Which Clive Cussler book is your all-time favorite?

I finished reading Clive Cussler’s 1978 novel, “Vixen 03” a few days ago, and I recommend it to anyone in the audience enjoys a suspenseful adventure tale.

Published by Viking Press, this adventure novel is the fourth to feature Cussler’s famous character, Dirk Pitt. If you’re reading Cussler’s novels in chronological order, as many of his fans choose to do, then “Vixen 03” comes after 1976’s “Raise the Titanic!” and before 1981’s “Night Probe!”

“Vixen 03” begins in 1954, when a top-secret cargo flight, codenamed “Vixen 03,” crashes in Colorado on its way to a military test site while carrying a payload of extremely lethal biological weapons. The plane, its crew and its cargo are never recovered, that is, until 34 years later when Dirk Pitt accidentally finds the lost plane and her cargo.

Before it’s all said and done, Pitt’s efforts to salvage the wrecked plane puts him in the middle of an international plot that involves murder, blackmail, revolutionary armies in Africa and the shelling of Washington, D.C. Like many of Cussler’s books, this tale features more than a few entertaining and memorable characters, including members of the U.S. Congress, retired British Naval officers, U.S. Navy Seals, members of the U.S. Coast Guard as well as Pitt’s amiable sidekick, Al Giordino.

By my count, this makes the seventh Cussler book that I’ve read, so I’ve got a long way to go in my quest to read all of his books. Those that I’ve read include:

- The Mediterranean Caper (1973)
- Iceberg (1975)
- Vixen 03 (1978)
- Pacific Vortex (1983)
- Inca Gold (1994)
- Flood Tide (1997)
- Sacred Stone (2004)

Of those six, I would say that “Inca Gold” was my favorite, followed by “Flood Tide.”

Those that I haven’t read include:
- Raise the Titanic! (1976)
- Night Probe (1981)
- Deep Six (1984)
- Cyclops (1986)
- Treasure (1988)
- Dragon (1990)
- Sahara (1992)
- Shock Wave (1996)
- The Sea Hunters: True Adventures With Famous Shipwrecks (1996)
- Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed (1998)
- Atlantis Found (1999)
- Serpent (1999)
- Blue Gold (2000)
- Valhalla Rising (2001)
- Fire Ice (2002)
- The Sea Hunters II: Diving the World’s Seas for Famous Shipwrecks (2002)
- Golden Buddha (2003)
- Trojan Odyssey (2003)
- White Death (2003)
- Black Wind (2004)
- Lost City (2004)
- Dark Watch (2005)
- Polar Shift (2005)
- The Adventures of Vin Fiz (2006)
- Skeleton Coast (2006)
- Treasure of Khan (2006)
- The Chase (2007)
- The Navigator (2007)
- Artic Drift (2008)
- Plague Ship (2008)
- Corsair (2009)
- Medusa (2009)
- Spartan Gold (2009)
- The Wrecker (2009)
- The Adventures of Hotsy Totsy (2010)
- Crescent Dawn (2010)
- The Lost Empire (2010)
- The Silent Sea (2010)
- The Spy (2010)
- Devil’s Gate (2011)
- The Jungle (2011)
- The Kingdom (2011)
- The Race (2011)

In the end, how many of Cussler’s books have you had a chance to read? Which did you like or dislike? Which would you recommend and why? Which of his books is your all-time favorite and why? Let us know in the comments section below.