Cachalot

by Alan Dean Foster

Paperback, 1980

Status

Available

Call number

813

Genres

Science Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

English paperback sf

Publication

Del Rey (1980), Mass Market Paperback, 275 pages

Description

From a #1 New York Times-bestselling author, a sci-fi fantasy set on an aquatic planet, where cetaceans are thriving and humans dying at an alarming rate. Welcome to Cachalot, a planet made almost entirely of water, an ocean refuge for Earth's marine mammals, rescued from near extinction at the hands of humans thousands of years ago. Free from predators and human impact, the whales thrive in their new home, growing in size and intelligence. Everything is perfect. Until humans decide to establish floating towns on Cachalot, drawn by the planet's abundant natural resources. Now someone or something is killing off Cachalot's human population, a mystery a team of marine biologists has to been sent to Cachalot to solve-a mission that could cost them their lives. "One of the most consistently inventive and fertile writers of science fiction and fantasy." -The Times (London.)… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member WingedWolf

The floating cities on the planet Cachalot are there due to permission given by the cetaceans (whales and dolphins) which own the world...so why have the whales apparently begun to destroy them? And why, when asked, do they not know the answer themselves?

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LibraryThing member Karlstar

In the far future, whales and other creatures from Earth's seas have been relocated to the ocean planet of Cachalot. Something or someone is destroying the few human towns, and the humans and whales have to cooperate to find out who or what. I enjoyed this one.

LibraryThing member dswaddell

After being almost hunted to extiction a way was found to allow the Cetaceans of earth to full utilize their minds. A thousand years later they have been settled to the world of Cachalot. Man is only allowed on Cachalot at their sufference. However; something is destroying the floating towns. A

good book but there are some great leaps taken by the characters and they never really feel fully developed.

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LibraryThing member helver

A mother-daughter biology team is dispatched to a water-world (Cachalot) to try to figure out what has happened to three floating cities that were completely destroyed. The kicker is that several hundred years earlier, humans helped to relocate whales from Earth to Cachalot - giving the planet over

the whales. Humans are visitors on Cachalot - tolerated by the whales so long as they don't interfere with the lives of the whales. But the whales are the only ones who might know what happened to the cities.

A kind of "meh" story. A little sex. Nothing much silly or funny. The whole neurophone was so obviously going to be the thing that saved them, it wasn't even marginally surprising that it was used when it was. Even Pucara's duality was unsurprising. Even the romantic entanglements weren't resolved. The more I think about it, the more disappointed I am in the book.

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LibraryThing member bgknighton

Cachalot is an ocean world with almost no land — just low coral reefs. It has been given to the cetaceans in recompense for the depredations commited against their species over the centuries. But now the fragile treaty between them and the humans is under attack by unprovoked attacks upon human

settlements by the cetaceans. There is no sign of the cause. The conclusion of the investigation leads all involved to speed up their plans for their future development…. Only the humans are out of the loop.

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