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Breakwater
Breakwater by Simon Bestwick is a science fiction novelette about an engineer, who, with her late, marine biologist husband, designed an underwater research platform, and is caught up in the war between humans and mysterious creatures beneath the seas that are destroying coastal cities around the world.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
56 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 28, 2018
3 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Simon Bestwick
91 books84 followersSimon Bestwick was born in Wolverhampton in 1974. He has worked in various jobs, from fast food operative through drama teacher to training administrator. His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Nasty Piece of Work, All Hallows, Darkness Rising, Extremes 5, and Beneath the Ground. He lives in Swinton, Lancashire, and when not writing can be found indulging his interests: walking, films, literature, rock, folk, and jazz music, good food, and the occasional pint.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 2, 2018
The surviving parts of the city loomed like a black ridge of shadow to Cally’s right. The cliffs of the Suffolk coast were essentially banks of compacted gravel and sand. Even the gentlest tides wore them steadily away, and when storms raged or flood waters rose, another piece of land fell into the hungry waves.
There wasn’t as much recent wreckage farther out, and the water—even at low tide—was deeper. Cally sailed over houses, streets, and churches. A foghorn sounded in the mist.
A bigger, more powerful glow shone through the fog; Cally steered towards it, opening the dinghy’s throttle.
The ship emerged from the mist. Originally it had been painted red, but was now streaked green and orange by weed and rust. It rocked gently in the swell, tugging at its anchor chains. Above the peeling characters LVR36 on its side (light vessel relays were rarely graced with a proper name) a crewman waved from the deck.
Would loved more info on the Bathyphylax but enjoyed myself with this one. This one starts off slow but is pretty good once the plot gets going.
There wasn’t as much recent wreckage farther out, and the water—even at low tide—was deeper. Cally sailed over houses, streets, and churches. A foghorn sounded in the mist.
A bigger, more powerful glow shone through the fog; Cally steered towards it, opening the dinghy’s throttle.
The ship emerged from the mist. Originally it had been painted red, but was now streaked green and orange by weed and rust. It rocked gently in the swell, tugging at its anchor chains. Above the peeling characters LVR36 on its side (light vessel relays were rarely graced with a proper name) a crewman waved from the deck.
Would loved more info on the Bathyphylax but enjoyed myself with this one. This one starts off slow but is pretty good once the plot gets going.
April 1, 2018
Ok, where to begin? This story started off very well. The writing is descriptive enough to give the reader a feel for the time and place and the MC. It felt real. That was tremendous. But then it all went sideways, and not in a good way.
SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT!!!
My issues with this story. All of which caused one star to be deducted.
1) The diversity was COMPLETELY shoe-horned in, in a VERY obvious and painful way. The ENTIRE time we are in the MC's head, she is thinking about her dead husband and how much she still loves and misses him. She thinks about their honeymoon, their love-making, she wears his cap every day in homage to him. We even get her thinking about HOW he died, in pain and alone, a casualty of the war between the humans and the Ocean People, who the humans know NOTHING about. What they look like, the tech behind how they use the ocean to tsunami the coasts and islands, etc.
Then, when she is climbing up a ladder behind another female survivor, she sees the lady's rear and gets turned on and starts thinking about the relationship she had with another woman while in college. Say WHUT?!? COMPLETELY out of left field. Also, the MC uses the words "gaydar" and "dyke" in her thoughts and I thought the first word wasn't used anymore and the second un-PC, so even the vernacular used jarred me out of the story. I don't object to diversity, but this felt so FORCED and not true to the character that it made me feel slightly icky. Maybe if it had been brought up sooner in the story, that it was known she was bi or something, like if the person who had a crush on her was a woman instead of a man it would have felt more realistic and not forced.
2) The other survivor realizes the MC is attracted to her and when they rest for the night, nekked of course, to share body heat, the other lady starts to put the moves on the MC WHILE THE MC IS ASLEEP. She wakes up and thinks she is kissing her husband at first. It takes her a while to realize it's the other lady and not her husband. She's ok with it and continues, but IT IS NOT OK TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SOMEONE WHEN THEY ARE SLEEPING WHEN YOU ONLY JUST MET OR YOU DON'T KNOW IF IT IS OK. CONSENT PEOPLE!!! If the other character was a male, would that be ok? Just because the MC IS ok with it, doesn't mean that she would have been. And it was established that the other lady was really big and buff. The MC wouldn't have been able to fight her off or get away safely if she had. NOT COOL.
3) Maybe because I have read stories with this type of "twist" before, but it was stated that humans had never seen one of the enemy, had no idea what they looked like, ate, tech, intelligence, etc. So when the secondary character came along and just "happened" to know the layout of the station and just "happened" to know who the MC was, it was obvious she was part of the enemy. She was a spy, who was trying to keep the MC alive. When she was injured and wouldn't let the MC patch her up, that was the clincher, she wasn't human and if the MC tried to patch her up, she would have figured it out.
4) The MC had swallowed some sea water or something and was coming down with pneumonia in LESS THAN ONE DAY. Like she was sick and feverous and coughing and breathing with a wheeze. No, I don't think that happens that quickly. And of course, the non-human female has magical breast milk that she forced the MC to suck from her, which healed the MC instantly. Seriously. SERIOUSLY?!?!? Was that scene needed at ALL?!? It did NOTHING to further the plot. It was gratuitous and not necessary. Unless the reader really needed to know that the Ocean People have magical breast milk that cures all disease, not really a need-to-know.
5) The MC was trying to establish communication with the Ocean People to stop the fighting and the killing. The other character was part of the enemy who wanted to communicate and stop fighting as well. So her job was to get the MC off of the attacked station alive. All well and good, but the other character was SO BAD AT HER JOB. She was nowhere NEAR the bridge, where the MC was, when the attack started. She even said as much to the MC. She knew when the attack was going to start, yet she couldn't get to the bridge or get the MC to her under some false pretense so they could escape quickly? Dude, some spy! The MC got off of the bridge in the nick of time cuz sacrificial character who had a crush on her Deus-Ex-Machina. If it wasn't for that "luck", the mission of the other character would have failed before it began. Like seriously? You are pinning ALL of your hopes of stopping a WAR on saving this ONE person and you can't even get to that person in time to save her? The other character had NO clue if the MC had even survived the initial onslaught or the subsequent damage the station had sustained. If they hadn't blundered into each other, the MC would have either died or managed to escape the station without the other character delivering the special communication device to her. SERIOUSLY?!??! SOME PLAN!!
So this is 1 star because I can't give 0. It was a legitimate 1 star, but then I remembered the taking advantage of the MC while she was asleep and unable to give consent and realized this was 0 stars for me. Which is sad, because this was written SO WELL. The author has amazing writing chops. Just not good at the whole plot to encourage the reader to be able to suspend disbelief thing.
I would definitely read more by this author, with the hope that this is just a one-off for them. This made me SO ANGRY with the TSTL and the whole seduction while asleep thing. So I wouldn't recommend this, but I do want to read more, because the writing was beautiful. It really was and I am sad that I didn't like the rest of the story better.
SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT!!!
My issues with this story. All of which caused one star to be deducted.
1) The diversity was COMPLETELY shoe-horned in, in a VERY obvious and painful way. The ENTIRE time we are in the MC's head, she is thinking about her dead husband and how much she still loves and misses him. She thinks about their honeymoon, their love-making, she wears his cap every day in homage to him. We even get her thinking about HOW he died, in pain and alone, a casualty of the war between the humans and the Ocean People, who the humans know NOTHING about. What they look like, the tech behind how they use the ocean to tsunami the coasts and islands, etc.
Then, when she is climbing up a ladder behind another female survivor, she sees the lady's rear and gets turned on and starts thinking about the relationship she had with another woman while in college. Say WHUT?!? COMPLETELY out of left field. Also, the MC uses the words "gaydar" and "dyke" in her thoughts and I thought the first word wasn't used anymore and the second un-PC, so even the vernacular used jarred me out of the story. I don't object to diversity, but this felt so FORCED and not true to the character that it made me feel slightly icky. Maybe if it had been brought up sooner in the story, that it was known she was bi or something, like if the person who had a crush on her was a woman instead of a man it would have felt more realistic and not forced.
2) The other survivor realizes the MC is attracted to her and when they rest for the night, nekked of course, to share body heat, the other lady starts to put the moves on the MC WHILE THE MC IS ASLEEP. She wakes up and thinks she is kissing her husband at first. It takes her a while to realize it's the other lady and not her husband. She's ok with it and continues, but IT IS NOT OK TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SOMEONE WHEN THEY ARE SLEEPING WHEN YOU ONLY JUST MET OR YOU DON'T KNOW IF IT IS OK. CONSENT PEOPLE!!! If the other character was a male, would that be ok? Just because the MC IS ok with it, doesn't mean that she would have been. And it was established that the other lady was really big and buff. The MC wouldn't have been able to fight her off or get away safely if she had. NOT COOL.
3) Maybe because I have read stories with this type of "twist" before, but it was stated that humans had never seen one of the enemy, had no idea what they looked like, ate, tech, intelligence, etc. So when the secondary character came along and just "happened" to know the layout of the station and just "happened" to know who the MC was, it was obvious she was part of the enemy. She was a spy, who was trying to keep the MC alive. When she was injured and wouldn't let the MC patch her up, that was the clincher, she wasn't human and if the MC tried to patch her up, she would have figured it out.
4) The MC had swallowed some sea water or something and was coming down with pneumonia in LESS THAN ONE DAY. Like she was sick and feverous and coughing and breathing with a wheeze. No, I don't think that happens that quickly. And of course, the non-human female has magical breast milk that she forced the MC to suck from her, which healed the MC instantly. Seriously. SERIOUSLY?!?!? Was that scene needed at ALL?!? It did NOTHING to further the plot. It was gratuitous and not necessary. Unless the reader really needed to know that the Ocean People have magical breast milk that cures all disease, not really a need-to-know.
5) The MC was trying to establish communication with the Ocean People to stop the fighting and the killing. The other character was part of the enemy who wanted to communicate and stop fighting as well. So her job was to get the MC off of the attacked station alive. All well and good, but the other character was SO BAD AT HER JOB. She was nowhere NEAR the bridge, where the MC was, when the attack started. She even said as much to the MC. She knew when the attack was going to start, yet she couldn't get to the bridge or get the MC to her under some false pretense so they could escape quickly? Dude, some spy! The MC got off of the bridge in the nick of time cuz sacrificial character who had a crush on her Deus-Ex-Machina. If it wasn't for that "luck", the mission of the other character would have failed before it began. Like seriously? You are pinning ALL of your hopes of stopping a WAR on saving this ONE person and you can't even get to that person in time to save her? The other character had NO clue if the MC had even survived the initial onslaught or the subsequent damage the station had sustained. If they hadn't blundered into each other, the MC would have either died or managed to escape the station without the other character delivering the special communication device to her. SERIOUSLY?!??! SOME PLAN!!
So this is 1 star because I can't give 0. It was a legitimate 1 star, but then I remembered the taking advantage of the MC while she was asleep and unable to give consent and realized this was 0 stars for me. Which is sad, because this was written SO WELL. The author has amazing writing chops. Just not good at the whole plot to encourage the reader to be able to suspend disbelief thing.
I would definitely read more by this author, with the hope that this is just a one-off for them. This made me SO ANGRY with the TSTL and the whole seduction while asleep thing. So I wouldn't recommend this, but I do want to read more, because the writing was beautiful. It really was and I am sad that I didn't like the rest of the story better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2020
Pretty good story, about a war in the oceans with a hidden foe. Cute twist ending, with a bit of hope. Cautiously recommended: it's kind of a ramshackle affair. I liked it, mostly. https://www.tor.com/2018/02/28/breakw...
January 8, 2019
Interesting tale of a war between mysterious aquatic creatures and humans along the coastlines. Bizarre twist at the end.
March 15, 2018
Breakwater is a science fiction novelette about Cally Baker, an engineer, who, with her late, marine biologist husband, designed an underwater research platform, and is caught up in the war between humans and mysterious creatures beneath the seas that are destroying coastal cities around the world. Cally refuses to believe that this war is the answer, and tries to contact the creatures, with no luck.
Breakwater is a steamy and sexy story, that is very enjoyable to read.
Breakwater is a steamy and sexy story, that is very enjoyable to read.
August 14, 2018
2+ or 3*, because of the location.
It's important to defend the east coast from marine attack.
If we don't we could all end up in lesbian sex with aquatic creatures?
(the salamanders would never stoop so low)
really only 2* but I'll overlook the plot holes, I'm sure we all know an undersea structure would never sink that way.
It's important to defend the east coast from marine attack.
If we don't we could all end up in lesbian sex with aquatic creatures?
(the salamanders would never stoop so low)
really only 2* but I'll overlook the plot holes, I'm sure we all know an undersea structure would never sink that way.
August 11, 2018
Well, weird. 2.5
April 1, 2022
A flirty, meet-cute screwball lesbian rom-com novella.
March 6, 2018
that... took quite an unexpected turn
March 1, 2018
Intriguing, but too constrained too reach the conclusions it could have extended to. A troubled combination of empathy and consent.
March 4, 2018
Great short story. Would like to read more about this universe.
October 21, 2018
I had trouble grasping the setting at first, but I was slowly pulled into it.. everything was quite interesting. The twist at the end, I did not see coming at all. Good story.
August 16, 2020
DANGER LURKS BENEATH THE WATER
Five TREACHEROUS Stars. The short story, “Breakwater”, is by sci-fi/horror author Simon Bestwick and it is about an unusual type of conflict. In the beginning of the plot, Cally is aboard the “HMS Dunwich” and is about to embark on an unexpected, twisty, dangerous adventure with edge-of-the-seat thrills and discovery set during a different kind of war. Highly Recommended. 51 pages. Five HAZARDOUS Stars. (TOR books. A Tom Doherty Associates ebook, sold DRM-free.)
Five TREACHEROUS Stars. The short story, “Breakwater”, is by sci-fi/horror author Simon Bestwick and it is about an unusual type of conflict. In the beginning of the plot, Cally is aboard the “HMS Dunwich” and is about to embark on an unexpected, twisty, dangerous adventure with edge-of-the-seat thrills and discovery set during a different kind of war. Highly Recommended. 51 pages. Five HAZARDOUS Stars. (TOR books. A Tom Doherty Associates ebook, sold DRM-free.)
December 31, 2018
The climb through the failing underwater station was fun; the sex scene seemed a bit out of place; the breast-feeding was just plain weird.
Read it at tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2018/02/28/breakw...
Read it at tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2018/02/28/breakw...
August 31, 2018
2.5/5 stars
March 11, 2019
This was alright. I enjoyed the slow unspooling of the setting and situation, but I felt that it came short of its potential, and went for what felt like an easy, titillating trope.
May 9, 2019
Very inventive with a nice twist
September 17, 2019
I found a bit implausible, but other than that I liked the whole story.
March 11, 2020
This was an okay short story. It was pretty weird. I think I would have liked it to be a little longer. It seemed a little rushed.
November 12, 2019
At first I got really excited about this story when I found it as it seemed to promise a lot of what I like: a sea story plus a creature story. And as I read a bit further it was really good indeed! There was intense danger and lots of suspense. At this point the story was totally under water so the danger level was sky high with death just seconds away!
Now that all sounds really good, right?
Well in the middle of all of this white knuckle terror and running for their lives, a few characters decide to fool around? This really ruined the suspense and the level of danger for me. It was like the air leaking out of a balloon...
I also noticed the story was coming near the end and so I was thinking "where is the creature"??
After that there were some plot twists and surprises. I suppose it was ok but it was still a bit of a let down. I admit I did not see the surprise coming. It was totally unexpected.
Now that all sounds really good, right?
Well in the middle of all of this white knuckle terror and running for their lives, a few characters decide to fool around? This really ruined the suspense and the level of danger for me. It was like the air leaking out of a balloon...
I also noticed the story was coming near the end and so I was thinking "where is the creature"??
After that there were some plot twists and surprises. I suppose it was ok but it was still a bit of a let down. I admit I did not see the surprise coming. It was totally unexpected.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews