Review: First in Exciting Adventure Fantasy Tale!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 31, 2013
This is the first novel in a Trilogy--one I highly recommend for YA to Adults! I loved it for a number of reasons, including that the author spotlights information about a major world issue--oil spills. But, even more important, she very effectively has identified the issue of discrimination, without even using the word... So while this is an important book for those reasons, the major reason to buy it is that it's fun, entertaining, and has much potential for exploring a major world resource, our oceans...Alannis (which I thought was a cool name, reminiscent of Atlantis) Summers is 16 when she smartly contacts the head of a research expedition into an area around the Cubbarros Islands  in the Caribbean Sea. A crucial key about her being able to go was that she had worked hard, had the appropriate training, certification and dives to be accepted!She would be assisting Dr. Candace Warren, who was a leading expert on marine invasive species. And, wow, right now an unidentified species was creating a major world-wide problem. Simply referred to as The Fouling, it was a black crust which hardened on surfaces, such as the underside of boats, and literally ate them...  It also consumed oil, petroleum, plastic... you get the idea!Ships were being lost, seafood activities had been stopped, restaurants were closing...and people were being killed...The area around Cubbarros was being explored to see if they could find any sign of the fouling and determine if it was the same that was spreading into the Atlantic Ocean up the U.S. east coast.Alannis was a normal teen who had a tendency to get involved, to seek out adventures, to get answers...and to get herself in trouble. On her first dive, she spots something that looks like a ship and immediately goes to check it out! Jake, the Captain's son follows and manages to get her back on board, rather than do what she wanted to do...go back down! They kept everything a secret so they wouldn't get in trouble...But it was there, on that first dive that Alanis thought she saw someone, but didn't know that somebody began to follow her...While the team boat went on to their next location, he started to follow her underwater...And so routine set in as they explored, looking for the black crust... But somebody else was watching everything they did...The Ocean Security Commission (The Commission) now controlled the Atlantic Ocean. They monitored all shipping. They determined where people could and  could not go. And when the expedition team needed supplies they had to get them from The Commission, by stopping in an area that was guarded at all times...There, Alannis was taken in for questioning--about her parents, what she was doing on the expedition, how she had gotten permission to be there...It seemed to Alannis that too much attention was being paid to her...But then again, there was a very good reason and The Commission already seemed to know about...the one who followed her underwater...This is a really exciting water adventure, including diving into caves, into secret waters that were all being carefully controlled... But nobody knew who had created The Commission..or why... Action and suspense and lots of fantasy characters. I'm looking forward to the next story, because The Commission has already debriefed Alannis and "suggested strongly" that she plan on working for them after her high school graduation...Wow! What a ending! And what a hook for the next book!Don't miss this one...GABixlerReviews