DARKER WATER

In a claustrophobic and unsettling underwater dystopia in the year 2089, the world’s green energy depends entirely on ProCorp’s deepwater mining of bacteria.

Three teens from very different backgrounds find their lives intersecting at Green Valley Sumac, one of the vast Subsurface Mining and Colonization Stations located deep within the Kermadec Trench near New Zealand. In the abyssal zone, society is divided into distinct groups, including miners, engineers, and scientists, creating artificial barriers that mirror real-world inequalities. Maia Maxon, an ambitious, wealthy 16-year-old engineer, is a new arrival at the station. Betty Styles, who’s also 16 and Maia’s highly experienced guide, is a Digger from a lower-class mining family who can’t escape the station’s rigid social hierarchy. Eighteen-year-old biologist Audley McVeigh has suspicions about ProCorp’s operations that may threaten his safety and future. Debut author Read’s worldbuilding is vividly realized, with bloated sea creatures, failing ecosystems, and fish-themed humor adding both atmosphere and unease. The result is a constant sense of anxiety and confinement coupled with an urgency associated with survival stories and environmental horror. The rotating perspectives of Maia, Betty, and Audley, who present white, provide insight into the station’s complex social structure while highlighting themes of trust, resilience, friendship, and corporate greed. This series opener resolves some mysteries surrounding recent mining accidents, and the plot steadily builds tension, culminating in a cliffhanger ending.

Futuristic and atmospheric high-stakes climate fiction with an intriguing premise and character arcs.