Kronos

Kronos by Jeremy Robinson
Mass market paperback, 425 pages
Variance Publishing, 2008
ISBN-13: 9781935142010
action/adventure

highly recommended

Synopsis from cover:

Two years after his wife's death, oceanographer and former navy SEAL, Atticus Young, attempts to reconcile with his rebellious daughter, Giona, by taking her on the scuba dive of a lifetime-swimming with a pod of peaceful humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine. But the beauty of the sea belies a terror from the deep-a horrific creature as immense as it is ancient. There is no blood, no scream, no fight. Giona is swallowed whole by the massive jaws.
Atticus' inconsolable grief turns to an unquenchable thirst for revenge.Drawn by the spectacle, Trevor Manfred, a ruthless billionaire, approaches Atticus with a proposition: Trevor will make available all the advanced technology of his heavily armed mega-yacht, the Titan, to aid Atticus in his death-quest. In return, Trevor is to receive the beast's corpse as the ultimate hunting trophy. But in the midst of the hunt, Atticus makes a terrifying discovery that changes the way he sees the ocean's creatures and begs the question: what is Kronos? The answer sets him on a new and much more deadly course.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed Kronos and Jeremy Robinson is a writer I will continue to read. OK, the actual sea monster isn't the focus of the book and really isn't causing as much havoc as the humans. This isn't like Jaws or Meg, the monster isn't inciting terror and causing deaths along a coast. What you do get is a tough ex-navy SEAL bent on revenge, a billionaire bad-guy looking for a trophy, and plenty of action. No, this isn't fine literature, but it IS fine escapism and the story moves quickly. Kronos would be a good vacation read. The chapters are short and the plot is easy to follow and fast-paced. This really is a book about a quest of mythological proportions.

Yet again some reviewers on Amazon seem to be faulting Robinson for writing "Christian propaganda" in Kronos just like they did in Antarktos Rising. It seems just having some mention of the Bible or a Christian principle sends some reviewers over the edge. Oh, please... Come on... Would these same concerns be brought up if it were any other religion mentioned? Any Christianity in Kronos is really minimal, the bulk of it is found in the first chapter (which features a minister from 1673), and could hardly be called propaganda. Those complaints are quite silly - any monster story asks you to suspend belief in some way. My advice would be to simply sit back, read the book, and enjoy the story.

highly recommended

Quotes:

June 17, 1673 Boston Harbor

Each slice of oar through water seemed more like a guillotine splitting flesh, vertebrae, and nerve bundles over and over - unceasing agony. opening

At that moment he longed for God to do more than whisper. The beliefs for which he had been exiled were not his own. He surely had been misjudged and mistreated by man, but would his God abandon him while on a divine errand? pg. 3

Tepid, rank air greeted him as he realized that God, angry at his disrespect had sent the devil himself to eat him alive. pg. 5

Rye, New Hampshire, 2008

The sea can do many things. It is the womb of all life on the planet. Weather patterns and natural disasters are at the mercy of the mighty blue's ebb and flow. A food chain that supplies sustenance for most life-forms on the plant begins and ends in the deep. But what Atticus Young had learned in the last two years was that the ocean, for all it's might and wonder, could not heal a broken man. pg. 11

Even people in the rooms on the floor above could hear his anguished. That day, seventy-five people heard what it felt like to have a portion of one's soul extinguished.
Few of them could stop their own tears. pg. 13

But the day he'd come home from the hospital, eyes burnt red from crying, and just looked at her with those sad eyes, she knew two things. Her mother was dead, and she wouldn't let herself get that close to anyone ever again. Not even her father. pg. 26

Two sets of diving gear were there. Wet suits, oxygen tanks, everything. "We're going diving?"

"We're going on the dive."

Giona's eyes flashed with excitement. It had been Giona's dream to dive with whales. She'd said it would be the closest thing to a supernatural encounter a human could experience. pg. 48

The coldness and hard-heartedness of his past began creeping up on him. He felt a chill run up his back. There was a lot to do. Killing something the size of a jumbo jet was going to be a challenge. But he knew in his heart, the creature didn't stand a chance. Not against him. pg. 70