"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
"We're down to 23,950," said Onodera. "The slope of the floor is getting steep all of a sudden."
"The water's gotten muddy," said Tadokoro.
Suddenly the nose of the vessel rose up with a thumping noise. It climbed some sixty feet above the sea floor before Onodera could check it.
"Are we all right?" asked Yukinaga, gripping his chair as the submarine pitched forward and back. The dim cabin light showed his forehead beaded with sweat.
Without answering, Onodera gripped the control stick and brought the vessel some ninety feet farther up. The pitching lessened at once. How incredible, thought Onodera a current so violent that close to the floor of a trench! He leveled out on a course 180 feet from the bottom. The vibrations ceased almost entirely.
"Should we go down again?" Onodera asked.
"No...," muttered Tadokoro as though uncertain.
"How about a flare?"
"Give it a try."
Onodera opened the lid of a small control box to his right and depressed one of the six levers it contained. There was a faint shock. Then in the upper portion of the television screen a dazzling sphere of brilliance burst into view. Surrounded by a frenzied mass of bubbles, it slanted slowly downward.
The two scientists, clinging to the edge of the observation window, gasped with surprise. Onodera fixed his eyes on the television screen. What had come into view lit by the blue-white glare of that underwater sun, was peak upon peak of gray-yellow clouds of mud, wavering in the current and stretching far into the distance like a vast sea of stratocumuli seen from an airplane.
"Can we go down?" muttered Tadokoro.
"We can try 150 feet," said Onodera.
"All right. Be careful...," said Tadokoro. "Make sure that we can go back up at any moment."
Onodera released a spurt of gasoline from the small tank used to trim the vessel, and the Wadatsumi began to sink rapidly. Startled, Onodera let go some ballast and lessened the rate of descent. They were already in the midst of the muddy clouds, however. Once more the vessel began to tremble violently. Gradually Onodera brought it up forty-five feet, climbing out of the clouds. Another blow struck the Wadatsumi, and it began to rock from side to side.
"Let's try another flare," said Tadokoro, absorbed in the instruments and oblivious to the new crisis.
As he fired the flare, however, Onodera, reacting to some instinct of danger, released a large quantity of ballast, and the whirlpool of brown cloud beneath them suddenly fell away. An instant later a fierce rush of water hit the Wadatsumi broadside, tipping it over and sweeping it far off course before Onodera could reassert control and start the engine. The submarine then began to rise steadily.
"Professor Tadokoro! Look there!" Yukinaga cried.
The flare that had been released before the current struck them was drifting in the distance, shedding its light upon the yellow-brown chaos below. At the extreme edge of the light, some huge thing was churning with terrible force--a mass of mud cloud tinged with green. Swelling as it came, it was pouring down the sloping side of the trench, down out of the darkness above.
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Book Description Condition: Fair. Buy with confidence! Book is in acceptable condition with wear to the pages, binding, and some marks within. Seller Inventory # bk0060124490xvz189zvxacp
Book Description Condition: Good. Buy with confidence! Book is in good condition with minor wear to the pages, binding, and minor marks within. Seller Inventory # bk0060124490xvz189zvxgdd
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 1st Edition. The book has some light wear around the edges; the jacket has light tattering around the edges and corners including a few tiny tears. Seller Inventory # 138234
Book Description Condition: Good. Good condition ex-library book with usual library markings and stickers. Seller Inventory # 00063306685
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. 184 pp. 1 vol. . Top edge slightly got moldy. Seller Inventory # 16458
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. New York: Harper & Row, (1976) dj, 1976. Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. A first edition - First US printing with complete number line. A novel which was both an enormous best seller in Japan and the basis for a very popular film. The Japanese archipelago is being wrenched by enormous forces - a parable for our times on how we deal with natural disasters, the consequences of global warming, national identity and the essential relocation of millions of people. Translated from the Japanese by Michael Gallagher. 184 pp. Very good in a good dust jacket (some wear to dust jacket top of spine and rubbing and edgewear to the dust jacket edges. "A chillingly realistic work of science fiction." ? The New York Times. After dropping anchor for the night near a small island to the south of Japan, a crew of fishermen awaken to find that the island has vanished without a trace. An investigating scientist theorizes that the tiny island has succumbed to the same force that divided the Japanese archipelago from the mainland ? and that the disastrous shifting of a fault in the Japan Trench has placed the entire country in danger of being swallowed by the sea. Based on rigorous scientific speculation, Japan Sinks recounts a completely credible series of geological events. The story unfolds from multiple points of view, offering fascinating perspectives on the catastrophe's political, social, and psychological effects. Winner of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award and the Seiun Award, this prescient 1973 science-fiction novel foreshadowed the consequences of the 1995 Osaka-Kobe earthquake and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Seller Inventory # 17000404
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Translated from the Japanese by Michael Gallagher. First printing thus. Previous owner's name and date on front free endpaper, else very good in a very good (minor edge wear), price clipped dust jacket. ; 184 pages. Seller Inventory # 78236
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Translated from the Japanese by Michael Gallagher. First printing thus. Trace foxing on edges, else very good in a very good (light edge wear at the spine ends and corners) dust jacket. ; 184 pages. Seller Inventory # 43686
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+. aFirst Edition First Printing. Shelf 321 Text clean; book tight; light sunning to edges; rough cut edge; a bit of light foxing to edge of paper; DJ has some light general wear including rubbing to edges, corners, flap folds and surface; Not a book club (BC)copy. No previous owner name, not ex library, not a remainder, smoke free. PHOTOS POSTED WITH OUR BOOKS ARE STOCK AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT CONDITION OR EDITION OF BOOK OFFERED FOR SALE. WE DO NOT POST THE PHOTOS. Seller Inventory # 315016