Official Review: Seabound by Jordan Rivet

sahmoun2778 · Post by **sahmoun2778** » 28 Dec 2014, 20:49

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Seabound" by Jordan Rivet.]

4 out of 4 stars

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Esther is a mechanic on a cruise ship. Sounds pretty everyday doesn’t it. Until you find out that this is no ordinary cruise ship. This ship is filled with survivors of a volcanic eruption that has changed the world. Esther has grown up on this ship. She and her father were among the few lucky ones who were able to escape land. Her mother and sister did not.

The ship is named the Catalina and Esther and the other survivors have been on her for the last sixteen years. Esther is 22 now and knows the ship inside and out. The thousand or so people on the Catalina have formed a community where everyone is equal and uses their skills to support the working of the ship. As far as they know life on land is still impossible after the eruption changed the entire atmosphere on earth. They spend much of their time watching for storms and repairing the damage done by them. The Catalinians, as they call themselves, get their food from the sea, mainly fish and kelp, as the original food supplies are long ago used up. Esther is instrumental in maintaining the water desalination system which keeps them all from dehydrating. Occasionally, they meet up with other ships and do some trading or they may come across abandoned shipping containers and take the contents.

But one day something goes terribly wrong and the Catalina is forced to seek help. Esther’s scrapped together desal system bursts a pipe and suddenly they have a water shortage. Then she finds out that Frank has not been maintaining the filters as he should and they are unusable. They can’t drink seawater and they are months away from their usual rendezvous point. Esther is desperate. Her friend Neal, who is the radio operator, tells her about a fleet of ships that he has been communicating with and he thinks they could reach it but the effort will use up all their fuel and the leader of their community probably won’t like the idea. So they come up with a plan to deceive the community into thinking they are outrunning a storm and then meeting up with the Galaxy Flotilla.

The Galaxy Flotilla is a group of cruise ships and other types of watercraft that have joined together to form a city on the sea. They have everything you could ask for and treat the Catalinians to the full spectrum of their hospitality. But Esther can’t get anybody to talk to her about the supplies she needs and she begins to suspect there is more to this city than meets the eye. After a few days an unexpected storm appears suddenly and the ships have to scatter to keep from damaging each other. Esther is trapped on a Galaxy ship and the Catalina is nowhere to be found. She knows they cannot survive long without the parts she has been trying to acquire.

This time help comes from David Hawthorne, a representative of the Galaxy Flotilla, and a group of Galaxians looking to escape a system that is really a tyrannical empire ruled by a few. Their plan involves hijacking a boat and the needed supplies and searching for the Catalina themselves.

I found this book enjoyable to read and an approach to the apocalyptic genre that I haven’t encountered before. The plot line was both well thought out and well written. I found the characters to be likable heroes and nasty villains, just as they should be. The story has action, adventure and romance all balanced nicely. This book is the first of at least two so there’s a bit of a cliffhanger at the end. I think anyone who enjoys the apocalyptic type book will enjoy this one. I give this book a 4 out of 4 star rating.

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