Deep-Sea Space Station

This is a near-future science fiction novel about the deep sea, memory, and the choices civilizations make.

The story takes place from 2041 to 2046, not so far from our own time.

Many of the technologies in the book, including full-ocean-depth submersibles, fleets of unmanned underwater vehicles, and deep-sea drilling systems, are areas in which China's deep-sea technology is developing.

The Fendouzhe has already reached the Mariana Trench, and the Deep-Sea Space Station project is moving forward steadily. The Longyuan-class research vessel is fictional, but its technical specifications are based on real plans for the development of China's deep-sea equipment.

The deep-sea ruins in the book are entirely fictional, but the idea they embody is real:

that a nonhuman intelligence might protect the ocean and hope for humanity's civilization.

The ocean is the cradle of life on Earth and a regulator of the planet's climate. Protecting the ocean means protecting ourselves.

The international cooperation framework in the book, including the concept of “the common heritage of mankind,” the United Nations Deep-Sea Heritage Committee, and the Global Ocean Protection Convention, is idealized, but based on real frameworks of international law and ideas of global governance.

In the face of global challenges, international cooperation is not a choice, but a necessity.

A passage from Lin Haitang's speech captures the purpose behind writing this novel:

“The rise and fall of the tides is the rhythm of the ocean. Giving and receiving is the rhythm of life. Exploration and growth are the rhythm of civilization. Let us follow this rhythm. Let us become part of the tides.”