Robin Cook - Abduction

A mysterious transmission from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean leads a crew of oceanographers and divers to a phenomenon beyond scientific understanding - and a discovery that will change everything we know about life on Earth...

Comment: This book had been in my TBR list for a long time...since 2009 if I recall correctly. This wasn't the first book by him I've read but it's now one of my favorites.

This book starts with the description of geological works near a underwater volcano in order to discover new geological properties that might be helpful to the study of the lava and particles in that area. There's a group of people working there and when the president of the company that conducts the works arrives there he is asked to go in an underwater trip for a few hours to see exactly where the works are being done and what is happening. He isn't impressed at first but then he finally sees the beauty of that area and when things are going well, something happens and the small submarine they are using looses some power and they are sucked into the volcano together with two divers that were helping them. In the surface ship, everyone thinks they're dead, but the truth is they went completely to the bottom of the ocean somehow and in fact things aren't as dire as they seemed... or are they?

I loved this book. I think it had an interesting and imaginative story and although difficult to believe, it surely seemed pertinent to what we might believe is true heaven or how our whole personality can be challenged all the time.

There are five people who go underwater, presumably dead. They're actually rescued and they face a reality nobody in the world could ever dream on, much less think true. But while they live what is almost the heaven we all dream about, the ideal state of being we aspire to, that image of a heaven where we can have everything, where there's no fear or death or violence or problems, despite all this, could we really live by those standards? Wouldn't we, used to the stress of daily life and difficulties, be too constricted to perfection and want challenges, changes, things that would make us think and react?

I think the story was pretty great. A big imagination from the author to picture a world under the sea with all the technology and the advances we would like to see in our world. In that world there are rules, there are things that might look artificial for people who strive on feelings and emotions. But I think some of those things are wonderful and I would love to see them one day. The truth is, reading this allowed for some dreamlike moments and I'm glad.

The end of the book isn't the most happy but I didn't think it was bad either. From the five that went down, only one remained there and although part of me feels sad for a fictional person to be locked out of surface, of the real sun and family, I still think it wasn't that bad. The other four used violence, they broke the society rules for their own purposes and they've hurt innocent people because those under the sea didn't want to hurt anyone or take over the world, just the opposite in fact. So, I think the way the book ended for them was exactly what they needed.

I recommend this book just for the experience itself. It's really great to read about such a possibility, no matter how remote or unlikely to be real.