July 1st, 2010

The Dragon In the Sea (1956)

A psychologist goes under-cover as part of a sub crew who steal oil from the Eastern powers, in hopes of finding out who is sabotaging their subs.

by Frank Herbert
More info @ Amazon
  • Now get this, the premise of the book is very cool

  • The western powers (read, the U.S) needs oil and they have almost run out of their own supplies

  • The solution? Steal someone else's oil of course! So they make these "sub-tugs" which pretty much are super miniaturized submarine oil platforms which gets oil from the well under water, without the need to surface.

  • they essentially steal oil from the eastern powers (soviets)

  • Problem is, the Soviets are onto their game. They have successfully sabotaged 20/20 sub-tugs. Sub crews are also highly prone to suicide and crazyness

  • Navy psych sent under-cover to investigate

  • result? thrilling story of how Navy psych calculates his moves and interacts with the sub crew while trying to find out who is the saboteur

  • I was really surprised of how fitting and relevant the plot is compared to today, considering the fact the the book was written during in the 1950's during the Cold War

  • downsides; some parts are boring. Herbert spends to much going into detail of how some of the sub works (knobs, levers, etc)

  • no fear! The story picks up again pretty quickly

  • interesting mix of psychology, religion, drama, thriller and mystery

in a nutshell

Intriguing and interesting thriller. Definitely a good read.

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