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Product Description
Review
"Casey's sharktastic bestseller The Devil's Teeth announced the debut of a powerful voice in adventure writing, and her follow-up does not disappoint… [Her] writing on wave forces and maritime disasters is masterful."
—Outside Magazine
"[A] captivating hybrid - an intro to the mind-melting physics of waves and a ride-along with the scientists and surfers who chase after them… Fascinating."
—Men's Journal
"[A] breath-snatching thrill ride."
—Elle
"It's an exhilarating read, almost like riding a 100-foot wave yourself, but not nearly as dangerous."
—Garden & Gun
"Casey writes compellingly of the threat and beauty of the ocean at its most dangerous. [She] also smoothly translates the science of her subject into engaging prose. This book will fascinate anyone who has even the slightest interest in the oceans that surround us."
—PW
"This book is adrenalin. You don't want to surf the waves described herein. Read the book. It's safer that way."
—Eddie Vedder
"Like the surfers and scientists she profiles, Casey lived and breathed giant waves for years. Combine this kind of insane passion for craft with an uncanny ability to describe the indescribable and whisk the reader off to unimaginably surreal settings and scenarios, and you have the rogue talent that is Susan Casey. The Wave sucked me in like the undertow at Pipeline."
—Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Packing for Mars
"Reading The Wave is the closest most of us will ever come to the sensation of riding, or even seeing, one of these towering monsters of the sea. Itʼs exhilarating, astonishing, and, not infrequently, terrifying. Brace yourself."
—Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt
"At once scary and fun, The Wave surprises at every turn."
—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes From a Catastrophe
"Something is stewing in our seas, and Susan Casey - traveling, and in some cases swimming, all around the world - is eager to find out what it is. Both a rollicking look at the ocean's growing freakishness and a troubling examination of our ailing planet, The Wave gives new meaning to the term 'immersion reporting.'"
—Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound On His Trail
From the Hardcover edition.
—Outside Magazine
"[A] captivating hybrid - an intro to the mind-melting physics of waves and a ride-along with the scientists and surfers who chase after them… Fascinating."
—Men's Journal
"[A] breath-snatching thrill ride."
—Elle
"It's an exhilarating read, almost like riding a 100-foot wave yourself, but not nearly as dangerous."
—Garden & Gun
"Casey writes compellingly of the threat and beauty of the ocean at its most dangerous. [She] also smoothly translates the science of her subject into engaging prose. This book will fascinate anyone who has even the slightest interest in the oceans that surround us."
—PW
"This book is adrenalin. You don't want to surf the waves described herein. Read the book. It's safer that way."
—Eddie Vedder
"Like the surfers and scientists she profiles, Casey lived and breathed giant waves for years. Combine this kind of insane passion for craft with an uncanny ability to describe the indescribable and whisk the reader off to unimaginably surreal settings and scenarios, and you have the rogue talent that is Susan Casey. The Wave sucked me in like the undertow at Pipeline."
—Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Packing for Mars
"Reading The Wave is the closest most of us will ever come to the sensation of riding, or even seeing, one of these towering monsters of the sea. Itʼs exhilarating, astonishing, and, not infrequently, terrifying. Brace yourself."
—Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt
"At once scary and fun, The Wave surprises at every turn."
—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes From a Catastrophe
"Something is stewing in our seas, and Susan Casey - traveling, and in some cases swimming, all around the world - is eager to find out what it is. Both a rollicking look at the ocean's growing freakishness and a troubling examination of our ailing planet, The Wave gives new meaning to the term 'immersion reporting.'"
—Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound On His Trail
From the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
A riveting and rollicking tour-de-force about the terrifying power of nature's most deadly phenomena — colossal waves — and the scientists and super surfers who are obsessed with them.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Devil's Teeth probes the dramatic convergence of baffling gargantuan waves that pummel oil rigs and sink massive ships, the extreme surfers willing to stare down death in order to ride them, and the marine scientists trying to unlock the physics of these waves, the climate changes that are provoking them, and what chaos they might wreak. Susan Casey explores the phenomenon of monster waves and how they have become an obsession for extreme surfers like Laird Hamilton — who serves as the author's guide as she takes the reader into the intense, white-knuckle world of 100-foot waves.
From the Hardcover edition.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Devil's Teeth probes the dramatic convergence of baffling gargantuan waves that pummel oil rigs and sink massive ships, the extreme surfers willing to stare down death in order to ride them, and the marine scientists trying to unlock the physics of these waves, the climate changes that are provoking them, and what chaos they might wreak. Susan Casey explores the phenomenon of monster waves and how they have become an obsession for extreme surfers like Laird Hamilton — who serves as the author's guide as she takes the reader into the intense, white-knuckle world of 100-foot waves.
From the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly enjoyable read,
By sedgewick (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Wave: In the Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean (Hardcover)
Susan Casey's writing style draws you into the book right away, and the subject she starts out with, a research vessel being pounded by epic waves in the North Atlantic, is well chosen.Waves, giant waves, are the visible manifestation of the ocean's power and have awed people from time immemorial. She finds a good balance between giant waves as a threat but also fun for the daredevils of the surfing community, although even in describing the turquoise waters of a building wave, she always lets us palpably feel the undercurrent of danger. She also touches on issues of the effect of warming ocean waters on storm intensity and wave heights, the need for a re-evaluation of ship building designs, insurance issues and more. This is not a science book on waves or wave mechanics, of course, but a good romp through the world's ocean to encounter the "Big Ones" with useful background information. Her overuse of metaphors, at least for me, is a bit tiresome at first, but that is a small aside in an otherwise very enjoyable book. Even a landlubber like me with an interest in ships but no concept of surfing got drawn into the excitement of that sport.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Thin on science, thick on extreme surfing,
By
This review is from: The Wave: In the Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean (Hardcover)
I looked forward to reading this book, to learn something of the latest science of rogue waves. I learned Casey is an accomplished extreme sports writer and editor, but really isn't a science writer. Most of the book is on surfing of large windwaves in tropical areas, with acres of empty dialog and extreme admiration of (otherwise unemployed) professional extreme athletes (mostly) cheating death ("I stopped counting at 1000 stiches").Balancing these rugged surfers are impotent scientists, having ignored sailors reports of extreme waves for decades as it didn't fit their scientific models. But Casey doesn't define any terms, explain the models, or even provide a coherent list of the physics of rogue waves. The book is loosely held together by the search whether climate change will make for bigger waves, but doesn't discuss climate change. She minces tsunamies due to tectonics, underwater landslides, unstable island slopes, with wind waves and internal waves. Swells are minced with offshore and onshore winds. Piecing together over 300 pages of nicely written but meandering text, once can try to extract the leading theories of rogue waves -- swells and following currents, constructive interference of wind waves, new kinds of unknown waves, and something to do with quantum mechanics. Perhaps she touches on more. It's not clear she has talked to the right scientific experts, whom she paints as doddling, opportunistic, unwilling to learn each others mathematics, and unwilling to take to the sea. Her heros are the worldwise surfers who can read a weather chart. On the positive side, there are some good maps at the front of the book, and the geography is interesting. Maybe if you are into extreme surfing, there are some interesting insights. The colour photos are nice, but mostly miss the point. There is a rich history of science writing about physical aspects of our oceans that are more readable and more informative. For a book that is receiving high billing, it was a rather disappointing read. Casey did teach me the importance of having experience science writers write about serious science -- the book would be better to remove most of the more scientific chapters, and be retitled more along the lines of extreme surfing.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Human sides to giant waves ...,
By
This review is from: The Wave: In the Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean (Hardcover)
As a research physicist stuying the field of optical solitons, I trully enjoyed that book. I have been looking for books discussing rogue and giants waves for ages and this book was just what I was looking for. I didn't purchase the book in order to read about the giant waves surfers but it turned out that this is the aspect of the book I enjoyed the most. Not only have learn tremendously about the sport but the human view of it made me look for more information about those people and their knowledge of the oceans. The scientific vulgarisation regarding roguewaves, tsunamis, ans solitions is in my humble belief extremelly well written.I just couldn't put the book aside once I started reading it. "Chapeau" to the author for the idea about the topics in the book and for the great exploitation of them.
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