Excerpt from The Whale Song Translation:
“What’s wrong?” said Andrew. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Seema raised an arm in slow motion, like a mime, and pointed at the monitor. As the
whale squealed through the speakers, the Speakeasy translated its vocalizations
into familiar shapes, embedded in a very unfamiliar setting.
“If you’re seeing what I’m seeing,” Andrew gulped, “please tell me I’m not crazy.”
In the spirit of Carl Sagan’s Contact and Stephen Spielberg’s Close Encounters, speech scientist Howard Steven Pines’ science fiction thriller takes whale language research to a whole new realm: the excitement of first contact and the recognition of the
intelligence, dignity, and wisdom of another earthly species.
When the Navy’s controversial sonar experiments begin to destroy Maui’s whales, an unlikely hero holds the key to their preservation. Inspired by his mentor’s paradigm-busting challenge to open a communications channel with other big-brained species, acoustics professor
David Dmitri begins analyzing the songs of humpback whales. The quest to decode
their mysterious language leads him to an astonishing revelation. With more proof, Dmitri realizes he could rally public opinion and stanch the bloodshed. But as his team prepares to launch a voyage of discovery in the Straits of Lahaina, others are determined to stop him–whatever the consequences.
Built on fascinating, cutting-edge science, Part I of The Torch of Prometheus trilogy delivers thought-provoking “breakthroughs” about language and intelligence in the realm of earth’s other big-brained beings, and explores the intertwined existential crises of humans and whales.
The Whale Song Translation . . . A visionary tale of marine mammal protectionism . . . A voyage of discovery, to Neptune and beyond.
