Book Review: The Delphinus Chronicles

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Delphinus Chronicles     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
R. G. Roane
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction
Cherry Hill, 1998, $22.50, 280 pp.

All the great American universities put in a bid to "house" and conduct experiments using the most advanced supercomputer Simon. Though MIT or one of the West Coast IT giants are the favorites, GCS shockingly assigns Simon to little Cabillo University in San Diego. The victory stuns everyone especially Professor Ross Erricson, the author of the winning concept in which Simon would be programmed to teach itself languages.

Simon moves into a basement room with a wall shared with dolphins residing at the nearby Ocean Park aquarium. Simon soon learns and translates "dolphinese" into English. However, though Ross, his students, and his mentor realize what they have learned, no one else believes them when they explain a dolphin’s look at humanity and warn them of a secret race of people.

THE DELPHINUS CHRONICLES is a superb science fiction thriller that never slows down from the moment Simon checkmates the world’s greatest grandmaster to the climax. The story line is loaded with intrigue, action, but especially insightful powerful relationships between people, humans and Simon, dolphins and Simon, and the world wide web of sonically connected dolphins so that the key cast including the supercomputer seem real. Though some extra intrigue involving nasties adds drama and tension, it temporarily slows down an incredible triumphant look at how mankind communicates and interprets events. This reviewer’s interpretation communicated through this review is that RG Roane deserves strong accolades and a vast appreciative audience for this winning novel.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner