History YMMV / DirkPittAdventures

* AmericansHateTingle: Unsurprisingly, ''White Death'' and its portrayal of both the Spanish government and the Basque terrorism is controversial among Spanish readers.
* FairForItsDay: Zig-zagged. One subplot of ''Iceberg'' (1975) involves Pitt pretending to be CampGay to get a potential enemy to underestimate him. Pitt bases his acting on a stereotype quite trite but still present in the popular culture of the time, and Sandecker even asks him why he's acting like a "faggot". However, [[spoiler:the foe in question is a homophobe (and a domestic abuser, and a CorruptCorporateExecutive, and a megalomaniac) and Pitt guessed that he would be when they met based on his personality. When Pitt reveals the truth, it's in the middle of beating five types of crap out of him, which is payback for the beating ''he'' got from him earlier, where he didn't break character.]] Even more notably, in a manner that would be shocking even today, Pitt seems to have no problem with [[spoiler:Kristjan becoming Kirsti, at one point even considering a sexual offer from her, and is more concerned with the fact that she has become a sociopath. Of course, the fact that Kristjan has become an impossibly AttractiveBentGender also helps.]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:

* HarsherInHindsight: Most notably the [[spoiler: plot to level half of Manhattan, outwards from the World Trade Center, which was thankfully foiled at the climax of ''Valhalla Rising.'']]

* CriticalResearchFailure: There's a few of these scattered throughout the books, with the most egregious ones appearing in ''Atlantis Found'' and ''Trojan Odyssey''. It can be also considered ArtisticLicenseHistory if one rolls with the notion that Cussler is just picking up interesting historic theories that would give a good story instead of pretending they are correct.

*** The entire EvilPlan would have no chance of working in a modern setting because [[spoiler:transexuals are far more socially accepted than they were in the 1970s. Heck, Kirsti coming out would probably increase her company's stock value, especially since Iceland is quite progressive.[[note]]Just to establish a baseline here; it had its first openly gay Prime Minister in 2009, and you can legally transition without surgery.[[/note]] ]]

** The entire EvilPlan would have no chance of working in a modern setting because[[spoiler:transexuals are far more socially accepted than they were in the 1970s. Heck, Kirsti coming out would probably increase her company's stock value, especially since Iceland is quite progressive.[[note]]Just to establish a baseline here; it had its first openly gay Prime Minister in 2009, and you can legally transition without surgery.[[/note]] ]]

* ValuesDissonance: In ''Dragon'', Pitt falls asleep while Stacy is giving him a back rub. At the next paragraph, she ''[[DudeShesLikeInAComa has sex with him while asleep]]''. Today, this would be a questionable consent at the very best.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: One plot development in ''Havana Storm'' is the death of UsefulNotes/FidelCastro in June 2016. The Cusslers were only off by five months.
** Before that, ''Treasure'' published in 1988 but set in 1990, imagines that Muammar Gaddafi died of cancer while the Ayatollah Khomeni was still alive. By 1990, Khomeni had been dead for a year while Gaddafi would live until 2011.

** ''Dragon'', published in 1990, shows Japan not only an economic powerhouse but so advanced in technology that they have artificial intelligence robots and will have a space defense system ready in just two years. Characters mention such "possibly inevitable" things like Japan seizing control of Hawaii or even a heavy influence on the West Coast of the United States. Starting a year after the book's publication, Japan entered the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan) Lost Decade]] of a heavy recession and, in many ways, still has never recovered, let alone come close to economic/technological domination over the world.

* ''Night Probe'' opens with the President told that the Middle East has only two years of oil left...in 1981.

** ''Dragon'', published in 1990, shows Japan not only an economic powerhouse but so advanced in technology that they have artifical intelligence robots and will have a space defense system ready in just two years. Starting a year after the book's publication, Japan entered the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan) Lost Decade]] of a heavy recession and, in many ways, still has never recovered, let alone come close to economic/technological domination over the world.

* HilariousInHindsight: ''Treasure'' states that in 1991, the U.S. finally adapted to the metric system which, at the time, many thought was inevitable. Nearly 30 years later, the country still has not done so.

* HilariousInHindsight: ''Treasure'' states that in 1991, the U.S. finally adapted to the metric system which, at the time, many thought was inevitable. Nearly 20 years later, the country still has not done so.

* FairForItsDay: Zig-zagged. One subplot of ''Iceberg'' (1975) involves Pitt pretending to be CampGay to get a potential enemy to underestimate him. Pitt bases his acting on a stereotype quite trite but still present in the popular culture of the time, and Sandecker even asks him why he's acting like a "faggot". However, [[spoiler:the foe in question is a homophobe (and a domestic abuser, and a CorruptCorporateExecutive, and a megalomaniac) and Pitt guessed that he would be when they met based on his personality. When Pitt reveals the truth, it's in the middle of beating five types of crap out of him, which is payback for the beating ''he'' got from him earlier, where he didn't break character.]] Even more notably, in a manner that would be shocking even today, Pitt seems to have no problem with [[spoiler:Kristjan becoming Kirsti, at one point even considering a sexual offer from her, and is more concerned with the fact that she has become a sociopath. Of course, the fact that Kristjan has become a classically beautiful woman (somewhat unrealistically, considering the logistics of sex change surgery) also helps.]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Pitt himself, for the RunningGag of him behaving deliberately with rudeness and uncalled ways towards people in charge and then getting away thanks to the mention of his influential and powerful dad. Thankfully, this was downplayed in later installments.

* FairForItsDay: Zig-Zagged. One subplot of ''Iceberg'' (1975) involves Pitt pretending to be CampGay to get a potential enemy to underestimate him. Pitt bases his acting on a stereotype quite trite but still present in the popular culture of the time, and Sandecker even asks him why he's acting like a "faggot". However, [[spoiler:the foe in question is a homophobe (and a domestic abuser, and a CorruptCorporateExecutive, and a megalomaniac) and Pitt guessed that he would be when they met based on his personality. When Pitt reveals the truth, it's in the middle of beating five types of crap out of him, which is payback for the beating ''he'' got from him earlier, where he didn't break character.]] Even more notably, in a light which would be shocking even today, Pitt seems to have no problem with [[spoiler:Kristjan becoming Kirsti, at one point even considering a sexual offer from her, and is more concerned with the fact that she has become a sociopath.]]

* {{Narm}}: The sheer amount of oniric, sexualized AuthorAppeal in ''Pacific Vortex''. Through the book, the still young Pitt has an on/off with a lovely seductress come literally from the sea, faces a horde of evil aquatic men dressed in loincloths, and fights his ultimate showdown in an ancient underwater sanctuary in which everybody end up nude. It just looks like the submarine version of a JungleOpera or something you would find drawn in Web/{{Deviantart}}. It's safe to say Cussler himself realized how narmy was all this, as he didn't want to publish the story and had to be heavily insisted to do so.

* FairForItsDay: Zig-Zagged. One subplot of ''Iceberg'' (1975) involves Pitt pretending to be CampGay to get a potential enemy to underestimate him. Pitt bases his acting on a stereotype quite trite but still present in the popular culture of the time, and Sandecker even asks him why he's acting like a "faggot". However, [[spoiler:the foe in question is a homophobe (and a domestic abuser, and a CorruptCorporateExecutive, and a megalomaniac) and Pitt guessed that he would be when they met based on his personality. When Pitt reveals the truth, it's in the middle of beating five types of crap out of him, which is payback for the beating ''he'' got from him earlier, where he didn't break character.]] Even more notably, in a light which would be shocking even today, Pitt seems to have no problem with [[spoiler:Kristjan becoming Kirsti, at one point even considering a sexual offer from her, and is more concerned with the fact that she has become a sociopath.]]

* CriticalResearchFailure: There's a few of these scattered throughout the books, with the most egregious ones appearing in ''Atlantis Found'' and ''Trojan Odyssey''.

* FairForItsDay: One subplot of ''Iceberg'' (1975) involves Pitt pretending to be CampGay to get a potential enemy to underestimate him. Sandecker even asks him why he's acting like a "faggot". Incidentally, [[spoiler:the foe in question is a homophobe (and a domestic abuser, and a CorruptCorporateExecutive, and a megalomaniac) and Pitt guessed that he would be when they met based on his personality. When Pitt reveals the truth, it's in the middle of beating five types of crap out of him, which is payback for the beating ''he'' got from him earlier, where he didn't break character. Also, he seems to have no problem with Kristjan becoming Kirsti, at one point even considering a sexual offer from her, and is more concerned with the fact that she has become a sociopath.]]

* FairForItsDay: One subplot of ''Iceberg'' (1975) involves Pitt pretending to be CampGay to get a potential enemy to underestimate him. Sandecker even asks him why he's acting like a "faggot". Incidentally, [[spoiler:the foe in question is a homophobe (and a domestic abuser, and a CorruptCorporateExecutive, and a megalomaniac) and Pitt guessed that he would be when they met based on his personality. When Pitt reveals the truth, it's in the middle of beating five types of crap out of him, which is payback for the beating ''he'' got from him earlier, where he didn't break character. Also, he seems to have no problem with Kristjan becoming Kirsti, and is more concerned with the fact that she seems to have become a sociopath.]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: One plot development in ''Havana Storm'' is the death of UsefulNotes/FidelCastro in June 2016. The Cusslers were only off by five months.

FunnyAneurysmMoment: One plot development in ''Havana Storm'' is the death of UsefulNotes/FidelCastro in June 2016. The Cusslers were only off by five months.

* UnfortunateImplications: In ''Cyclops'', Jessie Lebaron makes a joke about the supposed "Latin male chauvinism" to get a taxist to drive her and Pitt. That is, are we talking about male chauvinism in a book series in which every female character is a perennial DamselInDistress FlatCharacter who gets treated as a girl-of-the-book trophy by the incredibly capable protagonist?

* HypocriticalHumor: In ''Cyclops'', Jessie Lebaron makes a joke about the supposed "Latin male chauvinism" to get a taxist to drive her and Pitt. That is, are we talking about male chauvinism in a book series in which every female character is a perennial DamselInDistress FlatCharacter who gets treated as a girl-of-the-book trophy by the incredibly capable protagonist?