And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
I finished Blind Waves the night before last — it was very good.
The author, Steven Gould, has written some other novels that I enjoyed a lot: Jumper, about a boy who learns to teleport, and Wildside, about a boy and girl who find a time machine. As you might guess, both of those books were juveniles, and I’m fine with that, but I was pleasantly surprised when I found that Blind Waves was decidedly not a juvenile adventure. The story takes place some years in the future, when the ocean levels have risen by 100 feet, putting 90% of the populated centers of the world under water. This has caused an immigration crisis in the US, with refugees streaming in from all quarters and less and less land to house them. The government has passed a law greatly increasing the powers of the INS, which of course has led to abuses by the same group.
The story is about a woman, Patricia, who is a property owner and councilwoman of New Galveston, a floating city reclaimed from the now greatly enlarged Gulf of Mexico, and her relationship with a CID investigator named Thomas. She, while on a routine dive, discovers a ship, filled with bodies and shot at by weapons mainly used by INS patrol ships. Thomas arrives to investigate the issue and they’re quickly drawn into a mess of intrigue and and mystery. Of course, in the course of figuring out who sunk the ship and who has been trying to cover it up, they discover an even more sinister plot, etc etc etc. The story was much more mature than I was expect, but still very fun to read, and the author wove a lot of Shakespeare (mostly from Twelfth Night, as might be guessed from the title) into the language and texture of the piece. I liked it a lot.
I’m now reading the second of 3 Octavia Clemens books by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Crusader’s Torch. I hope it turns out ok.