My Kindle edition of Oceanspace is a 2015 reprint of a 2000 novel set in 2011 that stole all its tropes from the 1960’s-70’s. From the description:

Treachery, greed, and a gargantuan sea monster threaten the inhabitants of a high-tech, deep-water research station in this thrilling undersea science fiction adventure

I beg to differ, sir! A more accurate description would be:

More sexist and racist tropes than you can slap with a fish threaten the peaceful existence of a gargantuan sea monster in this mildly interesting treatise on underwater exploration

Not as catchy, I know, but I’m big on truth in advertising.

Basically, Oceanspace is as cringingly racist and sexist as a Dirk Pitt novel without any of the hilarious cheesiness to make reading it worthwhile. The stuff about undersea habitats and submersibles and oceanic exploration was quite interesting, but the awful troperrific characters drag the story below crush depth.

I read this for the Halloween Bingo 2018 Fear the Drowning Deep square.

If you're looking for a good, classic sci-fi story believe me when I say- this is not it! Go right now to your search function, lists, shelves, whatever and find something else! If I could give this a category, it would be called 'space-historical' or 'space-saga.' This is basically a soap opera that spans from the founding of the Arkwright Foundation through the death of Nathan Arkwright, with a history of every other Arkwright family member and the trials they go through as their starship is built, sent to space and the planet is colonized. But there is absolutely no action- It's a narrative and a rather too long and very boring one at that. *yawns*

Why did I even finish it?? -I have no earthly idea! I think I kept hoping that it was going to switch over to a more hands- on, action based story (for lack of better words at the moment because it's 3 am in the morning) but it never did. I'm just glad to finally put it behind me. 

It took me months to finish this - if that's any indication of how much I enjoyed it. :  )

I'm not even sure why I stuck with it. 

Review to come...

I had high hopes for Arkwright by Allen Steele because the premise sounded so promising. A sci-fi book about a sci-fi author (touted as being a contemporary of Isaac Asimov) that bankrolled a gargantuan scientific project that could only be cooked up by a sci-fi enthusiast? Yes, please! The basic outline of this book is that through multiple generations of one family, the Arkwright clan, an interstellar space craft would be created and launched into the vast reaches of space in the hopes of colonizing a distant planet for future human inhabitation. Each section of the book focused on a different descendant of the original creator, Nathan Arkwright. The major problem for me was that I didn't especially like any of these characters. It isn't a necessity to like the characters you read about of course but it helps if you feel invested in them because otherwise their actions make no difference to you one way or the other...which is what happened to me. Halfway through, I almost gave this book up as a lost cause but I decided to soldier through in the hopes that the ending would knock my socks off. It did and it didn't. You can probably guess what the last chapter of a book about interstellar travel will contain but if you're looking for a huge crescendo then you're going to be disappointed. When I was contemplating giving this one up I looked up other reviews and someone mentioned how it would have been better if the ending had been expanded further. I agree. By focusing on the management of the company, the fiscal pitfalls, the construction of the ship, and the foibles of each of the family members Steele missed an opportunity to really knock it out of the park. If you're a huge sci-fi nerd (as I am) then you most likely won't fall in love with this book but if you're new to the genre or a fan of the generation ship trope then maybe this one will be a win for you. 4/10 for a great concept that didn't really deliver.