Cephalopodcast

It’s summertime, and if you are heading to the beach this season, why not take along some easy ocean inspired reading? Right now I am halfway through Camouflage by Joe Haldeman.

Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman

In 2019, a mysterious, egg-shaped artifact is discovered on the ocean floor…Denser than any known material, the object defies all attempts to…break through…[but m]arine biologist Russell Sutton, whose last major feat was raising the Titanic, takes charge of the excavation, hoping to make a fortune by capitalizing on the artifact’s probable extraterrestrial origin. [He] little suspects that his destiny will soon intertwine with a pair of shape-shifting…aliens. One, known as the changeling, has been on Earth millions of years, assuming every identity from shark to human being, and slowly learning to love. The other, called the chameleon, has excelled in…killing. Neither knows of the other’s existence, but their slowly merging paths will meet in a stunning climax that determines their ultimate fates–and that of the artifact.

Starfish, by Peter Watts

If you don’t feel like buying Haldeman’s book right away, you can still get some underwater scifi satisfaction with Peter Watts’ Rifter series for free, starting with Starfish. Peter has “spent much of his adult life trying to decide whether to be a writer or a scientist…. He’s won a handful of awards in fields as diverse as marine mammal science, video documentary, and science fiction.” He is offering Starfish under a Creative Commons license.

You’re three kilometers below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. You’re perched on the shoulder of an active volcano. The local fauna is very large and very nasty. If it doesn’t kill you, a mudslide or an erupting smoker probably will.

Your fellow employees are rapists, pedophiles, borderline psychotics, and victims of same.

You feel very lucky to be here.

This is a damn sight better than the life you left behind.

I, Rowboat, by Cory Doctorow

If you would prefer to have your aquatic fiction read to you, check out Cory Doctorow’s new story podcast, I, Rowboat. It’s “about a theological dispute between an artifically intelligent Asimov three-laws cultist and an uplifted coral reef.”

Robbie the Row-Boat’s great crisis of faith came when the coral reef woke up.

“Fuck off,” the reef said, vibrating Robbie’s hull through the slap-slap of the waves of the coral sea, where he’d plied his trade for decades. “Seriously. This is our patch, and you’re not welcome.”

Robbie shipped oars and let the current rock him back toward the ship. He’d never met a sentient reef before, but he wasn’t surprised to see that Osprey Reef was the first to wake up. There’d been a lot of electromagnetic activity around there the last few times the big ship had steamed through the night to moor up here.

And if you are looking for more traditional fare, there is always the list of 101 Best Sea Books from Bookmark magazine and the NY Times beach reading list.

So what are your favorite sea stories?