A Deeper Sea

by Alexander Jablokov

In the year 2015, a dolphin researcher with dubious motives removes the barriers impeding human/delphine communications and transforms the ocean-dwelling creatures into cybernetic weapons of destruction. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Alexander Jablokov writes science fiction for readers who won't give up literate writing or vivid characters to get the thrills they demand. He is a natural transition for non-SF readers interested in taking a stroll with a dangerous AI or a neurosurgeon/jazz musician turned detective, while still giving hardcore SF fans speculative flash, incomprehensible aliens, and kitchen appliances with insect wing cases.

From his well-regarded first novel, Carve the Sky, an interplanetary espionage novel set in a culturally complex 25th century, through the obscenely articulate dolphins with military modifications of a Deeper Sea, the hardboiled post-cyberpunk of Nimbus, the subterranean Martian repression of River of Dust, and the perverse space opera of Deepdrive, he has come to Brain Thief, a contemporary high-tech thriller with a class clown attitude.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I moved to Mexico, I had two rules to help me decide which books I would bring with me: 1) a book that I could read repeatedly without getting tired of; 2) a book I had not read in so many years that it would be fresh the next time I opened it.

A Deeper Sea fit rule #2. I could vaguely remember reading it, but no details came to mind. This is the story of a Russian scientist obsessed over communicating with dolphins and the world-altering results of his experiments. Compelling idea, but I could not get interested: the awareness of an upcoming 'shocking act of extraordinary cruelty' (from the blurb on the back cover) bothered me; my attention wandered too much, and I did not care about any of the characters I met in the few chapters I read.

Is it me or the book? All readers have picked up a book and put them it down again because it was simply not the right time for that particular book yet. Usually when that happens I give the book another chance in the future, but this one will go to the Trade pile. I need the room in my bookcase. Beautiful cover, though.

[Zaiga · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly the writing did not peak my interest enough to find out what those dolphin masterminds were up to.

[EmBe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eine Rezension, geschrieben für die Neuerscheinung:
Delphine durften sich schon mehrmals in dem Gefilden der SF tummeln, aber nicht als kommunikationsfähige und dem Mensch an Intelligenz ebenbürtige Wesen. Diese Vorstellung von den Meeressäugern ist die Voraussetzung zu Jablokovs an Handlung und Schauplätzen reichen Roman.
Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts gelingt es einem russischen Wissenschaftler innerhalb eines Militärforschungsprojektes, die Delphine zum Sprechen zu bringen. Die Methode ist recht rabiat. Ausgehend von einer diffusen Hypothese über das Verhältnis zwischen Delphinen und Menschen zur Zeit des sagenhaften kretischen Königs Minos simuliert er den akustischen Eindruck der Ausbruchs des Vulkans von Thera und dessen Folgen, die die minoische Kultur in Kreta zerstörte und die Delphine durch den Schock möglicherweise verstummen ließ. Das Experiment gelingt. Doch ehe weiter geforscht werden kann, werden die Delphine im Krieg gegen die USA und Japan eingesetzt, nachdem man sie zu Erkundern und technisch aufgerüsteten Kampfmaschinen ausgebildet hat. Die Sovietunion - die sich wieder gebildet hat - verliert den Krieg, und der Forscher gerät nach Teilnahme an den blutigen Kämpfen in japanische Kriegsgefangenschaft, genauer in ein Sonderlager für angebliche Kriegsverbrecher, wo die Häftlinge geschunden werden. Diese Episoden gelingen Jablokov sehr eindrücklich und Jablokov zeigt sein Können als Romancier, doch bleiben sie ziemlich konventionell.
Doch die Delphine, die einen Messias bekommen haben, lassen Stasow nicht los. Sie haben eigene Pläne, seit sie auf das göttliche "Echo aus der Tiefe" warten.
Am Ende seiner Gefangenschaft trifft wieder die junge amerikanische Forscherin, die früher sich für seine Forschungen interessiert hat. Eine Liebe mit Unterbrechungen entsteht.
Als Signale vom Jupiter sich als künstlich herausstellen und das Interesse nicht nur der Menschen sondern auch der Delphine und der ebenfalls intelligenten Mörderwale erregen, vereinigt ein Kontaktaufnahme-Projekt wieder Mensch und Meeressäuger. Diesmal brauchen die Wale und Delphine die Menschen, denn ihnen gelten die Signale.
Stasow leitet das Projekt mit dabei sind seine Freundin, der Delphinmessias und ein Cyborgwal, der in die Jupiteratmosphäre eintauchen soll. Am Ende des Unternehmens und dieses epischen angelegten Romans steht jedoch eine Enttäuschung.
Der Roman bietet viel, interessante Spekulationen, abwechslungsreiche Handlung mit vielen differenzierten Charakteren. Eine Rezension vermag nur einen schwachen Eindruck von diesem dicht gewobenen Garn zu gaben. Doch worum es Jablokov hauptsächlich geht, ist schwer herauszufinden. Die Handlung wie das spekulierte Verhalten der Delphine entwickeln eine Eigendynamik. Das was diese Dynamik ausmacht, die wechselseitige Einwirken von Mensch und Meeresintelligenz, das von Wünschen getragene Streben nach Kommunikation mit anderen Intelligenzformen interessierte Jablokov am meisten.
Die Spekulationen um die Delphine sind Faszinosum und Schwäche des Romans zugleich. Der Autor provoziert den Unglauben des Lesers, wenn er beispielsweise den ersten sprechenden Delphin gleich in verständlichem Russisch reden läßt, haben Delphine doch Schwierigkeiten, menschliche Laute überhaupt zu formen.
Nichtsdestotrotz hat sich Jablokov gegenüber seinem ersten Roman ("Juwelen des Himmels") gesteigert und man kann noch einiges von ihm erwarten.

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably the wildest book ive ever read and ive yet to meet anyone whose even heard of it. It's undoubtedly the funniest thing ive ever gotten at a charity shop and i kind of adore how stupid it is

[Floyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Come back Asimov, all is forgiven

[Luke Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if Dolphins are intelligent... but it turns out they are just assholes?

Beautiful work. Not as good as Nimbus.

[Taylor Stumpf · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the reviews on the book proclaim, there is no way the reader could predict what this book has in store. I couldn't agree more, but that is far from a compliment. The book opens by introducing Stasov, the mad scientist and Soviet militant who has long been obsessed with bridging the gap between human and dolphin communication and is willing to go to any length to do so. I was expecting a profound breakthrough that would take time and negotiation between two intelligent species as they worked their way around the communication barrier, as was the experience of Dr. John Cunningham Lilly when attempting to decode the secrets of delphinid communication during his studies back in the 60's. However, a matter of chapters in, you find out that all it took to get the first dolphin to talk was playing the sound of an ancient underwater volcano erupting, then the dolphin starts screaming "Let me die!" in a HUMAN language, and then jumps out of its tank and commits suicide. The fact that interspecies communication was achieved through simply speaking using the same communication mechanism was... well... anticlimactic. While Lilly, in his real-world trials, had attempted to navigate the anatomical and vocal barriers that impede communication between humans and dolphins, in "A Deeper Sea", the dolphins suddenly decide to start speaking to humans without any practice or reliance on their own communication strategies.

While the way that communication began was stupid, I still gave the book a chance because I wanted to know why the dolphin had begged for death. Clearly there had to be some deeper reason. Well, that's my problem with the book: the philosophy and reasoning behind the actions of the cetaceans make no sense, and the whole time, the book tries to really convince the reader that it is saying something profound. The truth is, this book presented a very dark and disturbing characterization of cetaceans, all of which, I feel, were heavily inaccurate. I am a cetacean specialist, and I have grown up around the ocean my whole life. The way orcas were depicted in this book was, frankly, disgusting. They are characterized as violence-obsessed bullies of the ocean who, like horror movie-inspired sharks, want to kill and eat everything for the sake of pleasure. This idea is also extended to the dolphins, who, at times in the book, revel in memories of raping and killing humans and sharks. Both of these descriptions of delphinids play into negative and outdated stereotypes: killer whales are dangerous murderers, and dolphins can't keep themselves from raping anything that moves. First of all, orcas have never intentionally harmed humans in the wild and there has only ever been one recorded incident of an orca killing a con-specific. In regards to other delphinids, while it is true that dolphins do engage in sexual acts with other species, to call this behavior "rape" is extending human intention and morality to dolphins. Furthermore, it pissed me off when the author claimed that humpback and sperm whales were not self-aware and that they were stupid. Studies show that the sperm whale has quite possibly the most advanced brain on the planet (John Lilly claims in his book "The Mind of the Dolphin" that the sperm whale has the mental capacity to listen to a 90-minute symphony once and then be able to recall any section by memory), and the humpback whale is one of the few animals on the planet whose brain contains spindle cells, cells that are believed to be involved in social recognition and self-awareness. While we do not know exactly what goes on in the minds of cetaceans, quite a bit of what we do know was either not properly researched or was ignored when writing this book. As a cetacean enthusiast and advocate, I found the portrayals of cetaceans not just terrible, but out-right offensive.

I give this book two stars instead of one because though it was a mess, there were some genuinely interesting philosophical considerations, at times, in the plot. For example, when Stasov is imprisoned at a Japanese torture camp, one of his comrades, Makarygin, teaches him the value of accepting responsibility and seeing oppression as a chance for redemption. I also really appreciated how accurately and authentically Jablokov captured the Soviet way of living and the "mysterious Russian soul" in Stasov and his comrades; it's refreshing to see Russian characters that are not depicted as cartoon villains, though one could argue that Stasov is, in many ways, an internally tormented antagonist. However, in the end, the few things I enjoyed about this book were ripped apart in the last two chapters as a cyborg sperm whale plunged into the atmosphere of Jupiter and an orca was torn apart by other con-specifics. Overall, the plot and premise of this book made no sense, and the whole book came off as a pseudo-philosophical fever dream. While I wanted to love this book, I ultimately absolutely HATED it.

I do not recommend this book to anyone. If you're thinking of reading "A Deeper Sea", do not waste your time: it's a disaster.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF'd around 50%. The concepts and overall plot summary made this book sound epic as hell. Killer cyborg dolphins? Man playing god and then reaping their own tragic destruction? World War 3? A grimdark take on cetacean intelligence? Sign me tf up.

I ended up getting a little bit of all the cool stuff mentioned above, but what I mostly got were a whole lot of navel-gazing, misery porn, long periods of nothing happening punctuated by the occasional exciting (and/or violent) scene, starring a cast of characters I couldn't care about. I don't even remember their names, just stereotypes: Depressed Russian Protag, Depressed Russian coworkers, Killer Cyborg Dolphins (the best characters in the whole book, yet were barely in it) and Sexy Scientist Lady who just exists to provide the Depressed Russian Protag a good time in bed. The stilted and unnatural dialogue certainly didn't help much.

I might pick this up again in the future, though. Again, the premise is solid and the thoroughly unromantic portrayal of dolphins is interesting, but at this point, reading this felt more like a chore than a pastime.

[Jean Wetmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. It had some very good points. It's not so much about dolphins though though they are there (and whales too). What was interesting to me was more the religious aspects of the book and the main characters search for redemption for what he put the dolphins through. Not a great book by any means but not that bad either.

[Jeremy Steben · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this book up in middle school because of the dolphin on the cover. At the time I was in love with marine life and cetaceans in particular. The promise of a book about intelligent dolphins in rocket suits flying through space promised to be my jam. Sadly, this book was more about the protagonists alcoholism and relationship with his ex-wife and bored the living hell out of me in sixth grade. I remember I had to make three attempts to read this book (an extreme rarity at that time in my life where I plowed through every book start-to-finish in a few days) and I can't remember if I even finished it. I think eventually there were dolphins flying through space in rocket suits, but they were almost background and I couldn't bring myself to care. I was really young though, and maybe this was a great philosophical examination of man and in his place in the universe, but all I remember feeling incredibly ripped off. Fortunately, a year later I found David Brin's Uplift series and all my dreams of snarky talking dolphins flying through space were finally fulfilled.

[Kat Heatherington · Rating 3 out of 5]

engaging to read, but the ending is extremely odd, and at variance with the rest of the story.


it's a lot like the author couldn't quite figure out how to get dolphins into space, or what the inhabitants of Jupiter might actually want to do with dolphins once they were all talking to each other, but he also couldn't quite abandon his original premise, so the plot does some very odd things to get there. it doesn't really work. something that stayed on earth and dealt more firmly with dolphin/human interaction would have made a lot more sense, and would have resolved the story better.

Anna and Ilya are both well-crafted characters, and Ilya in particular goes through some good growing experiences and deepens and changes as a person, and that all is handled very well. the characters will get you through the book.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was a very interesting premise for a book - sort of a darker version of Ken Grimwood's Into the Deep. The dolphins were certainly not cute and cuddly. It was a rather grim, but fascinating story. As it moved through time, it was a bit... abrupt. The story didn't flow all that smoothly, but it certainly was interesting. And, disappointingly, Jablokov's 2015 was not remotely similar to Back to the Future Part II's 2015 - not a hoverboard or flying car in sight! But it was certainly a different sort of novel, and it kept my interest all the way through till the end.

[Searska GreyRaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun one.