Levi reviewed Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade
None
3 stars
The writer clearly did a ton of research. Actually maybe even too much research really, because at a certain point, you’re just sifting through mountains of data on topics that were only very tangentially related to the plot. I think the author could have spent time more wisely by doing half the research and using that time to write another whole book about something else.
What’s great about this book? The transcripts, word for word, of the last phone calls and emails of the crew of Fargo, their last communication before they left this planet for great void beyond. It’s kind of chilling to know you are reading that. It’s also interesting to see the play by play of what series of events lead up to a huge US merchant ship going down in the 21st century? By the end of it you have a pretty good idea of exactly …
The writer clearly did a ton of research. Actually maybe even too much research really, because at a certain point, you’re just sifting through mountains of data on topics that were only very tangentially related to the plot. I think the author could have spent time more wisely by doing half the research and using that time to write another whole book about something else.
What’s great about this book? The transcripts, word for word, of the last phone calls and emails of the crew of Fargo, their last communication before they left this planet for great void beyond. It’s kind of chilling to know you are reading that. It’s also interesting to see the play by play of what series of events lead up to a huge US merchant ship going down in the 21st century? By the end of it you have a pretty good idea of exactly why this happened. It’s also interesting to see how the search, recovery, and investigation went as they tried to piece everything together.
What’s not great? Reading about the history of the merchant marine. And the history of the coast guard. And the history of every single government agency involved. And of every single side character’s mother’s brother’s cousin. Listen, I don’t need to know, every time you introduce a new character, their life story, literally starting with childhood what led them to become a sailor, who were all the members of their family, what were their family dynamics, what kind of town did they grow up in, where do they live now, what does each of their friends think about their decision to be a sailor, like literally, please just stop. This is one of very very few books where I just started skipping massive chunks of chapters and even full chapters.
Im guessing that the author was trying to make these individuals come alive so we would care about them when they die. I think that could have been done more effectively in 1/20th the time. Just a couple of endearing details about a person can get me to care a whole lot. Mountains of information does very little to move me.
So anyways, that gripe aside, it was still an interesting book, and I would say if you are curious about how a huge ship could go missing and crash in the modern age then this is worth reading, but just feel free to skip the backstories.
