Blurb:

Her sub can break the underwater speed of sound. But can she outpace the threat of nuclear winter?

In 2055, with global tensions nearing the breaking point, humanity teeters on the brink of annihilation. Their only hope lies with Captain Kel Williams and her loyal team, crewing what some call the deadliest submarine ever built.

Kel races to stake a claim to valuable undersea biomass—a lifeline that could prolong humanity’s demise. But deadly Russo-Chinese factions lurk in the lightless depths, determined to stop her at every turn.

Besieged by threats within and without, Kel finds herself walking a razor’s edge to maintain control. Surrounded on all sides, she relies on her crew’s dedication and her Bull Nuke Oscar Allen to maintain order and avert disaster.

Yet unbeknownst to all, salvation may lie in secrets lurking deep beneath the waves. Hidden truths once dismissed as myth. Whispers of impossible doorways and gods long forgotten.

With danger at every turn, will anyone escape the deadly snare, or do ancient myths hold the key to humanity’s survival?

Drowning Earth is the pulse-pounding first book in the Portalverse Elemental Origins science fiction techno-thriller series. If you like bold characters, dystopian conflicts, and wild surprises, then you’ll love Sean Willson’s plunge beneath the waves.

Review:

I was made aware that Sean Willson was releasing a second novel, a continuation of “Drowned Earth”, next month by our illustrious and glorious site leader Boe Kelly. Me being that reader who will drown himself in novels if given a chance, saw Sean’s email and reached out to him, and then, while waiting, inhaled another series that I plan on reviewing at least the first book of. Anyhow, back to “Drowning Earth” and the Red October hunt of the future.

If I had to sell the novel to a friend or family member… I’d give them this spiel:

“Captain Kel Williams, alongside her old friend, Oscar Allen, have created a sub that many crave to have. The greed of those starts a war.”

Alongside my usual spiel of asking if they’d like to know more.

Yet, like always, that isn’t the full ball game, there’s always more going on than what that snippet conveys. 

So, in the usual brusque manner that the military has, let me begin by introducing the two named characters: Kel Williams and her old friend, Oscar Allen.

Kel Williams retired from the navy, got married, had some kids with her not so loving husband, who she then divorced. After that, she and Oscar Allen worked on the HMS Bancroft. She’s decisive, way too trustworthy, and tries to see the best in people (which leads to some very harrowing encounters within the novel), and a bit trigger happy if someone betrays her. Throughout the novel, she gets her nerves frayed many times and deals with enough stress to make us readers stressed out.

Meanwhile, Oscar Allen is the senior engineer on the HMS Bancroft. He’s quick witted, handy with engineering tools, also too trustworthy sometimes, and is good at sneaking around submobiles. Through circumstances, he ends up in executive command of the HMS Bancroft, and whilst he’s in command, he has to deal with his own fears and insecurities during a crisis that would’ve been the end of almost any submersible to yet exist.

After that, we have the world building. It's set in the not too distant future, where the Earth is dealing with unprecedented flooding, meaning that masses of humanity are striving for higher ground, and arable land has been reduced greatly. Great Britain has somehow gone through Brexit twice and reunification with the EU twice. Enter the ocean, and underwater tech. Of course, if that was the only part of the book, this would be a greatly reduced part of the review. Because there is more. Now, imagine a bunch of powerful, and immortal watchers and builders. That’s what they call themselves in the book, however, to sum it up, they’re scientists looking for a way to deal with an unknown threat, at least to us. They each have their experiments going on. And one of those experiments being run? The world that is slowly drowning. And the scientist running the show? They have chosen a certain submarine to be their focal point of their research and tests. Needless to say this adds a bit of a flair to the whole tale.

With how I left the world building part, it would be criminal not to go into the plot. It would be straightforward… submarine team goes into ocean to go look into a strange occurrence, the Russians and Chinese start interfering and it devolves into an underwater game of hide and seek, with the AAFEUS (Australian, African, European Union and the United States vibing together in a military alliance) submarine being the hider. That by itself would’ve made for a captivating war novel. Throw in a cave system, at least one backstabbing from at least one person, and two scientists with godlike powers watching it all unfold and it goes from a somewhat uncomplicated story to “Excuse me, what just happened?”. Shenanigans ensue and a bit of stabby stabbings later, they find themselves in an area that they had no idea even existed up until that point. Meanwhile, the scientist in charge of this Earth is talking to a different scientist, who I’ll just introduce as Phaethon, and they are arguing back and forth about the necessity of humans. That’ll lead into the next book, if I’m able to guesstimate whereupon they ended their conversation.

Finally, there is the amount of accuracy that Sean Willson has tossed into “Drowning Earth”. As much as I wanted to place my iPad outside after reading a ton of acronyms at the beginning of the novel, I put that idea in the bin and kept reading. I myself am not a sailor nor submarine expert, but after looking up the acronyms, the accuracy is there. The books that are in the submarine scream “submarine”, with all the usual risks and dangers that run with it. Some terminology came off as cheesy in some parts, like the usage of “dolphin” for the submariners, yet it is accurate slang. And after looking at a website of navy slang, a ton of the words now make much more sense. There is a bunch more in here, like the machinery, the ocean itself, the pain of underwater caves, and the problems that occur if it goes below its measured depth. 

Besides that, there is only one part about “Drowning Earth”, and that would be the absolute slew of acronyms that were shoved into my mind within the first chapter, with no explanation about their meanings. Even if this is a nautical science fiction novel, it would’ve been nice to have a glossary for all of those acronyms in order to get right into the novel,

If you enjoy nautical science fiction set in our not too distant future, with betrayal, a bit of death, and lots of harrowing moments that would make a claustrophobe want to be anywhere but that cave system and eel submarine, Sean Willsons “Drowning Earth” is for you.

As always, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. If not, don’t fret, we here at SFF Insiders have, in all likelihood, a review for a novel in almost every genre. There’s reviews for novels like “The Blade Itself”, written by Joe Abercrombie (review here), in the grimdark fantasy category, and reviews for novels like “The Return of the Knights, written by Gregory Kontaxis (review here), in the high fantasy category. 

Wherever you are reading my review for “Drowning Earth”, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!