Ocean on Top

An investigator searches for missing agents in a hidden underwater civilization at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The inhabitants live in a dense, oxygenated bubble of fluid, showcasing themes of extreme environmental adaptation and energy rationing. Power Board agents disappear, leading to the discovery of a secret underwater community.

It's a couple of centuries in the future, and Earth is ruled by a Power Board created with the energy crisis became so severe that the choices for the human race were Ration or Die. Our protagonist, who hates his name and therefore never says it, is an engineer with the Power Board who has been assigned the risky task of investigating the disappearance of three other Power Board officials--friends as well as colleagues of his--who have disappeared in the South Pacific.

What he discovers is shocking--an undersea secret nation using unrationed volcanic power to live lives free of the restrictions and constraints of society on the surface.

And all three of his friends are alive--two of them working for the Council that rules this undersea show more culture.

This is a nifty little story that presents the narrator with a real moral dilemma.

Recommended.

I borrowed this book from a friend. show less

I kind of feel like on this one, Hal got his interesting world all created and then never quite figured a worthwhile story to hang on top of it, but went ahead and published it anyway.