second for me!! I had to go back and re-read the other books as well, and found it alittle rough to get through them also.
Kurt, Joe, Dirk and Al share the same thing...they have great adventures snor:

I enjoyed White Death quite a bit, though I found the ending to the story was kind of rushed and fell short of my expectations for a good Cussler novel. I found the action to be lacking in a few parts as well, but not enough to detract from a good read. I like the characters, and as always enjoy seeing our old friends from NUMA, and love the little quips such as the Trouts commenting that "Dirk and Al" are always around if the world needs saving. Good stuff. I also like the fact that Nova Scotia played a part in the story, but I'm biased, living here and all ;)

I Love the NUMA files. White Death opens your eye to what could be happening to our oceans and lakes. I hope it's enough to wake up some people to the dangers of playing with nature. Blue Gold is another story to make us aware of the need to keep our waters clean and to conserve our resources. Keep them comming b:

Well said loren1 th: th:

th:
I have just finished reading Lost City. I agree that Kurt is no Dirk, but I have found all 5 books to be enjoyable reading. This is one of only a few co-author book series that I enjoy reading almost as much as bookjs by the 'name' author.

I look forward to more books in this series and Dirk Pitt.

Welcome aboard Pyrite! I agree, Kurt is no Dirk and Joe is no Al, but I still greatly enjoy their adventures.

Now that I'm almost done with Serpent, its starting to seem like a combination of Night Probe and Treasure. The Night Probe element is because a country could be split into multiple countries, and the Treasure part because of a possible invasion and/or takeover of the southwestern states. But it has been a great read. th:

Serpent - Coming Soon - as soon as I've finished Blue Gold, I'll be all over this :lol:

Blue Gold - I am presently reading this book and although I'm only about a quarter of the way through I am really enjoying it, not as much as a DP book but none the less it's my favourite KA book so far th:

Fire Ice - I first read this after reading all the DP books so I couldn't really get into it, took quite a while to read but it was ok just not as good as I had expected but I think now I have read more KA books that I may go back and re-read this one!

White Death - I quite enjoyed this one. I didn't think it was great but it wasn't the worse thing that I've ever read either.

Lost City - On it's way as I type this - woooooooo hoooooooo can't wait! Thank you to my good friend for being kind enough to send me a copy :)

I'll edit this post with my comments as I read the other books ;)

Mel as I said privately YOU'VE DONE BRILLIANTLY!!!!!!!!

Thanks Kelly kel:

In my opinion, they were all good books! I do agree that Kurt is no Dirk, and so on..But Lost City is what opened my eyes to a whole new world of 'Clive' adventure! I went back and read them all over again.

Thanks to Tony, the NUMA FILES forum was made possible :P

Welcome Pyrite, it's been a while :)
...enjoy t:

Well I just finished Blue/Gold.It was a very enjoyable read.Good story,good action although I felt the ending was a litttle rushed.It makes me wonder if the new books have a word count deadline.I know that now Clives books are routinely over 500 pages but this one was barely over 300.
Other than a few silly mistakes that had me shaking my head and wishing I was the proof reader ;) I really enjoyed it.
Much better than Serpent that I find almost unreadable.I would place BG behind LC if I was to rate them right now.
Next up is Fire Ice.

I did the rate game also :lol:

Lost City

Blue Gold

Fire Ice

Serpent

White Death

Have read the first three so far. I thought the series started slowly but seems to be getting better with each book.





leo

Here's my ranking; 1. BlueGold 2. Fire Ice 3. Serpent 4. Lost City 5. White Death

Ok just finished Fire Ice.Not bad but again I felt the ending was rushed.
Throughout the book they set Boris up as some messiah and we look forward to a Boris/ Austin showdown that never really comes.
I'm thinking Mr.Kemprecos is a fan of Poe.Once again there is a reference to one of Poes works.
3rd place behing Lost City and Blue Gold.
White Death here I come :blink:

I recognize that everyone has different tastes.

If you haven't read a NUMA Files book yet, I recommend that you read them in the order that they were written, so that you get to enjoy the character development.

As Loren shows above, here's the order of their releases:

1. Serpent (1999)
2. Blue Gold (2000)
3. Fire Ice (2002)
4. White Death (2003)
5. Lost City (2004)

(My personal favorite of the NUMA files was Blue Gold)

Cheers,
Dave

Are you sure that you weren't rushing to finish??? :P

I liked Fire Ice best so far. Rob I hope you enjoy White Death better than I did! :unsure:

Welcome Auntie G.
Glad to have you on board.
I'll let you know about WD by the end of the week.

Well I finally finished White Death :blink:
What a hard slog that was.I just never really got into it at all.It didn't make me want to turn the pages.I have tried very hard not to compare the NUMA Files series to that other series(something to with a Dirk Pitt?) but invariably the comparisons do come up.
I wasn't interested in the villian.Ususally you are waiting to see what Austin(Pitt) can come up with as punishment for them.Barker falls into his own fish farm vats for crying out loud. :blink:
My ratings haven't changed
Lost City.
Blue/Gold
Fire Ice
White Death
Serpent


Oh well at least LC rescues the series..

BTW I have started GB next.Time to give it another try.

My plan is to continue reading Blue Gold tomorrow :o nope I still haven't finished it :unsure: But I hope to be done by the weekend and then I'll start on Lost City ;)

I wasn't fond of Serpent actually but all the lated ones I enjoyed. I think that the Lost City is by far the best.

here is my order

Serpent
Blue Gold
Fire Ice b:
WHite Death
Lost City

yes they are in order once u read them order u will get to know the charcters better than reading in a different order so: do:

A year? (minus a few days) it's taken me a year to finish Blue Gold? What the heck have I been doing?

and .... what did you think of it? :unsure:

Actually I thought it was surprisingly good th:

I've started Serpent now, hopefully I'll get through that a little quicker and I'll be all up to date with the NUMA Files.

Wow, six books in six years time! Cool! Definitely warranting a category of its own. Hopefully, the Oregon Files will get a category when Dark Watch comes out! Now that I finally have Polar Shift to read and Sahara to watch I am satisfied. And with Dark Watch HB and the paperback of Black Wind coming out this year also, it is a banner year for Cussler fans!!!! w:

Finished Serpent and now all up to date. I really liked it but felt that the end was rushed.

I thought the same thing about the ending, Kelly.

Loved the submerged temple/pyramid. Imagine finding that! Actually, been a while since I read Serpent, there was a submerged temple/pyramid that they drained, wasn't there?!

Cheers beer:

Andy

I have read the entire Numa Series collection so far, and to me they have gotten progressively better with each book. Though my own personal fave was Lost City, it is followed by Polar Shift in a very close second. I love the NUMA Files Series books and i hope Kurt and Joe can go on some more adventures as soon as possible. Just as a side note, Paul and Gamay make the NUMA Files books. p:

I've really liked all of them so far. My order is Polar Shift, Lost City, White Death, Serpent, Blue Gold, Fire Ice (obviously least favorite book, but I loved Ivan and I was happy we were getting a glimpse into Kurt's past). I've really enjoyed the books and they seem to be getting better with every book. I can't wait for the next NUMA Files book. I really like the fact that Kurt and Joe seem to be developing their own personalities (so they aren't just carbon copies of Dirk and Al), and Gamay (is there anyone who doubts I'm a fan of hers :lol:) and Paul are fabulous editions.

My favorite is Polar Shift also! That HUGE whirl-pool was AWSOME!
...Wait....your a Gamay Trout fan??? :lol: ;) :P

Having read up through White Death, I'm glad to hear that Lost City will be better because I've been underwhelmed at best by the Numa Files Series. It's not that the books are bad or that I've "walked out" the way one walks out of a bad movie (which I never do anyway), it's just that perhaps they aren't living up to the expectations set forth by most of the other "Clive Cussler" books.

The books just aren't that memorable. They're enjoyable enough while I'm reading them, but looking back over the series I can only remember snippets here and there of what happened or what each book was about. I hardly remember any character names outside of the "big four" and can only really remember what the main plot or evil scheme was by the name of the book.

I'm actually enjoying the Oregon Files series better. Here's hoping LC saves the day as you have all lead me to believe. :lol: