Book Review by John Hoopes

I have just finished reading a remarkable novel, The Dolphins of Oceanus by John Hoopes, which has kept me thinking and speculating about dolphins, whales and the ocean, in a way that I have never done, even though I have been a fan and student of dolphin, whale and ocean most of my adult life.

I am old enough to remember John Lilly’s experiments in the 1970s and 80s with dolphins, trying to establish a human-dolphin communication. As I recall, he didn’t ever quite achieve what he’d hoped and eventually gave up the project. But when I read about those experiments in books like The Mind of the Dolphin I felt akin to him in spirit: that is, he was going on the assumption, which I shared, that dolphins had a high order of intelligence, and perhaps, in ways we didn’t yet understand, they could use their large brains in sophisticated ways, comparable to ours, could we but somehow penetrate deeply enough into their psyches to discover that. And I remember a question that kept popping into my mind then: Well, if dolphins really are as intelligent and sophisticated as humans, what do they do with all that great intelligence? How does it manifest in their world? They cannot make material things. They leave no visible, tangible signs of intellectual or artistic creation. What then could it be? I admit, I am not essentially a deeply imaginative person, and I was never able to come up with any speculations that even remotely satisfied me, and I soon gave up speculating.

However, so many years later, when today I’d finished reading this amazing new novel, I knew that someone had finally accomplished, in spades, the imaginative leap that I had not been able to make years ago, and had created a vivid undersea world, full of intelligence and emotion, of spiritual awareness even; and in addition had populated that world with an array of individual dolphins who were all as distinctive and unlike each other as any such collection of humans could be. Quite a feat.

One of our biggest clichés about dolphins and whales, is that they are all gentle, benevolent beings, all apparently living in perfect harmony with each other and with their oceanic environment. The Dolphins of Oceanus also overturns that applecart: there are dolphins and whales we encounter in this novel who have tragic flaws, who can be devious, who intrigue against each other or against the colony for personal gain; there are others noble, spurred by high ideals and capable of great sacrifice for a higher good. In other words, the citizens of this undersea world are as psychologically and spiritually complex and unpredictable as humans. A rich involvement of character results from it.

So this novel has performed a great service for us by making at least a reasonable attempt at answering that important question: Well, assuming their high intelligence, what would their life be like? We as humans need an answer to this. The answer doesn’t have to be perfect, just something that will take us imaginatively inside that hitherto closed door, let us look around inside that amazing room; and then take that information back outside and use it to help reassess our own position on this planet. Do we already have a nearby, great, alien ally?

Something in this novel suggests that the answer to that old, old question—is there anybody like us out there?—could be very near at hand; has been here all the time; we just didn’t know where to look, whom to ask. Not outward and upward and into spectrums of light-year; but right here, down below, into the dark, mysterious depths of our own Oceanus.

You can read free the first several chapters on the author’s website at www.bellamagicbooks.com.

Book Review by Alexie Frize-Williams

dolphin wayIf you ever see a close-up shot of a dolphin, one of the most striking things about it is the huge, permanent grin spread wide across his face. But have you ever stopped to wonder what the creature might have to smile about? What secrets lie behind the intelligent eyes of the animal about which we still know so little? In this beautiful subaquatic tale, Mark Caney provides a glimpse at life through the eyes of the other major civilized race we share the planet with – the dolphins. Aptly blurring fact and the fantastic, the novel is rooted in the author’s intricate research of dolphin behavior, whilst conveying a powerful narrative which masterfully explores some profound questions.

Touches the Sky is a young male dolphin who finds himself caught up in the destructive consequences of man’s impact on his once utopian world. For millennia the dolphins have peaceably thrived in a sophisticated, harmonious existence, following the Way: an ancient belief system, somewhere between a religion and a philosophy. With a complex communication system, playfulness to rival that of humans and unobtrusive intelligence, they have grown perfectly attuned to their world, without the need to improve it, or destroy one another. Now there are alarming developments in the familiar waters, with the confusing din of deafening machinery, brutal over-fishing resulting in food shortages, strange cancers, and many baby dolphins stillborn due to pollution. The darker side of human nature begins to take seed in the receptive dolphin psyche, and a small faction renounces the Way to pursue a savage new lifestyle. Sky must desperately try to avert the disturbing new threat if he is to protect the ancient code and those he loves.

Though the pervasive themes are sombre, the plot is vibrant and fast-paced, snaking in the impressive twists and turns of a beautifully crafted adventure story. The reader is immersed in a stunning underwater world with eloquent scenic descriptions opening the reader’s eyes to a vast and vivid variety of undersea creatures, water temperaments and ocean-scapes. To be enjoyed by readers both young and old alike, the novel may be read simply as an exciting, escapist tale, with three-dimensional characters, touches of humour and beautiful snatches of poetry. But for a deeper reading, the fictive layers can be peeled back to reveal many philosophical, social and moral questions which will leave the reader thinking long after turning the last page. If dolphins are as intelligent as man is gradually learning to realize, what are they using all this intelligence for? (Is there a master agenda?) In evolutionary terms, where did ‘original sin’ arise, and why has it not affected another, so highly developed, species? What causes the fork in the evolutionary pathway which allows or denies a species to be capable of sophisticated communication, emotion, sociability and pleasure?

The most poignant theme of the novel is clearly the shocking, but entirely realistic, devastation to the ocean environment. Human influences on the planet seem to be slowly destroying any hope for posterity, whilst the dolphin Way hinges on the safeguarding of the future through learning from the past. Caney paints a stark picture of human egocentricity and materialism versus the balanced altruism and sustainability of the gentle dolphins. The dolphins eat only what they need to stay alive, to maintain the complex balance of life in the ocean. By training their minds and bodies they can hold their breaths for longer, dive deeper, and explore different levels of consciousness and the subconscious. This existential introspection enables the possibility of approaching a sense of unity with the universal, one of the fundamental tenets of the Way. It also provides an elegant solution to the creatures’ lack of instruments or material objects to record information; a special order of dolphins known as the Starwriters can train their minds to recall vast quantities of information subliminally. Here the author’s creative flair takes wing, and an entire system of societal roles within the dolphin clan is laid out; from Dreamweavers to Calculators, the different gifts of certain zetii (as the dolphins are known) work together to ensure the continuance through each generation, of the creatures’ age old wisdom. One of the most fascinating aspects of this world is that many of the ideas stem from scientific theory, touching upon the realms of astrology, oceanology, biology and medicine.

So if you get the chance to read one novel this year, make it Dolphin Way. Aside from enjoying the vivid brilliance of the underwater world, you might learn something along the way. After all, if we concentrated less on materialistic concerns, the desire to manipulate the environment and cultivate wealth, there would surely be more time for pleasure and to simply enjoy life! Perhaps this is why the dolphins smile – man is caught up in his obstinately self-destructive pursuit of happiness; the dolphins are already there.