| View Larger Image | Diving The Seamount | Paperbackby Tom Rapko (Author)
| List Price: | $11.95 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | iUniverse, Inc. | | Page Count: | 138 Pages | | Publication Date: | June 27, 2004 | | Sales Rank: | 1,881,335st |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Twenty miles off the arid coast of Baja California an underwater oasis beckons. Known by generations of Mexican Indians as a source of energy and strength, its renown has attracted a loose following of itinerant travelers determined to discover its secret. Slowly the seamount reveals her secret, but will that be enough for these travelers to overcome the trappings of a modern society? |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 14 reviews)
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A Painful Read by SharkBookLover (Lansing, MI USA)  1 Stars
May 28, 2006
This self-published novel may be the worst book I've ever read. It's as if the author sat down with a thesaurus to turn 'birds' into 'avians', and to have people 'perambulate' and 'hagger' [sic] instead of walk. The writing is full of strange word choices and even stranger phrasings, the author working very hard to be clever and original. The result is that this amateurish book reads like a very bad first draft. This reader's most frequent response to the writing: "huh?"
It also seems the book went to print without being read by a living, human editor. The computer's spell checker gives us 'unique receipts' instead of 'recipes,' 'segregate home' instead of 'surrogate,' and 'wince it came' instead of 'whence.' People go 'aboard' to study. The manuscript is replete with these uncorrected errors, the editing a bad joke. Did the author actually critically read his own manuscript before publication?
The story gives very little actual sense of what diving the Sea of Cortez seamounts, or what visiting the town and people of La Paz are truly like. To this avid reader and avid diver who's explored those very seamounts, and spent more than a year traveling the wonders of Baja, this book is a major disappointment. And worst of all: the story itself is simply boring.
Caveat emptor. I wish I had read an honest review before spending my money.
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Sell everything, pay off your debts, punch out. by Justin Ratcliff (S.Pasadena, Ca.)  4 Stars
November 03, 2005
At it's heart, Diving the Seamount is about an ancient desire for escaping the mundane and meaningless lives which most of us lead, and throwing the dice for paradise. This book offers many stories, many of which represent salvation and redemption, all within the context of a geographical locale capable of causing many to question the very value of their existence, and the quality of their happiness. Though scuba diving offers the common link between many of its characters, Diving the Seamount explores the universal nature of mankind's desire for peace, quiet, love, and the ever prescient attraction of the sea, regulator or no. Tom Rapko writes in the spirit of Steinbeck, and the similarities between this book and the Monterey Series are not lost on me. I will be looking forward to future offerings from this promising new author, and share the sentiment of another reviewer that employing an editor would do much to bring out the talent made obvious by this nascent effort.
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An Entertaining Ride by Raptor (Maryland, USA)  5 Stars
January 29, 2005
I picked up this book after a friend recommended it because they know I like to scuba dive. What I got was a fictional but realistic glimpse into life in Baja Mexico and how one experience can change a person forever. What a great book.
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Entertaining and insightful by Joseph H Pierre (Salem, OR USA) 4 Stars
November 19, 2004
This is a good little (130 page) book. It could have used the publisher's offered editing service, though. There are many instances of the use of an obviously wrong word. Nothing, however that seriously detracted from the story.
The cover photo was outstanding, and because of the half-dozen hammerhead sharks shown, I must assume that it was shot by the author, who claims to be a photog.
Frankly, I was hoping for a non-fiction book about diving, replete with many underwater photos. The Sea of Cortez is a renowned diving area, and Ray Cannon's book, The Sea of Cortez, is an example of what can be done with such a book.
This is a good first book for a young author who obviously loves diving.
Joseph (Joe) Pierre
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A fine debut by J. Skerrett (U.S.) 4 Stars
October 28, 2004
Diving the Seamount is full of beauty, adventure, and underlying spirituality. It's a very satisfying read by a promising new voice.
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