An "eco-thriller" that was kinda fun, but seemed out of place - probably because of the pre-2001 terrorism theme. There were some good diving sequences, but the characters were never very interesting - too pretty and intelligent for me. Maybe I should reread the Monkey Wrench Gang... (August 19, 2004) ( )

Fairly entertaining 20mins-into-the-future thriller - though the eco-terrorists were unconvincing. ( )

I've been a fan of Gould's writing for years, but had somehow missed this one. I was excited to get it!

And- well, it was an entertaining enough read, but ultimately pretty simple. And the one BIG question it raised- who, exactly, was funding the eco-terrorists- was not answered. BAD!

The eco-terrorists were the least-well-drawn of the lot. We have 3 idealists (of whom 2 seem to at least as interested in making stuff go BOOM than in the ideals), and 1 staunch idealist (who nonetheless got suckered into one of the most blatant agent provocteur schemes i have ever read in my LIFE, and who in defiance of all reason thought HE was in charge when it was clearly the AP). None of them worked as people; they weren't even coherent. I'm leaving the AP out because she was intended to be obscure.

The "good guys" were mostly better-written, else it would have been pretty boring, despite the exciting plotting elements. The scuba-diving stuff was nifty and accurate as far as I could tell- though it's been 40 years since I tried it. The hints of the tech in the deep-sea station were great! It would be wonderful if we could buy lobster and shrimp raised so sustainably; Gulf Stream 1 did a pretty good job, as described, of creating its own ecosystem.

So there was a lot to like. For me, though, a book this long needed additional complexity in the plotline(s). More about who was funding the AP and the eco-terrorists- and more conflict between the assumedly good-hearted eco-terrorists and the AP- would have helped... as did the office politics on the part of the good guys.

I'm not sorry I read it; I just don't know that I'd recommend it to anyone unless it met a particular interest of theirs. ( )