The Aquanauts [Paperback]

John Lunn (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

Fifteen-year-old Greta Kovachi travels with her brilliant father to a laboratory habitat in a submarine on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Her father has created the first man-made black hole to prove that all matter in the universe is made up of infinitesimal particles of time. Greta was looking forward to this adventure, but she gets more than she bargained for. What was supposed to be a trip of a few days turns into a nightmare when an accident with the black hole spins them billions of years into the future, trapping her dad along with the other scientists in a particle of time. Three other kids live on the habitat, and, calling themselves the Aquanauts, they band together with Greta to travel through layers of time in a frantic attempt to save their parents and themselves from being locked under the sea for eternity.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–Three teens and a 12-year-old spend their summer vacation on a deep-sea research habitat a mile and a half under the ocean. However, the site is a front for a mad scientist running a super-secret and highly illegal experiment involving the creation of a black hole and time travel. Underperforming Goth girl Greta, whose physicist father brings her aboard, quickly realizes that she doesn't want to be there, especially after meeting ambitious control-freak Jules, super genius Marco, and his younger brother, Nicky, science-fiction geek extraordinaire. She also meets her father's boss, Dr. Simms (the mad scientist). Almost immediately, weird stuff starts to happen. Greta and Marco are sent forward to one time, Jules and Nicky to another, while Dr. Simms's cabal of scientists is flung to an unimaginably far future where they work to control time travel. Simms kidnaps Greta and forces her to be a guinea pig. She figures out how to travel to a specific time and uses her newly discovered leadership ability, along with the help of her formerly distant, now unnaturally aged father, to destroy the project. She also finds time for a sweet romance with Marco. The story starts slowly but builds speed quickly; despite more than a few unanswered questions at the end, it is entertaining and thought-provoking.–Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library
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About the Author

John Lunn grew up in Toronto, Ontario. The youngest son of children’s author Janet Lunn, after a silversmithing apprenticeship in his teens, he moved to Boston to pursue a career as a flutemaker. He has been writing since he was very young, and has written novels and screenplays in between making flutes, raising two children, flying airplanes, and working in local politics. He has a small animation studio and films stop-motion animation. John and his wife, Meredith, now live in New Hampshire with their four dogs.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Tundra Books (October 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887767273
• ISBN-13: 978-0887767272
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 7.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,077,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Oz Under The Sea, October 19, 2009

By 

Paula Buermele "www.thedreamcatchertour.com" (Canton, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Aquanauts (Paperback)

"All of a sudden I became an experiment on the bottom of the ocean with a bunch of whacked-out scientists and three totally strange kids." Greta, the sixteen-year-old heroine of John Lunn's "The Aquanauts" finds herself in a Wizard-of-Oz moment when she accompanies her father on one of his field trips to a science laboratory at the bottom of the sea.

Seeking to escape summer school and the boredom it offered, Greta also sees the week-long trip as an opportunity to get to know her father better. As an only child who lost her mother at an early age, Greta had established a comfort zone which included few friends and consistent non-conformity. She had no intention of changing that with this little escape but circumstances change everything.

This adventure story includes a most interesting habitat but no scary sea monsters or terrors of the night. The fear comes from a time dimension shift that throws the inhabitants of the lab into a disorienting and bizarre experience that frequently forces them to puzzle out where and when they are in time. Once the main characters get past the "you-aren't-the-boss-of-me" tussle, they learn to work together and begin to plant the seeds that will carry their friendship far into the future.

Targeted to an audience of middle to older teens, Lunn deftly mixes science and math with the challenges four young people face in quickly developing working relationships with each other. I found it interesting that the main character was a girl who didn't let the scientific theory and vocabulary distract her from her ability to just think things through. Her journey is one of self-discovery, as well, as she rises to the leadership opportunities that unfold.

The author leaves the reader with some questions unanswered. Did the aging phenomenon affect Greta as it did the lab technicians and her father? Was the lab simply forgotten under the sea when the survivors reached the surface or did the adventures of Greta and her friends somehow change its future? With this tale, I like having open questions at the end. They give my imagination a launching pad for its own adventures.

I recommend this book to readers of any age who enjoy adventure with a touch of science-speak, delivered by believable characters.

Paula Buermele is a reviewer for Bookpleasures and author of the novel "The Dream Catcher Tour."

1.0 out of 5 stars Book Review: The Aquanauts, May 23, 2006

By 

3704559 (Howland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Aquanauts (Paperback)

John Lunn has written 2 novels, The Mariner's Curse and The Aquanauts. He is a writer, flute maker, silversmith, filmmaker, and web designer. He now lives in New Hampshire, but was born in Toronto, Ontario. The Aquanauts is his second book.

Sixteen-year-old Greta Kovachi goes to an underwater laboratory with her scientist father, hoping to get closer with her busy father. When an accident happens on her father's experiment turning the week-long trip into a nightmare. The accident hurls them millions of years into the future, trapping all the scientists in a particle of time. Greta teams up with 3 other kids from the lab and work together as the Aquanauts, travelling through time to save their parents. Will they succeed in their mission? Or will they be trapped under the sea forever?

I think this story was very confusing because the main characters travelled back and forth through time. The author used many scientific terms which confused me because I did not understand them. He also explained how the events in the story could happen using scientific theories and reasoning. For example, he explained in this book how black holes could be created and how people could time travel using black holes. I think that this book is very boring because the author made the story too scientific. I noticed how the author tried to hold the interest of the reader by putting many twist in the plot of the story. This pathetic attempt to keep the reader interested just made the story even more confusing. I would rate this book a 5 out of 10.

""It's okay," he whispered again. "We'll get you out of here. I have a plan." His eyes darted to one side. Then he launched right into pure Dad-speak. "The wave resonance coupled with the coefficient of the bubble diameter algorithm gave me an idea of how to fold the envelope back on itself and create a false collapse.""

5.0 out of 5 stars A top pick which can't be beat for swift action and originality, January 14, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Aquanauts (Paperback)

If you only pick up a few paperbacks each season for your collection, The Aquanauts is one you just have to have: it sounds like a classic underwater lab adventure but by book's end you're heavily involved in black holes, time travel, evil scientists, and a girl who faces losing her only parent. With a feisty teen as the protagonist, an undersea lab, four teens who are contrary at first but who must band together to survive, and many twists and surprises, The Aquanauts is a top pick which can't be beat for swift action and originality: if you purchase just one new sci-fi novel this year, make it The Aquanauts. It's that good.