yeah! The first few were great, but then the formula got boring. Same story, different details. I always thought it would be cool to hear about how he got his adventuring from his mother, not his boring dad. Do you really think she was always off on some spa treatment? I think not! I imagined she is some super secret agent off on assignment...
Nah, I made that up myself about his mom, thought it would be more entertaining than the stuff that I read. How many times does Dirk Pitt get to save the world? The old series, starting with Sahara, is what I read.
Never read his books, but I know that he launched several expeditions to find the H.L. Hunley. His third expedition (1995) was successful, and it was just three guys with scuba gear and a diving boat.
His second expedition was HUGE and government funded, yet was an epic failure. Hmmmm...