Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: A fine book by the author of _Jumper_, _Wildside_, and _Helm_. This is an interesting adventure set in a near-future world where an Antarctic ice shelf collapse has flooded the world's low-lying regions and created a massive refugee problem, making the INS the second-largest branch of the armed forces. Like flying in _Wildside_ or aikido in _Helm_, there's a "central skill" to the book, and this time it's diving and submersibles. It's interesting material, and it's well integrated into the story. Definitely recommended, as are his other books.
Rating:
Summary: Another great story from Steven Gould
Review: BLIND WAVES is another wonderful read from the author of JUMPER. The technical problems and solutions are fascinating, and the relationship between the two main characters develops beautifully. With references to Shakespeare sprinkled throughout, this is a smart, sophisticated story, yet it doesn't exclude any reader. Even if you hate Shakespeare, you'll still love this book. Really a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Unoriginal SF mystery book.....
Review: Blind Waves, a SF mystery novel, was quite a disappointment. This novel has a very interesting setting--the world after the Antartic icecap has created a world of floating cities and uncertain citizenship. The INS is now part of the milatary and only the rich are citizens of the United States, so when Patricia Beeman sees something she shouldn't, she has cause for alarm.
Interesting as this seems to be, the rest of the novel follows a typical mystery plotline. Never in this novel was I ever suprised or excited. The characters are unoriginal and completly one-dimensional. The villian is predictable and I suspected them early in the book, the love story that develops between Patricia and the lead investigator is non-suprising, an unoriginal and pointless addition to the story (god! sex in a sumbersible--who needed that!) and quite badly written (as is the rest of the novel).
If you are looking for good SF mystery novels, read Asimov's Robot novels. This not a good mystery novel or SF novel. The intriging SF setting is just background and never explored.
Stay away from this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun story - Very engaging
Review: Enjoyed this story. Made me want to go build a min-sub from cast-off parts and go exploring. I'm a nitpicky engineering sort. Found it unlikely a guy would be too functional after swimming up and cracking his head on a concrete roof that was covered with barnacles. I'm a damn good swimmer, and have a bit of experience things like that, but softly, and not with the kind of bang he'd have done. That bit of the story indicated a lack of experience. He'd have had a very serious headache, with lacerations to the bone, if he was conscious at all, and be putting a lot of blood in the water unless he had a good set of dreadlocks to cushion things. The part about them swimming so far at night underneath a floating city was also pretty hard to believe. Fish would school under it, and that would bring sharks and barracudas which would be everywhere. Big benthic fellas. A real fun story story though, with a lot of good details.
Rating:
Summary: Gould rocks
Review: Gould's first two books, Jumper and Wildside, are ovelooked classics of SF. His third, Helm, which was his first attempt at world-building (as opposed to introducing a single SF element in our world), was not so good. I worried that Gould was losing it, but he has returned to form with Blind Waves. Blind Waves is a rollicking thriller with fun characters, a twistier plot than expected, and a fully realized and extremely well utilized setting among the ruins of a U.S. coastline flooded by melting Antarcic ice. Gould's muscular prose propels his heroes through a series of imaginative and dangerous predicaments. And Gould's heroes, although perhaps not the most realistic out there, are the kind of people I like and care about, not grim jerks. I always like an adventure better if it's about people I'd like to hang out with, and Gould's heroes Patricia and Thomas fit the bill. Gould exceeds his own high standards here on many levels, from his meticulously researched maritime environment to his plot, which is far less simple than it seems. And he manages this without sacrificing his strengths, which are his clear writing style and compelling characters. In Blind Waves, Gould succeeded in the world-building he failed at in Helm. He has added a powerful new skill to his already burgeoning repertoire -- there's nowhere for the man to go but up. I eagerly await his next work.
Rating:
Summary: Gould rocks
Review: Gould's first two books, Jumper and Wildside, are ovelooked classics of SF. His third, Helm, which was his first attempt at world-building (as opposed to introducing a single SF element in our world), was not so good. I worried that Gould was losing it, but he has returned to form with Blind Waves. Blind Waves is a rollicking thriller with fun characters, a twistier plot than expected, and a fully realized and extremely well utilized setting among the ruins of a U.S. coastline flooded by melting Antarcic ice. Gould's muscular prose propels his heroes through a series of imaginative and dangerous predicaments. And Gould's heroes, although perhaps not the most realistic out there, are the kind of people I like and care about, not grim jerks. I always like an adventure better if it's about people I'd like to hang out with, and Gould's heroes Patricia and Thomas fit the bill. Gould exceeds his own high standards here on many levels, from his meticulously researched maritime environment to his plot, which is far less simple than it seems. And he manages this without sacrificing his strengths, which are his clear writing style and compelling characters. In Blind Waves, Gould succeeded in the world-building he failed at in Helm. He has added a powerful new skill to his already burgeoning repertoire -- there's nowhere for the man to go but up. I eagerly await his next work.
Rating: 
Summary: Not really that bad
Review: I found this to be fairly well written. The big problem is that the logic behind the book, seems so out there that it distracts from the story. Getting an entire Coast Guard ship's complement to agree to commit a crime seems a bit hard to accept. The female lead puts herself too much at risk for someone who is rich and has so many responsibilities. If you turn off your brain, this is a pretty good action book. Lots of fights and good romance subplot.
Rating:
Summary: Waterworld meets "Clear and Present Danger"
Review: I got a kick out of this book. It is set post the melting of the polar Ice caps, land is at a premium and the US have tightened their borders so that the immigration authorities behave like a combined Coastguard, CIA, FBI and Secret Police. The heroine Patricia Beenan, finds something that sets off a train of events in the highest state circles and in her own life. Obviously I am not going to say more as it would spoil the fun. But it involves fun and stealth games in a high tech micro submarine, life aboard a floating city, a little food, a little wine and a little romance. Drawbacks in this book? Well, I felt the whole development of the socio-economic climate post holocaust could have been developed more, but that's just me and it would be boring to most readers. I loved the injection of spanish throughout the book, but that's because I speak the language and it gave me the opportunity to practice. For a non hispanophile I think it might grate after a while. All in all I found it an enjoyable read, not cerebral stuff, a nice passer of time on a holiday.
Rating:
Summary: A Great underwater exploration novel!
Review: I love novels that are set in the near future with the world depicted as being different from the world as we now know it. This novel is all that and more. It's my first Steven Gould book, and I'm definitely gonna read more of his stuff. Patricia and Thomas are convincing characters who do a lot to sustain your interest in the story-- not to say that the storyline itself doesn't do that, because it does. I particularly loved Patricia's Shakespeare-spouting tendencies. I also liked the setting of the novel-- the Strand, and Texas that's been flooded by the rising seas. The only thing that could have made this novel better was maybe a few more scenes about exploring drowned Texas. I was particularly interested in that aspect of things.
Rating:
Summary: Jump right in, the water's fine!
Review: I was somewhat dubious about this book because of the plotline, so well described in other reviews, but I bought it because I have enjoyed Gould's other three solo novels. I'm so glad I did! Although I searched in vain for the plot twists borrowed from my favorite Dorothy L. Sayers' novel, I truly liked Patricia and Thomas. I agree that their relationship was a little rushed, but it made sense given the context of their situation. Everything was rushed as they struggled to solve the attack and sinking of the Open Lotus mystery and found that this disaster might only be a prelude. Like many other Gould readers, my favorite novel of his is JUMPER, but I would put BLIND WAVES a close second.
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