Susan CaseyCritiques

Susan Casey's The Underworld, a book about deep sea exploration, has received rave reviews, but I found myself underwhelmed. Substantively, her book contains very little information that isn't already online: this is not new information, but old material, presented newly. Unfortunately, this leads to two major shortcomings.

First, the chief value she adds to existing information is a series of in-depth interviews with people engaged in exploring and studying the deep sea. Her interviews, however, border on hagiographic - in fact, she goes out of her way to dismiss and defend some of them against serious concerns about the colonial nature of their endeavours, instead of taking these arguments seriously, as they ought to be. It feels as though she uncritically accepts and believes anything she's told: her scepticism is reserved only for a museum docent who mansplains, she says, and has nothing to do with the subject material of the book. I'm not the only one to feel this way: in the Scientific American, a review notes that "Although Casey pays lip service to Vescovo's critics, The Underworld would have benefited from a more thorough examination of ocean exploration's politics and power dynamics. In the 21st century, must our most celebrated adventurers remain impossibly rich white guys?" https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/todays-deep-sea-explorers-are-mineral... It is particularly acute when you realise that Vescovo, a rich hobbyist explorer who receives fulsome praise from Casey, is also known for doing reckless solo dives and freewheeling on safety precautions. After the Triton sub incident, and the vast amount of public funds expended on attempting to rescue the rich and reckless, can we afford to be so flippant about the subject?

Second, when you have no new research to contribute, but you write an essay, the expectation is that you write in a manner that presents the information lucidly, in a way that is engaging to the reader, and a pleasure to read. Otherwise, you're writing a high school science report. I found her writing passable at best, and often amateurish, bordering on egregious. Debris around the wreck of the Titanic is described as a "piñata of tragedy". When she's not being flippantly funny, she's buried deep in the purplest of prose, as though she had never come across an adjective or a cliche she didn't immediately want to insert in her book. Perhaps I'm being a little harsh - it's clear that she's passionate about the ocean, cares deeply about conservation, and loves the water. Still, when the quality of nature writing is set to a high bar by authors like Helen MacDonald, Robin Wall Kimmerer, or Camille Dungy, it's hard to accept this level of glib, uncritical pedestrian prose. I'm sure Booktok will enjoy it.

I love finding out all the stuff we don't know yet. And the ocean is so unexplored it's mind numbing. This was clearly written just before the Titan disaster last year, so there's no commentary on that. I'm thinking the author would be sympathetic to their cause though. It's a difficult tug of war between wanting to know everything about the ocean and wanting to leave it undisturbed and alive.

Survival

This book was a fast read and felt more like a thriller than a scientific book. I found it fascinating reading about the power of the ocean and giant waves. Imagining is fine for me because I would never want to see one in person unless assured I could view it from a safe distance! It still amazes me that there is so much unknown about the whole phenomena of waves and the ocean itself. Much of the book focuses on surfers and their experiences searching for and riding "terrifyingly large waves of seventy and eight feet." Utter craziness!

Primarily a book about big wave surfing, with some non-surfers thrown in. Not quite what I was expecting, but enjoyable enough.

As much about the Farallons as the great whites there. All the drama of the sharks plus a look into the characters that are obsessed by them. Very worth the read.

second time (first was paperback)

This book is filled with facinating facts about the deepest sites in the ocean. Casey's approach is that of a neophyte who joins adventurers and scientists as they explore these little known places on the earth. She makes compelling cases for their preservation and the need for further exploration.

An exceptional book! Such an amazing world that has been for so long overlooked. Thank you, Susan Casey for sharing your adventures and insights. Ms Casey is a wonderful writer. She really captures one's attention and doesn't let go. I will be following up on her suggestions of ways to help protect the depths of the ocean. Thank you for bringing its importance and fragility to my attention in such an engaging way!

A number chapters in this novel were outstanding. In particular, the chapters dealing with Ric O'Barry's struggle to stop the massacres of dolphins in Taiji, Japan and Lawrence Makili's similar struggle in The Solomon Islands. Both men literally risked their lives for dolphins are are to be highly commended. But then on the other hand, we have a chapters dealing with the troubling, drug addled, shenanigans of Dr.John Lilly or the silly New Age meanderings of Joan Ocean, that in my opinion took away from the book's powerful overall message. The chapter on Lori Marino who perfectly matched her love and admiration of dolphins with real science was also admirable. And I'd be remiss not to mention the chapter based on the of people Dingle Ireland who befriended a solitary dolphin, or did the dolphin befriend the town of Dingle ? Either way, a wonderful chapter. And in conclusion, I have to commend author Susan Casey for choosing Ancient Greek History as well as Greek Art, in the final chapter to wonderfully portray her personal feelings for dolphins. Art is always a powerful medium, and lest we forget, history should never be forgotten...

Casey starts the book on familiar ground, with a focus on the still developing sport of big wave surfing. If you have never experienced or seen the sport before, this will get your interest. She then covers all the bases about rogue waves, ship disasters and others that involve the freak waves that have been plaguing the world for years. While at times she does get very scientific, which was the only part of the book that bored me, but however she immendentally gets back to the topic at hand. Over all this is a great book and anyone who is a fan of surfing or the sea should read it.

Well-written, interesting, informative. One of the only books I've read that was recommended by a co-worker (when a Rogue wave affected a client). Really nothing wrong with it, just personal taste - if it had dealt more with boats and less with surfers, I would've loved it.

Men giving hand jobs to dolphins? Who can listen to this? Definitely DNF!

I selected this book because of my particular interest in White sharks. However, tthe book is less about sharks, and more about the history of the islands, the author’s interaction with a few onsite biologists, as well certain birds, seals, and sea life native to the area. In fairness, the book provides a wonderful account of the natural beauty and solemnity of the islands.

It is an excellent story, but frankly contains a bit more fluff than I would have preferred. Nonetheless, an enjoyable read for those who do not expect too much analysis of great white sharks.½

I really wanted to love this, I just didn't. The synopsis compares this to Into Thin Air which is fantastic so I had high hopes for this.

Chapters go back and forth between following a group of surfers and scientific information on waves. A few of the surfing sections were very intense and interesting but about half way through I was ready for this to be over.

I really wanted to like this book, and really expected I would. It received very positive feedback from other Goodreads readers, and was included in the Dec. 5, 2010 NY Times list of best books of 2010. So I was anxious to begin the book, but I never got into it. I think there's only so much one can say about ocean waves, once you establish that they come in different sizes and complexity. It reminded me of one of my high school punishment assignments in which I had to write a composition describing the inside of a ping pong ball. There's only so much you can say without embellishing the subject or repeating yourself. So I found the book becoming repetitive, talking about yet another group of surfers in yet another super surf area taking on yet another once in a lifetime set of huge waves. Mixed in with the surfer stories were several interviews and stories of scientists who study and / or try to predict the science of the rogue and giant waves, and some of the mariners who've experienced them. I found myself thinking that I could read any 100 page section of the book and get the whole idea, and it would be much like any other 100 page portion. If you're really, really into surfing and stories of surfers, you'll probably enjoy it much more than I.

nonfiction (dolphin studies, exploitation, conservation and lore in human history).
A long (11-1/2 hour) audiobook that provides a sobering look at how dolphins (including orcas) suffer in captivity, cruel hunting practices and the accompanying dolphin trafficking trade, plus a peek into New Age dolphin enthusiasts, Chumash beliefs, and more.

Solid 4-stars...I liked how Casey alternated chapters looking at waves scientifically/historically and in the surfing world. I wish there had been more women featured in this...thank goodness there were a few female scientists present, but my Midwest, landlubber perception of modern-day surfing barely expanded beyond it being a male-dominated, clannish, and often sexist sport (and pretty white, too). Nevertheless, Casey wrote about the study of rogue waves with appropriate finesse and melodrama. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

The reader for the audio version, Kirsten Potter, was definitely one of the better readers I've encountered in my burgeoning audiobook explorations, though some of Hawaiian and Spanish pronunciations made me wince.

I really enjoyed this book because I found the stories of 'rogue waves' fascinating. I also lived in San Diego, CA at the time, and there is one of these famous waves off the coast - surfers and spectators have to take a boat to get to it when it breaks off shore in the middle of the ocean...fascinating!

I really enjoyed this book and ended up going on my own Great White Shark dive at the Farallon islands, only to see a jellyfish after 8 hours on a boat and in and out of a cage :( Oh well, it's probably for the better. This is just an exciting place to be with a lot of interesting history, especially the large sharks.

As someone who has always been fascinated by dolphins, I found Casey’s meticulously researched book to be enlightening, entertaining — and heartbreaking. As one reviewer aptly wrote, the book “is not for the faint of heart” given the abundance of cruelty that fills the pages as Casey chronicles ruthless slaughters and other acts of abuse. “Voices in the Ocean” is well-written, exhaustively documented and only occasionally wades a bit too long in some waters. True, it gets a bit too spiritual for me as we approach the end (sorry, mom). But I learned a lot about these amazing creatures through Casey’s informative journey.

spoiler alert: WALKING INTO THE OCEAN WILL PROBABLY KILL YOU.

2014 (my review is on the linked LibraryThing page)
https://www.librarything.com/topic/172769#4661126½

La autora se lanza a dar vueltas por el mundo, entrevistando a varias decenas de personas, para hablar de un tema: las olas. El libro es tres cuartas partes de surfing, pero no surfing del de todos los días, sino SURFING. Los grandes del deporte charlan sobre sus correrías y sus encuentros cercanos con la muerte durante todo el libro. También aparecen científicos que modelan olas y tempestades, que vigilan por satélite la altura media del primer tercil de las olas por todo el mundo, que estudian la ralentización de la corriente termohalina... Y no faltan los especialistas en salvamento, que hablan sobre barcos que encontraron su destino en la feroz pared de una ola de treinta metros en alta mar.
El libro es muy interesante, se deja leer y trata un tema que me apasiona. Me ha gustado mucho.

Waves can be thought of small and harmless, as they wash gently against your feet on a sun kissed beach. But they have a darker side, an ability to become an enormous destructive force that can obliterate landscapes, cities and ships.

Fifteen years ago scientists did not believe the reports of 100 foot high waves that appeared from nowhere in calm seas to sink boats. Their models didn’t show them, and they thought they were myths or just wrong estimates of the height of the wave. But then there were two instances, an oil rig that had sensors fitted to record the heights of the waves beneath the platform, and a research ship in the Atlantic that was caught in a horrendous storm. The measurements proved what scientists didn’t believe was possible; that not only did these monster waves exist, and they occurred frequently.

Each year a number of ships disappear completely without trace. It was thought that it was because of maintenance or other factors, but it is now believed that some of them are completely overwhelmed by these freak waves. Casey visits Lloyds in London to see the register of lost ships and talk to the insurance giant about ship losses. It is thought that around two big ships a week are lost, mostly bulk carriers, and there are pictures in the book of ships with their bows ripped off, and 70 foot high decks being covered with water

She spends a lot of time with those at the leading edge of surfing. This select group are the guys who only want to surf the giant 60 foot plus waves. This is a dangerous game, and even though the safety equipment has improved since the beginning, lives are lost every year. A lot of these waves are formed by the geology in particular coastal areas and this forces the wave higher and increases the danger as they are above reefs or close to cliffs. To even get onto these wave require the surfer to be towed onto the wave behind a jet ski..

Even thought this is a nonfiction book about the sea, it reads like a thriller. Casey’s writing add drama and eloquence to the drama of being on a ship that is at the mercy of the sea, the anticipation of the surfers waiting for that perfect 100 foot wave and the scientists who are humbled by the power of the natural world.