GHOST FROM THE GRAND BANKS

Clarke returns to underwater exploration, a la The Deep Range, and Big Engineering, a la The Fountains of Paradise, in this story set in the first 12 years of the 21st century. As the centennial of the Titanic's sinking approaches (2012), two different groups approach Jason Bradley, deep-water operations expert, to raise the sunken ship. One group, led by billionaire inventor Emmerson and the Parkinsons of the Parkinson glass fortune, wants to raise the mostly intact front section using tiny glass bubbles. The other group, led by rich, genius programmers Donald and Edith Craig and a Japanese media conglomerate, wants to surround the broken rear section with ice and float it to the surface like the iceberg that originally sunk it. Public and personal disasters complicate the process as each group races to be the first to the surface, watched in turn by Jason Bradley, who chooses to work for neither side but instead goes to work as Deputy Director of the International Seabed Authority—essentially a referee for the race. Average Clarke, more emotional than usual, with excellent extrapolation of future technologies.