Deep Empire, was a decent bookthe only real dumb mutie was the 100 foot long Sea Snake. There were a few other implausibles such as a woman that caan speak to and understand dolphins, and the half human half shark things. Other than that it seemed to be a bit original for a DL book, and was a decent read. The secondary story line of Abe's search for Trader continues through this book, and has Abe making an interesting discovery. I give it an 8.

Salamat

Ryan and his group start off with the typical new gateway and explore their new surroundings, this time having to go through a flooded redoubt to get out.

This wasn't that great of a book, but not because of a lack of action, instead it was that this story didn't seem to have any direction. No plot whatsoever, so I just went along for the adventure. The whole setting with the institute, the scientists and their pet dolphins, as well as the threat of the pirates offshore, just didn't make for all that compelling of a story, nothing seemed to be vital to any plot or story advancement, but at least the characters were done well, and enough action and some suspense to make a decent read.

There was potential for something to develop with the Miranda character and her attempt to lure Michael against Ryan, but that angle just went away when Doc found out about it. There could have been something good storywise there, but it didn't happen.

It was never clear what the head scientist's true motivations were, he didn't seem like a good guy or a bad guy, and Ryan just shoots him later without any real reason.

I did like the continuing side plot of Abe trying to track down the Trader, but that only took up three chapters out of the book.
Not one of James' better DL novels.

Deep Empire had a lot of good things going for it, but for me personally, fell somewhat short in some areas. What I did love was Jame's great imagery and monster muties. I love pirates and sea muties, and here he gave us a little of both. Abe's search was a great treat and exciting to see if he truly finds the legendary Trader. Another fun read with exciting tidbits, but personally to me, not one of his best in the series.

This book was good, not as good some before it, but still really good. I enjoyed the fact that Ryan and company had some time to relax after some of there recent adventures.

The fact that the complex of basically marine biologists survived this long in the deathlands is a bit of a stretch, but I liked the idea of the dolphins as it wasn't that far fetched when you consider that the Navy does experiments with them (There brain is about the same size as ours, and considered the most intelligent mammal) so it makes sense with a bit of tampering, these dolphins would exist. Plus I just like Pirates!