Marine Biologist, Will Myers, grieves the deaths of the two things he holds most dear: his beautiful wife, Yosselin, and the ocean that has inspired his passions from early childhood. Fixing up his research laboratory and the resumption of his daily life in the wake of yet another hurricane sweeping up through the Caribbean and over the Florida Keys he calls home are at the top of his priority list.

However, the discovery of a body intercedes. A teenage boy equipped with peculiar features autopsied by Eloise Clark—county coroner, and friend—consumes Will’s mind. The deceased boy’s sister, the breathtaking Andreia Alvarez, takes up a sizeable portion of Will’s attention, too.

Tensions surge to a fever pitch as the destruction of important infrastructure threatens a complete global economic collapse. But all that matters to Will, besides toiling away in his Promethean battle to save the ailing ocean, is the gravitational pull of scientific curiosity, which sends him diving down to the depths of the sea, fathoms deeper than the point of safety for his kind.

Spoiler-Free Plot

Could he be a U.S. Navy project? Or the genetic experiment of a foreign, and potentially hostile nation? Whilst comfortable performing autopsies on marine specimens to determine the cause of death, Will Myers’ first human, or rather human-like, autopsy subverts his physiological expectations. Unusual adaptations are immediately observed from the outside and internally. He would expect some from marine life, seals, and deep sea creatures. Not from a fifteen-year-old boy swept to shore with the dregs of a passing hurricane. Like in appearance, the boy’s sister, Andreia, lacks some of the outstanding, visible features her brother has. But her secrecy, responses to questions, and actions, all shrouded in an aura of mystery, alert Will’s keen sensors that something is amiss.

Despite his better judgment, Will picks at what little information he has been given, concocting plans with elaborate ruses to gather more clues about the boy, his family, and their condition. Hints at criminal involvement on Andreia’s part encourage Will to be careful, but a straight-up man such as himself, one who had never dirtied his hands with the stain of felonious activity, would have no clue if he was blindly walking himself into a trap he couldn’t find his way out of.

Meanwhile, calculated attacks rumored to have infiltrated the operational code of strategically located oil refineries plunge the world into chaos. The population’s overreliance on fossil fuels is exposed, and the world falls to its knees in its absence. Oil pollution occupying the water column promises to exterminate marine life. And not only that: the increasing likelihood of all-out nuclear war and its fallout would poison the earth as a whole, land, and ocean.

Will might not survive to continue his restoration effort, there might not be anything left to restore. Everything would be wiped out before the most hidden secrets could be discovered.

My Take on The Others

This book is a portfolio displaying author Ted Weber’s scientific pedigree. As someone who enjoys the ocean and has a strong appreciation for science, the theoretical elements in the story emphasize the author’s diligence in creating conditions that lie within the realm of imagination. I do not disparage fantasy at all, as it is a genre I enjoy, but sometimes reading material that draws from more analytical and academic sources scratches a prolonged itch, particularly one triggered by an ever-present curiosity about the world around us.

Some parts of the story challenged me—I am not well-versed in the world of Information and Technology—but I welcomed the opportunity to expand my horizons by pulling up a few glossaries on the topic and wildly switching between apps so I could keep up with the fast pace of the writing.

Each chapter was plot-driven, containing more than enough mystery, intrigue, and action to keep you hooked as the hours slipped by imperceptibly, almost criminally so. It was hard not to let responsibilities fall by the wayside as I got sucked in deeper with every twist and turn. The events that take place within the span of the book so closely mimic those in real life that readers feel as though they must complete the story in the hopes of retaining a slice of the future, carrying it with them to the present to mend whatever you can preemptively, before the state of the world falls into further disarray than it already rests in, no matter the cause—the Karsk or the continued selfishness of humanity.

The little consumerist devil perched on my shoulder resents the fact that good writing takes time. I do hope to read another tale of the Ahta. T.C. Weber has unlocked a world of storytelling opportunities that many would be keen to follow.

Age Rating

16 years and above

Content Warning

Foul Language, Sexual Content (within species and interspecies), and Violence.

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