DO NOT BUY THIS KINDLE EDITION OF THE GHOST FROM THE GRAND BANKS. Calling this an abridgment is too kind. I read this novel when it was first published, just before the wreck of the Titanic was found by Ballard. I chose to pay the overpriced $10.99 for this digital book because I knew it would be a good reading experience, but the original book and this Kindle edition are not the same. I had no idea the Kindle edition was an abridgment. The original book had much, much more story to it and as a result, was a much more satisfying, better novel. I'll try not to include any spoilers here: there was much more about "Colleen," who is only mentioned twice in this abridgment, and the ending to the story of actually raising the Titanic was completely cut from this Kindle edition. The Kindle edition skips right to the epilogue, occurring eons in the future. I know more story about many of the characters was cut, but this is what I remember most from the original novel that isn't in this bad edition.

I'm not going to read Deep Range, the second novel included in this Kindle edition. Goodness knows how it has been butchered.

Nowhere does Amazon tell its customers that this is an abridgment. Whose fault is this? The publishers? If a Kindle edition is not the same as the print version, customers must be told before making a purchase. Why else should a reader overpay for a digital edition? (I don't think any digital book is worth more than a few dollars - with less production and freight costs, authors can and should make even more than from the print version, if only the greedy publishers and retailers would let them.) It is irrelevant who sets the prices for Kindle editions and what that price may be - customers must be told when they are purchasing a digital book that contains less text/info/prose/whatever than the print version.

The publisher is The Hachette Book Group (quite aptly named, so it seems), one of the big six publishers. Is this what we can expect now, publishers abridging books and not telling readers?

Not only are readers cheated out of a good literary experience, but also the author is made to look as if he produced an inferior novel. I hold Amazon just as responsible as the publisher for this, because Amazon is big enough to force publishers to be honest about what they are selling ( )

You can't go wrong with a 2 novel collection from a master writer. "The Ghost from the Grand Banks" is a relatively recent story (1990) about what Clarke thought was a near certainty - the raising of the Titanic from the ocean floor in 2012 for the 100 year anniversary. Two different techniques are suggested along with the technical, political and natural problems that come up. An interesting speculative/scientific story with a couple of good side plots and characters woven through it.
"The Deep Range' is an older story (1957) also concerning the sea. This one is about Clarke's theory that at some not too far future time, we would be farming whales for food to feed Earth's population. Again some discussion of technology, but this is more about characters. A nice story, but mostly to see how far wrong he was on this one.

With both stories I was immediately impressed by the quality of the writing. Its nice to read something by a true master from time to time. ( )

I consider myself a fan of Arthur C. Clarke, but somehow I wasn't aware The Ghost From the Grand Banks existed until I found an ebook containing this and his classic The Deep Range. What both books have in common and makes them fitting to be grouped together is that both are works of science fiction dealing with exploration--of the oceans. It seems there are millions of books about space exploration, but I can't think of anyone, other than Clarke, Frank Herbert and Verne who have used exploration of the oceans in their science fiction. That despite that it's as forbidding and difficult an environment as outer space and not much better explored than the Moon despite being three-quarters of the earth.

I didn't expect to like The Ghost from the Grand Banks as much as I did. This wasn't a book that got a lot of attention. Published in 1990 it's set in its near future of 2012--its near future, our recent past. As might be expected, a lot of what Clarke predicted in terms of sociological and scientific developments turned out off the mark. Science fiction dates fast in that respect, even though Clarke has had a good record of imagining a future come true. (He's sometimes credited with the idea of geosynchronous satellites; he did popularize it in his science fiction.) But his misses didn't bother me much at all. Mentally shift the setting decades hence and much of this story about attempting to raise the Titanic still seems plausible and ingenious. And Clarke is a pleasure to read. Striking lines, elegant prose, and he's such an erudite writer. Who else can write of the glories of both the ocean and space, of Rachmaninoff and Elgar and the esoteric mathematics of the Mandelbrot set? The story itself was surprisingly poignant and bittersweet. So while I wouldn't put this at the top of Clarke's fiction along with works such as 2001 or The City and the Stars, it's certainly worth the read. Especially if you're a fan of Clarke or marine exploration.

I think The Deep Range one of Clarke's most entertaining books, even if not one of his better known. Set in the Pacific Ocean--or rather under it--it follows Walter Franklin who trains to become an underwater warden. While his Dolphin Island features dolphins, this book focuses on whales. (And whale farming, which probably would horrify a lot of readers today, even if in the end that's turned around somewhat.) I'm not sure if this would hold up on reread, but the book left a vivid impression of what an alien and beautiful and rich environment can be found right here on earth. ( )