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| The Navigator (The Numa Files) | 
| Authors: Clive Cussler, Paul Kemprecos
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $26.94 (100%)
New (66) Collectible (8) from $3.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 87624
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 0399154191
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780399154195
ASIN: 0399154191
Publication Date: June 5, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Product Description
Years ago, an ancient Phoenician statue known as the Navigator was stolen from the Baghdad Museum, and there are men who would do anything to get their hands on it. Their first victim is a crooked antiquities dealer, murdered in cold blood. Their second very nearly is a UN investigator who, were it not for the timely assistance of Austin and Zavala, would now be at the bottom of a watery grave.
What's so special about this statue? Austin wonders. The search for answers will take the NUMA team on an astonishing odyssey through time and space, one that encompasses no less than the lost treasures of King Solomon, a mysterious packet of documents personally encoded by Thomas Jefferson, and a top secret scientific project that could change the world forever.
And that's before the surprises really begin . . .
Rich with all the hair-raising action and endless invention that have become Cussler's hallmarks, The Navigator is Clive's best yet.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 56 more reviews...
 Out of pages... cut story short... November 9, 2008
What happened between chapters 46 and 47? In the paperback version of the book, this is around pages 470. Was it a deadline or simply a page count issue?
This book is interesting steady to read up to that point, but all of the sudden a chunk of story seems to simply be dropped in favor of getting to the end of the book. After reading 470 pages, this was very, very disappointing - to the point of writing this review and questioning whether to read another Clive Cussler book.
Really, the story builds. It is a bit slow. It takes some goofy turns -- like jousting. But, in the end there is an entertaining story up to about page 470. At that point it seems that the author's focus is simply on wrapping things up to get to an end and not really about taking the story to the end. The result was that I felt ripped off by the author and the publisher.
I threw the book away rather than donating it as I didn't want to waste anyone else's time. I don't like to throw books away. (Actually it will be recycled)
 The Navigator October 4, 2008
This Cussler was absolutely fascinating, and educational. Hard to leave it for the next time in my car.
 Extremely Disappointing September 26, 2008
Cussler can do (and has done) much better.
I approached The Navigator with the very low standards I normally impose on paperbacks I buy at an airport, but they were still far too high for this silly book.
The Navigator's characters are one dimensional at their best, and the plot's utter predictability is relieved only its occasional resort to absurd and implausible devices such as the jousting scene at the end.
There are many better ways to waste your time than reading The Navigator.
 Mundane September 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I hadn't read Cussler before so was looking forward to a good vacation read. I was a bit disappointed by the story line, which sounded fairly typical. Although the book ended well, the predictability was not appreciated. So I thought it was pretty average.
 Fast-Paced, Predictable and Eminently Readable August 24, 2008
There's nothing like a good Clive Cussler story for adventure, pacing and setting. Even those he has co-authored -- as he has The Navigator with Paul Kemprecos -- are real page-turners. Reading Cussler's Dirk Pitt and Kurt Austin novels is a guilty pleasure of many of my friends who would not want to admit in public that they enjoy him.
Cussler does not, however, excel at characterization. Those who populate his stories are cardboard cut-out figures stood against exotic and sometimes threatening backdrops. They have one-page resumes that are impressive both for their power and for their narrow focus. Never do his characters stop to question their orders, assess their loyalties or doubt their abilities. Never does one of his characters emerge from the considerable danger and violence through which he or she passes with any different character or personality than at the outset of the tale.
For those of us who enjoy reading stories for story's sake, that's a forgivable sin. But it does make the novels less literary, less stimulating and more predictable.
The Navigator is bothered by one other shortcoming that has not always been endemic to Cussler's work. The story line is a straight line with very few, if indeed any, surprise twists along the way. When you've finished reading the first few dozen pages, I'd bet you will already be able to see the ultimate outcome at least in broad outline. The villain appears early as a villain. You know it the instant you encounter him.
Even with those weaknesses -- and several other, more minor ones including a deeply ingrained gender discrimination characteristic of so many such works -- this is a fine read. The story pulls you through a plot that seldom plods and often races almost too fast to absorb in easy blocks of time.
If you're the type of reader who enjoys straight-forward adventure and isn't at least always concerned about deep characterization or clever plots, you're sure to enjoy this one.
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