They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Timothy S. Johnston, whose latest novel, The War Beneath, was released last December from ChiZine!
What does Timothy love when he’s not writing the next installment of his futuristic oceanic series? Spoiler alert: actually, this post could be titled “My Favorite Things Relating to the Ocean.” Who says space is the final frontier? See what science fictional, oceanic wonders grabs Timothy’s attention!
When I was a teenager I read a lot of science fiction, particularly from the 1950s. Asimov, Pohl, Heinlein, del Rey and more. I fell in love with the genre because of those books. The stories and writing carried me away to distant places caught in perilous times. One setting authors used more frequently than today was the underwater environment featuring cities on the seafloor with colonists mining, harvesting kelp, and fish farming. Books and movies set in that hostile yet beautiful location captivated me. They inspired me to write my novel The War Beneath, and I wanted to tell you about a few of them here.
Here are my favorite things related to the mostly unexplored world underwater!
My Favorite Underwater Films
Everyone my age remembers the fantastic Disney film starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It features the most iconic underwater monster attack in film — the giant squid sequence. I was probably five years old when I saw it, and the squid attack absolutely terrified me. Those gigantic tentacles… the thought of what they could do to a person while being pulled into the depths and simultaneously crushed… it was horrifying. This was the world Jules Verne created, and Disney did a wonderful job adapting his work. In fact, it was the most expensive movie filmed at the time, and the counterpart attraction at Disney World was my favorite part of the park. I experienced it multiple times during my childhood — I loved the simulated squid attack! — and was sad when it was decommissioned. The movie and experience lives within me though, and the magic of descending into the depths and fighting monstrous creatures tickles my creative juices.
The underwater environment is a challenging location in which to film. Some directors, in pursuit of realism, actually shoot underwater. The Abyss is one such example. The technical work that went into that film is astonishing. The filmmakers converted a nuclear power plant into a giant water tank and James Cameron filmed his intense character-driven science fiction story there. Even the actors filmed their scenes underwater; their dialogue was spoken while wearing full face masks! The theatrical release was a mixed bag. Some forty minutes were cut from the finished product, but his director’s cut is a fully fleshed-out vision of his underwater story of discovery, fear, reconciliation, and love. It’s a beautiful movie, featuring an extraterrestrial intelligence living within our oceans accidentally discovered by a team of oil drillers. Throw in a crazed US soldier suffering from “pressure sickness” and a ticking nuclear bomb…. James Cameron was in fine form, and testing special effects he’d next use for Terminator 2.
Leviathan is more of a guilty pleasure. Please forgive me for including it, but I’m a sucker for science fiction monster horror. It was criticized at the time because it was too similar to Alien and The Thing. Richard Crenna and Peter Weller were mainstays of the decade, however, and it was fun seeing them in an underwater setting fighting a terrifying creature. Hell, what teenage boy wouldn’t love that kind of story? It’s stuck with me all these years, and it still has a place in my heart despite the negative reviews. The setting, when used properly, can heighten tension and amp up the audience’s fear. Confined cabins and corridors, creaky hulls under immense pressure, rising water levels and the likelihood of drowning in freezing seawater. Throw in a monster or two… man, tension lives in that place. I love this type of film, and it definitely made its mark.
Of course I can’t not mention The Hunt for Red October! Alec Baldwin nailed the character Jack Ryan, Sean Connery was larger than life (a Scotsman playing a Russian-Lithuanian!) and director John McTiernan pulled off his third in a perfect film trifecta (Die Hard and Predator preceded this movie) and it was a thrilling game of cat and mouse. I know it’s not SF, but it’s a fantastic and thrilling adventure, and it made its mark on me.
My Favorite Underwater Books
I mentioned that novels from The Golden Age of Science Fiction really captivated me during my early years. Underwater settings were more common back then. Attack from Atlantis by Lester del Rey featured an innovative submarine, USS Triton, powered by a nuclear power plant on a voyage of discovery. The underwater setting really spoke to me. The crew of the sub accidentally stumbled across Atlantis, whose inhabitants took them prisoner. It was a coming-of-age book. Once again, the confined location, under thousands of meters of water and immense pressures, terrified me. It’s a more dangerous environment than outer space in many ways. Following this, I discovered a trilogy by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson: Undersea Quest, Undersea Fleet, and Undersea City, as well as Crisis on Conshelf Ten by Monica Hughes. These four books suggested a future where humans had begun to spread to the ocean floors, nations and corporations were competing for resources, and conflicts were breaking out around the world. This future resonates with me because I see this coming for the human race. It’s what The War Beneath is about. There are more resources in the oceans than people can really comprehend. It’s not just a place for humans to explore and live… it could also be a future battleground.
These next novels pull emotions from me ranging from fear to excitement to outright terror. The Deep (2015) from Nick Cutter in particular is one of the scariest novels I’ve ever read. It’s full on SF horror. When Stephen King praises a book, you know it’s got to be good. Sphere (1987) is a masterpiece — it’s utterly “unputdownable.” Michael Crichton was a master of writing science fiction disguised as mainstream thrillers. It featured an underwater base, a mysterious wrecked spacecraft discovered nearby on the seafloor, and a supernatural force that gifted its victims with the power to alter reality. The challenges of living underwater caused real dilemmas for the characters in the story, and it’s one of Crichton’s most powerful character-driven narratives. It’s a magnificent SF novel.
And then there was Jaws (1974). Even though it isn’t really set underwater… it kind of is. I can’t ignore its influence on me. I read it when I was 12 years old. It remains one of the most exciting novels I’ve experienced, with great character building. Because of this book, I joined the same club occupied by millions of others: I can’t swim in the ocean without thinking about Jaws. Damn you, Peter Benchley!
Timothy S. Johnston is a lifelong fan of thrillers and science fiction thrillers in both print and film. His greatest desire is to contribute to the genre which has given him so much over the past four decades. He wishes he could personally thank every novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker, director and actor who has ever inspired him to tell great stories. He has been an educator for over twenty years and a writer for thirty.
Timothy S. Johnston’s The Furnace won the 2015 CYGNUS Award in the “Science Fiction Thriller” Category, was shortlisted for the 2015 Science Fiction EPIC Award, and all three books in The Tanner Sequence won the 2015 CLUE Award for Thriller / Suspense Novel in the “Blended Genre” category. The Freezer won the 2016 Science Fiction Epic Award and was shortlisted for the 2015 CYGNUS Award. The Void was shortlisted for the 2016 Science Fiction EPIC Award. In 2016, Timothy S. Johnston signed with ChiZine Publications to publish The Rise of Oceania, a new series set underwater in the near future amidst the espionage, intrigue, and action of a Second Cold War rapidly turning hot. The books are: The War Beneath, The Savage Deeps, and Fatal Depth. The War Beneath, published December 2018, is a semi-finalist for the 2018 GLOBAL THRILLER and the 2018 CLUE Awards. The Savage Deeps is coming October 2019.
Visit www.timothysjohnston.com to register for news alerts, read Johnston’s blog and reviews, and learn more about his current and upcoming thrillers. Follow Timothy on Facebook @TSJAuthor, on Twitter @TSJ_Author, and on Instagram @TSJ_Author.
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Ok, but we need to not talk about The Deep.That book was just a whole lot of NOPENOPENOPE.
Consequently, it’s now my go-to book for customers who are looking to be freaked out with their next read…
I read The Deep after you (and other Spec Chic contributors) explicitly advised me not to and I’m still traumatized. Then I read The Troop because I’m an idiot but I think The Deep was worse.
Hi Kelly, have you tried SPHERE by Michael Crichton? It’s not horror. It’s a riveting underwater mystery/thriller. Thanks for your comment! — TSJ
Ooooh, I forgot all about Sphere. Good rec! Crichton was really my first real step into reading science fiction (thank you, Jurassic Park) if you don’t count the Star Wars media tie-in books. 🙂
Timothy: have you checked out any of Mira Grant’s stuff? Try Rolling in the Deep and then Into the Drowning Deep (in that order).
I’ll check them out, thank you Shara! — TSJ
Thank you for your reply, Nicole. I agree completely — THE DEEP by Nick Cutter is a scary, scary read! It took me by surprise. Take care! — TSJ