... the book’s purview is technically all of history, but the incredible paucity of interaction people have had with the deep sea means that most of the information here takes the form of news delivered as a dire, last-minute warning ... a manifesto for change as much as it is a description of an ecological crisis. Its overall effect is not to clarify the waters—to create something as bright and blue as a Cameron scene—but to insist that what’s already down there matters, even or especially when it is hidden from our view.
... it’s so comprehensive and insightful that it will be a long time before it’s surpassed ... In the first half of her book, Scales does an excellent job of animating the almost unbelievable panoply of life in the deep. As an explorer herself, she has seen things first-hand that few others will ever witness. But it is the second part of her book, devoted to the human impacts on the abyss, which brought gasps to my throat ... It is hard to imagine a more timely or important book than The Brilliant Abyss. Carefully conceived and luminously written, it is certain to be a bestseller, which gives me hope that its urgent message might help save the world.
... an enjoyable and accessible introduction to the deep sea, told with a passion that I found infectious. The stories of life’s struggle for survival beneath the waves are compelling and Scales is particularly evocative when describing hydrothermal vents. I would have liked to read more about bioluminescence and the creatures that use it to dazzle predators and prey alike, however, and the book can become lost in detail when it leaves the deep, such as a pages-long digression about batteries. Overall, though, Scales brings to life this important part of our planet. What happens there is something we should all be concerned about.
The Oscar-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher chronicles the unlikely friendship between a South African naturalist and an octopus ... It’s also a celebration of the ocean’s strange beauty. So too is Helen Scales’ The Brilliant Abyss ... The author lucidly explains not only the geological contours of the deep but also the animals that inhabit it ... Scales bids us to think of the deep not merely as a place to exploit for resources, but as a wondrous abode that we are compelled to protect— a precious realm that we should all care about.
... enthralling and richly expressed and highlights how closely our lives depend on the deep ... Scales ha[s] made abundantly, yet entertainingly clear the nature of the dangers that lie ahead.
In The Brilliant Abyss, the erudite Helen Scales explains why the ocean is so important and valuable an asset to our planet and to our survival ... Scales wants us to consider the value of these sea creatures. Although we have established laws to protect land animals and birds, there are many life forms in the ocean that we are not even aware of and they need to be defended. Scales wants to change that by proselytizing for their existence ... We must turn to other sources of energy, the sooner the better. The Deep Abyss indicates that the oceans will be instrumental in helping us with that necessary task. And, if we do it the right way, Scales suggests that we will also be able to preserve the oceans as sanctuaries filled with wonder and beauty.
... brave enough to risk a darker and, in some ways, more satisfying tone ... Scales’s conceit — of traveling aboard a research vessel for a couple of weeks in the Gulf of Mexico — feels a bit thin...She never physically ventures into the abyss ... Scales’s great gift is for transmuting our awe at the wonders of the deep sea into a kind of quiet rage that they could soon be no more.
An investigative foray into the world of deep-sea waters with a veteran marine biologist ... Scales offers crisp, engaging prose, linking everything together in an accessible, entertaining manner. With plenty of scientific research to back her up, the author displays legitimate concerns about a wide variety of maladies ... A captivating nature tour and a convincing warning that 'the deep needs decisive, unconditional protection.'
... [a] show-stopping work ... Scales concludes with a convincing plea for creating 'a sanctuary in the deep,' an international agreement in which the unexplored depths of the ocean are protected from industry, but open to science. This vivid survey hits the mark as an awe-filled paean to the mysteries of the deep.
