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Anthony Beckman's avatar

Sea wolf, by Jack London. I read it in my late teens. I've been thinking of going back to it.

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

I've read a lot of Jack London, but not that one!

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Jennifer Silva Redmond's avatar

Excellent adventure yarn.

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Jason Hissong's avatar

In The Heart of the Sea- the true story that inspired Moby Dick- Iis fantastic and gripping!

The Underwater Welder is a graphic novel by Jeff Lemire that is beautiful and moving.

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MB's avatar

Top 3: The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides, Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff, and In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Honorable mention: Two little known young adult novels by A. S. Peterson called Fiddler’s Gun and Fiddler’s Green.

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Jason Hissong's avatar

In the Heart of the Sea is so so good

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C O's avatar

Persuasion by Jane Austen (while it doesn't necessarily take place on water, the ocean plays/seaside play an important role). Also, The Riverworld series by Phillip Jose Farmer and The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley.

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Jennifer Silva Redmond's avatar

Yes to Persuasion!

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

I've not read any of those! Thanks for the recs.

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Terrell Johnson's avatar

Does ‘The Hunt for Red October’ count?

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

Heck yeah. Great one. Related, I want to read Das Boot sometime soon.

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Lúcia Costa's avatar

My favorite is Moby Dick but I also loved 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

I haven't read Verne since taking in a kids edition in my youth. I'll have to check him out sometime.

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Justin Patrick Moore's avatar

Probably The Scar by China Mieville. So rich and imaginative, full of description as all his books are. It features a floating city called the Armada made up of a bunch of pirate ships roped together.

Ship Breaker and the Drowned Cities by Paolo Baciagalupi were great deindustrial / cli-fi SF tales, as was New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson. Very watery, both!

Ursula K. Leguin's Wizard of Earthsea and its sequels also comes to mind.

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Dan McGuire's avatar

The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat.

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

I'll look it up - never heard of it.

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Sam Granger's avatar

Once I took the ferry from Michigan to Wisconsin and I thought the Odyssey would be the perfect pairing. Turns out nothing good happens while he’s on a boat. It’s a terrible book while seafaring.

That being said, Moby Dick is going to be my summer reward as well. Looking forward to comparing notes. All the best from Lake Michigan. 🌊

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

Ha, great point about The Odyssey!

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MDR's avatar

Mysterious Island, Jules Verne

Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

Barbarian Days, William Finnegan

I’ve always wanted to read a river runs through it, but haven’t yet.

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

I have Barbarian Days on my shelf waiting for me. And ditto on River Runs Through It.

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Eunice's avatar

Joseph Conrad, linha de sombra

Reverte, o cemitério dos barcos sem nome

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Kathy's avatar

The Covenant of Water and There Are Rivers In The Sky

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

I also thought of Covenant of Water — amazing book.

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I AM YOUR ACTUAL BOOKWORM's avatar

Waterland - Graham Swift - stunning

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

Never heard of it! Thanks.

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Zach Meyers's avatar

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is not exactly a maritime setting, but it’s quirky, charming, and quite wet.

Much more relevant to your prompt: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger, a dystopian hero’s journey story that is set on Lake Superior.

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

Yes to both of those! Loved 'em.

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Denise S. Robbins's avatar

Yes Piranesi!

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Ruth Valentine's avatar

On Chesil Beach. Quiet, devastating.

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Jennifer Silva Redmond's avatar

Oh yes, quietly devastating is right.

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Jeremy Anderberg's avatar

Never heard of it, thanks for the rec.

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Elise Daniel's avatar

In the kingdom of ice by Hampton Sides

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