Something's Alive on the Titanic

How possibly could the "Ghost Story Junkie" resist a title like this? It had a supernatural element along a really great story based on some truths and some things entirely from the imagination of the author. Sometimes it was difficult to tell them apart. I have always been fascinated with the history of this great vessel and how she met her fate...this story uses those facts but adds a delicious element of pure terror. The story starts with the 1975 expedition, one which ended in tragedy in very unusual circumstances. This is based on documented facts. It continues 18 years later with the sole surviving member of that original crew and adds some new characters all with the same purpose...find the treasure...and they get the same show more response...something says, "Go Away". The message is delivered in the strongest and most deadly terms possible. The story is fun while also being a little fanciful...but as I said there is an element of truth woven throughout. It’s really not hard to imagine that the Titanic is a haunted ship...but exactly what forms the haunting takes? That is what makes this story so haunting, and terror filled as well as making it interesting for lack of a better word. Ask yourself just what would it be like to search a wreck where more than 1,500 people died? Being on the bottom of the sea just adds to the atmosphere. What spirits would haunt those old staterooms? What wants the living gone? Well...here’s your chance to find out. show less

Something's Alive on the Titanic has a bit of a split story line, with one part of the book taking place in 1975, and the other part taking place in 1995. Written by the late Robert Serling, who is, in fact, Rod Serling's older brother, Something's Alive on the Titanic plays off of the idea that Dr. Robert Ballard was not the first one to discover the final resting place of the Titanic. Instead, a team led by John Hawke, at the behest of code-breaker Derek Montague, departs on an expedition to retrieve treasure from the Titanic's watery grave after Montague discovers that a shipment from a smuggling ring under the guise of a salvage company by the name of Sovereign Metals.

A true product of its time, and remaining faithful to the show more time-period in which the story is set, one of the few things of note to make in regards to its characters is the absolute lack of a strong female presence. The two women that are present, especially Chaney in the 1975 portion of the book, are Mary Sue-esque and, without a doubt, sexualized. Another note to be made comes in the form of the male characters: they are portrayed as stereotypical, stubborn men that, despite being superstitious, are also skeptics. This manner of male character is more prominent in the second part of the book than the first.

The plot, on the other hand, was pretty stellar. In 1975, the expedition lacks the proper equipment to dive down into the depths of the Atlantic and explore the ship for extended periods of time. They make the most of what they do have, however. Intent on claiming the lost treasure, most of John Hawke's crew show little regard for the fact that they are desecrating a grave: greed is, after all, the heart of all evil. While the Atlantic Ocean treats the crew well, the Titanic is anything but forgiving: the decrepit ship plays host to more than the relics of the souls that once stood upon its deck. Whatever that thing is, it doesn't play nicely. In 1995, the US Navy gathers a crew to find out what exactly happened in 1975, and to complete the earlier expedition's salvage mission.

Given the presence of a female in a heavily male dominated field, it goes without saying that there's a bit of teasing and a bit of romance. That subplot is fairly minor and serves mostly to remind readers of a certain character's penchant for being a total asshole and little more. There is also sex, briefly, but I'll leave that to someone else.

Serling's knowledge of the Titanic is actually pretty accurate, down to the fact that the fourth funnel on the ship was a fake, there was a shortage of lifeboats, and most of the lifeboats were dropped before they were filled.

It isn't very often that a book really draws me in, but that could be attributed to the fact that I no longer read as I used to. Serling's prose kept me on the edge of my seat and at times, it even raised my heart rate a little. Rather than paint us an entire picture of the supernatural phenomena that takes place, he begins with little bits and pieces, crumbs if you will, until finally, you begin to question the sanity of the characters involved, whilst simultaneously hoping for the best. show less

Before Ballard's own expedition to find the Titanic, a secret expedition sets forth to salvage a treasure of gold aboard the sunken ship but the situation becomes bizarre. How do you cross a sunken ship story, especially that of the Tiutanic, with a haunted house story? Serling does it. Lots of lore on the Titanic itself, amazing level of research. Smooth reading adventure with a bizarre but not too B-movie monster bizarre encounter with the paranormal. I sped right through it and did the last 150 pages in one sitting. Excellent story.

Saved from a one-star rating by the glorious, unmitigated cheesiness. Serling tries a little too hard to impress the reader with his stock of Titanic factoids, but if you need to turn off your brain and wallow in fast-pace cheesy action, this is the book for you.

A gripping novel, prior to the movie "Titanic", dealing with two separate attempts, decades apart, to recover a fortune in gold bullion from the famous doomed ship. Both attempts are met with resistance by a mysterious presence from the Titanic - the ghosts of the victims? Well-plotted, although the characters are a little simplistic and shallow, with an interesting attempt to provide a scientific explanation for what we call "ghosts".

I really enjoyed this book. Nice little ghost story on the bottom of the ocean floor involving the most famous ship in history. If you can find a copy I highly recommend it.