Perry Berg is president of Benthic Marine and a passenger aboard The Benthic Explorer, a 450-foot research ship endeavoring to drill into, and sample for the first time, the earth's magma core. Also onboard are the lovely Dr. Suzanne Newell; ex-navy commander and present submersible skipper Donald Fuller; and navy-cum-Neanderthal divers Richard Adams and Michael Donaghue. It is this cast of characters who, with the reluctant Perry, dive to the stilled drill site in order to make repairs. En route, they are sucked (or suckered) into a defunct undersea volcano and deposited into an otherworldly wonderland. That takes about 75 pages of fairly cogent spadework. The next 375 pages sprout some of the looniest, most derivative, made-for-TV-movie science fiction imaginable. Our heroes, you see, have been abducted to Interterra, an undersea world of staggering beauty and unheard of technologies--intergalactic travel and eternal life, for starters--populated by stunningly beautiful, toga-wearing, first-generation humans.

First-generation? They were here first, see, and had been doing very nicely until their scientists realized that the earth was about to be "showered with planetesimal collisions, just as had happened in its primordial state," and that they had better start digging. While the Interterrans prospered and thrived undersea, we, the second generation, began hauling our single-celled bodies up by our ooze-straps and started all over again.

And that's about it. People with names like Arak and Sufa speak strangely, giggle at the primitive second-generationists, recoil at the very thought of violence, press their palms together to have sex, and direct "worker clones" to do the dishes while the second generation does its stereotypical best to, in turns, exemplify, define, and defile humankind.

If you've yet to read Robin Cook's innumerable (and mostly successful) medical thrillers, start now. If you want to read about an alternative world, start off right with H.G. Wells's 1895 masterpiece, The Time Machine. --Michael Hudson


From Publishers Weekly
A mountain far beneath the ocean is the setting in this latest work from bestselling author Cook (Coma; Contagion; Vector, etc.). Perry Bergman, founder and president of Benthic Marine, is conducting research in a remote region of the Atlantic. The crew has been trying to drill through an underwater mountain that appears to be filled with some liquid or gas, but they've encountered several mishaps, and Perry has flown out to the ship to assess the problem for himself. He's invited to dive to the seamount with several others in a submersible craftDthe most reliable one, the veteran commander tells Perry, he has ever piloted. Suddenly the small ship seems to lose power and is lured deeper into the water and into the underwater world of Saranta, whose stunning, sexually charged residents, the Interterreans, claim their city is much more beautiful and desirable than the fabled Atlantis. Although the Interterreans treat the humans as their special guests, Perry and his crew are desperate to escape. Cook keeps readers turning the pages with fast-paced action and intriguing details about Saranta; while the action may appeal to his teeming die-hard fans, however, this is not one of his better efforts. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
But for Dick Hill's smooth delivery and ability to get the most from the characters he portrays, this listener would have lost interest in Cook's latest long before it concluded. The author, well known for his medical thrillers, here tells a story of a group of underwater explorers who are sucked into a volcano and then into a world below the sea. The plot is a familiar retread of several Atlantis stories, and Cook's visitors to "Interterra" are childish, stupid, and brutish. This listener clearly was not as enamored with the wonders below as Cook's visitors were. When the action finally picked up on the last tape, Hill was at his best, generating the much-needed excitement to sustain the offering--and the listener--until the unique finale, which clearly is the audiobook's best part. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Download Description
Perry Berg is president of Benthic Marine and a passenger aboard The Benthic Explorer, a 450-foot research ship endeavoring to drill into, and sample for the first time, the earth's magma core. Also onboard are the lovely Dr. Suzanne Newell; ex-navy commander and present submersible skipper Donald Fuller; and navy-cum-Neanderthal divers Richard Adams and Michael Donaghue. It is this cast of characters who, with the reluctant Perry, dive to the stilled drill site in order to make repairs. En route, they are sucked into a defunct undersea volcano and deposited into an otherworldly wonderland.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The wold's bestselling master of the medical thriller, Robin Cook skillfully combines human drama and high-tech thrills with the latest breakthroughs and controversies of modern medicine. Now, in his most daring novel yet, a mysterious transmission from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean leads a crew of oceanographers and divers to a phenomenon beyond scientific understanding - and a discovery that will change everything we know about life on earth . . .

SYNOPSIS

Beyond science... Beyond technology... Beyond life as we know it... A brand-new paperback original from "The master of the medical thriller" (New York Times).

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

A mountain far beneath the ocean is the setting in this latest work from bestselling author Cook (Coma; Contagion; Vector, etc.). Perry Bergman, founder and president of Benthic Marine, is conducting research in a remote region of the Atlantic. The crew has been trying to drill through an underwater mountain that appears to be filled with some liquid or gas, but they've encountered several mishaps, and Perry has flown out to the ship to assess the problem for himself. He's invited to dive to the seamount with several others in a submersible craft--the most reliable one, the veteran commander tells Perry, he has ever piloted. Suddenly the small ship seems to lose power and is lured deeper into the water and into the underwater world of Saranta, whose stunning, sexually charged residents, the Interterreans, claim their city is much more beautiful and desirable than the fabled Atlantis. Although the Interterreans treat the humans as their special guests, Perry and his crew are desperate to escape. Cook keeps readers turning the pages with fast-paced action and intriguing details about Saranta; while the action may appeal to his teeming die-hard fans, however, this is not one of his better efforts. (Nov. 7) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

But for Dick Hill's smooth delivery and ability to get the most from the characters he portrays, this listener would have lost interest in Cook's latest long before it concluded. The author, well known for his medical thrillers, here tells a story of a group of underwater explorers who are sucked into a volcano and then into a world below the sea. The plot is a familiar retread of several Atlantis stories, and Cook's visitors to "Interterra" are childish, stupid, and brutish. This listener clearly was not as enamored with the wonders below as Cook's visitors were. When the action finally picked up on the last tape, Hill was at his best, generating the much-needed excitement to sustain the offering—and the listener—until the unique finale, which clearly is the audiobook's best part. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

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