Whalefall

A Novel

De: Daniel Kraus

Narrado por: Kirby Heyborne

Duración: 8 h y 9 m

Resumen del Editor

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER
Named a Best Book of 2023 by Book Riot, Shelf Awareness, and NPR

The Martian meets 127 Hours in this “astoundingly great” (Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author) and scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.

Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year.

The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale.

Suspenseful and cinematic, Whalefall is an “powerfully humane” (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) thriller about a young man who has given up on life…only to find a reason to live in the most dangerous and unlikely of places.

©2023 Daniel Kraus (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

This is not an action story!

This is a haunting story about death, mourning, and family and it's devastatingly beautiful. Best story of the year for me, so far, and one of my top 10 of all time. The comparison to The Martin sets you up for an optimistic and fun story of survival and that's just not what this is. You'll find yourself fighting tears more than biting your nails.

Some folks didn't like the narrator but I thought Kirby was excellent and I look forward to experiencing more that he's done. Additionally, some people found the flashbacks to bring a weird rhythm, but the pacing and structure made me think of Arrival by Ted Chiang.

Overall, I'm sad I can only experience this for the first time once. Great read.

Mind bending adventure

This was an adventure into a world few of us have experienced. Totally grabs the reader and inserts them into another world and dimension. The possibility of escape keeps you on your toes!

Slow start but it gets better

I read this with my a book club. I thought it took to get to the inciting incident.

Great writing and narration - perfect together.

Holy carp. Daniel Kraus pulled this one off. Not only that but he freakin' killed it.

I was fortunate enough to go see Daniel with Mary Roach in San Francisco. Just so happened to be on my birthday. He did a brief presentation on the origin and research involved for this book and it was just as fascinating as the book itself and gave me an even deeper appreciation for the brilliance that is Whalefall.

Kraus. Killin’ it. Go buy and read it.

“Being born is scary no matter how many times you do it.”

wow.

just, wow!!! intense, emotional... I loved this so so much. I want more about the aftermath, but at the same time its a perfect ending.

Who knew catharsis could be this fascinating?

First of all, excellent narration and performance.

Whalefall is a hard science lite horror journey about catharsis and and grief and both are done exceptionally well.

To avoid spoilers, I don’t want to say too much more but it’s a gripping and compelling journey you won’t want to stop playing once you start.

Well-Researched

I'm impressed with Dan's ability to translate his research of whales and scuba diving into a fictional novel.

Great holistic story

The beginning of the book was hard to trudge through. But from about the 2/3rd way to the end was fantastic!

Teen and tough dead dad memories-in a whale

Monastery bay is an amazing dive spot. Whales, squid and jellies are fascinating.
Being the son of an angry nonconformist father is a tough row to how.
Being said teen who abandons said father (and sisters and mom) makes for complicated grief after dad is dead.
Plot is a weave from there with assorted whale and sea creature facts interspersed.
Narrator was over the top frequently-as were the anatomical descriptions of injuries (hand bones all broken and fingers acid burned but able to retrieve a battery from his tight vest pocket? 2 broken legs, shredded diaphragm with multiple rib fractures standing up/swimming out of small aperture?) unlikely at best, I’ll leave that to artistic license.
I liked the concept of all lives intertwined, all births difficult, all life could feed all lives-not new thoughts but put in a new setting.
Perhaps worth a single listen, not recommended, archived.

Confounding

While I am trying to figure out what I liked about this story. which i did. I am also trying to figure out what I did not like about it.

When I first started listening, I thought this was a YA book (youg adult). written fairly simply, I believe the author has written kids' books, but looking it up, I found that this wasn't one.

The story, despite the narration - so-so , progressed from simple to interesting to engrossing. to ending up as "pretty good overall"

I also learned more about whale anatomy then I ever thought I'd ever need to know.