| · Portal |
 Help
 Search
 Members
 Calendar
|
| Welcome Guest ( Log In | Register ) | Resend Validation Email |
| miketifosi27 | Posted on Jan 16 2013, 05:06 PM | ||
| In Scared Stone when they are travelling South in Scotland they have 2 options. "Do they go West to Edinburgh or East to Glasgow?" (This is not an exact quote) Geographically incorrect. Edinburgh is East and Glasgow West. I did point this out to Mr Cussler FB and he kindly acknowledged the error! |
|||
| DirkPitt | Posted on Dec 23 2012, 09:45 PM | ||
Two things; 1. "Kilometers" is used only when Pitt is in the UK, but "miles" is also used; Add all that to the fact that Brewster was in a strange land; he was alone and friendless. Death stalked him constantly without letup, and his only chance for escaping to the United States with the byzanium was moored several miles away at the dock in Southampton. 2, "Kilometers" is mentioned twice only when referring to posted signs; Out of the corner of one eye he caught a marker that gave the distance to the great harbor port as twenty kilometers. The directions gave the farm's location as three kilometers east in the next country lane to Southby. It's as if Clive actually believed England measured distances in kilometers. If this is the case, it could well be a blunder. |
|||
| mzal | Posted on Dec 23 2012, 05:16 PM | ||
| It still seems strange that he only changes to kilometers when Dirk is in England. The UK government announced the change to the metric system in 1966 but as far as I am aware we never had any intention to use kilometers instead of miles for road markings (as mentioned old habits die hard and we kept quite a few imperial units). If Clive was trying to push the metric system in the US would it not have made more sense for him to go back and simply change the 59 times he uses miles in the states and use miles for the distances in the UK. | |||
| DirkPitt | Posted on Dec 23 2012, 01:56 PM | ||
Interesting! I just checked the UK edition of RTT and it has kilometers just like the US edition. Both have "miles" as well as "kilometers". "Miles" is mentioned 59 times and "kilometers" only twice. "Kilometers" is only mentioned in the last few chapters of the book. I'm now wondering if Clive finalised the the last few chapters of RTT just, as you said, the push for metric came in. The U.S. Metric Study recommended that the United States implement a carefully planned transition to the principal use of the metric system over a decade. Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 "to coordinate and plan the increasing use of the metric system in the United States". RTT was published in 1976 and "Code" readers will recall this: 1970-1973 Clive was asked to leave his position at Hull/Medford and whilst out of work, wrote “Raise the Titanic” in his basement at home. So it seems, Clive possibly put the final touches to the RTT manuscript after the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 and obviously before it was handed over to Viking in 1976. Intriguingly, if Clive actually finalised RTT in 1973, he may have rewrote the ending 2 years later prior to publication. |
|||
| Sean Ellis | Posted on Dec 23 2012, 03:22 AM | ||
| Mzal, believe it or not, that measurement was given in metric for the sake of US readers. When Raise the Titanic was originally published, the US was attempting to go metric, and for at least a few of Pitt's adventures, Cussler seemed to be advancing the change. One of the books even has a comment in the forward about the US "officially" adopting the metric system. It was actually a good idea and we probably should have done it then, but old habits die hard. |
|||
| mzal | Posted on Dec 23 2012, 02:15 AM | ||
Great forum. Ive noticed a few little errors in various books but Clives books always seem well researched to me. Ive just read Raise the Titannic though and one error really stood out to me. It was when Dirk was driving through England looking for the byzanium at the end of the book. It says 'Out of the corner of one eye he caught a marker that gave the distance to the great harbor port as twenty kilometers' and later 'The directions gave the farm's location as three kilometers east on the next country lane to Southby' This surprised me as distance is measured in miles in England not kilometers like the rest of Europe. I found it hard to believe someone who obviously researches his books got something so simple so wrong. Still a great author though.  |
|||
| wardt | Posted on Feb 18 2012, 08:05 PM | ||
| In Valhalla Rising page 65 "Finally the boats had retrieved as many of the living survivors as could be found" After Dirk Pitt helps rescue passengers and crew of a cruise ship apparently it was neccesary to mention that the survivors they rescued were living. Does that mean they did not retrieve the dead survivors. I thought that by the very definition if you are a survivor you are alive or else you wouldn't be a survivor. They were not able to rescue everyone and probably were not able to recover the bodies of at least most of the dead but as far as the survivors the assumption would be they were alive. Possible spoilers below. In Crescent Dawn some of the bad guys come to rob an archaeological site where Dirk Pitt jr. is working. They show up demanding that they give them the scrolls. Supposedly they found out about the scrolls when one of them visited the site several days before in disguise. The problem is at the time the bad guy visited the site they had not yet found the scrolls and had no idea there even was any important scrolls to find. Dirk Pitt jr did not find them until the following day. So there is no way the bad guys could have known about the scrolls. They clearly said the bad guy had only visited the site once and that was before they even knew there was any scrolls. |
|||
| tonym5 | Posted on Nov 29 2011, 03:35 AM | ||
Thank you Wyzardd for pointing that out and it just goes to show you that there is a lack of someone poring over the manuscript thoroughly to fact check and catch typos. So many typos, mistakes slip through editorial work and wind up being printed in the books that it is a consternation for me and others who care about these slipups. Welcome to the forum, Wyzardd and hope you stick around and add to this great community of Cussler maniacs.  |
|||
| wyzardd | Posted on Nov 28 2011, 06:30 PM | ||
| First post here, and I awaken a thread that looks like it's been undisturbed for nearly a year. Probably committing all manner of board etiquette sins at the same time ... There's one in Med Caper that bothers me every time I read it. Such a minor little thing, but it's one of those "Wait ... What?" things that probably says more about me than it does about the author and editor combined. Anyway, as Dirk is contemplating the weather balloon that's been rigged up with a bunch of explosives to trap peeping-Tom Willie and his bright yellow biplane, he leans on the rail and reflects that the thing is floating 800 feet high and 400 feet astern of the First Attempt, for a total distance of "4 football fields" I'm pretty sure that Cussler isn't older than Pythagoras or Euclid, so even back when it was written that would be slightly less than 3 football fields (894 feet away rather than 1200) 800²+400²=c² 640000+160000=800000 c=√800000 ~ 894 I'm thankful for ebooks. I've lost track of how many Pitt paperbacks I've worn out. |
|||
| A.C. | Posted on Jan 20 2011, 06:06 PM | ||
| In CRESECENT DAWN the character of the grandaughter of the body guard to Lord Kitchner is introduced as a woman in her 20's with a baby and later says her mother is 94...does that make any sense? I reread the pages several times to see if I was missing something and that she was great granddaughter but no... How did that get by both Cusslers? |
CLIVE CUSSLER FORUM
Choose a user id, register today, and be a part of the world's largest active Cussler forum. no fees
Keep your email address here updated to ensure that you receive breaking news!
mayday the mediterranean caper iceberg raise the titanic vixen 03 night probe pacific vortex deep six cyclops treasure dragon sahara inca gold shock wave the sea hunters flood tide dirk pitt revealed serpent atlantis found blue gold valhalla rising fire ice the sea hunters 2 white death golden buddha trojan odyssey lost city sacred stone black wind dark watch treasure of khan arctic drift polar shift the navigator skeleton coast plague ship vin fizz the chase
clive cussler dirk cussler craig dirgo paul kemprecos dirk pitt al giordino matthew mcconaughey penelope cruz
author sign signing signed rare scarce club fansite fan site tony krome book used books rare book store library nautical maritime ocean sea adventure writing clubs collector's club collector's clubs Collectors clubs cussler's new book forum chat discussion collect cussler collection clive cussler forum ccforum message board
sahara the movie new sahara film crusader productions
paramount morocco spain red tide sahara trailer movie trailer sahara preview clive cussler sahara
