[INDEXED]Submerged by Thomas F. Monteleone

[Brian James Freeman]

Yeah, it's no big deal. This kind of error has become much more widespread since spell check came along. I read at least 300 books a year, and these things usually jump right out at me.

It always bugs me, too. We normally have a copyeditor and four to five proofreaders go over every book and sometimes stupid mistakes STILL slip through... ugh...

Brian

[TacomaDiver]

My copy arrived today. Not sure when I'll get to this but it's been placed in the To Be Read pile (which is growing at a record pace. And to think that I thought that two hours of train riding every day would be enough to keep the pile contained.)

Regarding the improper use of apostrophes - it's all too common nowadays to use them to signify a plural. Doesn't make it any less painful though.

The book looks great. Never read anything by him before and I'm looking forward to it. Didn't realize that it has been two years in the making. Wow. (I must have gotten one of the last copies.)

[srboone]

More annoying is the author's tendency to leave out prepositions. He also makes his German dialog alternately sound like English, German translated into English and German translated into English with bad grammar. But it's a good story! This is my first Monteleone novel also; though I have read some of his short stories.

[frik51]

My copy arrived just now! looks like another winner!
I'm happy.

sk

[TacomaDiver]

Finally got around to finishing this the other day, and while it was a fun ride, I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked. To save myself from regurgitating the entire review, I'll just copy and paste my Goodreads review:

I hadn't ever heard of Thomas F Monteleone before I bought this book from Cemetery Dance (a small publisher, mostly known for horror, that puts out some beautiful signed editions, which is why I bought it in the first place.)

The story was described as a thriller in the tradition of Ken Follett and Robert Ludlum. And while aid story definitely lived up that description, I wasn't able to fully enjoy it as much as I was wanting to.

I try not to let bad proofreading detract from my reading enjoyment, but there were far too many instances of plural words including apostrophes (a huge pet peeve of mine in fact.) And then there was the SCUBA diving part . . .

I'm unsure if the author is a diver, but I'm leaning towards the fact that he's not, and everything he learned about diving was through a poorly worded Google search.

The author liked to use a lot of words and terminology that you'd find in the SCUBA diving community, but the information wasn't used properly. First, there is no timer that says how much air you have - air is measured by pressure, and the deeper you go, the less air you have because you're using it up faster.

Second, 60 feet is not a realistic death for a German submarine to remain undiscovered in the Chesapeake Bay for nearly 70 years. He also treats 60 feet being some extreme depth that the only the most experienced of divers should ever attempt. While the characters are diving at this depth, the author introduces the concept of nitrogen narcosis and the bends, which while related, are definitely not the same thing.

During all of this, I kept thinking that the divers should be using nitrox instead of regular air, which is about the time the author states the divers are using tri-mix. Sixty feet would be a strange depth to be using tri-mix on, and then he never once mentions the fact that if the divers were breathing this mixture (tri-mix is oxygen, nitrogen and helium) the divers should have been speaking in a helium squeaky voice.

Oh and let's not forget that these divers never once used a line and reel while exploring a submarine! I think they all had death wishes.

It might seem petty to not enjoy a book as much because of technical inaccuracies, but those first dozen chapters bothered me so much, I kept hoping they'd all be eaten by a Giant Pacific Octopus. (A species of Octopus most definitely not found in the Atlantic . . .)