Deep Current - Softcover

Miller, Benjamin E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451411293 ISBN 13: 9780451411297

Publisher: Onyx, 2004

Synopsis

As a floating glacier, going against the current, heads toward Hawaii, an elite team of scientists joins a Marine Expeditionary Unit on the glacier and encounters a predatory force that could destroy the entire world.

About this title

About the Author

Ben Miller grew up in the rural mountains of southeastern Kentucky. With no siblings, neighbors, or television, he began writing stories as a preschooler. His education includes a B.S. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Clemson University in South Carolina. He briefly worked at a consulting firm that specialized in groundwater modeling. Now he lives in New England, where he teaches graduate courses in environmental science. When he isn t writing, reading, or teaching, he s usually in the gym or the woods.

From the Inside Flap

ON AN ICEBERG LARGER THAN MANHATTAN...

For years, scientists have tracked Antarctic icebergs--many small, some large, and most relatively inert. But this one is different. It is too far north, moving too fast, and heading against the current. First the "Floe," as scientists dub the floating glacier, collides with a luxury yacht. Then the Navy helicopter called in to respond to the SOS disappears. Now the Floe is heading--aiming--for Hawaii. The impact will cause an earthquake of devastating magnitude. Seismic damage, though, is just one worry. What if the Floe is a cover for hostile forces? What if America is under attack?

...COMES A THREAT OF INCALCULABLE SCOPE.

Under the strictest secrecy, a handpicked group of scientists joins a Marine Expeditionary Unit on a do-or-die mission: land on the Floe and disable its means of propulsion. But they are not yet aware that they are up against a terrifying force with capabilities no one could have anticipated....

Reviews

Miller's second novel (after Zero Hour) starts with a fascinating premise—in Antarctic waters, a giant iceberg has been detected, moving against the stream and heading straight for Hawaii. Marines and biologists are dispatched to land on the leviathan, where they discover a young boy and his infant sister, the only survivors of a shipwreck. The boy talks nervously of the ghosts on the floe, and soon after, members of the landing party begin to meet with gruesome ends provided by mollusk-like creatures called cephids, byproducts of evolution taking a nasty turn. At this point, the story switches from military procedural to horror story, with members of the landing crew dispatched one by one and the survivors pulling together for a final showdown with the enemy; think Night of the Living Dead on an iceberg. Miller is not afraid to pile on the gore ("His viscera spilled onto the floor in a steaming heap"), which gets tiresome before long. The characters are thin and there are unresolved issues at story's end, but the story works on a gut level, thanks to a chilling monster and brisk pacing, even if it doesn't live up to the potential of its imaginative and promising setup.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Onyx
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451411293
• ISBN 13: 9780451411297
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368