Deep Fathom by James Rollins

One of the earlier books of Rollins before he started the Sigma series. There is a downside to success, that it makes you becoming restricted in your thought process, especially true for those in writing industry in the aftermath of hitting bulls eye with a successful launch of a series. You end up restricting your thought process to the set of characters and beyond a point it can't be stretched unless newer characters are introduced which ends up diluting the whole lot. You cannot simply offer the scope and limelight for every character and in fact have to pander to the characterisation of the popular of the lot, which results in the ultimate story line being compromised to certain extent. In the beginning books of the sigma series, the first chapter will set the tone for the book, with an impossible plot or an unimaginable level of danger, involving known places, people or situations. The Sigma series led by Gray and later by Siechan, will travel the length and breadth of the world with the back office stuff handled by Painter, their boss and the dynamic duo, are accompanied by Monk (with a prosthetic hand similar to our Irumbukkai maayavi), Kowalski (like Lothar of Mandrake the magician) and couple other characters. Initially Seichan was from Guild, the villain group and anti-sigma. Eventually she falls in love with Gray and as per the most recent of the books in the series, they even have kids. The series has pandered to the extent that, there was a plot involving Seichan's mother, Kowalski's love interest, Seichan's history with guild, Gray's parents getting kidnapped and eventually the very office of Sigma - Smithsonian museum, getting attacked. Idhuku mela Rolllins really must be rolling his brain to rack out some stuff new and interesting to keep the thread moving alongside these characters. Deep Fathom, his earlier book, devoid of these character restrictions, shows what a creatively free mind can deliver.

The story begins with a total solar eclipse, that triggers massive quakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and for a minute i thought i was reading the script of 2012!! It shifts focus to an underwater crystal pillar and pyramids that suddenly wash up due to receding water levels in ocean near Japan. How the two are connected to the lost continent, why is the place diametrically opposite to Bermuda triangle has such fluctuating magnetic shield and how it resulted in not just the Airforce one but several flights and ships, across several decades, going missing or wrecked. How the rag tag team of a deep sea treasure, a college lecturer, a computer science wiz with her first ever Artificial intelligence system (the story is almost a decade and a half old!) race against the US navy in deciphering the clue to crack the puzzle. Throw in a personal revenge motive and a b-grade movie villain like character, you got your complete novel. Having read most of the subsequent novels by Rollins, looks like he has liberally used several situations from this book across many of his other novels in great detail, having hit the jackpot with this plot. The entire story is super fast paced and makes a decent read, despite being predictable. Rollins doesn't disappoint in general and this one stays fresh despite being from previous decade.