A good Turtledove alternate-past book based on the Glomar Explorer's expedition into the North Pacific to recover a Soviet submarine. The main character, Jerry, is a likeable guy and has many adventures. Turtledove's language can be unrestrained, but this one wasn't too verbose. I was puzzled by the thesis that the recovery vehicle contained aliens from another planet, vice some other form of life from, for example, an alternate reality? ( )

It's been over a decade since I've given Harry Turtledove a chance to entertain me, and it turns out that I had totally forgotten that I had I had picked up that brick. This gets to my main complaint with this author; his novels, once you get past the initial premise, often manage to seem brick-like and superficial at the same time. This time out those issues are being transcended, as Turtledove gives you a fairly tight character study of one man thrust into an extraordinary circumstances and that is as interested in the textures of 1974 as it is in the big idea of a Cold War alien first contact.

There are a number of things I could downgrade this novel for. One, it does seem a little bit like a "Mary Sue," in that it just so happens that Turtledove was a grad student at the same time his main character was. Two, the "Washington political thriller" might not be Turtledove's metier; Tim Powers and Charlie Stross do this sort of thing better on a regular basis. Still, as someone who was in high school at the time, I think that Turtledove does relate the period well to someone for whom 1974 might as well be 1874, I like his main character, and I'd be willing to give further books a chance. I do suspect that Tor was tougher minded about editing than Del Rey (Turtledove's main publisher in his prime) ever was. ( )

I was somewhat entertained by the story and somewhat entertained by the parts set in a time an place I knew quite well - even an encounter with someone I've met on multiple occasions, but overall this one just didn't have enough to overcome my distaste for the politics of the 1970s. The POV character was well portrayed but what he went trough lacked some visceral quality I required to feel his experiences. ( )

Jerry, the hero of Harry Turtledove’s Three Miles Down, is a likable graduate student who studies whale songs and writes science fiction on the side. He is hired by the CIA to join a team investigating an alien spacecraft found on the Pacific Ocean floor in 1974. Jerry is not a swashbuckler, though he responds quickly and creatively in difficult situations. In most ways, he is an ordinary guy who wants respect from his academic colleagues and worries about how his fiancée will take their separation. The novel is laced with detail from 1970s cultural history. Watergate is winding down. Jerry listens to Steely Dan and watches Harry Reasoner on TV. The ship that brings up the spacecraft is the Glomar Explorer, which was used as a CIA cover in its attempt to recover a sunken Russian submarine. But there are some unanswered questions. Turtledove’s alternate American history novels usually run 400-600 pages. At less than 300 pages, Three Miles Down is a novella by his standards. Reviewers raise their eyebrows and ask, “Where’s the rest of it?” No sequel has been announced, but no one would be shocked if one is in the works. 4 stars. ( )

It's 1974, and Jerry Stieglitz is a marine biology grad student, working on his dissertation. He's sold a few science fiction stories, and he's a few weeks away from getting married. It's a good life.

Then three guys knock on his door, and push their way in when he answers it. They're from the CIA, and they have a proposition for him. They want him to join a secret expedition. No one is going to explain anything to him yet, but he'll be in the North Pacific, and will be able to continue his whale song research.

They're not really taking no for an answer, either, but they're willing to pay him enough to solve all his immediate problems--including paying for the cost of delaying his wedding.

There's a scary NDA to sign, and he can't tell Anna even as much as the little he knows, but with the costs of delaying the wedding covered, and the seemingly insane salary Jerry will be paid setting up nicely for the start of married life, she agrees.

He goes to an address in Los Angeles, and gets a false name, new ID, and the information that he'll be getting on Glomar Explorer, which will be trying to raise a sunken Soviet submarine, while pretending to mine magnesium from the ocean floor. And yes, sure, he can continue is whale song research. The new NDA includes a clause saying that if he tells anyone anything, the CIA may "terminate him with extreme prejudice."

When he gets to Glomar Explorer, he learns that retrieving the Soviet sub will be a "nice to get." They're really after something far more exciting: an alien spaceship on the ocean floor, that apparently sank the Soviet sub. They want Jerry not as window dressing, but for his science fiction writing. He's someone whose scientific reputation is good enough to be a cover for why they really want him. He's there to think creatively about the aliens and the alien ship.

Jerry makes genuinely useful contribution, including the extremely useful contribution of how to get into the alien ship without damaging it, and without triggering whatever the ship did to wreck the Soviet sub. He's also provided a well-thought-out list of possible scenarios for how things could play out, with or without live aliens on board the spaceship.

He also expresses concerns about how the CIA is managing this, both the unduly aggressive treatment of the ship, and the insistence on keeping the ship secret from the Soviets. This isn't because he likes the Soviets. Like most liberals of the 1970s, he's quite well aware that the Soviets actually are far worse than any of his concerns about the USA. No, he thinks this is just too big for one country to keep to itself. These are aliens, and their technology is far ahead of ours in several ways, and the whole world will need to deal with it--both the risks and the possible benefits--in any real good is to come of it, rather than a possible world war that could end the world.

Jerry is not always sufficiently diplomatic about this. He gets kicked off the ship with a reminder of the "termination with extreme prejudice" clause.

He tries to keep his head down. He really does. But something leaks from someone, and he looks like one of the two most obvious suspects. Dangerous things start happening, and Jerry runs. Not randomly, but to the only place where he thinks he can change the diretion of what's happening.

The last third of the book is mostly political thriller, resting on a foundation of science fiction and alternate history. Whether Jerry, his marriage, and the planet can survive is in serious question.

The main plot of this book has a satisfying ending, but in the larger setting animating the book, there's a cliffhanger setting. No sequel has been announced, but Turtledove doesn't set up a cliffhanger like that without intending to continue. I look forward to seeing at least one sequel.

It's a lot of fun, but not on the explosions and fights level. The excitement is in what they've found, and what they'll do about it, and what arguments will prevail. Both how first contact will go, and whether the world will survive, hang in the balance.

I like this kind of story a lot more than big explosions. It's a lot of fun, if you enjoy ideas and possibilities. Oh, and the occasional appearance of real-world science fiction writers.

I bought this audiobook. ( )