Drew Mendelson

Intelligent life need not be alien. This planet’s oceans are largely unexplored. Intelligent life could be located no farther away than the deepest sea canyon. The science fiction authors of Dark Sea Rising make this possibility probable.

Not all intelligent life thinks the same nor does it have the same needs or motivations. This latter premise seemed so obvious after reading Dark Sea Rising. It is highly likely that any Intelligent life we encounter in the future, whether alien or show more earthly evolved, will think differently. Their intelligence would have evolved within their own physical restraints and adapted to meet their needs and wants. This is obvious as the purpose of intellectual evolution is to better enable a species to better provide for its needs and for those of its progeny.

A good science fiction writer leaves you considering the conceivability of the book’s premise. Barry Broad and Drew Mendelson don’t disappoint in this regard. By the time you’ve finished half the book, you’re identifying with and sympathetic to the aliens who are struggling against the onslaught of humanity. The book’s ending makes you question that empathy.

The ending of any good book resolves the conflicts that seized the reader’s attention. This book settles the human/alien conflict but does something more; it shocks you into saying “WHOO!”

Alien desires cannot be imputed by human outcome expectations. show less

I was very impressed with the authors refreshing story line. This was a first for me reading about not just aliens, but our own aliens living in the seas. As I was reading the story I could picture it as a movie in my own thoughts which made it an easy read. I would recommend this book to all alien lovers but also for those who need a change in genre.

This action-packed story has it all: first contact with another sentient species, skirmish with said species, government cover-up because, well, oil is involved and that rules all. What it doesn't have is more pages: a relationship between two of the main human characters went from "nice to meet you" to "let's make lots of babies" in no time at all. Protagonists came and went too quickly and suffered from underdevelopment. The back story for the aliens was very well done and hopefully forms show more the basis for additional stories. The aliens themselves could have used a little more character development as well -- we got to know two of them well enough, but it's hard to say how representative they are of the species.

That aside, the story is compelling -- the chain of events and actions of peripheral characters who don't have a complete picture of what's going on are spot-on plausible. There were probably a few more dots that could be connected in a longer story (a World War 3 scenario would be nearly inevitable given the state of affairs at the end of the story); hopefully the abrupt ending is an indication of more to come. show less

What if an oil company found its deep-sea drilling efforts sabotaged by an intelligence at the bottom of the sea? That’s the premise of Dark Sea Rising, a pretty good hard science fiction read.
Dark Sea Rising drew me in and kept my attention from beginning to end. While I didn't find it exactly a page turner I did finish it in only a few sittings. The storyline is good, and the concept of an intelligence at the bottom of the sea was intriguing. The alternation of viewpoint between ‘the show more above’ and ‘the below’ was fun and well done.
I felt a tension as I read the book, between the seeming predictability of the plot and characters versus the uniqueness of the concept. Without giving away too many spoilers I felt like the conventions of science fiction (and, to some extent, thrillers) were being followed way too closely, so that you could almost predict what was going to happen next and how the author was going to get around the problems he had created, and create new ones. At the same time as I mentioned above that didn't prevent me from enjoying the story and turning the pages pretty rapidly. It was compelling to see how the unique ‘intelligence’ was going to solve its end of the problems.
Like many books, the closer you get to knowing the material the author is referencing, the more small flaws you find in it. My background includes some experience with oil field exploration and development, and I found some of the proposed details jarring, though I wasn’t close enough to that end of the business to be sure they were wrong. One trivial example is that I have lived for many years between Houston, Texas and Galveston, Texas, and the brief part of the novel set in Galveston reports the presence of a Galveston TV station big enough to have a helicopter. That has not been true for decades, if it ever was. All of the significant TV stations in the area are in Houston. It makes you wonder how many other details in a book that presents itself as well researched may have been assumed rather than checked.
I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys a science fiction story with an intriguing concept. Four stars.
I received a copy of this book as part of the LibraryThing early reviewer program. This did not, to my knowledge, influence my review of the book. show less