Get Started On Morte Branca (NUMA Files, #4) By Clive Cussler Released As Paper Edition

follows along the same lines as Cusslers other books, It is fast paced, seeped in history, and exciting, This one concerns a conglomerate trying to control the seas and thereby controlling the fish population, The only problem is that the experiment goes away and leads to possible serious effects, Again, strap your sear belts on for another thrilling ride, Enjoyed reading this book.

It's interesting this idea of creating a biofish that could wipe out the fish supplies, I think this idea is not too far fetched compared to real life, In terms of the storyline, it was well developed and the characters as well, although I think it took a while to get into the main story as to what exactly was happening.


Nevertheless, a good read, This series doesn't offer plots as complex as the main Dirk Pitt novels they are fairly straightforward, and thus wilder and consequently more complex but they are still entertaining.
Think of this as a "traditional" historymystery, which is the label I've given stories that start with a historical hook/scene where modern day events detail their impact.
Cussler and Kemprecos pale a bit in comparison to Steve Berry in my opinion, If I had read this back when it originally came out in the early oughts I might have felt different, However, after having recommended one of Berry's books today to someone, I know this entry in the Kurt AustinNUMA Files is OK and fun but make as much an impact on my thoughts as say the opening story in the Oregon series Golden Buddha which is the other Cussler partnership that I read most recently.


I'm working my way forward chronologically through Cussler's many books, main series and spinoffs, and I can only hope the upcoming books Trojan Odyssey, Black Wind, Sacred Stone don't disappoint.
I think it's safe to say that if they serve up anything similar to Frankenfish, lost zeppelins, and echoes of the Inquisition, I can look forward to some entertaining reads.
In fact, as I listed some of those central plot points I remembered one of the more memorable scenes, which would play pretty well on the big screen.
I won't give that scene away, because it's one of the better ones in the book and shows a writer who likes to box himself into a corner and keep the reader guessing.
If there were only more of those White Death would rate more, I love reading books from the Cussler stable, but I'm increasingly becoming frustrated reading about hero characters like Kurt Austin who, . .
Think they are above the law, Blunder into situations, then kill everyone to save themselves, because they are clearly more important than anyone else.

spoiler Kurt sneaks into a fish processing plant and once he gets discovered, in his attempt to escape, He kills a guard. At this point in the story, there is no evidence that the plant is doing anything wrong, other than his suspicions, But it seems, Kurt's suspicions are more than enough justification for him to take the law into his own hands,
The story progresses, lots of people die, but at no time is there any authorities called in to help, This one is all about Kurt Austin doing what he wants, Another solid actionadventure from Cussler, This was a pretty good book, I really enjoyed listening to it, However, I think I would've like the unabridged version better, It seemed a little short, Great for reading anytime and pulls you in, There suspense, some action, twists and turns, great personalities and characters and a good ending, Great for a relaxing evening or weekend, Enjoy! Witte dood is het eerste boek dat ik van Clive Cussler gelezen heb, Ik heb er een dubbele gevoel aan overgehouden, Vooral omdat ik het niet overal even boeiend vond,

Het boek begint met twee prologen, Later wordt duidelijk waarom deze geschreven zijn, Deze twee prologen vond ik niet zo interessant en of het noodzakelijk is voor het verhaal vraag ik me af, Ook de eerste 'echte' hoofdstukken zijn me wat tegengevallen, Deels aardig, maar deels ook wat saai,

Naarmate het boek vordert, komt de spanning er wel in, Wat mij betreft heeft dat te lang geduurd, Het interessantst vond ik de hoofdstukken waarin Kurt Austin, de spil in het verhaal, op een James Bondachtige manier de problemen waarin hij verzeild raakt probeert te overwinnen.
Dit doet hij overigens met verve, hoewel niet ongeschonden,

De betere delen van het boek, die zeer lezenswaardig waren, compenseren de mindere gedeelten, die ik toch wat moeizamer te lezen vond.
Al met al vind ik Witte dood een gemiddelde thriller, I'm enjoying the NUMA files so far, and although most Cussler stories require the reader to accept some over the top stories, this one reaches a new level of absurdity, which brings the rating down for me.
Get a load of this plot: Kurt Austin has to stop a homicidal tribe of Eskimos yes, you read that right and their geneticist leader from executing an evil scheme of introducing genetically engineered fish into the oceans.
The frankenfish will wipe out the natural species so the vile Inuits can gain a monopoly on the world's fishing markets, Huh There's also subplots involving a Hindenburg style's German airship and an ancient Basque mariner hiding some ancient relics just to make your head hurt a little more.


If you think all the above sounds ridiculous you're right: but there's more, This book includes an epic chase scene through the streets of Washington DC, . . with dogsleds of all things, Austin is captured by the bad guys and despite being frisked, he's somehow able to conceal a freaking sword yep, an actual sword under his coat that no one notices!

It's an entertaining read for sure, but this has to be one of the dumbest Cussler books I've read so far.
Since these are all stand alones, I'd recommend skipping this entry, It's just too silly. This is a commercial novel in the NUMA series, As always the preparation of Cussler's work is immaculate, without any distractions of any kind, The characters in the book are drawn carefully, The story is weaved through the activities of several sets of characters working toward a common goal, I was surprised Cussler didn't pay a little more credence to the bad guys, give them a little larger role in the book.
Nonetheless it was an enjoyable read and could be consumed by almost any age group, Not one of Cussler's best, maybe the collaboration with Paul Kemprecos had something to do with it, Starts out with a good plotline amp touches on some interesting oceanic environmental issues like to do with fish farming etc which made for an interesting read, but my credulity level was sorely stretched when Spoiler alert! the motives for the development of 'frankenfish' became apparent, and the storyline starts racing between proverbial mad scientists amp secret cultists with a plan to take over the world's fish economy.
Makes for a good read but I'm not feeling very generous as I felt it was a bit creepy in its conception despite the eyeopener about fish farming.
If you like mutant horror shows amp mad scientists amp cultists, all well and good, Would have liked to have enjoyed this story more as the NUMA team did their usual stuff and came through at the end in fine form, but.
. . a bit creepy . As always, this book has some heart stopping action, danger, and an unusual plot, The end of the head bad guy is appropriate considering what he was trying to do, It's always somewhat unbelievable how the good guys get out of really precarious positions, I love the unique plots written by this author, Kurt Austin is called on to rescue Danish sailors from a sunk destroyer that resulted from a collision between environmentalist and the ship.
He comes in contact with a murderous Eskimo group that is bioengineering fish to destroy the native species and thereby take over the aquaculture industry of the world.
Basques amp Inuit is a mix that doesn't cut it, The Spanish Inquisition returns from sitelinkSerpent,

Pet peeve: indigenous culture expert needs to say something smart, He points out 'Eskimo' is a pejorative name for the Inuit, Yet the main villain who sides with the Inuit uses the word Eskimo, as does Cussler throughout in nondialogue paragraphs, . . That's a sad.

This was a fun book to read, It is a little "preachy" in terms "one of the villains" in the story the "Frankenfish", Kurt and Joe stay in their lanes their characters really do not change much at all based on the later books I read prior to this one granted, neither do Rudi, Hiram, Sandecker, or the Trouts.
Most of the character development involves the "guest characters", the secondary and peripheral characters that pass through the book, It moved at a fast pace it held my interest it had plenty of action in it, The "good guys" were "good guys" it had some people with feet of clay the villains were truly despicable and got their just desserts.


After reading this book, I can see why releasing genetically modified creatures into the wild can be a cause for concern as well as the lack of oversight when it comes to corporations being involved the development of any kind of "biotechnology" something that Michael Crichton focused on some of his various novels such as Jurassic Park, Prey, and.
. . there was a third novel and now I cannot think of its name, I can also see the concern over genetically modified food and how it could impact not just society but the environment as well.
I thought the authors did a nice job of explaining the dangers of genetically modified organisms and the havoc that could be wreaked if they were either released or escaped into the natural environment.


The story is pretty crazy, but a funcrazy mystery.
It starts out with the forces of some Spanish Inquisition whackjob getting its collective butt kicked by a single cargo vessel at sea.
It then jumps from the earlys to thes in which a Nazi dirigible is attempting a topsecret trip to the North Pole the captain and crew spy what looks like an ancient vessel on the ice and descend to investigate.
Then we jump to the "present day" in which an "ecoterrorist" ship is attempting to interrupt a tradition of the Faroe Islands hunting whales for food when the ship mysteriously changes course and slams into a Danish cruiser sent to keep an eye on things, sinking both vessels.
Of course Kurt and Joe are relatively nearby and able to assist in saving the survivors of the Danish cruiser.
From there, the book takes off,

I was not expecting Kurt and Joe to separate like they do, but the book focuses on Kurt spending a couple of days on the Faroe Islands doing his own investigations into a nearby fish farm as well as the "mystery" of the islands themselves.
I fully enjoyed how his relationship with Pia, the dead minister's wife, during his stay, It was fun and relaxed and felt "normal", and I liked how the two of them enjoyed each other's company and became good friends without it having to resort to any kind of sexual shenanigans which I would not necessarily have believed because of her background, anyway that, and other men have tried to get her into their beds and failed as well.
Kurt's adventure on the island is pretty crazy I assumed the large, expensive yacht he encountered was part of the villain's "empire" and was pleasantly surprised to find out how wrong I was.
Kurt nearly dies twice once on the island well, multiple times during his escape from the Oceanus facility and then again in Copenhagen where two strangers save his life and his date's life.
Joe really does not take part in this book at all until quite a bit later than I expected the Trouts actually have more printtime than Joe does it was really odd.


The Trouts investigate a facility in Canada and are nearly killed for their troubles, Kurt manages to get himself invited to some gala at the museum in DC, which leads to his escaping his potential captors and killers on a dog sled.
The adaptive camouflage was pretty cool, and I fully believed that Joe had read about it in Popular Mechanics like he said in the book.
When Gamay and Paul meet with two scientists in Canada to allow the reader to hear the pros and cons of genetically modifying organisms to combat world hunger, I figured the second guy just had to be the villain, and I turned out to be right.
Lucky guess on my part! The villain usually is more, . . well, he's usually flatout introduced in an obvious fashion, In my opinion, this guy was not which made his "big reveal" to be all the more satisfying even if I had guessed correctly.


I liked that the members of Ben Nighthawk's village were saved, That was pretty cool and much appreciated I did not really think the authors would have them all killed off as "fish chow", but I was not sure of how many of them would survive once their rescue was attempted.
That moment did seem to be the "main hinge" on how the story was going to end, especially as the former Nazi dirigible was not controlled by Toonook aka Dr.
Barker and his group and it was getting ready to leave on its "final journey" of dumping the modified seed stock of fish into the oceans to allow Oceanus to gain complete control over the oceanic food supply chain.


It was fitting that Toonook got his just desserts of being eaten by his own genetically modified fish.
He is blinded by Kurt during a fight on in the dirigible and Kurt manages to trick the villain into falling into one of the tanks holding his ravenous creations.
I also liked that Kurt and Joe dump the load of fish out onto dry land so that they die an ugly death of asphyxiation instead of being released into the ocean.


I laughed when Kurt and Joe asked for a meal from the ship's mess after their being rescued and then losing their appetite when told the meal would consist of "fish cakes and eggs", a Newfoundland specialty.
The description of the two of them looking at each other and then saying, "No thanks!" was priceless,

I also liked it when Kurt "peeled out of his coat and drew the sword from its scabbard" while saying to Joe, "This is my friend Durendal".
It was a pretty cool moment in the book, in my opinion and it remined me of clips of Scarface when Al Pacino says, "I'd like to introduce you to my little friend!".
I also liked how Kurt used the sword to determine what the dirigible was doing, if it was changing speed, power, or direction.
By placing the blade against the floor and resting his head ear on the handle, he could hear/feel the vibrations of the dirigible's engines changes in changes in the vibration alerted him to changes in their flight path.
It was clever and well done,

The ending was fun as Kurt was finally able to have an uninterrupted dinner with Therri Weld, his "current love interest" in the book.
He met her on the Faroe Islands while assisting the Danish government and testifying in a case about the sinking of the two vessels and they kept trying to have an uninterrupted meal/date throughout the book.
They finally have their date, and it is aboard the German dirigible as it heads from Canada to, . . D. C. or wherever it is going before being returned to Germany,

Another thing that "surprises" me in these books is St, Julien Perlmutter. In Dirk Pitt's stories, I always felt like St, Julien was a not a "recluse" but a "special friend" of Dirk's, I never saw him as being "available to anybody" who needed help or information about some oceanic misadventure or voyage or whatever.
Too, it always seemed like St, Julien could never leave his house because his girth had become too large for the doors, However, in Kurt Austin's adventures, St, Julien is mobile and agile and travels quite a bit, In this adventure, he is traveling down the spine of Italy trying out various foods for some gourmet magazine or something, Which is fine it has been surprising to me so far because of how he always came across in Dirk's books versus how he comes across so differently in the NUMA files.
I also liked that Kurt new somebody who was the "land equivalent" to St, Julien, who knew about all sorts of historical adventures on the land instead of the sea too bad I cannot remember his name! ah, well.
So it was great fun to have St, Julien in this book and being able to give Kurt some help with Kurt's investigations,

It was a fun book and a fast read, I am glad I read it, .