Susan Casey has made a career of writing about the ocean and the creatures who inhabit it. In her latest, Casey considers how little we know about the ocean’s deepest reaches and profiles the people who are intent on improving that knowledge via manned submersibles.
In a well-researched investigation of the history of deep ocean exploration, Casey follows both a wealthy entrepreneur intent on breaking records and the scientists whose research relies on the same high-tech equipment. The audiobook of The Underworld (12 hours) is accompanied by a PDF with illustrations, photographs and other resources to aid listeners’ understanding. Casey’s motivation, as listeners learn, is personal, and hearing the author read her thrilling account of finally descending into the ocean’s depths herself provides additional emotional heft.
