Over four and a half billion years of secret stories, powerful dramas, astonishing changes and unusual inventions such as photosynthesis or sex.
Frank Schätzing’s new book is a masterly description of the underwater universe – and how it will shape our future. Is the shark cruel because it eats man? Is man cruel because he eats oysters? Is the shark aware its victim is suffering when it cries out? Or does it take these cries to be a sign of the freshness of the goods it’s consuming, just as we benevolently watch an oyster jerk when we drizzle it with lemon?" Man and sea. An odd relationship, characterised by love and hate, romantic notions, curiosity and ignorance. How does this enormous system function, a system from which we originate but which we know less about than outer space? How could life come about in this primeval sea? Where did all the water come from? Why did evolution take this route rather than any other? It could just as easily have turned us into intelligent, liquid-filled air mattresses.
Frank Schätzing has written a book of non-fiction that is as exciting as his thriller Der Schwarm. With expertise and irony, Schätzing spans the big bang and the next 100,000 years, taking us into the unknown underwater universe, astounding, delighting and horrifying us. By the end of the book, we see the ocean through very different eyes.
