Three Miles Down

by Harry Turtledove Narrated by George Guidall

Overview

From New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove, the modern master of alternate history, a novel of alien contact set in the tumultuous year of the Watergate scandal.
It's 1974, and Jerry Stieglitz is a grad student in marine biology at UCLA with a side gig selling short stories to science fiction magazines, just weeks away from marrying his longtime fiancée. Then his life is upended by grim-faced men from
three-letter agencies who want him to join a top-secret "Project Azorian" in the middle of the north Pacific Ocean-and they really don't take "no" for an answer.
Further, they're offering enough money to solve all of his immediate problems.
Joining up and swearing to secrecy, what he first learns is that Project Azorian is secretly trying to raise a sunken Russian submarine, while pretending to be harvesting undersea manganese nodules. But the dead Russian sub, while real,
turns out to be a cover story as well. What's down on the ocean floor next to it is the thing that killed the sub: an alien spacecraft.
Jerry's a scientist, a longhair, a storyteller, a dreamer. He stands out like a sore thumb on the Glomar Explorer, a ship full of CIA operatives, RAND Corporation eggheads, and roustabout divers. But it turns out that he's the one person in the
North Pacific who's truly thought out all the ways that human-alien first contact might go.
And meanwhile, it's still 1974 back on the mainland. Richard Nixon is drinkingheavily and talking to the paintings on the White House walls. The USA is changing fast-and who knows what will happen when this story gets out? Three Miles
Down is both a fresh and original take on First Contact, and a hugely enjoyable romp through the pop culture, political tumult, and conspiracies-withinconspiracies atmosphere that was 1974.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

05/02/2022

Hugo Award winner Turtledove (Or Even Eagle Flew) delivers a 1970s-set first-contact tale, told by a rational skeptic who believes in humanity ahead of ideology. Jerry Stieglitz, a budding sci-fi writer and marine biology graduate student, is recruited by the U.S. government for a trip on the notorious “research” vessel the Glomar Explorer, allegedly to help recover a sunken Soviet submarine. But Jerry soon learns that the Explorer is actually working to recover the object that sank the sub: a crashed UFO. Jerry adds value to the expedition with his sci-fi imagination (“I’m the designated weirdo,” he muses), never more so than when he figures out how to enter the saucer by taking a cue from The Lord of the Rings. But loose lips make spies nervous, and Jerry is forced to go on the run after rumors of the saucer hit the news, sparking threats from both the U.S. and the Russian governments. Readers longing for a deep dive into the 1970s will enjoy this agreeable piece of Cold War nostalgia. There’s clearly more to come, but this makes for a satisfying start. (Aug.)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176265576
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	07/26/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos