Golden Buddha

I really like the Clive Cussler novels, particularly the Oregon files. However, owing to the large number of people and locations coupled with the difficult Asian names, things got unnecessarily complicated. Usually the action is fun and fast paced. I felt this one was slow and laborious. I would not recommend this book to anyone other than a diehard Clive Cussler fan.

A group of well financed mercenaries, a boat that looks like a wreck but contains high tech defensive and offensive systems and can travel 70 knots a Golden Buddha that weighs 696 pounds of solid gold, a crooked art dealer, two egotistical billionaires and a standoff between the Russians and the Chinese. Stir it all up and you have a romping adventure.In Clive Cussler's spin-off series from his Dirk Pitt series he has established another skilful and charismatic hero.In the first book of the series we start off with a minor assignment for the Chairman of the Corporation (Juan Cabrillo) in Cuba to rescue some political prisoners in an air tight escape proof jail. However to the employees of the Corporation this just meant a little more planning.With their usual bravado they breached the jail and released the prisoners who were in poor physical condition.Having the actually carry 5 prisoners on their backs because of the weakened condition they were in the crew were able to get all the prisoners back to the Oregon and swiftly taken to Puerto Rico to be eventually transferred to Florida.This adventure series is as much about the Oregon as it is about its crew. The Oregon is described as 560 feet long, with a 75 foot beam. It has internal water tanks so it can intake water and sink low so that it looks like it has a load of something on board, or pump the water tanks out and site high. This is particularly important when going for top speed which is noted as 70 knots (approx 80mph).Also on board are two submarines, a helicopter, ATV's, sea to air missiles, anti aircraft guns and explosives galore.The main adventure in the book is return to Golden Buddha to the Dalai Lama the religious leader of Tibet.The crooked art dealer comes into play as while transporting the Golden Buddha to one billionaire he swaps in a fake and sells the original to another billionaire. It is up to the Corporation to return the real Golden Buddha to the Dalai Lama who is returning to Tibet after 20 years in exile.For readers who are into politics the story line gives many insights into the political machinations that occurs when political leaders are guessing what is going on and not really aware of what is going on. This is highly entertaining as we know, sort of, what is really going on and can laugh at all the postering going on.HIGHLY recommended

Clive Cussler was a great writer and story teller. The Golden Buddha was a fun read .I purchased this book over a year ago and it worked fine. The 5 stars is for the book.Then Amazon loaded a firmware update and wiped out the book cover art for this book in my library. I still had the book but no art. After working with a great customer rep on the phone (about 5 calls total over 7 days) and trying different scenarios to try to fix the problem - Amazon told the rep to offer me a $5 refund and to stop. I had asked 4 times to refund me the cost of the book and I would delete the book and then repurchase it with a new download. Amazon refused. Case closed.I used the $5 and deleted the book and repurchased it. That appears to have cleared the issue and the book cover art was back. That 'fix' cost me to correct their problem. The library shows the orange book cover art- but the book opens to the hardcover book art.Hope you have better luck with firmware updates. As they say - If ain't broke don't fix it.

I am starting to come to the conclusion that when the author is noted as "Clive Cussler and..", the name after "and..." is the actual author; Cussler probably just comes up with the storyline.I say that because the writing differs with each one..Personally, I liked this book... I liked that it was a "team" book rather than focusing on one hero; I liked the writing as it flowed very well and was an easy read; I liked that there was no macho/he-man stuff with women being tossed in as fish bait.What others may not like (other than the things I noted above) is that there were a slew of characters and, if you weren't paying attention, it got confusing at times.Since this is fiction and I am only reading it for relaxation, that didn't bother me.It was certainly good enough to say #2 will probably be a good enough read.......

I’ve always liked Cussler novels, but this was not my favorite. Too complicated and confusing, events and actions not depicted clearly. I felt lost at times regarding the theft and such of the Buddha. Other than that it was an enjoyable read, as all Clive Cussler books are.

I did read it all the way through but got tired of having team members magically be in the right place at the right time, It's as if as the book was written it was easier to just keep adding Corporation team members as characters were needed. Way too many moving pieces. I normally read every Clive Cussler book I can find but won't read any more of this series. BTW normally Clive shows up in each of his books somewhere but didn't' find him this time.

I had never read any Clive Cussler books before I went on vacation and someone had left "The Chase" in the room. I was immediately hooked and I now always keep my eye open for his books. When my son gifted me my very first Kindle, he asked what book do you want? This book, Golden Buddha, was the very first book that I bought. I was not disappointed! The Oregon Files are a great series and I now own all of them. This book introduces the smart, handsome and fiercely loyal Chairman of the corporation, Juan Cabrillo and his talented crew. (It's a nice change from his Dirk books, although I love that character too!) I really enjoyed the rich detail given to the Dali Lama character and his entourage. Golden Buddha has wonderful twists and surprises, which I love as an avid reader. The problem that I have, since I read so much, is anticipating the outcome of either the next scene or the ending of the book. With this book, and of course most of Cusssler's books, I don"t have that problem. I would recommend this book, and of course the author.

The first of the Oregon books, this seems a little confused at times and the plot is a bit hard to keep up with. It's a bit odd as it's not Cussler's first book and ones before that were much better in terms of writing and the plot. I can only assume that Craig Dirgo did more of the writing in this one.Reading this after reading a lot of the other Oregon books, there's also some glaring discrepancies in terms of what the crew do and how they behave. If you haven't read it then it's worth a read if the price is decent - I picked it up for 99p and was quite happy at that price, but if I'd paid full price I'd feel a bit ripped off.

This was a good book without being a great book. Being the first book in the Oregon Files series it was a good introduction to the many characters that make up the Corporation. It was interesting how the author tried to weave a real situation into the plot line, i.e. The Dalai Lama being in exile. It has caught my interest enough to continue reading on in the series. I do feel the characters could do with a bit more fleshing out and I hope that will come in future books in the series. This book certainly took me around the world, I enjoyed this book.

I have been an avid reader of Clive Cussler books and have enjoyed them all, until this one, This is the first co-authored one I have read and it just did not work for me. There are far too many characters in the story with the result that they are not developed in any depth,remaining rather like cardbord cutouts. The story lines are far fetched in 'Mission Impossible' style without any finesse. Some of the phraseology is corny and old fashioned which was also a big put off. I really struggled to get to the end of this book and only did so by skim reading the last third - overall it was just not worth the effort.

This story has a real background in history . The execution of the various stages of the plot were a little unbelievable. In general it was a worth while read Enjoy,Enjoy,Enjoy.

I had read later books in the Oregon Files series and enjoyed them despite accepting that there was a degree of them being far fetched but this one is so far fetched that I didn't feel that I could not put it down. I did complete it but could have left it at any point.