Drop Off

by Edward J. McFadden III

Nature morphs and twists, and beasts that shouldn’t exist stalk the sea.

At the edge of the abyss, where the Blake Plateau abruptly gives way to the deepest parts of the Atlantic Ocean, biologists investigate the largest marine die-off in history. An Everest-style base camp supporting scientists, staff, and eco tourists sits at the edge of the drop off, but the scientific mission turns to one of survival when mutant sea creatures threaten the base.

Steven Hunte is a sea dog for hire, an ex-Navy biologist turned environmental activist whose been hired to support scientists studying the die-off. When the base is attacked and overrun Hunte must fight for the sea he loves, or watch it be destroyed along with everyone he cares about.

At the drop off the fate of the world’s oceans will be decided.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Science Fiction

204 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 8, 2020

About the author

Ed cut his teeth reading John Christopher, Tolkien, Poe, Brooks and Zelazny, and graduated to Joe Haldeman, Allen Steele, Arthur C. Clark and Jack Vance. For the last twenty years he’s done a deep dive on apocalyptic fiction, and he really enjoyed learning at the feet of Elmore Leonard, Philip K. Dick, Lawrence Block, Ray Bradbury, Carl Hiaasen, Stephen King, Joe Lansdale, and F. Paul Wilson. His recent publications include Hell Creek, Too Much Grit, The Cryptid Club, Keepers of the Flame, Quick Sands, Sandbagged, Dogs Get Ten Lives, Barracuda Swarm, Dinosaur Red, Drop Off, and Jurassic Ark. His sea thrillers, The Breach and Shadow of the Abyss were Amazon #1 Best Sellers and the audio version of The Breach was a #1 Hot New Release. His other novels include Throwback, Sea Tremors, Primeval Valley, AWAKE, The Black Death of Babylon, and HOAXERS. He lives on Long Island with his wife Dawn, and their daughter Samantha.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book sucked

Spoiler alert. Dont read this if you ant to read this book.

Half of the conversations that take place in the first third of the book sound more like your in a high school science lecture

Our hero, Hunte is in the ocean, where he has his own small submarine, and has set up Serenity Base to study die offs of sea life.
At 31%,
He makes a big theatrical speech (lecture) about coral reefs and she answers
“ they dont call coral reefs the “rainforests” of the sea for no reason. “Coral reefs are extremely diverse eco systems. Though they cover less than one percent of the world’s ocean floors, the provide homes for more than twenty-five percent of all marine species. And we are killing them”

A while later, at 39% , A storm is coming but seems to be veering off and someone says “ we may get lucky!” and Hunte replies “ As warm, moist air is pulled into the storm, it leaves a low pressure vacuum in its wake. The air travels up through the storm clouds and helps fuel the storm. The updrafts quickly carry the air upward, and when it reaches the top of the cloud mass, the warm moist air gets spat out at the top. This air rolls over the thunderclouds. From there, the air descends and is drawn backwards towards lower altitude by the vacuum it’s departure created, then that descending air become......”

This happens over and over.

Uggghhh


Plus, everyone after 12 hours awake has

“Dark greasy bags hung beneath her eyes”
“ Black bags hung beneath his blue eyes”
“Greasy black bags hung beneath his tortured eyes”
“Dark, greasy black bags hung...”

And of course Military teams dropped down by helicopters with enough fire power to destroy a small nation fail.. but Hunte with his trusty 12 inch “ glistening, sleek, strong, black curved knife”. Can survived, cross buildings, fire, and save the love of his life and one other woman against the mutant sea spiders...
“...that are not actually spiders, they are actually more “spider-like” that many species actually classified as arachnids, and there is currently a major debate in the marine biology community about this. Genetic evidence shows that these creatures may be a sister species to arthropods...”

and the lecture continues...

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check caution at the door, gird up your phobia armor, and jump in: DROP OFF is an exceptionally terrifying (and all too possible!) adventure into the possibilities of climate change and the ongoing destruction of the oceans. You thought the Pacific has terrifying Monsters? You can't imagine what's in store in the roiling storm-tossed Atlantic, at Tranquility Base, a private concern where research scientists and adventurous eco-tourists gather to explore the "drop off" into the abyss: the Atlantic's answer to the Marianas Trench.
Prepare for weeks and months of sleepless nights!!

[Oliver Kitchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

the author was so desperate to rack up a body count that he intorduced a new character, named them and then killed them, all in the space of about 2-3 pages... in the penultimate chapter.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started out pretty fun but half way through it got bogged down. Too much ‘oh did you know…’ about various topics (which seemed suddenly out of place and not asked for in conversation) and too many repeated turns of phrases.

[Boomer · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first read by this author. I'm a sucker for anything deep sea monster like, and in that case this book delivers. Interesting ideas for sure. Really liked the concept of having a floating sea base made up of various ships - it reminded me of that ocean town in Waterworld. The creatures were somewhat original as well. Seems like a good recipe for an action story.

Sadly the writing here is lackluster to say the least. I have respect for anyone that can write a novel, but at the same time if you're going to charge for a book, you need to be held accountable. The bar isn't exactly high for these kinds of novels but this is still awful in places. Especially infuriating was the author's use of the word "gunnel". I had to look the definition up since despite reading plenty of nautical novels, I'd never heard it. It's defined as where the deck of a boat meets the hull in case you're wondering - more or less the side or rail of the boat. There must be well over a hundred gunnels scattered through this book. Things slam into gunnels. Characters jump over gunnels. Bullets hit gunnels. It may sound trivial, but read this book and see how annoying that gets.

Add in some characters which you have no reason to care about coupled with the fact this book has no ending and this is a fail for me. Creatively there were some good ideas here so I'll try another one of this guy's books before I write him off completely. We shall see.

[Vesper Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, the book was well written. There were a couple of tropes in there that really irritate me (man in love sees another woman and in middle of crises goes boy she's sexy. FML!) I loved that the creatures in this were so unique. I adore deep sea horror but I get bored with sharks being the only scary thing. However, I would have loved to see them actually solve the initial plot question (the die off of marine life) and I would have loved to see them make strides studying these creatures since it was a science post to begin with. I felt like I was left with more questions than satisfaction. Like, why were some of them sea spiders black and acting different? How did they get their mutations? Considering there were so many of extreme sizes, and some that were huge, how had no one seen them before?

[David Hersh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I figured I could dump this mess at 49%...

...with a clear conscience. I found none of the characters to particularly likable or memorable. I also had problems with the biology. These things grow and regenerate at a rate usually reserved for space aliens.

If the author pared this down to 20 pages and managed to get it crammed into an anthology it might be ok. I just don't see where all 5 star reviews are coming from.

[wayne peters]

Review of this book.

A really good book. Makes you think twice about what is in the ocean. Makes you think three times about what sea creatures have mutated into with all the polution in in the ocean. The author has done his due diligence about what harm all the garbage we throw into the ocean has really done. The story was so good. Filled with drama and suspense to the very last sentence.

[Tim Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Book but Crappy Ending

I like the book. It was pretty well written. Needed a little bit editorial work. The one gal was a sergeant and then a lieutenant then a Sergeant again for instance. The really bad part was the ending was 3 1/2 pages. It’s like the guy got tired of riding and just decided to end it. But still, I thought it was a good book.

[jboyg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty Good Creature Feature.

Always a sucker for underwater misadventures I found this book a pretty good read with thrills, chills and mutant sea creatures to spare. The characters never seemed to quite jell for me but the action propelled the story along just fine.

[Debra Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent Mutant Monster read

Good action, but clumsy character development and narrative. Too much telling, not enough showing. Not a complete waste of time, but can’t say I recommend.

[William (Mr. Bill) Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drop Off - yeah, everything can go wrong

A creepy good read! If fear of the ocean, weird sea creatures, and the possibility of finding yourself on the menu do not bother you, you may have a different perspective after you read Drop Off. -Mr.Bill

[Veronica DelaCruz-Araki · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 rounded up.

I love feature creature books! Beginning was pretty solid, but as the story progressed the phrasing and rephrasing of particular details got so repetitive and annoying. What started out as a great action thriller slumped in a Grade B movie.

[Lia Keller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like a bad, bad, sci fi movie but in book form.

[Norm S · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

A so so book with a bad ending if you can call it that. Wiped out all but three characters and didn't explain what happened to them.

[Robert Loggins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its a slow start but it picks up in pace, how ever it ends in a very unsaterfacterly.