The novel “Creatures of the Abyss” by Murray Leinster was published for the first time in 1961.
Terry Holt has been running a shop in Manila for a long time and his electronics skills allowed him to do good business until his partner caused a lot of trouble for the business. He’s about to leave the Philippines when he receives a very important offer that leads him to join a scientific expedition led by Dr. Morton.
His ability to create high-level radar systems takes Terry Holt into the ocean for a research on the mystery related to strange marine phenomena. What fishermen call las orejas de ello are considered only a legend, but certain events convinced someone that it’s the type of legend that has a basis in fact.
During his career, Murray Leinster wrote science fiction stories of a very classic type, and in the ones set on Earth in the not too distant future he offered stories that included plausible technological innovations. In the case of “Creatures of the Abyss”, the author uses developments of technologies already existing at the time for a marine research that could lead to the discovery of sea monsters.
Today “Creatures of the Abyss” is dated in certain elements linked to astronomical hypotheses that now we know are wrong and to the research conducted on a ship using technologies that have nothing special anymore. The prospect of finding sea monsters also reminds of certain stories from an even earlier era, such as those by Jules Verne. However, Murray Leinster manages to create a sense-of-wonder that can still be appreciated.
The protagonist Terry Holt has a personal backstory that leads him to get involved in the oceanographic expedition. Initially he’s not sure what’s going on because some bits of information are confidential. The consequence is that the first part of the novel is used to slowly reveal the details of the expedition through Terry and Dr. Morton. These are often conversations, and only after a while the pace accelerates, when the actual investigation in the ocean begins.
“Creatures of the Abyss” requires some patience because, especially today, at the beginning it doesn’t even seem you’re reading science fiction. There’s even a beginning of a romantic story between Terry Holt and Deirdre, Dr. Morton’s daughter, which at the time was still not very common in science fiction novels. During his career, Murray Leinster took the time to write romance novels as well, so he was able to develop that type of element in one of his works too. However, this novel’s length is limited. so it doesn’t take long before you get at least into the adventure in the ocean. Of course, by today’s standards, action and twists last very little.
In the end, the actual science fiction part, with the addition of horror tones, is left for the grand finale, along with a series of scientific speculations about what the characters discovered. “Creatures of the Abyss” isn’t the type of novel with an end in which all the mysteries receive complete answers, but various questions remain. A sequel might have offered more answers in a plot more focused on the science fiction elements, but the story was closed with this novel.
Overall, “Creatures of the Abyss” seems focused on the build-up of the story and its protagonist, in my opinion too much. I don’t consider it among Murray Leinster’s best novels and it didn’t seem to me to have aged very well. For this reason, I believe you might like it if you appreciate a very classic sense-of-wonder and sea adventures.
