Many thanks to the readers of alt.animals.dolphins, who provided the seed list for this bibliography, and special thanks to Stacy Braslau-Schneck and her two friends Bob Post and Magnus Redin, Scott Taylor, Rex Kahler, Frank Glover, and V2276G@vm.temple.edu.
Extra special thanks to Scott Taylor for his annotated list (Scott's comments are included where provided, sometimes appended to by me or others); to Frank Glover for his extensive list and ongoing help, and especially for his short-story references; and to Bob Post for his excellent coded list.
Key:
Above the Lower Sky , Tom Deitz. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1995. (FS)
> From the dust jacket: "With Above the Lower Sky , [Tom Deitz] etches a dark and fantastic tale that seamlessly combines Celtic myth and Native American lore with future speculation and cetacean science."In the year 2024, in the shining New World capital of North America's independent Indian tribes, three extraordinary young people are brought together by a series of bizarre events: Kevin Mauney, who travels halfway across the globe to deliver a cryptic, troubling message . . . Kevin's estranged sister Carolyn, who dies and is miraculously reborn while investigating the unexplained murder/mutilation of scores of intelligent sea mammals . . . and a Cherokee diplomat/traditional dancer named Thunderbird O'Connor, who stumbles into a nightmare one evening on a secluded Mexican beach. A shared destiny unites the three here where the fate of civilization will ultimately be decided--for each has a unique role to play in the resolution of a multi-species conspiracy that predates humankind. And here, where the upper and lower skies meet, three unlikely warriors must now prepare to do magical battle--in order to defeat with the power of the word, faith and song a terror that has risen up from the ocean's depths to walk the world of men."
Trisha: An edgy, good read that weaves in a dark twist on the Selkie legends. I read this book the same week I read Ken Grimwood's Into the Deep , and although they are entirely different in story and style, I was intrigued by the similarities in basic structural elements.
Agviq: The Whale , Michael Armstrong. Questar, 1990. (CF
> From the author (wordfolk@xyz.net): "Although the title is the Inupiaq (Northern Alaskan Eskimo) word for the bowhead whale, Agviq is less about whales and more about survival. Sometime in the later twentieth Century, a nuclear war cuts off Barrow, Alaska, from the rest of the world. The Inupiaq and non-Native survivors of this holocaust come to understand that continued survival means going back to the old ways. While present-day Inupiaq continue their subsistence traditions, including the IWC-sanctioned hunting of the bowhead whale, for narrative purposes I suggest that these traditions have been lost."To relearn their old ways, the people of Barrow, or Utqiagvik, seek the help of Claudia, an anthropologist stranded in the north while doing research. The plot involves the struggle between those who would steal what little resources remain to survive and those who seek to reinvent a subsistence culture. Claudia and the others understand that for the culture to survive, they must also look to agviq, and learn again how to hunt--using skinboats and harpoons--the bowhead whale. Implicit in whaling is the idea that while hunting whales can provide tons of meat, more importantly it creates the community necessary for hunting whales--and necessary for surviving in the Arctic. So my novel is about survival, but it's also about the importance of people working together to create communities, which make survival that much easier. Creating communities, of course, is also how we create cultures, and keep cultures--in whatever form they wish to be--continuing. "I wrote Agviq for many reasons, but I think I wrote it as a metaphor about the real threats facing Alaskans--not just Native Alaskans--today. As an Alaskan, I care about my state, and the increasing alcoholism and loss of culture. Though I am not Native, I see the Native struggle to survive as a distinct and worthy culture as similar to the Alaskan desire to keep a sub- culture alive and distinct from the larger American culture. Similar conflicts exist throughout our world today, and can be expressed as the conflict between local societies and an overwhelming larger society.
"As a story about aboriginal whaling, Agviq is written out of respect for the whale. I try not to mystify the bowhead whale, to make it something more than it is, but I try to show the proper respect. The Inupiaq believe that agviq will come to those who show respect to the whale. Many of the ancient and even modern whaling traditions involve conducting the hunt in the proper manner. When whaling captains strike and land a whale, they must hold a fest for the community. Meat is shared with elders. And so on.
"The idea for Agviq came to me when I spent the summers of 1980 and 1981 working on archaeological digs in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in Barrow. Over the years I worked on the novel, first as a short story ("Going After Arviq," in Afterwar , ed. by Janet Morris, Baen Books 1985), and then as my third novel. Living in Barrow provided me with much of the personal knowledge needed to write the book. I'm also fortunate to have many fine teachers of Arctic anthropology."
Trisha: If you wish to converse with the author about aboriginal whaling (which I have done, as I hope to see the eventual end of all forms of modern whaling), you may write to him at his address above.
Aka , Tristan Jones. New York: Macmillan, 1981. (CF*)
> From the dust jacket: "The longest period of time that Aka's dolphin tribe stays in one place is when the females give birth. Each August, when the calves are 2 to 3 months old, the 140-odd members of the tribe leave St. Paul's Rocks in the mid-Atlantic where the births have taken place--and which legend has it is the site of the vanished Atlantis--and head west to the Caribbean. Eventually they move northward into the Gulf Stream, and later make their four-month way east across the Atlantic to their traditional landfall in Spain. Still later, the dolphins swim down the coast of Africa to return to St. Paul's."Crossing the path of Aka and his tribe at sea is Conan, a middle-aged adventurer who has entered a single-handed trans-Atlantic sailing race, seeing it as his last chance to win status and success. In the course of the race, a sudden change in the wind makes Conan lose his balance and fall overboard. Alone in the still waters, he fights to keep from drowning.
"In a spellbinding tale involving man and that other intelligent mammal--the dolphin--Aka and the dolphins discover Conan's plight, relate to and communicate with him, and work to keep him afloat and alive.
"In Aka Tristan Jones has written a stirring novel of sea adventure--as real and as bracing as the wind and the spray in a sailor's face. But Mr. Jones has given us something more: an unforgettable portrait of Aka and the bottle-nosed dolphins: their ancient history, their extraordinary manner of communication, their courtship and mating, their hunting habits and playful antics, and most of all their eternal friendship with man."
The author, who has sailed the Atlantic eighteen times, nine times alone, writes in the forward: " . . . My tale is told . . . for those who have never stepped on board an ocean-sailing vessel, who have never known the elation of running free before the wind under a star-laden sky, who have rarely seen our wonderful relatives, the mammals of the sea, except in captivity . . . "
All the Weyrs of Pern , Anne McCaffrey. New York: Ballantine, 1992. (SF)
Ambrosia and the Coral Sun , Sherri L. Board. Newport Beach, Calif.: Tug Press, 1994. (F)
> From the back cover: "Dive beneath the waves and meet Ambrosia, a mystical ocean-breathing Zel, her whale sidekick, Tug, and the evil phantom, Zelatar. Join forces with Ambrosia as she struggles to free the Zel race from Zelatar's wicked reign and sea life from man's deadly pollution. It all happens amid a frenzied stampede of colorful coral and giant sea fans fleeing land and forming a fantastic image of the Sun on the bottom of the ocean -- the Coral Sun!"
And God Created Whales , written, composed, and performed by Rinde Eckert. Featuring Nora Cole. Directed by David Schwitzer, The Foundry Theatre, New York, June 2000.
> From a review by David Spencer (www.aislesay.com/NY-WHALES.html): ". . . it's not like anything else that ever existed, it deserves a much longer life than its limited off-off Broadway run, and if you miss it, you'll be shy one lifetime-worthy theatrical memory."Written, composed, and performed by Rinde Eckert, the 75-minute piece is about a composer [Nathan] who--we learn before the action begins--has been informed by doctors that he is losing his mind . . . The deterioration is inevitable and unstoppable.
"And he hasn't completed his opus yet: an opera based on Moby Dick .
". . . Thematically it's a fascinating riff on the nature of artistic obsession--the need to create as a compulsion, even a primal force. And what better metaphorical representation than the need to complete an opera based on Moby Dick --featuring Ahab, the ultimate obsessive. The completion of the opus is Nathan's great whale."
Animal Man comic. Issue no. 15. September, 1989. Written by Morrison, Truog, and Hazelwood. New York: DC Comics.
Trisha: Terrific issue pitting the good guys and Dolphin (a female aquatic comic character) against the Faroese Island dolphin and whale butchers. With imagined dolphin thoughts about what it is like to be a dolphin and what it is like to suffer human carnage.An excerpt of a dolphin's thoughts: "One day only the world will exist no more agony no more fear in all the vast enfolding of time and the world . . . one day . . . until then the killing will continue the bloodspilling slaughter of innocents . . . until then there will be oppression and pain and sadness . . . that is the way . . . that is the way of the sad hu-men . . . our way is different."
Apostrophes to Myself . E. F. Dyck. Lantzville, B.C.: Oolichan Books , 1987. Email: oolichan@island.net.
> From the author: Apostrophes to Myself is "a collection of 'dolphin poems,' in which the literal dolphin becomes a figure of the narrator's desire to know the unknowable!"> From the dust jacket: ". . . Through the symbol of the dolphin, E. F. Dyck reveals the subtle relationships/associations implied in his theory of rhetoric. The prairie dolphin, in all its symbolic complexity, becomes a source of meditation and persuasion, and hence, the means by which the author invites dolphin into being -- and us into the Unity of which it is a part.
Trisha: A wonderful paean to the yin-yang and ultimate mystery of dolphins (and language and life).
Includes poems entitled Found Dolphins; Topography; Anatomy I; Anatomy II; I Want You, Hermaphroditus; Arrested Speed; Yin-Yang Dolphin; My Dark Darling, My Dolphin; In Relief; Morphine Dolphin; The Dolphins of Lucretius; Dolphin of Dolphin; Blue Dolphin, Definition of Dolphin; Ricercar (or, to Seek); How Shall I Say Hills ? He Works on His Tan; He Plays a Clarinet; A Theory of Communication; An Alternate Theory; Phaeton and Apollo and the Dolphins; Winter; and Goodbye Dolphins
The following excerpt and complete poem are reprinted with the permission of the author:
The last six lines of "Definition of Dolphin":
You are the cause of all causes
whose effects are themselves.How you hurt me with joy when you breach!
Pain is a dolphin whose name is ecstasyHow you never cry, never laugh,
always smile! We now nothing."Ricercar (or, to Seek)"
I have sought you, Dolphin,
and I have found you not.According to your royal command.
Your canticle of canticles remainsupon division of division by two
a canon of canons encoding itself.Your art is the art that delays,
your art is the art that defies.To seek and not to find is
to seek to seek a dolphin.
Aquaman comic book series. Adventure Comics. New York: National Periodical Publications.
Issue no. 443, Jan-Feb 1976: Aquaman, with the help of his marine friends, defeats a ring of criminals led by "The Fishermen", who are using dolphins to deliver drugs onshore from their offshore drug lab.
Aransas , Stephen Harrigan. Houston, Texas: Gulf Publishing, 1986. (CF*^)
> From the dust jacket: "'We lay in ambush on the Laguna Madre, just below the lip of the great open basin of Corpus Christi Bay.' So begins Aransas, a book about the very tangible imprint on people's lives - in particular, the life of one young man who, after years of drifting, of emotional fastidiousness and thrift, returns to the place of his birth and his childhood."His name is Jeff Dowling, and he left Port Aransas, Texas, at the age of eighteen, thinking it was for good. But now he's back, summoned from the Santa Fe counterculture by an old family friend, one Dude Granger, to work in a porpoise show, the final installment of Dude's restless schemes to develop the Gulf Coast town.
"Summoned too by the porpoises themselves and his old memories of them - those silent, elegant creatures that (according to family legend) had saved his father's life during World War II and that, years later, Jeff himself had watched from the deck of his father's fishing boat. And as he works with the two he helps capture, teaching them their 'behaviors' while he learns to see them as distinct, sentient beings, Jeff finds himself swept up in a passion he cannot fully understand ('A part of my life fell away during those weeks,' he says. 'I swooned'), a passion that leads him to a pivotal decision of his life."
Arion & the Dolphin . A libretto by Vikram Seth. London: Phoenix House, 1994. ( See also in the nonfiction bibliography Music, Myth and Nature or the Dolphins of Arion (Contemporary Music Studies, Vol. 6), by Francois-Bernard Mache.)
"An opera in nine scenes for professional and community peformers. The music is composed by Alec Roth and the libretto is by Vikram Seth. It was commissioned by the Baylis Programme at English National Opera."
Arm of the Starfish , Madeleine L'Engle. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965. (YA)
Trisha: Story of a scientist who has learned to regenerate missing limbs in starfish and other animals and the ensuing struggle to keep this information out of the hands of those who would use it improperly. One of the minor characters in the story is a dolphin named Macrina, who is loving and intelligent and protects some of the human characters from sharks.
Astride a Dolphin , Leonid Aronovich Zhukovitsky. Translated from Russian by Katharine Judelson. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971. (CF)
> From the back cover of Attar's Revenge : "The fiendish Black Lotus organization--called the Japanese Mafia by those who go in fear of it--has killed Attar's sister. But nothing would stop him from avenging her death. So he took the organization on by land--where his strength could defeat any single man . . . And by sea--where his unique breathing apparatus allowed him to stay alive under water . . . But it still remained to be seen if even his super power could outwit the deadly yellow peril of the Lotus!"Trisha: Somewhat similar in theme to Ecowar, with James-Bond-type action and violence, Attar's Revenge revolves around a secret organization with two highly trained, gill-enhanced humans (Attar and Essence) who set out to destroy the Black Lotus organization, a company that is, among other things, killing dolphins in fishing nets. Attar and Essence are aided by two dolphins (Sam and Lily) with whom they share telepathic communication.
Excerpt from the book: "Dolphins used to communicate vocally, aeons ago, and they still use speech in a limited way, in rituals and as a reflex in emergency situations. But they had perfected mind-to-mind communication before man had discovered fire.
"Then why, Attar asked, aren't dolphins the masters of the earth, instead of men? This drove the dolphins wild; they thought it was a fine joke.
"Mankind started going downhill, they explained, when he first learned to use tools. After that he tried to master his environment by changing it, rather than adapting to it. Delphine philosophers knew the enterprise was doomed from the start.
"This was the first time dolphins had talked to men for nearly two thousand years. The results of earlier attempts helped give dolphins their dim view of humanity.
"Sam and Lily had been trained from birth for the job of communicating with human beings. This had been done because many dolphins believed that men were going to die out soon, and it would be interesting to learn more about them, before it was too late.
"It would probably be too late in more than one sense, they said. Mankind would probably poison the earth and sea before it died or in the process of dying. They regarded the possibility with a great deal of interest--but not alarm. Attar and Essence were surprised to learn [that] dolphins viewed death as just another event, not terribly interesting unless the conditions surrounding it be interesting. Certainly nothing to get all excited about.
"The dolphins tried to explain this attitude to the humans. Attar tried to compare it to fatalism or a belief in predestination; the dolphins were amused.
"Sam and Lily had come over a thousand miles to meet Attar and Essence and make a final judgment as to whether they should try to communicate with them. Hundreds of others had been considered (various dolphins sending their suggestions along a telepathic grapevine), but the two mermen [Essence is actually a merwoman] were the final choice."
Excerpt on death with Sam communicating with Attar: "No, Attar, I know it is different with humans. But with us (pause) long before a dolphin is born, he feels the contractions of his mother's womb, the birthing spasms. He is thus awake and ready when he is born, and comes out alert and swimming.
"'So?'
"It is similar with death. What you call the soul, I think this part of you feels the tug of death long before the actual event.
"'But you can still fight it!'
"You can fight being born, Attar. The mother expels you anyway."
> From the back cover of War of Nerves : "The villain Rasputin was blackmailing the U.S. Government, threatening to detonate forty drums of deadly nerve gas in the Caribbean. If he succeeded, it would mean the total destruction of every living thing in the area.
"Attar felt powerless to stop him, for Rasputin wore a deadman switch--if his heart stopped beating, the bomb would go off!"
Trisha: In this book, Attar is assisted by not only Sam, the bottlenose dolphin, but also Grampus, the name Attar gives to an orphaned orca who is raised by the dolphins.
> From the book: "The killer whale's mind was even stranger territory than the minds of the dolphins. Dolphins are not exactly gentle--the ocean is unforgiving and a pacifist dolphin wouldn't live long enough to starve to death--but the only fish they kill for pleasure is the shark. Grampus got a little dark thrill every time he killed something, anything. In other respects, though, the killer whale's psychological make-up was very dolphinlife: playful, sarcastic, relatively unconcerned about his own death."
And on the failure of human scientists to learn to teach dolphins to talk: "They experimented with captive dolphins and porpoises, trying to . . . teach them how to mimic human words.
"Their success was not remarkable. Dolphins would learn a few words but refuse to say them on cue. They'd splash the experimenter and swim merrily away, or nibble on his toes, or just sit and look at him with those big, intelligent eyes. You could get better results with a parrot.
"The fact is, dolphins didn't want to communicate with men. Mankind was a dangerous, rapacious species beside whom even the killer whale was a gentle soul."
La Ballena Varada , Oscar Collazos. Santillana Publishing Co., 1995. (CF)
Ballade pour un dauphin sacré , Francois-Xavier Pelletier. Paris: Editions Arthaud, 1988.
About the interspecies love affair between Pelletier and Koutta, a young female freshwater dolphin.
The Battle between the Elephant and the Whale , George Vincent. London: J. Blackwood & Co., 1879. (poetry)
Beast , Peter Benchley. New York: Random House, 1991. (CF)
Trisha: Primarily about giant squid, but whales play a not-insignificant role. A well-written page turner.
Black Satin, Donna Kauffman. Loveswept series no. 675. New York: Random House, 1994.(R)
> From the back cover: "The dark bar might be the right place to hire an outlaw, but Cole Sinclair wasn't looking for a job -- and figured the lady with the diamond eyes needed a lesson in playing with danger... but he couldn't scare her off! He'd never be anyone's hero, but somehow she'd breathed life back into his embittered soul, made him feel respect -- and astonishingly fierce desire for this woman who dared to touch him."Once Cole Sinclair captured her . . ., Kira felt she'd carry his mark forever. . . . She'd offered him anything to recover her stolen dolphin, vowed to fight his demons, but Cole knew pain was all he had left of his heart. Could she prove she loved him, scars and all, and always would?"
Blueberg: Being the Narrative of His Adventures on a Tropic Shore with the Whale Blowhard , Geoff Taylor. London: Heinemann, 1960. (CF) (Blueberg is a seal.)
The Blue Dolphin , Robert Barnes. Tiburon, California: H. J. Kramer, Inc., 1994. Also published as Boji: The Blue Dolphin, a Story , Bratton: Dreamtime, 1992. Also availabe in German as Der blaue Delphin (Munich: W. Ludwig, 1996.)
> From a review: "Based on current scientific understanding of dolphin capability, Robert Barnes weaves a fascinating story of life within the dolphin pod, their interactions with other pods and marine life, and the dangers posed to the dolphin by humans." Boji, the lead character in the novel, "challenges himself to do more and go farther than the other dolphins in the pod." He eventually "becomes a lone dolphin--a rugged individualist--driven by his love of learning."Scott: The story of a Dolphin who discovers that he needs to live his life apart from the other Dolphins, because he is so curious and independent. By the end, he has discovered that he is to be one of the Dolphins who interacts with Humans. A gentle story, with a message about our similarities. OK, not great.
Blue Gold , Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos. New York: Pocket Books, 2000. (CF)
"In this new adventure from the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA) files, Kurt Austin and his partner Joe Zavala nearly die during a powerboat race when a pod of dead, bloated gray whales bobs to the surface and obstructs the race course. Attempting to discover what killed the whales, Kurt and Joe track their migratory route to a mysterious underwater laboratory on the Baja Peninsula."
Blue Whale comic. Issues no. 1 & 2 and two stories in Very Small Comics nos. 1 and 2. By Tim Corrigan.
> From a review by Scott McCloud in Amazing Heroes #88: "Blue Whale's story begins in Very Small Comics #1 and #2 in a couple of half-length three-pagers . . . about a particularly depressed blue whale who is abducted -- albeit politely -- by an alien race from the planet 'Sproing.' The Sproingians gain energy from others' suffering and the big guy provides such a 'mother lode of misery' once hooked up to their machines that they gratefully offer to grant him one wish as payment. His choice: to become human."
The Blue Whale: The Complete Partitas , Murray Pomerance. Fragment Media, 1994.
Boiling Rock , Remar Sutton. Latham, N.Y.: British AmericaN Publishing, 1991.
> From the back cover: "Dolphins and tourists die mysteriously on Grand Bahama Island. Death, evil, and mystery shroud the tiny village of Boiling Rock. Too many loose ends convince Evelyn Wade that these incidents are related, and she recruits an unlikely crew to find out why . . . "
Book of Puns: A Play on Whales , Gus Theodore. St. Louis, Missouri: Whale Publishing, 1986. Address: P.O. Box 21696, Saint Louis, Missouri 63109.
Some sample puns (all of which are illustrated in the book): Red whales in the sunset; whale road train; wishing whale; pickled whalish; last whale and testament.
The Book of Revelations , Rob Swigart. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1981. (CF, New Age)
> From the dust jacket: "What happens when the miraculous bursts into your everyday life? When coincidences mount, you hear odd voices, your sense of time alters suddenly, and the skies take on odd shapes and meanings? When you find yourself the locus of messages from the past and the future, when waves of ancient history and a visionary future roll over you without your control? When you have become the modern-day equivalent of the Delphic oracle?"In this . . . novel, America's 'best young humorist' shows us a place where dead and living, past and future meet. The heroine of this New Age saga is Cassie St. Clair, a woman who learns the language of dolphins so as to mate with an orca and who perceives the shifting of time and the wisdom of elephants. In her end-of-the-world confrontation on the San Andreas Fault, Cassie must master UFOs and crackpot organizations in order to shake us into a cosmic understanding of why, in order for us to live, we must all someday die.
"In Swigart's allusive, ironic universe, there are three levels: human, cetacean, and elephantine. Combining the humor of a Jonathan Swift with the erudition of a classical scholar, Swigart has created a comic adventure story, gnostic puzzle, and prophetic vision all in one."
Boule de Reve , Lise Thouin. Montreal, Quebec: Leucan, 1993 (French edition). Palia di Sogno . Editori in Sintonia and Five Show Production (Italian edition). English translation available at website.
Scott: Illustrated by Jean-Luc Bozzoli, this warm and wonderful book about a Dolphin who hears music from the stars and dreams so hard of going to hear it that he sprouts wings and leaves to visit the Crystal Planet is the work of a Canadian actress who has worked extensively with children dying from leukemia and other forms of cancer. Fabulous illustrations.Trisha: An exquisite work.
Brightness Reef , David Brin. New York: Bantam, 1995. (SF) (This is the first book in Brin's second Uplift trilogy. For links to information about the Uplift concept, see The Uplift War .)
> From the back cover: "The planet Jijo is forbidden to settlers, its ecology protected by guardians of the Five Galaxies. But over the centuries it has been resettled, populated by refugees of six intelligent races. Together they have woven a new society in the wilderness, drawn together by their fear of Judgment Day, when the Five Galaxies will discover their illegal colony. Then a strange starship arrives on Jijo. Does it bring the long-dreaded judgment, or worse--a band of criminals willing to destroy the six races of Jijo to cover their own crimes?"Trisha: I haven't read this one yet, but reader comments at Amazon.com indicate that many find it substandard, confusing, irritatingly written, etc., whereas some others find it creative, intriguing, etc. All say that it must be read if you are to follow all the characters in the Uplift series. Frank Glover writes that the Streaker and its human-dolphin crew are mentioned only at the very end of Brightness Reef, but that you must read this volume of the trilogy "in order to understand the signifigance of the planet Jijo and its unauthorized inhabitants and their importance." to later events.
Bristol to Boston by Whale , Jontie Morgan. Eleven Minutes Behind, 1991.
Brotherhood of Dolphins , Ricardo Means Ybarra. Houston, Texas: Arte Publico Press, 1997. (CF)
> From the publisher: "Detective Pete Escobedo is on the hunt for the arsonist of the Los Angeles Public Library. The heated search takes him back to the barrio of his youth, where he soon discovers that the arsonist he has been tracking may also be responsible for several grisly arson murders in Southern California. The criminal's trial moves dangerously close to his old friend Sylvia, an unorthodox firefighter, and finally to Carmen, the woman he loves. This thriller based on the unsolved April 29, 1986, arson of the historic Los Angeles Central Library takes the reader on a high-speed chase into the turbulent barrios of Los Angeles, the race-conscious offices of the Los Angeles Police Department and into the minds of the firefighters who risk their lives daily."Trisha: Billy Johnson, the psycho protagonist in this book, is a self-proclaimed dolphin lover who espouses a New Age philosophy related to pyramids, dolphins and swimming with dolphins, and return to Nature. In his mind, his philosophy justifies his murder and arson (a la Ted Kaczynski). It is an interesting twist on the theme of dolphins as gods.
Excerpt, Billy Johnson speaking: "You see what we're about to go through here is the expulsion of cultural idiocy. Rejuvenate the planet, Mrs. Nguyen. We will align once again with Nature," . . . "The whole world will follow because we'll be pollution free, happy, and rich. Our kids will cavort with the dolphins . . ."
"Let me explain it to you this way . . . The Trinity is a pyramid, Nature . . . It's not the hocus pocus they sell you, it has always been the new art. Nature. Get it? The pyramid."
Mrs. Nguyen answers: "I know what the Holy Trinity is. Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I understand; I'm good Catholic . . ."
Billy Johnson replies: "We'll see. Just think of the dolphins, that's who we are, a brotherhood . . ."
Brothers of the Sea , D. R. Sherman. Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown, 1966. Also in Reader's Digest Condensed Books, Volume IV. Pleasantville, N.Y.: 1966, pp. 503-574.(CF*^)
Brute Force: Protectors of the Environment . Vol. 1, Nos. 1-4. New York: Marvel Comics, August-October 1990.
> From the opening page of issue #2: "Given powers and intelligence far beyond those possesed by other members of their species, five animals--a lion, a dolphin [name Surfstreak], an eagle, a bear, and a kangaroo--are forged into a team by a brilliant scientist to become planet earth's newest and most unusual environmental defenders . . ."
Cachalot , Alan Dean Foster. New York: Ballantine, 1980. (SF)
> From the back cover of the paperback edition: "A guilt-ridden Earth had turned Cachalot over to the few surviving cetaceans as a perpetual refuge--a planet whose surface was one great ocean, where the remnants of the whales, porpoises, and dolphins could pursue their lives and perhaps even the development of an intelligence greater than man's."Humans on Cachalot were strictly confined to a few islands and the floating towns, prospering from the wealth of its sea. The cetaceans seemed to have forgiven the thousands of years of terror and slaughter they had suffered--some had even befriended selected humans.
"But something was destroying the towns of Cachalot--leaving no clues . . . and no survivors."
> From the back cover of the hardcover book club edition: "To a marine biologist it was the chance of a lifetime, the fulfillment of a dream. And Cora Xamantina needed a dream fulfilled just now.
"Long before her birth, a guilt-ridden human race had tried to atone for centuries of slaughter by transporting Earth's surviving cetaceans to Cachalot. A covenant had been made between whales and men -- a noninterference pact that neither side dared violate. Cora could not help but wonder at the progress the huge sea mammals had made.
"Within hours after her arrival, she would have reason to suspect that cetacean progress had taken a devastating, deadly turn."
Scott: Curious sci-fi novel of a world with Great Whales as the only native inhabitants, great ending . . .
Trisha: Good read.
Call of the Wild Reef , Bern R. Brothers. Big Pine Key, Florida: Litoky Publishing, 1971.
Carnivores of Light and Darkness , Alan Dean Foster. Journeys of the Catechist series, no. 1. Warner Books, 1999.
> From the back cover: "The tall herdsman/warrior Etjole Ehomba of the Naumkib tribe lives by the sea. When a number of strange warriors wash up dead on the sand, only the nobleman Tarin Beckwith survives long enough to whisper a dying request: It seems that the Visioness Themaryl of Laconda has been abducted by Hymneth the Possessed and carried off to the remote land of Ehl-Larimar. Etjole accepts the dead man's entreaty to rescue her, and sets off on a very long journey. Etjole speaks the languages of animals, his bearing is courteous, his aspect modest and reasonable, and he solves problems by negotiation."A friendly snake provides him with an immunity to poison. He acquires a sidekick, the garrulous treasure-hunter Simna Ibn Sind. He outfaces a sentient tornado to save Ahlitah, a large black cat that, feeling obligated, joins the expedition. Finally, after various adventures involving floating ponds, dolphins, tiny warriors, a hostile animated sand dune, the mirage-palace of a soul-eater, and a gigantic walking wall, he's menaced by the evil, light-eating eromakadi; fortunately, being an eromakadi himself (one who eats darkness), Etjole simply inhales the eromakadi. "
Cetacea , Theresa Foley. Key West, Fla.: SeaStory Press, 2001. (CF)
> From the publisher: " Cetacea . . . is the story of a mysterious series of deaths that occur in the beautiful waters off of Key West, and the trio of locals -- an adventurous woman who captains a dive boat, her tarot-card reading psychic roommate, and an ex-Navy SEAL turned Duval St. bartender -- who set out to solve the mystery behind the killings. Blame falls on a majestic dolphin, and while the town is up in arms trying to either get the dolphin or hush things up, Captain Mattie Gold takes it upon herself to find out what is really going on out there beyond the reef." Cetacea has been praised as . . . ‘a ripping first novel, with a legendary, lethal, lonely hero whose stunning secret spans time, oceans and the essence of life. Theresa Foley writes with passion and vivid authenticity about deep sea diving, danger, dolphins and love.’
"Rosalind Brackenbury, the well known Key West writer whose work includes Seas Outside the Reef and Circus at the End of the World , comments: ‘Theresa Foley has written a whodunit, a fast-paced story with a passionate plea at its core for the integrity of the natural world. The fate of the misused dolphin underlies the intrigues of the human characters, and one of the strongest voices in the book belongs to the mammal which thinks and feels as we do, but without the selfishness and greed.’"
Children of the Sea , Wilfred S. Bronson. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1940.
VM: I found this book several years ago at a rare-book show. It is about a young boy who helps a wounded dolphin get well. As you might guess, the boy and dolphin become close friends. What is interesting about this book is that it is copyrighted in the year 1940! Unless I'm mistaken, most, if not all, of the research regarding dolphins has taken place since around 1960. Yet, Bronson's book goes into great detail about dolphins, including their intelligence, friendliness, and the fact that they are air-breathing mammals. It looks like Mr. Bronson was way ahead of his time, at least as far as dolphins are concerned.
A Circle in the Sea , Steve Senn. New York: Atheneum, 1981. (YA*^)
> From the dust jacket: Breee was a dolphin, a quiet, dreamy young female dolphin. And like her mother before her, she was troubled with nightsee. Dolphins who had this affliction dreamed of the Others, human beings, when they slept.Robin Shaw was a girl. She lived on Lando Key, Florida, where her father worked for Costain Lab and did secret deep-sea missions for the Lab and the Navy. From his most recent mission, he brought Robin a gift--a strange ring embedded in rock, taken from the floor of the ocean from ruins.
It was after she got the ring that Robin Shaw began to dream when she slept that she was a dolphin. In fact, it was more than a dream. Her mind actually inhabited the body of the dolphin named Breee. And as Breee, she learned not only how dolphins lived, how they communicated, and how they saw their watery world, but met many fascinating dolphins and whales and learned that dolphins had a history, a tradition. They called themselves "The Returned," since they, too, had once lived on land. Now, made desperate by attacks of the Others and the pollution of the sea environment, they were about to turn, to show their power to those who were destroying them. And Robin-Breee was a part of this.
Trisha: Gayle Julien's favorite young-adult title (Gayle reviews several books in the Cetacean Children's Bibliography ); I liked this one very much too.
The Chronicles of Pern , Anne McCaffrey. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993. (FS)
> From the back cover: "Travel back to the earliest days of Pernese history in this first-ever Dragonriders of Pern short-story collection[.] Join the original survey team as they explore Pern and decide to recommend it for colonization. Share the terror of the evacuation from the Southern Continent as a flotilla of ships, aided by intelligent, talking dolphins, braves the dreadful currents of the Pernese ocean. Learn how the famous Ruatha Hold was founded, and thrill with the dragonriders as they expand into a second, then a third Weyr. And discover a secret lost in time: the rescue of some of the original colonists before the planet was cut off forever . . . "Trisha: I haven't read all of this one yet, but thus far the dolphins are characterized as whimsically impetuous, fun-loving, extraordinarily good readers of human character and defects. Humans who work with dolphin partners are called "dolphineers."
Clickwhistle , William Jon Watson. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1973. (FS*)
> From the dust jacket: "In a near future where the world is divided into two rival hemispheric states, one of four special nuclear subs is surrounded by dolphins and destroyed. What force has turned these peaceful creatures against Man as he teeters on the brink of nuclear holocaust, only the government's reluctant ally, delphinologist John Pearson, has even a hope of finding out."The ocean boils with the primordial conflict of dolphins and killer whales as Dr. Pearson struggles for the answer that may cost him his life. Something more important than the human race hangs in the balance as the most intelligent mammals of the sea plunge Man into a crisis that spreads from the bottom of the ocean into earth orbit--and beyond."
The Commodore and the Whale , Frank W. Gapp. New York: Vantage Press, 1996.
Cottage by the Sea , Sara Gordon Harrell. Concordia Pub. House, 1978. (CF)
> From the publisher: "When Tig's friend is killed in Vietnam she finds some consolation in the birth of a dolphin pup."
Curse of the Killer Whale , Lawrence J. Hunt. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1963.
Curse of the Whale's Tooth , Steven Thomas Oney. Cape Cod Mystery Theater. Metacom, 1986. (CD) (On audiotape.)
Dame , H. Greeley Thornhill. Coolidge Press, 1984. (CF)
Dame is a great blue whale tormented by the death of her mother and father at the hands of Japanese whalers. Disoriented, she mistakenly makes her northern migratory trek up the Atlantic side of the Americas. Near Washington, D.C., she encounters a kindred spirit with whom she develops a relationship that, through a strange twist of fate, results in revelations that could save the oceans of the world.
Dance of the White Dolphin: "Shanghaied" , S. C. Shells. New York: Vantage Press, 2000. (CF)
Dance the River Whale , Ron Mercier. Pittsfield, Mass.: Deerbridge Books, 1999. (CF)
> From the back cover: "When twenty-four-year-old Tom Tetreault becomes consumed with self-destructive hate for his grandmother, a near-death experience introduces him to invisible forces that enable him not only to recover his own life, but to help his grandfather die as he had seldom lived -- in peace. The intermediary between Tom and those forces for life is a spirit guide called the Dark Woman, modeled after the Wise Woman of the Iroquois nations. From a small Massachusetts fishing town, through New Hampshire and Vermont, to the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Canada, she accompanies him on an extraordinary journey to forgiveness and reconciliation."
Dancing With Whales: An Adventure Story Reveals New Concepts of Time , Peter Beamish. St. John's, Newfoundland: Creative Publishers, 1993.
Scott: A truly fascinating and strange book, partly scientific data, partly story, partly analysis of data, concluding with a chapter on how to be a Whalewatch guide, then a chapter on how the communication skills of Whales could be used as the basis for a science-fiction story! Weird and wonderful . . .Trisha: Beamish presents his theory along with supportive data that whales communicate using both signal-based and rhythm-based communication, the latter allowing for time compression and time expansion, which makes for interesting reading. It's a nonfiction work, but is included here because of the brief discussion of science fiction.
Dark Mirror (A Star Trek: The Next Generation book), Diane Duane . New York: Pocket Books/United Kingdom: Simon & Schuster, 1993. Also available in abridged audio tape dramatization. Simon & Schuster Audio, 1993. (SF)
> From the back cover: "One hundred years ago, four crewmembers of the U.S.S. Enterprise crossed the dimensional barrier and found a mirror image of their own universe, populated by nightmare duplicates of their shipmates. Barely able to escape with their lives, they returned, thankful that the accident which had brought them there could not be duplicated--or so they thought."But now the scientists of that empire have found a doorway into our universe. Their plan: to destroy from within, to replace one of our Starships with one of theirs. Their victims: the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D, who now find themselves engaged in combat against the most savage enemies they have ever encountered . . . themselves."
Trisha: Commander Hwiii, a brainy dolphin technowhiz, makes several brief appearances in this story in which nightmare duplicates of the U.S.S. Enterprise 's crewmembers wreak havoc. Hwiii assists Data in problem-solving.
The Day of the Dolphin , Robert Merle. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969. French edition: Un animal doué de raison , translated by Helen Weaver, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969. (CF*^)
> From the back cover: "Against the cool, precise backdrop of a government-sponsored laboratory in Florida, [this novel] unfolds the drama of a brilliant and charismatic scientist on the brink of a world-shaking discovery. Intent upon his private dream he is unaware that he, his laboratory, and his accomplishments are pawns in a savage game of espionage and nuclear terror." The Day of the Dolphin is a novel of man's first successful attempt to communicate with another species. It is much more than a chilling suspense thriller. It is a haunting and powerful portrayal of humans and dolphins, caught in the net of man's mindless and violent thrust toward his own extinction."
Scott: Famous book about the misuse of trained Dolphins. Based on John Lilly's work [ The Mind of the Dolphin, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1967] and character, although this was disclaimed. Originally in French. Made into a movie starring George C. Scott.
Trisha: Based on partly truth but mostly fiction, and one of the books (and movies) I'm certain contributed to the general public's current perception of dolphins.
Dear Dolphin , Herbert A. Kenny. New York: Random Library, 1967. (Stories and fantasies)
A Deeper Sea , Alexander Jablokov. New York: Avon Books, 1992. (SF)
> From the back cover: In the year 2015, dolphin research Colonel Ilya Sergeiivich Stasov pushes scientific experimentation beyond all ethical limits. And with one shocking act of extraordinary cruelty, the barriers impeding human/delphine communication are broken down . . . forever."Five years later, the world is at war--and Stasov has transformed intelligent, ocean-dwelling mammals into cybernetic weapons of destruction. But the dolphins have their own agenda, one that trnascends human greed and petty hostilities--leaving a guilt-stricken scientist to suffer the damnation of an altered reality . . . and ultimately rocketing him toward the stars."
Bruce Lane: IMHO, about the worst book I've tried to read in years. Very dark and depressing. I didn't even finish it.
Trisha: A friend of mine read this book and made a similar comment.
Adrian Esdaile (orinoco@cia.com.au): Okay, yes, I agree, it is depressing. But I don't think it is a bad book, as such. Depressing things are sometimes good because they expose us as vulnerable creatures, not the super-hero-know-everything types the media constantly tells us we are. Bad things happen. I view A Deeper Sea as an exercise in "how NOT to proceed." It perhaps shows us the dangers of continuing to use dolphins for military purposes, as well as the dangers of continuing the petty squabbles over resources that have caused so much damage to the planet. I think there are things to be learned from this book.
For a review by Paul-Michael Agapow, click here .
The Deep Gods , David Mason. New York: Lancer, 1973.
> From the back cover: "The world was a planet of union, when dolphin and man communicated, held by a common bond--the Great Compact of Life. When the dolphins sang their hypnotic music, beings of the sea and beings of the land united in ecstatic celebration, renewing the Compact for the fullness of each life."The man was Daniel of the twentieth century--yet he was Egon, from that distant time when Earth was vibrant with the oneness of its life. Awakening in the body of the man Egon, he had been thrust back in time by forces beyond the comprehension of the wisest men. It was in his power to change the destiny of Earth, for he had been chosen by the Morra-Ayar--the gods of the deep. Plucked out of time, Daniel-Egon became a savior--even though to save the Great Compact of Life was to deny his own existence."
Deep Range , Arthur C. Clarke. New York: Signet Books, 1957/New York: Bantam, 1991. (An expansion of the short story "Deep Range.". See short-story section below for more information on the latter.) (SF^)
Scott: A futuristic look at a time when we use the seas to farm our food, especially Whales! Well written, but sadly misdirected.Trisha: Whale "herds" are contained inside electrified fences in the ocean, and dolphins, in cooperation with humans, serve the same herding and guarding functions as sheepdogs. I agree with Scott that the book is well written, but indeed sadly misdirected. Arthur C. Clarke elaborates on his unfortunate idea for herding and raising whales for meat in his nonfiction work The Challenge of the Seas .
Deep Spirit , Christian De Quincey. Mighty Words, 2000. Available online from Mighty Words, http://www1.mightywords.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=EB00017487.
> From the website: "Early in the 21st century, the world was already on course for a major transformation-a revolutionary shift in consciousness. Visions and dreams of millions were about to become a reality. The key: a worldwide quest for the 'noetic code,' a new way of knowing that builds on the ancient wisdom traditions of shamans, the perennial philosophy of mystics, and the profound insights of modern science. But the quest is threatened by a powerful force determined to keep the 'Great Dream' down."A NASA scientist (Martin Darrah) searching for extraterrestrial life gets an anonymous email with a strange message: 'Intelligence seeks expression.' He takes the bait and is led to Hawaii, and to a remarkable sequence of experiments in inter-species communication with a South American anthropologist (Maya Santos) and a remarkable dolphin.
"Instead of teaching the dolphin, they begin to learn surprising lessons about consciousness--the missing link in science. The search for 'alien intelligence' must begin closer to home. Not in distant galaxies, but within the depths of the oceans, deep in the matter of the Earth itself-deep within themselves. They must learn to listen to the echo from the birth of time. And how it unfolds in evolution.
"They embark on a seven-stage spiritual journey from quantum light to mystical enlightenment. The Great Dream is rising, and they must play their part by helping to crack the noetic code."
Deepwater Dreams , Sidney J. Van Scyoc. New York: Avon, 1991. (SF%)
> From the back cover: "It is the time of kalinerre --when young men and women of Aurlanis, chosen by lot, must leave their island home to be tested by the sea. Genetically engineered descendants ofa human race from a world beyond the sky, they surrender to mercies of the vast and terrifying ocean. Most return from their initiation. Some do not."Orphaned and willful, young Nuela now must enter the waters--to uncover the profound mysteries of a secret ocean-dwelling people . . . and to fulfill her strange and powerful destiny to unite a humanity torn asunder.
Trisha: Very imaginative, with fascinating whale-like beings who transport humans via the dream world.
Deep Wizardry , Diane Duane. New York: Delacorte Press, 1985. New York: Laurel-Leaf Books, 1987. United Kingdom: Corgi Books, 1991. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1996. (F/YA)
Thanks to Diane Duane for providing the following info for this book:"Very briefly, Deep Wizardry details the involvement of a couple of young human wizards, a boy and a girl, with a group of cetacean wizards who are about to re-enact a ceremonial which "keeps the Sea divided from the land" (among other things). One celebrant has an accident, and one of the human wizards volunteers to replace her--not fully understanding that the ceremony ends in the sacrifice of that particular celebrant (who is to be eaten by a very VERY large shark, who may have been participating in this ceremony for a very long time . . . ). Needless to say, complications ensue."
> From the back cover: "When Kit and Nita come to the aid of a wounded whale, they are plunged into deep wizardry. The whale is a wizard, and she enlists Kit and Nita in battle against the sinister Lone Power. Becoming whales themselves, Nita and Kit join in an ancient ritual performed by whales, dolphins, and single fearsome shark. But which poses more of a danger: the Lone Power, or ed'Rashtekaresket, the enormous shark as old as the sea?"
> From customer julian.morrison@virgin.net at Amazon.com: "The story revolves around a deceptively simple moral dilemma--choose freely to accept a painful death, or break your promise and thousands will die. Deep indeed, this is one of the most intriguing books I have read; even though it is meant for teens, I still keep coming back to it as an adult."
> From customer trum7150@uwwvax.uww.edu at Amazon.com: "This is a young adult book about adolescents, but at twenty-three I find that it's still my all-time favorite. It's moving without being pretentious, and the dilemma presented is morally complex. Duane doesn't pull punches or talk down to readers (save for a few comic relief missteps which don't detract from the impact of the book). Deep Wizardry is fascinating and fun, easy to read with some simple yet beautifully lyric turns of phrase. I reread my well-worn copy of it at least once or twice a year and still find it satisfying. Playful, emotional, beautiful, realistic and a must-have for any intelligent fantasy-lover."
Trisha: Very well written, this work both fascinates and makes you think. What would your decision be if you were a young person with wizardly obligations, and your choice was painful death for yourself or the death of hundreds of thousands of others?
A School Librarians' Journal Best Book of 1985
An ABA Best Book (young adult) of 1985
Delfín Blanco: Cuentos y Leyendas del Mar (White Dolphin: Stories and Legends of the Sea), Suryavan Solar. Zacatecas, Mexico: Ediciones Delfin Blanco,1999. [In Spanish and Portuguese.](New Age)
> From the publisher: "In this book you will find 12 tales and legends dedicated to the sea, the dolphins, and Atlantis . . . Delfin Blanco was written for the ones that are looking for the magic dimension of their inner ocean . . . [The] book comes with a interactive CD-ROM composed of pictures from sacred places, a video showing the places mentioned in the book, meditation music, and information for further assistance."
This Web site contains several selections of dolphin poetry by amateur poets. (Thanks to Julia [aka Nai'a] for suggesting I add this link.)
Descended from Whales , Charlotte E. Churchill. Buffalo Free Press, 1999. (Poetry)
The Dolphin , Robert Lowell. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973. (poetry)
Poetic commentary on the illusions and realities of life and love.
The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer , Sergio Bambaren. Australia: Sergio Bambaren, 1994/Carlsbad, California: Hay House, 1997, 2d. ed. rev.; illustrations by Michelle Gold.
"In the journey through life it is the will of the heart that decides our fate; for to achieve our goals we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan but also believe." The Dolphin is a story of courage, of struggle against our own fears, our own limits. It reminds us that there is more to life than what meets the eye: things we can only discover if we follow our own rules. It is a story of hope that unveils the magic of this world, the magic we too often seem to forget."
Trisha: This is an inspirational work about overcoming fear and following one's dream in the vein of Jonathan Livingston Seagull (in the present work the character is named Daniel Alexander Dolphin), but not as well written.
The Dolphin and the Deep , Thomas Burnett Swann. New York: Ace Books, 1968. (The story "The Dolphin and the Deep" was first published by Nova Publications in 1963.)
Trisha: Short story of a male explorer searching for Circe, who is accompanied by a merboy, two other human males, and a female white dolphin, and who must ultimately choose between "the dolphin"--who represents embodied existence and its interplay of friendship, betrayal, love, forgiveness, and acceptance--and "the deep"/Circe--which represents transformation, ultimately beyond embodied existence.In Swann's story, dolphins are playful, protective, noble, highly intelligent beings, who expect to be acknowledged for their service to humans, and who are also bearers of good luck (especially the white dolphin), possessors of caches of treasures in sea-caves, and possessors of a literature.
This volume also contains the non-cetacean short stories "The Manor of Roses," and "The Murex."
Dolphin Borne , Carlos Eyles. San Diego, California: Watersport Publishing, 1994. (CF)
> From the back cover: " Dolphin Borne is an adventure story. One that hold the body, the mind and the spirit in critical jeopardy. Veteran blue water hunter Ray Messias and novice Andy McCorkin have been swept into the dangerous waters of the Sea of Cortez and must survive by their skills and what they carry. Carlos Eyles weaves a masterly tale that twists and turns with the unexpected that only someone who has spent a lifetime in the water could draw upon."Here in the far reaches of the ocean wilderness, the peril becomes overwhelming, the impossible becomes possible, the real becomes surreal, and the messenger becomes the message."
The Dolphin Boy , Stephen Anthony Edell. Pentland Press, 2001. (CF)
> From the publisher: "With Dolphin Boy, Stephen Anthony Edell brings us the story of a disfigured young boy and the portentous New York City lawyer, David Saunders, who determines that fate has elected him to save the boy from exploitation."Desperately seeking to exorcise the demons of his past, David is searching for new meaning in his life. The money and success that being a ruthless attorney has brought him did not come in a pretty little package of happiness. Along with his longtime tireless pursuit of professional gain, David is fighting cancer. Despite his grueling treatments, he manages to keep his clout with the firm, leading a life tainted by a nagging feeling of disillusionment and unfulfillment.
As his path crosses with 'The Dolphin Boy,' a limbless, pathetic young boy, David is disturbed by the plight of the youngster. But in the eyes of the boy, he finds the inspiration he was so desperately seeking, thus vowing to rescue him, and ultimately changing his own life."
The Dolphin Connection , Beryl Bainbridge. CollinsDove Publishers. (YA)
Dolphin Divination Cards , by Nancy Clemens. Nevada City, California: Blue Dolphin Publishing , 1994. P.O. Box 8, Nevada City, California 95959-0008, USA, voice: (800) 643-0765, (916) 265-6925, fax: (916) 265-0787, e-mail: bdolphin@netshel.net. An accompanying instrumental tape Dolphin Divinations, by Chris Skidmore, is also available from Blue Dolphin. For more information, see the Cetacean Audiography . There is also A Guide to the Dolphin Divination Cards: One Hundred and Two Oracular Readings, Inspired by the Dolphins by Nancy Clemens. Nevada City, California: Blue Dolphin Publishing, 1998. (New Age)
A deck of 102 small round cards with words of counsel and affirmation."Messages and gifts from the Dolphins to brighten your day, inspire you, and guide you in a positive, joyful way. Let synchronicity and your inner guidance collaborate with these divination cards inspired by the joy, love, and liberation of our Dolphin brothers and sisters."
"[The Dolphin Divination Cards Guidebook ] is a unique [resource] for those seeking further information and interpretation of the Dolphin Divination Cards . [Each] reading (102 in all) is designed with a short preface for quick, easy reference followed by a longer teaching and explanation of the card . . . Woven through the lines of the readings is friendly counsel, a universal spiritual understanding, and an environmental message to all creatures that echoes the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi and the indigenous . . . peoples of the Earth . . . "
> From the guide description: "The Guide is splashed with dolphin lore, stories, environmental messages, and anecdotes of human/dolphin encounters. It has been called a 'Dolphin I Ching' by one reader. Nancy believes that our own inner guidance collaborates with synchronicity creating a unique 'mind mirror' . . . each time we draw a card and connect with Dolphin energy."
Dolphin Dreaming: Poems of Gentle Love and Laughter , Rosemary Harding. Braunton: Merlin Books, 1996. (poetry)
The Dolphin in the Wood , Ralph Bates. Great Britain: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1950. (CF)
Dolphin Island: A Story of the People of the Sea , Arthur C. Clarke. New York: Berkeley Publishing Co./Ace Books, 1963. (SF/YA*^)
> From the back cover: "Late one night in the future, far, far out at sea, a young man adrift on a packing crate is about to encounter an intelligence that will change the course of history . . ." Dolphin Island is science fiction master Arthur C. Clarke's beloved classic of the young stowaway who is rescued by 'The People of the Sea,' and who in turn helps them defeat an enemy even more ancient and more ruthless than Man!"
Scott: Early 60s teen sci-fi novel. Quite bland, but futuristic for its time. A resource for ideas used in this book was an article in the March 1962 issue of Scientific American entitled "Electrically Controlled Behaviour."
Trisha: I think young adults will find it a worthwhile read. It raises some strong ethical issues the reader must consider and contain's Clarke's usual imaginative/ practical problem-solving.
> From the book (Professor Kazan speaking): "Every dolphin is a person in his own right, an individual with more freedom than we can ever know on land. They don't belong to anyone, and I hope they never will. I want to help them, not only for science, but because it's a privilege to do so. Never think of them as animals; in their language they call themselves the People of the Sea, and that's the best name for them."
(Professor Kazan speaking again): "We're not dealing with wild animals but with intelligent people. They're not human people, but they're still people."
The Dolphin Journey , Brita Orstadius and Lennart Didoff. Translated by Eric Bibb. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1992. (CF)
Dolphin Key , Jon Land. Forge, 1999. (CF)
> From the dust jacket: "Dolphins are magical creatures: they comfort the heartbroken, rescue the lost, even heal the sick. At the Dolphin Key Center for Dolphin Human Therapy in Florida, dolphins use their healing powers to help autistic children communicate and to soothe other troubled people. But what if you don't want help? What if you've gone so far down the wrong path that you cant go back?"Katy Grant can't see any way back from the path her life has taken. And she doesn't really care. Working at Dolphin Key keeps her out of jail, and it just might give her a chance at revenge on the man who ruined her life. Not even the dolphins can do anything about that. Or can they?
"In the tradition of Hope Mountain, Dolphin Key is a powerful novel of redemption and second chances, a place where magic exists and miracles happen."
> From Publisher's Weekly : "Though he is better known for his international thrillers, in this slim paean to controversial dolphin therapy Land makes this second foray into softer terrain, following Hope Mountain. After abusing and abandoning his first wife and daughter, Vietnam vet and alcoholic Mike Fontana is himself abandoned by his second wife, who leaves him with their young son, Joe. The responsibility of being a single parent motivates Mike to sober up, and just in time, for within a year Joe is diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. When the boy's cancer goes into remission, a development attributed in part to dolphin-human therapy, Mike opens up his own healing center, Dolphin Key, in Key Biscayne, Fla., where he helps disabled children overcome their handicaps with the assistance of half a dozen captive dolphins. Meanwhile, Mike locates Katy, his daughter from his first marriage; she is in prison serving a two-year sentence for a series of juvenile crimes. Mike offers to effect Katy's release out in return for six months of volunteer community service at Dolphin Key, hoping the dolphins will work yet another miracle on his recalcitrant daughter, and also bring father and daughter closer together. The plot thickens: an animal rights activist is determined to shut down Dolphin Key, Joe's cancer appears to have come back and Katy's justifiable anger spurs her to sabotage Mike's good works. Will the dolphins keep Mike from drinking, cure Joe again, soothe Katy's anger? Is there a Clarence Darrow-type character willing to volunteer his services and save the center? The formulaic plot fosters little suspense, but Land does a credible job of presenting the perspectives of both animal rights activists and supporters of dolphin-human therapy. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Dolphin Leaping in the Milky Way , Jeff Poniewaz. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Inland Ocean Books, 1985. (poetry)
> From the back cover: "Aspiring to what is most dolphin-like in human heart and mind, these 'cetacean meditations' embrace the dolphin as totemic teacher and friend. Presented chronologically as written between the mid-'70s and early '80s, they document the unfolding of the human eco-consciousness. They see the dolphin of the ocean and the dolphin of the nightsky as a hopeful emblem to inspire the positive evolution of mankind. From the shore of Lake Michigan to the shore of the Pacific, Dolphin leaps to the rescue. And just in the nick of time . . . "Trisha: An edgy, passionate collection of poetry and newsclippings about humankind's abuse of the environment. Includes several vivid dolphin and whale poems, and dolphins and whales make appearances in several of the other poems. The book closes with what the author calls a "Dolphinifesto," which consists of quoted sections from Mind in the Waters and a quintessential Walt Whitman selection.
The Dolphin Life , Jonathan Little. Xlibris, 2000. (CF)
Written by an English professor, "this is a fast-paced adventure story of a young dolphin separated from his family and forced to draw from his deepest physical and spiritual resources to survive. This unforgettable tale carries on the literary tradition established by such classic works as Siddhartha and Jonathan Livingston Seagull and will appeal to anyone interested in spiritual exploration and imaginative storytelling."
Trisha: These books contain some interesting fictional ideas, but they are not well written and could be helped tremendously by a good editor.
A Dolphin of Many Colors: An Inter-Species Friendship , Jennifer Semro. Bonita Springs, Florida: Dolphin Defenders, 1995. Address: P.O. Box 933, Bonita Springs, Florida 34133, USA, (941) 947-2268, fax: (941) 498-2879. A sequel entitled The Journey Home is planned. (*YA - adult)
"A look at captivity viewed through the eyes of the dolphin . . . The story of Peter, a young man who meets a wild dolphin he calls Alpha. A strong bond forms as their friendship develops. In a surprising twist Peter obtains the ability to understand the dolphins' language. The pair begin an adventure that will change both of their lives forever."Trisha: This is a nicely written story (although the copyediting phase was bypassed) that also provides a lot of accurate factual information (with one or two exceptions) about dolphins.
The Dolphin Pool , Yvonne West. Vantage, 1989. (CF)
The Dolphin Position: A Comedy , Percy Granger. New York/London: French, 1984. (drama)
The Dolphin Project: To Those Who Feel They Need a Complete Relationship , Michael Marlan. Raymond, Alberta, Canada: Sunspring Publishing Co., 1989. (New Age)
Trisha: Typical New Age themes (related to dolphins, as well as in general): Atlantis, Lemuria/Mu, soul mates, transforming gross bodies to light bodies, etc.
The Dolphin Queen , Edmund S. Graves. New York: Vantage Press, 1994 (FS)
Reviewed by Julia (aka Nai'a): This is the story of a psychic Christian girl called "Red" and her friends, as they battle to save earth from a bunch of alien carnivorous plants. There are twelve chapters, and each is a somewhat distinct story. All of the most important places are named after dolphins, rather peculiarly, and two-bit characters in the tenth and eleventh chapters are dolphins.Darleen, one of the main characters in chapter 11, lives in a boat and they follow dolphins around. She talks telepathically to her favorite dolphin, Bright Star, who rescues her when she falls off the boat in a storm. Bright Star is her closest friend and hangs around while she recovers in an undersea sanctuary from her mother's death and various psychic troubles . . . All of the characters in this book are basically, in my opinion, cardboard cut-outs, and the dolphins aren't much different . . . friendly, playful, telepathic . . .
In chapter 12, Varlo, a Neptulan--an aquatic creature from another planet--has a dolphin, Hero, who he rides . . . Hero later calls ninety-nine friends to escort the book's main characters, Red and all her friends, to a council meeting--having an escourt of a hundred dolphins is considered a great honor.
I found the book rather dull and flat; it read something like a really bad sci-fi serial in a magazine. The characters had no depth; it was all flash and action.
The Dolphin Rider , Roy Meyers. London: Rapp & Whiting, 1968.
Dolphins , Stephen Spender. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. (poetry)
> From the dust jacket: " Dolphins is Steven Spender's first new volume of poetry since his Collected Poems appeared in 1985. Although most of the [nineteen] poems included here were completed recently, they cover a whole lifetime of experience, going back to memories of childhood during the First World War and advancing to old age. Written for anonymous friends or for prominent contemporaries like Simone Weil or Isaiah Berlin, these poems explore the images of war, the loss of childhood, or the longing for freedom, however evanescent. When read as one work, these poems, like dolphins, "leap out of the surface of waves reflecting the sun . . . "Trisha: The short opening poem in this volume, entitled "Dolphins," is the only one specifically about dolphins, and it celebrates their freedom and delight (the heart), contrasted with our imprisonment by speech (the mind).
Dolphins and Killerwhales: A Novel . Wellington, New Zealand: Mother Sea Publications, 1978.
The Dolphin's Arc: Poems on Endangered Creatures of the Sea , Elisavietta Ritchie, ed. College Park, Maryland: SCOP Publications, 1989.
> From the editor's note: "I conceived of this anthology to reach both scientific and literary audiences. In particular, through the sale of the book I hope to raise needed funds for the Center for Marine Conservation--the umbrella organization for The Whale Protection Fund, The Seal and Sea Turtle Rescue Funds, and the Marine Habitat Program."I sent out a call for poems on whales, dolphins, sea turtles, seals, and sea lions. Poems poured in from all regions of the country; some also celebrated walruses, sea elephants, sea cows--even one octopus. Everyone was enthusiastic about a project concerned with restoring the environment. Many good poems had to be returned for lack of space. It has taken several years to choose, arrange, edit, fund, and finally to publish The Dolphin's Arc, earlier called Tide Turning . As can be seen from the brief biographical notes, the 109-poem collection includes poets from 32 states and one from Chile. There was room only to suggest the wealth and variety of honors, credentials, and publications this gathering of American voices represents.
"As if poetry could halt a slaughter. Like hurling a pebble at an armored tank. As Deena Metzger writes, 'If it were only a question of whales.' We face (or avoid) so many immense problems--the threat of nuclear war; actual wars forever breaking out somewhere on the globe; constant, universal dangers of pollution, hunger, homelessness, disease, overpopulation, man's inhumanity to man--and to animal. But the wanton killing of whales, the overdevelopment that deprives sea turtles of their birthing beaches, and the dolphins strangled in tuna nets--these are not simply metaphors for all the world's ills. They are problems in themselves. As American poets, we can focus attention on them, to help change the broad environmental policies of all the nations . . .
"The whales, dolphins and other sea creatures threatened with extinction, who seem so free, joyous, and self-contained, have become silent prisoners whom we must champion. The survival of the sea affects Earth's survival--and our own. For, as Richard Wilbur writes in the final poem of this collection:
- ". . . What should we be without
- The dolphin's arc, the dove's return
- These things in which we have seen ourselves and spoken?"
Trisha: One of my favorite creative works about and on behalf of cetaceans (available from Amazon.com). Most of the poems are about whales or dolphins, including poems by Pablo Neruda, Richard Wilbur, Stanley Kunitz, Mary Oliver, and Marge Piercy (if you've never read Marge Piercy's poetry, head for your nearest library and prepare for a feast. Here are a few lines, referring to dolphins, from her poem "Another Country," which appears in The Dolphin's Arc : "Never do they sleep but their huge brains/hold life always; turning it like a pebble/under the tongue, and lacking practice, death/comes as an astonishment."). And the rich beauty of the poem "Children in Fog," by Al Poulin, Jr., is on its own worth the price of the book.
Dolphins at Cochin: Poems , Tom Buchan. Barrie & Rockliff. (poetry)
The Dolphins' Bell , Anne McCaffrey. Wildside Press.
Dolphins for Luck , Peggy Nicholson. Harlequin Presents series. John Curley and Associates, 1989.
> From the back cover: "The Marichelle was more than a classy old yacht. She was the anchor in her namesake's life, the only place ther real Marichelle had ever called home."So the loss of her home, and then her heart, was more than Marichelle could bear -- especially when the pirate who had stolen both displayed a dolphin ring on his wedding-ring finger. Even the ancient symbol for good luck and happiness was against her.
"No wonder Marichelle did everything in her power to hide her true feelings from Rod Kenrick -- for fear of being truly lost at sea."
The Dolphin Shore , Phyllida Barstow. London: Century, 1984. (CF)
Dolphins in the City , Bo Carpelan. Delacorte, 1973. (YA)
The Dolphin Smile : Twenty-nine Centuries of Dolphin Lore, Eleanore Devine and Martha Clark, eds. New York: Macmillan, 1967.
Trisha: Chronologically arranged, rich array of circa 100 fiction and nonfiction selections about dolphins.
The Dolphins of Altair , Margaret St. Clair. New York: Dell, 1967. (FS*)
> From the back cover: "Before the dawn of man . . . there was a covenant between the land and the sea people--a covenant long forgotten by those who stayed on shore, but indelibly etched in the minds of the others--the dolphins of Altair."Now the covenant had been broken. Dolphins were being wantonly sacrificed in the name of scientific research, their waters increasingly polluted, their number dangerously diminished. They had to find allies and strike back. Allies willing to sever their own earthly bonds for the sake of their sea brothers--willing, if necessary, to execute the destruction of the whole human race . . ."
The Dolphins of Atlantis and the sequel, The Shadow of the General , Robert Burroughs. 1996. The author is seeking a publisher. For more information, please e-mail Trisha at dolphintlf@aol.com.
Trisha: I have read excerpts of the human-dolphin sections from The Dolphins of Atlantis , and they are beautifully and sparely written, conveying a gentle and wonderful vision of the possibilities for human-dolphin collaboration and cooperation. The author has titled a collection of these excerpts "The Children of Prometheus," which originally appeared in the Winter 1996 issue of Interspecies Newsletter, Interspecies Communications, 273 Hidden Meadow Lane, Friday Harbor, Washington 98250, USA.Concerning the complete books, the author writes: "The idea behind The Dolphins of Atlantis was a model of an ideal human society (or even a business organization, since that's part of my background), something like Thomas More's Utopia. The stories portray the island republic as a civilizing influence on the Mediterranean world. And since the people of an island maritime nation would interact closely with the sea, they might find fellowship with its cetacean inhabitants. Plato's Atlanteans knew of the Americas, so I also included their discovery in The Dolphins of Atlantis .
" The Shadow of the General is loosely modeled on the campaigns of Alexander the Great. The historian Arnold Toynbee speculated on history's course had Alexander not died at age thirty-three . . . so I decided to write a story, using three characters as a composite Alexander. They liberate Asia Minor (from the Assyrian Empire) instead of conquering it, and show the people how to govern themselves. Dolphins play a role in the story."
The Dolphins of Pern , Anne McCaffrey. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994. Also available as an Audio Book, read by Mark Rolston (9 hours). Also available in French as Les Dauphins de Pern . Pocket, 1996. See also the online interest group "Triad Weyrs" . (SF)
> From the dust jacket: "When the first humans came to settle the planet Pern, they did not come alone: intelligence-enhanced dolphins also crossed the stars to colonize the oceans of the new planet while their human partners settled the vast continents. But then disaster struck in the form of Thread, deadly silver spores that fell like rain from the sky, devouring everything--and everyone--in their path. And as the human colonists' dreams of a new, idyllic life shattered into a desperate struggle for survival, the dolphins were forgotten, left to make their own life in the seas of Pern."As time went by, human memory of dolphins was lost to legend, and only the occasional tall tale of 'shipfish' rescuing fishermen lost at sea kept the legend alive. But the dolphins never forgot, and from generation to generation they preserved their oral history against the day when humans at last might remember their old friends, and once again the seas would resound with the ringing of the dolphins' bells from docks and ships . . .
"Now, centuries later, the dragonriders of Pern were on the verge of ridding their planet of Thread forever. But T'lion, a young bronze rider, was not old enough to participate in that great venture. Instead, he and his dragon, Gadareth, were relegated to conveying people from place to place--until he and Readis, son of the Lord Holder of Paradise River Hold, made contact with the legendary 'shipfish.'
"And as the dragonriders grappled with the ending of an era, T'lion, Readis, and the dolphins faced the start of a new one: reviving the bond between land- and ocean-dwellers--and resurrecting the dreams of the first colonists of Pern . . ."
Dennis Hipsher: About genetically engineered dolphins who can talk to humans in English. It is set in the far future on a colonized planet called Pern. Some of the dolphin characters seem smarter than the human hero of the story :-).
Dolphin Song , Wilma Fasano. Thomas Bouregy & Co., 2002. (R)
> From the publisher: "Cass Chase loves her job running a dolphin show in a Los Angeles Marina. Ever since she broke us with Australian Jack 'Digger' Coady, her work has been her only life. Digger shared her passion for dolphins, and she can't imagine falling in love with someone who doesn't. "When they find each other six years later, their feelings are rekindled on sight, and Digger asks Cass to come to Australia for a month to see if they really are right for each other. "Cass falls in love with Digger's lifestyle and his tourist center with wild dolphins in remote Western Australia, but trouble surfaces when she suspects a local fisherman of dolphin poaching. Cass hatches a plan to catch him, but Digger thinks she's using the man to buy dolphins for her show. After he tells her he never wants to see her again, Cass is desperate and heartbroken. "Can their beloved dolphins help Cass and Digger find a future together?" The most memorable trip for the author and her husband was four months in Australia, including a visit to the wild dolphins that were the inspiration for this book.
Dolphin Song , Michael Tod. Cadno Books, 2000. (New Age)
"The narwhals -- gods and guardians of the deep -- enlist the dolphins as their contacts to the human world. Could humans become to understand the songs the whales and dolphins sing? . . . inspired by the hope that man and whales may one day be able to communicate -- to the lasting benefit of both species."
Dolphin Summer , Monica le Doux Edwards. London: Collins, 1963.
"Because the dolphin had once saved her from drowning, an English girl tries desperately to keep it from being captured for a water circus."
A Dolphin Summer , Gerard Gormley. New York: Taplinger Publishing, 1985.
Trisha: This is primarily a fictional work, but is based on years of the author's and others' observations and a solid grounding in scientific literature."In this . . . book--the story of the first eight months of a dolphin's life--we enter a young dolphin's world to share her experiences, see what she sees, hear what she hears.
"The world of the young dolphin is an exciting and active one. A variety of sea life--prey and predator--cross her [pod]'s path. And in her explorations she cavorts in play, faces dangers, and witnesses a mass stranding.
"Along with the fascinating events of the young dolphin's early months, the author . . . provides the current facts that are known about dolphins as well as information about the other creatures she meets [including humpback whales and orcas] . . . "
Dolphin Summer , Carola Salisbury. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1977/ London: Century, 1976, 1987/London: Pan Books, 1978. (CF) (CF)
Dolphin Sunrise , Elizabeth Webster. West Seneca, New York: Ulverscroft Large Print Books, 1994/Souvenir, 1992. (YA)
> From the dust jacket: "Tragedy has aged young Matthew far beyond his fifteen years. Numb with shock and horror following the London fire that left him orphaned and badly injured. Matthew's anguished spirit permits no human contact or consolation. He is not, however, beyond the reach of all living things, and welcomes the lifesaving friendship that comes in the form of a dolphin. With a devotion greater than anything Matthew has known from a person, the dolphin waits every day by the beach to play, to rest quietly--to provide the companionship that even the most hardened heart craves."In this moving tale of a boy's rapport with one of earth's most loyal and intelligent mammals, Matthew learns to come to terms with his grief and acquires a deeper understanding of the people who attempt to help him. But even as he emerges from his shell, he finds himself confronted with the plight of the dolphins in their battle with pollution, drift-nets, and man's unthinking hostility.
"Growing to a maturity born of sorrow, Matthew begins to understand the dolphin's lesson: One must glory in the moment and not allow life to be blighted by sadness at what is past or what may come."
> From Kirkus Reviews , April 15, 1993: "Webster . . . continues to boost noble causes to relieve the downtrodden . . . , but stick-figure characters, awash in sentiment, are just not up to carrying a Cause--which is too bad, because the cause here is the rescue of threatened sea mammals, specifically dolphins. Fifteen-year-old Matt's alcoholic mother died in a fire with her latest man, but Matt was able to rescue four children in the building . . . He is sent to Cornwall for swimming therapy for his burns, and there he meets a marine biologist, a right-thinking swimming instructor, a grouchy old "Captain" who turns out to be a millionaire, and "Flite" the dolphin, whose joy in living is infectious. (Flite also rescues a small boy from floating out to sea.) Matt . . . plays his guitar for the dolphins and seals. Then an aunt-by-marriage in San Diego sends for him. There, he'll . . . meet an animal-rights activist, and go off to Baja, where he'll learn firsthand of the cruel deaths of dolphins from the giant fishing firms with drift nets. All along, Matt collects adults who want to do their best for the lad; finally, there are reunions, a trip back to England, and a sad/joyful last view of Flite. Webster appends facts about the slaughter of dolphins--but it's unfortunate that the author has chosen a dweeb like Matt for their spokesperson." Copyright 1993 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Dolphin's Wakes: A Novel , Peter Such.
The Dolphin Swimmer , Gerard Emerson Langeler. Lewes: The Book Guild Limited, 1996.
> From the publisher: " The Dolphin Swimmer tells the story of Britannia's first Anglo king, and of his incredible past as a Roman slave. It is a story of tumultuous passions, of deadly warfare on land and at sea. Told in rich, evocative language it brings alive the scent, the sound, and the taste of the days when the rump of the Roman legions was retreating across Europe, leaving the empire to ravaging barbarian hordes . . ."The year is 411 AD and Derrk, the son of a proud Anglo king, has been swept out to sea from his native Friesland. After spending two days in the savage waters of the North Sea, he is finally nudged ashore on the alien coast of Britannia by a gentle dolphin . . . "
> From the front cover of Dolphin Boy : "The sea had bred him--man tried to destroy him."> From the back cover of Dolphin Boy : "Eons ago, down in the green depths of warm oceans, man had his basic origin. And although he evolved into a creature entirely of the upper air, he still has much in common with the air-breathing, salt water mammals who are his ancestral brothers.
"Except of course that the sea creatures have much greater potential intelligence, are infinitely better adjusted to themselves and their environment. And have a much longer life span.
"The gentle dolphins knew exactly what to do when a small human baby [John Averill] fell into their midst. But neither they nor anyone else could foretell what would develop from this remarkable combination . . . "
> From the back cover of Daughters of the Dolphin : "From the age of two, Sir John Averill had lived in the sea, where kindly dolphins raised him to manhood. Known to a few humans as Triton, the dolphin man could never become fully accustomed to living on land and fled away to his underwater home whenever the need impelled him. But here he could not live either. For now that he had known man and the ways of man he needed more than the companionship of dolphins. Now at last there were two creatures like himself--if only he could keep them alive long enough to grow up!"
> From the back cover of Destiny and the Dolphins : "Sir John Averill, sometimes known as Triton, was a unique creature. At least until a scientific accident produced two females who, like himself, were able to live in the upperair but whose natural habitat was under water.
"All three, Triton, Vinca and Syn, spent their childhood years being raised by dolphins. This was a fierce and unforgiving training but it was easier than what was to follow . . . For although Triton did his best to protect his two young wards, the world of the upperair held dangers and threats he might foresee but could not avoid."
The Dolphin Who Was Searching for the See: A Spiritual Journey to the Heart , Jonathan Bentwich. Cross Cultural Publications, 2002. (New Age)
The Dolphin with the Revolver in Its Teeth , George Hitchcock. Santa Barbara, California: Unicorn Press, 1967. (Poetry)
Dragonsdawn ( Dragonriders of Pern series), Anne McCaffrey. New York: Ballantine, 1988. (SF)
> From the back cover: "The beautiful planet Pern seemed a paradise to its new colonists--until unimaginable terror turned it into hell. Suddenly deadly spores were falling like silver threads from the sky, devouring everything-- and everyone--in their path. It began to look as if the colony, cut off from Earth and lacking the resources to combat the menace, was doomed."Then some of the colonists noticed that the small, dragonlike lizards that inhabited their new world were joining the fight against Thread, breathing fire on it and teleporting to safety. If only, they thought, the dragonets were big enough for a human to ride and intelligent enough to work as a team with a rider . . .
"And so they set their most talented geneticist to work to create the creatures Pern so desperately needed--Dragons!"
Trisha: "Intelligence-enhanced" dolphins are among the new colonists of Pern, but I don't yet know how big a role they play in the book.
Dreamfall , Joan Vinge. New York: Warner Books, 1996. (SF)
> From the dust jacket: "Acclaimed for her ability to combine brilliant, evocative prose and sharp scientific extrapolation with intimate explorations of the human spirit, award-winning author Joan D. Vinge is perhaps best known for her Snow Queen series and her bestselling saga of the telepathic outcast Cat. The story of a half-human street punk fighting to survive in a hostile universe, these novels are the work of a lifetime, ranging from Ms. Vinge's earliest writing to the present, including her bestselling novels Psion and Catspaw , and now . . . Dreamfall . From his earliest memories in the desperate slums of Oldcity, Cat has hated the pretensions of the rich, the machinations of the powerful interstellar combines; for at every turn Cat has been used. He's been a thief, a hustler, a spy, a slave. Used as a pawn. As bait. But at this moment, Cat is a scholar, a university team xenologist doing field research on the planet Refuge, home of the enigmatic cloud-whales. Vast aerial creatures created by an unknown species, the telepathic whales are far more than uniquely beautiful. Their thoughts and dreams manifest, falling from the sky to form vast reefs of solid data comprised of pure, retrievable thought . . . data mined by the planet's all-powerful corporate owner, Tau Biotech."
Dream Water , Karen Rivers. Custer, Washington: Orca Book Publishers, 1999. (YA)
> From the back cover: "When a trainer falls into the killer-whale pool at the Victor Seaquarium, spectators, including a class of elementary schoolchildren, are horrified as they watch the whales drown the young woman. Dream Water takes up the story of Cassie and Holden, two of the children who witnessed the tragedy, several years later as they each struggle to deal with the effects of what they saw."Further description: "The book catches up to Cassie, a promising dancer, and Holden, a burgeoning artist, several years later as each struggles to deal with the effects of what they saw, while all the while coping with the pains of growing up, discovering their sexuality, and struggling with their inner demons. Holden's life is complicated by an alcohol addiction, and his mother's illness, while Cassie moves away from home to attend a School for the Arts. Each has more than their share of things to deal with, but the accident with the orcas still haunts their dreams and nightmares . . . until each is able to finally find some kind of resolution."
This is Karen River's "first teen novel, and grew from her interest in whales, her opposition to their captivity, and a real-life accident that occurred at a Victoria seaquarium."
Trisha: The tragedy is magnified by dysfunctional families.
Drifting Among the Whales , Carol Battaglia. Long Branch, N. J.: Vista Publishing, 1999. (Poetry)
Dune , Frank Herbert. New York: Ace Books, 1990. (SF)
Trisha: It has been over thirty years since I read Dune , so I can't recall whether or not the Space Guild Navigators were "like human-whale beings," but since they are referred to as the latter in the following quote, I am including Dune in the bibliography. R. Douglas Frederick, in an article entitled "Trees in Space" http://www.teleport.com/~rfrederi/slu/spaced02.htm), states, " These people will gladly give up gravity, and after several generations may well start looking like the human-whale beings from Frank Herbert's Dune - the 'Navigators.'"
The Dying Dolphin: Ancient Secrets . Underground comic. Circa 1968.
Trisha: In this typically cryptic underground comic, a scene of nuclear destruction drawn by R. Cobb near the beginning shows several dolphins viewing a mushroom cloud from a distance, and the caption reads: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." The next section of the comic, entitled "The Dying Dolphin: A Mystery," begins "Watch the dolphin, he is you," and then recounts a creation story that initially involves an Eskimo rendering of the dolphin as orca with the words, "They came, they became, they were . . ." This is followed by a section entitled "Part 2 (Sphere of Grace): The Logo," picturing a dolphin superimposed on a yin-yang symbol. There is no text in this section, but the imagery shows a dolphin and a scarab merging. Dolphins do not appear in the final section, "Part 3/Divine Law: The Victim-Man," other than in the title of a chart, "Dying Dolphin Simplified Chart, Diagram and Explanation," which explains "the complicated order of manifestation."
The Eagle and His Egg . Mark Rascovich. New York: Atheneum, 1966. (CF)
> From the dust jacket flap: " The Eagle and His Egg is a fictional reminiscence which pays tribute to the reckless abandon, generosity of spirit and unconventionality of the author's father. The setting is France in the period between the Great Wars (1918-1939) and the characters include: an idealistic American engineer struggling not only to assimilate but to reform the baffling national traits of his adopted land; a raffish band of demobilized WWI flyers and ferocious gourmets who call themselves Les Canards Creves (The Ruptured Ducks); an embittered old cavalry brigadier fighting his last losing rear-guard action against life and wife; a deviously enterprising lighthouse salesman; a tragic whale; and a licentious comic ghost who is finally exorcised by a pair of star-crossed lovers."
Easy Target , Cynthia Wall. American Radio Relay League. (CD)
"Something or someone is killing gray whales on their pacific migratory journey. Kim, KA7SJP, and Marc, KA7ITR, find themselves in the heart of this dangerous mystery involving dead whales, cocaine traffic, and a South American lumber freighter. While hiding as the 'fox' in a transmitter hunt, Kim sees too much, and the drug dealers are out to get her."
Easy Travel to Other Planets , Ted Mooney. New York: Vintage Books, 1981. (SF*)
Scott: An unusual novel about the relationship that develops between a woman and a Dolphin. She lives with him in a research facility in the Virgin Islands in a house with a flooded second floor, copied from the facility designed and built by Dr John Lilly. (The actual woman who worked with Lilly was Margaret Howe.) In this book, the woman's life is unsettled by the love of the Dolphin.Trisha: Well written, but in my view the ending is a total copout.
Ecowar , Richard P. Henrick. New York: HarperPaperbacks, 1993.
> From the back cover: "The Star of Linshu --As it dumps toxic wastes in the waters off Hokkaido, Japan, a monstrous manta ray rises from the depths, rams it amid ship and sinks it to the bottom of the sea. The devilfish has struck again."The USS Chicago --Dr. Peter Kraft, renowned expert in dolphin communication and training, boards the Los Angeles class attack vessel with orders to investigate strange reports of a marauding sea monster in the depths of the Kuril Trench.
" Ecowar --A sleek submarine of stunningly advanced design, it plies the Pacific at speeds that defy pursuit and confound detection. Embarked on an impassioned mission to save sea-life from destruction, Ecowar stands ready to challenge the world's most sophisticated attack subs."
Doug Cuvein (cuvein@aol.com): The USS Chicago is tasked with looking for a "giant manta ray" that turns out to be a sub. This sub is involved in sinking many ships that have killed dolphins (either on purpose or by accident, doesn't matter to the captain of the sub). The sub is so quiet that normal sonar cannot detect it.
Trisha: This is a well-written page-turner about a group of radical environmentalists whose mission it is to stop the plundering of the oceans, whether it be from toxic waste dumping or whaling, and they have the technical means, the talent, the philosophical imperative, and the high-placed funding to carry out their mission.
An incident that drives one of the environmentalists, in which a mother blue whale comes to the rescue of her calf who has just been harpooned, is recounted as follows:
"The Agosta 's control room filled with an anguished bass cry. There was a weak, scratchy, high-pitched response, followed by a gut-wrenching bellow from the confused newcomer.
"Tears of compassion cascaded down Moreau's cheeks as he watched the mother blue gently nudge the calf with the rounded tip of her flat head. A series of deep, guttural blasts of sound touched Moreau deep in his heart. In that sad, magical moment, the barrier to interspecies communication was momentarily surmounted, and the young Frenchman clearly understood the whale's tragic plight.
"The arrival of another harpoon cut short the mother blue's mourning. Moreau watched in horror as the lance ripped into the mother's back. Seconds later the grenade in its explosive warhead detonated. An ear-piercing cry of anguished pain was followed by the arrival of yet another harpoon and another sharp explosion.
"A bloodred spout poured from the mother blue's blowhole, causing the whalers still gathered on the trawler's prow to raise their arms in celebration. Infuriated, Jean Moreau backed away from the periscope and addressed his commanding officer.
"'Mon Dieu! Why does man do such a horrible thing?'
"'For pet food, lipstick, lubricant, and lamp oil,' spat Michel Baptiste. 'Such a waste can never be excused!'"
Cetacean themes: Intelligence, telepathy, holiness, rescue of humans, the cruelty of whaling
Elementals: A Story of Fathom comic. "Hammerheads" issue. Written by Bill Willingham. Vol. 2, No. 14, April 1990. Norristown, Pennsylvania: Comico The Comic Company, 1990.
Trisha: Fathom is dropped off in the ocean to determine why legions of hammerhead sharks have begun attacking boats. Via telepathy, she learns from a pod of dolphins who come to her assistance that some of the sharks are being radio-controlled to keep everyone away from a secret underwater facility. Fathom seeks out the facility and, with the help of the dolphins, destroys it.The dolphins' philosophy is interesting, some of which follows:
Dolphins refer to humans as "god-monsters," and the dolphin named Longdive explains why: It is "an ancient term that some of the more superstitious of the delphinians still use. It refers to the creatures from the overworld. Humans. What do you expect? In all of our lives, we've given your kind nothing but honor and friendship. In return, you kill and capture us. 'God-monsters' sees pretty generous under those circumstances, eh?"
As they near the secret facility, Fathom says to her dolphin friends: "Let's go, guys. We have some murderers to catch . . .you will have a chance to repay them in kind.
Longdive responds: "No, Fathom. I am afraid that is not possible. Delphinians cannot kill humans. It is one of our earliest, strongest beliefs. Our kind believes that humans, god-monsters, are the guardians of the afterlife. To be killed by a god-monster is to be specially chosen -- to be assured a special place in the ever-lasting oceans. Our beliefs prevent us from attacking the humans in the god-shell, but you are free to do so. We will take care of the wide-eyed sharks while you take care of the god-shell [the dolphins' name for human enclosures] . . .
To honor the dolphins after they assist her in destroying the villains, especially Longdive, who is killed during the fighting, Fathom establishes the Longdive Foundation. "She brought public and political pressure to bear against the indiscriminate murder of dolphins and their cetacean cousins, and lobbied continuously for their protection. The foundation financed several studies on dolphin intelligence, trying, on several occasions, to get the nations of the world to recognize the dolphins as a sentient species."
Exodus: The Dolph/In Saga , Martin A. Enticknap. Murfreesboro, Tenn.: Armstrong Valley Publishing, 1999. (New Age, Ebook)
> From the back cover: ": A legend is born . . . A new vision in the birth of a race even beyond history. 35 million years ago the future was created. Their story is ours -- their hope is a gift which we ignore at our peril. They witness our birth as a race. They speak -- we do not hear because we dare not listen. The ancient Greeks honoured them; killing them was punishable by death. The Iriquois people also saw them differently and spoke of their way. But now we no longer see them an they die in their thousands. And as our New Age begins it's time for their legacy to be realised . . ."
Eyas , Crawford Killian. New York: Bantam Books, 1982. (F)
> From the back cover: "Through the long centuries of humanity's twilight, the People of Longstrand lived in peace and harmony with nature, under the protection of their goddess from the sea. Then she put her mark upon a raven-haired child who would alter their destiny forever -- Eyas, nestling of the hawk."
The Falklands Whale (La Baleine des Malouines), Pierre Boulle. Translated from French by Patricia Wolf. London: W. H. Allen, 1983, 1984.
Falling for a Dolphin , Heathcote Williams. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 1990.
Trisha: Beautiful long prose poem, exquisitely illustrated, inspired by the author's personal encounters with Funghie, the Dingle, Ireland, dolphin.
Fatal Exposure , Michael Tobias. New York: Pocket Books, 1991.
"When the sun rises, it will bring the most frightening disaster the world has ever known . . . The dawn caresses the earth. The horror begins. On the shores of British Columbia beached whales die of starvation and disease, while an Indian shaman sings a chant of doom. In Seattle an embittered scientist, confined to a wheelchair, pores through sheets of computer projections. Then a local TV reporter, whose wife works on the front lines of a government research agency, gets the story of a lifetime . . . Above the Arctic Circle a hole in the ozone layer has begun drifting southward, letting in a shower of sunlight and heat -- sun that blinds, heat that kills and hatches murderous swarms of insects. While a handful of courageous men and women try to spread the warning, a government cover-up extends all the way to murder. Soon the Pacific Northwest will be overcome by an environmental tragedy such as the world has never seen . . ."
The Feast of the Fishes, or the Whale's Invitation to His Brethren of the Deep . London: J. Harris, 1808.
The Ferry Story , Terry Lawhead. Pacific Search Press, 1978. (CF)
"Fictionous Dolphins," . Magnus Redin.
Trisha: This is a nonfiction piece, but partly about dolphin fiction, so I'm including it in the fiction bibliography.Magnus: "This essay was written for the 22nd EAAM (European Association for Aquatic Mammals) symposium with the intention to bring some simple, hopefully interesting remarks about mythical dolphins and some ramblings about real ones from a hobbyists point of view."
Fighting for Air , Marsha Mildon. New Victoria Publications, 1999. (CF)
> From the back cover: "Scuba instructor Jay Campbell takes her class of students out for their first open water dive. All goes well until a young Ethiopian man loses consciousness and drowns. An investigation shows his tank was filled with carbon monoxide, and Jay is indicted. But Cal Meredith, in love with Jay and determined to prove her innocence, finds there are other suspects as well: his jealous fiancee; her right wing Christian fundamentalist parents who hate the idea of their daughter marrying a dark skinned foreigner; his friend, another Ethiopian student with a hidden political agenda; and a young researcher with more respect for dolphins than people . . ."
Fishkar graphic novel comic book. 1994.
Story line: "Female environmentalist tries to stop polluters' plot of dumping toxic waste in a local river. The main character, Atagatis, is a woman from the Cayman islands who interferes with the toxic dumping . . . She then transforms into a half-fish/half-human with super piscine strengths. She plots revenge in Japan, fighting environmental/animal rights ills such as whaling and dolphin kills."Money raised through the sale of the comic was donated to the Cayman National Trust, an environmental organization.
Footprints of Thunder , James David. New York: TOR, 1997.
> From the back cover: " It began with a rain of corn falling from an empty sky, and with the unheeded warnings of a handful of eccentric scientists and college students. Only they saw the disaster coming, but nobody listened to them until . . . Suddenly, overnight, the boundaries between yesterday and today dissolve, transforming the entire world into a crazy-quilt mixture of the present and the distant past. Portland, Oregon, turns into a primeval forest, where a vicious motorcycle gang takes advantage of the chaos to hunt both tyrannosaurs and innocent human beings. Plesiosaurs are spotted off the coast of Hawaii, while a stranded family struggles to survive a savage conflict between an enraged brontosaurus and a bloodthirsty pack of killer whales. Winged reptiles, extinct for millennia, swoop from the sky to carry off small children. Looters battle dinosaurs in the Bronx, where one old woman, alone and forgotten, discovers a new reason to live. And in the White House an increasingly unstable President searches for a solution -- any solution -- to the catastrophe that has gripped the planet. But the cure he is presented with may be worse than the disease."
A Friend in the Water: Tales of Sea and Sky , Jim Cummings. Hampton, Connecticut: Healing Earth Publications, 1988. (FS*^)
Scott: An extraordinary book! It captures the Spirit of awakening that is ongoing through the deepening connection between Humans and Dolphins. Told as a tale about a young boy and his experiences with a Dolphin, it goes very deep into the nature of the Dream, the Reality of our lives, and the means for connecting to our own part in the larger Dream. Highly Recommended!Trisha: I second Scott's recommendation.
The Gift , Kristin L. Franklin. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998. (CF)
Themes: Fishing, whales, old age
A Girl and a Dolphin , Patrick V. O'Sullivan. Niwot, Colorado: Irish American Book Co., 1997/Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1994. (YA)
The Girl Who Sold Dolphins , Amy Cheung. [In Chinese.](CF)
The Girl Who Talked to Whales , Graciela F. Beecher. Bloomington, Ind: 1st Books Library, 2000. (CF, Ebook)
> From the publisher: " The Girl Who Talked to Whales describes the love story of Marietta Leveque, a high spirited girl fond of the sea and the whales, and Malcolm Frazer, the richest and most sought-after bachelor of the Colony of Baja Centro, a colony founded in the 40s by a group of American farmers in the center of the Mexican Peninsula of Baja California . . . From Baja Centro the story moves to San Diego, California, where Marietta, after being separated from Malcolm by her father, begins to work for a scientist trying to teach two killer whales . . . to communicate with humans by using their echolocation system of communication . . ."
The Goat Without Horns , Thomas Burnett Swann. New York: Ballantine, 1971. (F*^)
> From the back cover: " . . . a strange tale of a remote island, an island which should have been a paradise but quickly became a nightmare in which all known rules of behavior seemed to be reversed, where, in fact, a young man brought up amidst the proprieties of Victorian England, found that his only friend was one small, lonely dolphin--and his enemies included several well-ordered hammerhead sharks . . . "Quote from the book provided by Frank Glover: "It was the one time in his life when he stood by his dignity. No one who disliked dolphins could use his given name."
The Godwhale , T. J. Bass. New York: Ballantine Books, 1974. (The sequel to Half Past Human .) (SF*)
> From the back cover: "Rorqual Maru was a cyborg--part organic whale, part mechanized ship . . . and part god. She was a harvester--a vast plankton rake, now without a crop--abandoned by Earth Society when the seas died."So she selected an island for her grave hoping to keep her carcass visible for possible salvage. Although her long ear heard nothing, she believed that Man still lived in his Hive. If he should ever return to the sea she wanted to serve. She longed for the thrill of Man's bare feet touching the skin of her deck. She missed the hearty hails, the sweat and the laughter.
"She needed Man!"
Gold Coast , Elmore Leonard. New York: Dell, 1980. (CD)
Trisha: Some humans who run captive-dolphin shows at a fictional display facility in Florida play a role in the story, and although not a great deal is said about the dolphins themselves, some of what is said about them takes center stage in the book's punchline.
The Golden Whales of California and Other Rhymes in the American Language , Vachel Lindsay. New York: Macmillan, 1920. (poetry)
A Grave for a Dolphin , Alberto Denti di Pirajno. London: Andre Deutsch, 1956.
> From the dust jacket: "The material for this [collection of stories] came from the writer's experience as a doctor and administrator in Italy's former African colonies. Children, animals and magic are the main themes. [The title story], 'A Grave for a Dolphin,' is [that] of Shambowa, who sported with sharks and was loved by a dolphin."