Darker Water

Darker Water oozes tension from the start. Its metaphorical title and striking dark-hued cover effectively set the scene for what is to come. It is 2089 and the world is increasingly becoming engulfed by water, thanks to the graphically named Great Climate Ignorance. ProCorp have developed deepwater mining stations 4 kilometres below the sea, where miners, engineers and biologists collect and process ProLEC bacteria which provides an essential energy source for the beleaguered world above the waves.

However, from the first page of the book it is clear that all is not well, as Audley, a brilliantly gifted young scientist, sends an encrypted message to an unknown source about secrets and problems hidden behind the corporate façade. Each chapter begins with an extract from the company’s handbook for staff, extolling its virtues and achievements but as the narrative moves on it is clear that devious and self-serving individuals within the organisation are an ever-increasing danger to its safety and stability.

Despite its assurances of equality, Procorp use a rigid class system to delineate its employees. Betty, a young miner, is in the lowest class-which, of course, does all the difficult work of extracting the bacteria from rocks in and around the 7-kilometre abyssal plains. Maia is an engineer, with more privileges and Audley, a scientist, is at the top of the pecking order, with everything at his disposal of the best quality. Despite ProCorp’s insistence on setting one echelon against another, the three of them gradually begin to work together secretly to uncover the terrifying secrets which the company elaborately attempts to hide.

Descriptions of the lifestyle and technologies at work deep beneath the sea are detailed and convincing but Read very gradually begins to create an atmosphere of unease which threads through the reassurances which ProCorp glibly provide. Little by little, both inside and outside the station, things begin to falter, both physically and mentally and dramatic changes in the ocean’s creatures ring warning bells which continue to get louder. The acceleration of deterioration is cleverly paced to retain credibility and it becomes obvious that things at the highest level of the company are not what they seem.

As the narrative picks up momentum it becomes irresistible-the book is impossible to put down. Betrayals, surprising allies, vivid descriptions of mutating ocean creatures and the vicious destruction of key staff by those at the top of the power tree build a terrifying picture of the greed and completely unprincipled behaviour which caused the world’s problems. This is a story full of shocks and horrors but it never loses sight of the fact that loyalty, friendship and love are threaded through catastrophe and that integrity and courage can pierce the most corrupt scenarios. This is no vacuous sci-fi horror story-it has heart and we cheer on Betty, Maia and Audley with the realisation that even in our deeply troubled world, all is not irrevocably lost.