UNDER THE SEA:
submarines, undersea cities, underwater living
Jules Verne did NOT invent the submarine in
Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea (1870) since there had been real submarines for
some time. Your Humble Webmaster attended Robert Fulton Elementary School
in Brookly, New York, as a child, and reminds you that
Robert
Fulton built his famous submarine in 1801 -- named "The
Nautilus" -- eaxactly as Jules Verne named his famous submarine 69 years
later.
Verne wasn't even the first to use a submarine in fiction. Theophile Gautier
had a short story published in 1848 with a submarine integral to the
plot: "Les Deux Etoiles."
The earliest underwater civilizations in fiction appear to be "The Crystal
City" by Andre Laurie (1895), and "The Scarlet Empire" by David M. Parry
(1906). A more complete listing of
undersea science fiction
and fantasy, and fiction profoundly about the ocean would include:
- Kobo Abe's "Inter Ice Age 4" (1959, English translation 1970):
global warming will melt polar ice and flood the continents, humans are
modified for underwater living, protagonist is horrified to find out
that government is stealing babies and repressing dissent
- Piers Anthony's "Mercycle" (1991)
- T. J. Bass' "The Godwhale" [Ballentine Books, 1974]: humans are
modified for underwater living
- James Blish's novella "Surface Tension" (1952): human astronauts
with advanced genetic engineering technology are stranded on a
virtually uninhabitable planet, so they download their personalities
into genetically-engineered underwater single-celled organisms;
a masterpiece which helped to turn Your Humble Webmaster towards
science fiction authorship
- James Blish and Norman L. Knight's "A Torrent of Faces" (1967):
undersea living in an overpopulated future
- John Boyd's "The Girl and the Dolphin" (1973): short fiction
- David Brin's "Startide Rising" (1983):
humans, and genetically-enhanced dolphins and apes go starfaring together
in the "Uplift" series of novels
- Kenneth Bulmer's "City Under the Sea" [Ace, 1957; Avon]: humans are
modified for underwater living
- Kenneth Bulmer's "Beyond the Silver Sky" (1961)
- Arthur C. Clarke's "The Deep Range" [Harcourt Brace, 1957; Signet]: the most
comprehensive attempt to detail underwater living
- Arthur C. Clarke's "Dolphin Island" (1963)
- Hal Clement's "Ocean on Top" [Daw, 1973]: humans are
modified for underwater living
- Stanton Coblentz's "The Sunken World" [Fantasy Publishing Co. Inc.,
1949; in magazine publication 1928]: Atlantis is still thriving
- Michael J. Coney's "Neptune's Cauldron" (1981)
- Richard Cowper's "Profundis" (19??): survivors of the holocaust
live in a gigantic submarine
- Gordon R. Dickson's "The Space Swimmers" [Berkley, 1967]: humans are
modified for underwater living
- Frank Herbert's "Under Pressure" [Ballentine Books, 1974]
a.k.a. The Dragon in the Sea [Doubleday, 1956; Science Fiction Book Club]
a.k.a. 21st Century Sun [Avon, 1956]: focus on submarines in
commerce and warfare
- Lee Hoffman's "The Caves of Karst" (1969)
- Alexander Jablokov's "A Deeper Sea" (1992): whale is dropped
into Jupiter's oceans for first-contact purposes
- Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (writing as Laurence O'Donnell)'s "Fury"
[Grosset & Dunlap, 1950; Lancer]
a.k.a. Destination Infinity [Avon, 1958; Garland, 1976]: the
undersea city happens to be on Venus, which we know today to be about
800 degrees too hot for an ocean *sigh*
- Sterling Lanier's "The Kings of the Sea" (1968) humans and selkies
- Tanith Lee's "The Dragon Hord" (1971): undersea by magic
- Gaston Leroux's "La Bataille Invisible [tr. as "The Veiled Prisoner", London: 1923]
a knock-off of Jules Verne, featuring a submarine filled with bizarre gadgetry
- H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1936): the evil
Deep Ones, half human, half alien
- John Masefield's "The Midnight Folk" (1927): undersea magic
- Robert Merle's "The Day of the Dolphin" (1967, English translation 1969)
- Roy Meyers's "Dolphin Boy" (1967)
- Maureen McHugh's "Half the Day is Night" (1994)
- Vonda McIntyre's "Starfarers" (19zz): and sequels
- Ted Mooney's "Easy Travel to Other Planets" (1981)
- Edith Nesbit's "Wet Magic" (1913): magical undersea library
- Edgar Alan Poe's story "The City in the Sea" (1831)
- Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson's "Undersea Quest" [Gnome, 1954;
Ballentine Books] juvenile, pseudo-Atlantis
- Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson's "Undersea Fleet" [Gnome, 1956
Ballentine Books] juvenile, pseudo-Atlantis
- Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson's "Undersea City" [Gnome, 1958
Ballentine Books] juvenile, pseudo-Atlantis
- Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson's "Land's End" [1988]
- Joe Poyer's "Operation Mallaca" (1968)
- Margaret St. Clair's "The Dolphins of Altair" (1967)
- Carol Severance's "Reefsong" (1991)
- Robert Silverberg's short fiction "Ishmael in Love" (1970):
genius dolphin foils badguys but makes bathetic fool of himself
by falling in love with a woman dolphin researcher
- Robert Silverberg's "The Face of the Waters" (1996)
- Alison Sinclair's "Blueheart" (19zz)
[UK: London: Millennium (Orion) Nov 1996,
US: HarperPrism, May 1998]: ocean-world, terraforming,
humans adapted to undersea living
- Joan Slonczewski's "A Door Into Ocean" (1986)
- Leo Szilard's short fiction "The Voice of the Dolphin" (19zz):
in short story collection of same name
- Lisa Tuttle's short fiction "From a Sinking Ship" In "Dispatches from the
Frontiers of the Female Mind, Jen Green and Sarah Lefanu, eds., (1985)
- Sydney J. Van Scyoc's "Drowntide" (1987)
- Sydney J. Van Scyoc's "Deepwater Dreams" (1991)
- Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" [1870; Smith, 1873;
Heritage, 1957; Fitzroy, 1960; Bantam; Air; Lancer; Pyramid
- Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island" [Scribners, 1876; Heritage, 1959;
Permanent; Bantam
- Ian Watson's "The Jonah Kit" (1975)
- Dennis Wheatley's "They Found Atlantis" [Lippincott, 1936; Ballentine]: Atlantis
is still thriving
- James White's "The Watch Below" (1966)
- Jack Williamson's "The Green Girl" [Avon, 1950]: humans are
modified for underwater living
- Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" novels (1980-1983):
intelligent sea-monster "Abaia"
- Stephen Wul's "Temple of the Past" (1958, English translation 1973)
- Roger Zelazny's short fiction "Kjwalll'kje'k'koothailll'kej'k" (19zz)
- Roger Zelazny's "Nine Princes in Amber" (1970): chase scene down
an underwater stairway to "Remba", the undersea double of Amber
- xxxx's "yyyy" (19zz)
Closely related to, and overlapping the list of Underwater Civilizations is
the more Fantasy-oriented list of
Atlantis fictions:
- Pierre Benoit's "L'Atlantide" (1919)
a.k.a. Atlantida [Duffield, 1920; Ave, 1964]
- Frena Bloomfield's "Sky Fleet of Atlantis" (1979)
- Stanton Coblentz's "The Sunken World" [Fantasy Publishing Co. Inc.,
1949]: Atlantis is still thriving
- Jane Gaskell's "The Serpent" [Paperback Library, 1968; St.Martins, 1977]
- Jane Gaskell's "Atlan" [Paperback Library, 1968; St.Martins, 1978]
- Jane Gaskell's "The City" [Paperback Library, 1968; St.Martins, 1978]
- C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne's "The Lost Continent" [Harper, 1900; Ballentine;
Train, 1974]
- Ursula K. Le Guin's "The New Atlantis" [1975]
- David M. Parry's "The Scarlet Empire" [1906]
- E. E. Smith's "Triplanetary" [1934; Fantasy, 1948; Pyramid]
- Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" [1870; Smith, 1873;
Heritage, 1957; Fitzroy, 1960; Bantam; Air; Lancer; Pyramid
- Dennis Wheatley's "They Found Atlantis" [Lippincott, 1936; Ballentine]: Atlantis
is still thriving
And see: "Atlantean Chronicles", by Henry M. Eichner [Alhambra, California:
Fantasy Publishing Co: 1971]: the most comprehensive listing of
Atlantis theme in fiction, plus informal theorizings