PerCussion

Adventure novelist Clive Cussler published his first Dirk Pitt adventure in 1973. Pitt, the director of special projects for the National Underwater and Marine Agency, is an accomplished oceanographer, engineer and thwarter of evil, world-dominating plots. Together with his lifelong friend, Al Giordino, Pitt has found lost Atlantis, uncovered what seems like a dozen lost treasure ships, and won the affections of many a comely lass.

Along the way, Cussler has become quite the brand name in the techno-thriller game. His own company, which he named after the fictional government agency Pitt works for, has uncovered more than 60 shipwreck sites. And having become a brand name, Cussler and his publishers have begun to branch out by having him work with co-authors to produce more books than he could do on his own.

The NUMA Files, co-written with Paul Kemprecos, were the first spin-off in the Cussler-verse, debuting their own series with 1999's Serpent. They detail the adventures of NUMA underwater researcher Kurt Austin and his co-worker, Jose Zavala. Austin and Zavala pretty much reflect Pitt and Giordino for the most part; Austin collects antique pistols while Pitt collects antique cars, for example. A word-substitution of "Pitt" for "Austin" and "Giordino" for "Zavala" wouldn't produce a single difficulty in following any of the eight NUMA books.

A lot more interesting in terms of the cast are The Oregon Files, which spun off on their own in 2004's Golden Buddha. Juan Cabrillo, his multi-talented crew and their disguised super-boat the Oregon first appeared helping Pitt in Flood Tide in 1997. Cabrillo is the chairman of a private company called The Corporation that use their weapons, high-tech know-how and expertise to handle delicate operations that a government or client might not want a public connection to. Cussler began the series with Craig Dirgo, his co-author on two books describing some of his shipwreck finds. After the first two, he switched to working with thriller author Jack Du Brul. The variety of characters, multiple plotlines and Mission: Impossible-styled tactics enliven this series considerably.

Begun this year in Spartan Gold, the Fargo adventures tell the stories of husband-and-wife treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo. Like nearly all Cussler characters, the Fargos are very at home in the water, and are also calm in a crisis, quick to take action and very good shots. Co-authored with Grant Blackwood, the story carries a Nick and Nora Charles meet Indiana and Marion Jones vibe. The Fargos make excellent partners and neither hesitates to bring the other down to earth if the need arises.

Cussler himself wrote the first novel of the Isaac Bell series, The Chase, in 2007. Bell is a no-nonsense detective working in early 20th-century America, using both his brains and his aptitude for action to solve the case. With the recently released The Wrecker, Cussler partners with Justin Scott to send Bell off to the races on his own adventures. The Bell series so far shows a good eye for period detail and quick-paced action pieces.

Beginning with 2004's Black Wind, Cussler's son Dirk began co-writing the main series of novels. Black Wind also saw Pitt's twin son and daughter, whom he never knew until he first met as adults in 2001's Valhalla Rising, take a more central role to the story. The pair, Dirk Pitt, Jr., and Summer Pitt, seem very much chips off the old block when it comes to undersea work, exploration and megalomaniacal baddie-thwarting.

According to an interview with Kemprecos, his way of collaborating with Cussler casts the better-known writer in the role of story suggestion, some rewrite guidance and other discussion. Kemprecos said he does most of the writing and it's pretty reasonable to assume the other men, all of them with more than one book to their own credit, do so as well, with one exception.

Reading each book reinforces that idea. The irony is that although Cussler has gotten to be a better writer over the years, reducing his clunky dialogue, detours for technological explanations and whatnot, almost all of his co-authors write better books than he does. Kemprecos is probably the least adept of the bunch, with Du Brul and Blackwood vying for a top spot. It's unclear how the co-writing works when Cussler works with his son, but those books tend to show some of the same flaws as Clive Cussler's solo material.

But what does make Cussler's books work -- and what's helped make him the kind of brand name that can generate these multiple series with multiple co-authors -- is his attitude towards his storytelling. Almost like an old-fashioned pulp writer, Cussler seems to get that the idea is to tell the story. Leave the preaching and the lectures at home, leave the political philosophy to the philosophers and just tell the story as lickety darn split as it will stand. When you're done, tell another one.

It won't win any literary awards and it probably won't generate any courses at Harvard, but it's an approach that has brought a lot of enjoyment to a lot of readers and turned more than a few on to the research that is being done in the oceans of our world. There'll be worse legacies, I'm sure.