Via word of mouth I was informed about this book in the university were I work. In December 2014 I started working in a university library in the Midlands/UK, and a group of the under-graduate medical students who I talk to in the library allot advised me to read it, even though I am in my 40s and they are in their 20s. I was skeptical, because my response to them was that I think I am a middle aged woman and I am too old to read about sea-creatures, and having read the description, I thought the book would be like the movie “Finding Nemo” which is best for kids like my young daughter. But against my gut feeling I gave it a chance! I was pleasantly surprised, this book won’t be every bodies cup of tea, some will scoff at using sea-creatures for the characters instead of Humans, but Hey! we are all entitled to our own opinions, but in my own personal opinion I feel this is a very good book, by the end of the introduction section I was gripped to learn more about this Ocean World which had been created due to a combination of pollution generating activities from humans and global warming. The author uses the introduction section well to inform the reader about state of events, who is conflicting against who, and why the world is in the environmental state that it is, establishing the world clearly in the readers mind, before the main bulk of the story begins. The use of sea-creatures for the main characters that in my opinion have individual characteristic, confidence levels and their own universal language does work well, even for mature adult readers like myself, I found the book to be a fresh & original and a warning to all of a future path that our world might take. Within the first few chapters I could feel myself getting attached to the characters and easily visually imagining their world riddled with pollution and relics of the human land mass dominated age, particularly the whale Tenby, when he was plodding around the Whales Grand Old Library looking for historical scrolls, in the same way I spend my days looking for books. Tenby’s main aim I think is to impress his King and date the Kings daughter, and in my opinion the author should have included a serious/romance love story between Tenby and the Kings daughter in the book because that is the type of thing that the majority of us women like. I think the story line does develop & flow well, and is cleverly written & very interesting in parts, linking past events into the story line, gives a depth & historical lesson/explanation feel to the story, the author seems to have created a ocean-world in my opinion is much like worn torn Europe during World War 2. Although in my own opinion I think the author made a mistake not including living humans. I think living humans could have embedded into the story line with ease, which would give the book a greater appeal to book readers, because most science fiction readers do like to have humans within the story line. In my own opinion most science fiction readers like the hero’s to be humans, but what do I know, I am only a librarian! The ending was not what I had expected, or had hoped for to be truthful, but the ending work well with the entire story and in my opinion left the story opened ended. Throughout the story there are historical reminders of humans in the forms, of submerged cities, technologies, weapons, human origin pollution, and a warning about environmental change. It was clever how this human left over technology turned out to be the trump card, weapons that saved the (Good Guys) dolphins, whales against the (Bad Guys) sharks & their allies, the main (Bad guy) Shark, got me thinking for an unknown reason of the child catcher in the great British film Chitty Chitty bang bang, which I just watched with my daughter over the Christmas period. One piece of advice I would give to this author and all authors, is that if you spend allot of time developing characters, which the readers become fond off, then do not kill them off, ensure that they survive so that they can be used at a later date, or maybe in future books, (I know this is not always possible) but I was disappointed at the loss of the character “Big Beak” I thought it was a waste of a character, and this character could have given much more to the over-all story. Because in my opinion most successful book & film series maintain the same core characters so the readers can link to previous stories. In a surreal sense there is some real-life truths in the story, because in to-days oceans there are constant battles between different sea-creatures, but the way the author used the natural sequence of events of the ocean world to create a future ocean world as work well. I hope I not rambling on, and remember this is only my own none-skilled opinion and not the opinion of everybody. I really enjoyed the book. To be honest in general I liked this book very much. In my own opinion and not the opinion of everybody I think this book would be best suited to the teen era, and fans of science fiction, it is well-worth a read. ( )

A break away from the normal science fiction out there today. Really enjoyed the story right until the end, I like how sea-creatures are the main characters, and that the book highlights the potential future dangers about environmental change. A world's been created were many stories could be told, well worth reading for all those science fiction fans out there. ( )