Three Miles Down

English language

Published Nov. 12, 2022 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.

ISBN:
978-1-250-84485-9
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4 stars (1 review)

From New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove, the modern master of alternate history, a novel of alien contact set in the tumultuous year of the Watergate scandal.

It's 1974, and Jerry Stieglitz is a grad student in marine biology at UCLA with a side gig selling short stories to science fiction magazines, just weeks away from marrying his longtime fiancée. Then his life is upended by grim-faced men from three-letter agencies who want him to join a top-secret "Project Azorian" in the middle of the north Pacific Ocean-and they really don't take "no" for an answer. Further, they're offering enough money to solve all of his immediate problems.

Joining up and swearing to secrecy, what he first learns is that Project Azorian is secretly trying to raise a sunken Russian submarine, while pretending to be harvesting undersea manganese nodules. But the dead Russian sub, while real, turns out to …

2 editions

Review of 'Three Miles Down' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I wasn’t that interested in Harry Turtledove’s earlier alternate Civil War and World War II histories. This story was sharp and fun though. Set in the mid 70s, it resurfaces some good memories for me. Nixon is bogged down in the Watergate scandal - will he or Gerald Ford become the first world leader to welcome alien visitors to earth? This story, believe it or not, is based on the true story of the Hughes Glomar Explorer and the secret CIA project Azorian to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear-armed submarine, which unfolded during the Nixon presidency. Except in this telling, the CIA and the Soviets get more that they bargain for when they head to the sea bottom to raise the “object” of interest. It’s a light and humorous story. There’s a couple of good Watergate jokes Iurking within for those in the know, and an interesting cameo appearance from …