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Book Review By Nick Warren
Blue Gold - The NUMA Files 2 by Clive Cussler

In this second entry in the NUMA Files/Kurt Austin series mankind faces a huge threat in the shape of a multi-billion dollar organisation, Gogstad, who are planning to dominate the world's fresh water supply. At the start of the book, a plane crashes in the Venezuelan rainforest and Francesca Cabral, inventor of a unique desalination techinque(turning sea water into fresh water) is taken in by a tribe of Chulo Indians. Ten years later she is discovered later by NUMA archaeologists Paul and Gamay Trout, who are investigating bio-pirates intent on stealing rare species of plants. Meanwhile, our new NUMA hero Kurt Austin and sidekick Joe Zavala are investigating Gogstad's water purification facility in Mexico when a bomb nearly destroys their submarine mission. Suspecting the facility is killing off rare whales, their trail soon leads them to Alaska and the sinister intrigue of post World War 2 black operations involving a rare atomic substance, and ultimately Lake Tahoe. Can they stop Gogstad from dominating the world and piece all the clues together?


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - very upbeat
Time/era of story:
Spying/Terrorism Thriller Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 40 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 %
Search for technology?

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's

Main Adversary
Identity: - an organization
Age: - long-lived adults
Profession/status:
Eccentric: Yes
Motive of antagonist - money/treasure
The antagonists are: - big business leader(s)

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast - Pacific NW - California - Alaska
The Americas (not US): Yes
The Americas: - South
Jungles? Yes
Jungles - snakes - ape people - lost city - quicksand
Water? Yes
Water: - pleasure/love boat - swimming on - scuba under - submarining - feeding sharks - drowning
Misc setting - scientific labs

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Explicit sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing
A lot of techno jargon? Yes
Kind of jargon? - archaeology
Unusual forms of death - poisoning - flamed - drowned - perforation--bullets - exploded into bits
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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