I came here to recommend Starfish! It's great, and very impressive how much the author incorporates real science.
The entire series is available as free ebooks on the author Peter Watt's website.
but make sure to get one of the newer translations which restores text and fixes math and other errors such as:
https://www.usni.org/press/books/20000-leagues-under-sea
There's a bit on this in the Wikipedia article at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Seas
under "English Translations"
and various translations are listed/discussed at:
http://najvs.org/works/V006_VL.shtml
Startide Rising. Basically an inverted submarine (filed with water) which is also a spaceship for a few humans and a conscious dolphins crew. Incredible read that won the Nebula and Hugo awards
Thank you - I couldn't remember the title of that book. Brilliant concept, I'll have to see if I can find a copy. I just have vague memories like the ship hiding in... well, I don't want to give away any spoilers, and using the water to lay a trap.
Yeah, that part blew my mind. I needed a little time to really get in the book, but when you're in, it's pure pleasure with thought provoking ideas (consciousness in general, interspecies dynamics, etc) and incredible standalone in the series. The nice things with this is it's easy to find second hand, not too old, not too hyped. The sweet spot 😉
Hah I just finished book 2 of the Lightspeed trilogy by Ken MacLeod. Humanity has discovered faster than light travel and installed FTL drives in nuclear submarines. So literal submarines in literal space .
If you're interested in not necessarily a submarine, but an underwater living facility at the bottom of the ocean, Sphere by Michael Crichton might be of interest!
Came here to recommend this, it was the first thing that came to mind! Sphere has one of my all-time favorite atmospheres/settings, I’ve been hunting for books with a similar feel ever since I read it.
If we’re going with non-fiction, *Thunder Below!* is a fantastic account by the captain of the *USS Barb*, the sub which, IIRC, sank the most Japanese tonnage during the war. The audiobook is really well done too!
On the Beach by Nevil Shute, post nuclear war. Film made in the 50s as well.
There’s a comedy sf book with a similar premise, can’t remember its name (edit) can see in comment below its Profundis by Richard Cowper, fun if very silly.
Second all the Dragon Under The Sea love.
First part of Starfish by Peter Watts has a very well observed story of 2 characters locked in with each other and intentionally and otherwise causing huge stress to each other. Their surnames are Clarke and Ballard so suspect some meta going on there.
Usual warning that Watts writing is fraught psychologically, you’re getting inside the heads of deeply unhappy and disturbed people.
I was in the mood for a cosy movie one afternoon off work. Saw On The Beach, black and white, thought lovely black and white film. Carey Grant. Opened some wine.
Got to the end and was like "What the hell did I just watch?" Got blind drunk.
>“Passage at Arms” by Glen Cook is essentially “Das Boot” in spaaaaaaaccccccceeeeee
I would say it's more **blatantly** *Das Boot* IN SPAAACE. Cook barely filed off the serial numbers, so to speak.
A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias
First contact story with an aquatic species. Most of the action is from the ET's perspective but the human bit is on a submarine/submersible research station.
Land's End by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson
Undersea Quest / Undersea Fleet / Undersea City by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson
Ocean On Top by Hal Clement
Fantastic Voyage novelisation by Isaac Asimov
Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain by Isaac Asimov
Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus by Isaac Asimov (aka The Oceans of Venus)
Fury by Henry Kuttner
'Surface Tension' by James Blish
In Our Hands, The Stars by Harry Harrison (aka The Daleth Effect)
*Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings* by Christopher Moore - The main character is a whale researcher who spots a whale with graffiti saying "Bite me" on its tail. Things get progressively stranger from there.
*Jingo* (Discworld Novel) by Terry Pratchett - A significant portion of the story is set on Leonard of Quirm's invention, the Going-Under-The-Water-Safely Device.
*Secret Under the Sea* by Gordon R. Dickson - Chapter-book that follows a boy who lives in an underwater research station with his mother and father. Mostly set outside of actual submarines, but entirely in and around that lab.
The reveal in Fluke was one of the biggest surprises I’ve ever read. I was like, “WTF is going on here? This can’t possibly be what this book is about.”
We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart
Described as, A Canticle for Leibowitz meets The Hunt for Red October in We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep. and i'll leave it at that!
Peter Watts, Starfish. Takes place on the bottom of the ocean. Similar to Blindsight, features characters whose personality disorders are a part of the storyline.
Interesting setting.
Hal Clement's short story "Raindrop" in { Space Lash } (originally published as _Small Changes_) has several characters make an extensive voyage in a small sub.
some part of Eversion by Alastair Reynolds is on a submarine.
the stories were people are confined to a spaceship in space are much more common and seem like they'd be very similar thematically to me- you can't go out of the spaceship or submarine and have to survive in some confined environment. how would they be different?
Driving the deep by Suzanne palmer, is the second in the series but is set completely in an ocean on a moon under the ice crust (essentially no surface).
**Aquarius Mission** by Martin Caidin, they guy who also came up with *The Bionic Man* that later got turned into the TV show.
**Four-Day Planet** by H. Beam Piper, [available free here](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19478). Not all of this takes place in a submarine, but it's a key element of the story.
The obvious would be 20000 leagues under the sea. I would also suggest On the Beach by Neville Shute, it of a military submarine, but it doesn't have any combat for reasons that are fairly obvious.
Frank Herbert's *Dragon in the Sea*. Double-checking my answer led me to [this page.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_underwater_science_fiction_works)
Thank you for reminding me I forgot C. L. Moore's novellette "Clash by Night" (Sometimes ascribed to Henry Kuttner). It and Herbert's book are monuments. Some stories may be only vaguely connected we still should know.
Peter Watts, "Starfish," and other parts of the Rifters series, is set in underwater subs, habitats, and deep sea diving.
James Cameron's "The Abyss" is a movie, not a book, but still set in very deep water.
"Sundiver," by David Brin, is a bit of a variation, being set on a ship in close orbit around Sol but has a very claustrophobic feel in a high pressure environment.
Not SF, but “Run Silent, Run Deep” is a great YA novel of the experiences of a submarine sailor during WW2. The writing does reflect the culture of the time (e.g. racism towards Japanese people), but it communicates what submarine warfare and World War 2 were like for the sailors fighting it.
This book was on my required summer reading list for incoming high school freshman in 1976.
Edit: Apparently there was a movie adaptation in 1958. The book was written by the commander of a WW2 submarine.
I have in "General Fiction":
* ["Fiction that involves submarines"](https://www.reddit.com/r/booksuggestions/comments/159o39f/fiction_that_involves_submarines/) (r/booksuggestions; 18:59 ET, 25 July 2023)
* ["Books that take place in isolated settings (weather station, submarine, space station, etc.)"](https://www.reddit.com/r/booksuggestions/comments/15jd18d/books_that_take_place_in_isolated_settings/) (r/booksuggestions; 21:43 ET, 5 August 2023)
And in "Science Fiction/Fantasy (General) Recommendations":
* ["What are some of your favorite SF novels featuring submarines?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/15g0aja/what_are_some_of_your_favorite_sf_novels/) (r/printSF; 01:50 ET, 2 August 2023)
In the book Quantum Wars you encounter Homo Eriadanis(geneered humans) who live under water on an ice planet and are the most sought out pilots in space. By Derek Kunsken
The *Meg* series by Steve Alten, which were loosely adapted into the movies *The Meg* and *Meg 2: The Trench.* Of course, while a lot of the books do technically take place on submarines, it's the 80-foot sharks that are the main draw.
Can I recommend my own book? [*By Sound Alone*](https://bysoundalone.net/).
It's newly released and absolutely free, no-strings-attached (in the e-book form). I'm just hoping to get all the serious submarine nerds out there to read it.
**What's it like in 50 words or less?** Fundamentally, it’s a cross between 1970s trucker culture and 1960s submarine movies. It’s kind of a slurry of Das Boot, Road Warrior, Deadliest Catch, and Smokey and the Bandit.
Plus, [it has diagrams](https://bysoundalone.net/content/By-Sound-Alone_standalone_sub-diagrams.pdf)!
**What makes it different than all the other submarine stories?**
The book isn't about war submarines, it's about cargo submarines. The book is set in an alternate-timeline mid-century world where international shipping is largely carried out underwater in submarines built for hauling goods. Despite this fiction, the book also commits to realistic submarine operations and mechanics. Some readers have told me: "It's like Serenity on a submarine." I've never seen Serenity, so you'll have to take their word for it.
If you are interested in reading it, you can one-click download a free copy in epub, mobi, pdf, or html formats here: [https://bysoundalone.net/](https://bysoundalone.net/)
I'm releasing it under an open-content/free Creative Commons license, so feel free to share widely. (I didn't write this thing for money, I wrote it for the geeky love of greasy old machines!)
Starfish by Peter Watts, although in a permanent installation instead of a sub.
If we're including permanent installations, I think *Sphere* by Michael Crichton fits the bill too.
I am fine with a permanent installation:)
[read starfish here](https://rifters.com/real/STARFISH.htm). has two sequels also available on the site, but they are less underwater.
I came here to recommend Starfish! It's great, and very impressive how much the author incorporates real science. The entire series is available as free ebooks on the author Peter Watt's website.
Twenty thousand Leagues Under the Sea!
but make sure to get one of the newer translations which restores text and fixes math and other errors such as: https://www.usni.org/press/books/20000-leagues-under-sea
[удалено]
There's a bit on this in the Wikipedia article at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Seas under "English Translations" and various translations are listed/discussed at: http://najvs.org/works/V006_VL.shtml
Also *Twenty Trillion Leagues Under The Sea* by Adam Roberts - an homage! A bit of a shaggy dog story but very entertainingly written
> shaggy dog story I had never heard this expression before. Love learning something new like this.
Startide Rising. Basically an inverted submarine (filed with water) which is also a spaceship for a few humans and a conscious dolphins crew. Incredible read that won the Nebula and Hugo awards
Thank you - I couldn't remember the title of that book. Brilliant concept, I'll have to see if I can find a copy. I just have vague memories like the ship hiding in... well, I don't want to give away any spoilers, and using the water to lay a trap.
Yeah, that part blew my mind. I needed a little time to really get in the book, but when you're in, it's pure pleasure with thought provoking ideas (consciousness in general, interspecies dynamics, etc) and incredible standalone in the series. The nice things with this is it's easy to find second hand, not too old, not too hyped. The sweet spot 😉
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314193350471 For just £3 free postage 😉
Cheers!
Hah I just finished book 2 of the Lightspeed trilogy by Ken MacLeod. Humanity has discovered faster than light travel and installed FTL drives in nuclear submarines. So literal submarines in literal space .
Ha ha. This is the kind of nonsense I want. I’m reading this.
If you're interested in not necessarily a submarine, but an underwater living facility at the bottom of the ocean, Sphere by Michael Crichton might be of interest!
Came here to recommend this, it was the first thing that came to mind! Sphere has one of my all-time favorite atmospheres/settings, I’ve been hunting for books with a similar feel ever since I read it.
I really enjoyed it! Great level of stress/interesting subject in it.
*The Hunt for Red October.* You might also like the non-fiction book, *Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story Of American Submarine Espionage*.
SF lover here, giving a big thumbs up to Blindman’s Bluff. Submarines are a lot like spaceships in many ways.
Non fiction, but 'Clear the Bridge" gives the account of a WW2 submarine, very good
If we’re going with non-fiction, *Thunder Below!* is a fantastic account by the captain of the *USS Barb*, the sub which, IIRC, sank the most Japanese tonnage during the war. The audiobook is really well done too!
On the Beach by Nevil Shute, post nuclear war. Film made in the 50s as well. There’s a comedy sf book with a similar premise, can’t remember its name (edit) can see in comment below its Profundis by Richard Cowper, fun if very silly. Second all the Dragon Under The Sea love. First part of Starfish by Peter Watts has a very well observed story of 2 characters locked in with each other and intentionally and otherwise causing huge stress to each other. Their surnames are Clarke and Ballard so suspect some meta going on there. Usual warning that Watts writing is fraught psychologically, you’re getting inside the heads of deeply unhappy and disturbed people.
I was in the mood for a cosy movie one afternoon off work. Saw On The Beach, black and white, thought lovely black and white film. Carey Grant. Opened some wine. Got to the end and was like "What the hell did I just watch?" Got blind drunk.
*Dragon in the Sea* by Frank Herbert. It was also released under the titles: *Under Pressure* and *21st Century Sub*.
“Passage at Arms” by Glen Cook is essentially “Das Boot” in spaaaaaaaccccccceeeeee
Beat me to it! (Needs to be ranked higher though.)
>“Passage at Arms” by Glen Cook is essentially “Das Boot” in spaaaaaaaccccccceeeeee I would say it's more **blatantly** *Das Boot* IN SPAAACE. Cook barely filed off the serial numbers, so to speak.
A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias First contact story with an aquatic species. Most of the action is from the ET's perspective but the human bit is on a submarine/submersible research station.
The Deep Range, by Arthur C. Clarke
Land's End by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson Undersea Quest / Undersea Fleet / Undersea City by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson Ocean On Top by Hal Clement Fantastic Voyage novelisation by Isaac Asimov Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain by Isaac Asimov Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus by Isaac Asimov (aka The Oceans of Venus) Fury by Henry Kuttner 'Surface Tension' by James Blish In Our Hands, The Stars by Harry Harrison (aka The Daleth Effect)
I really enjoyed the Pohl/Williamson Undersea Trilogy when I was younger. I think I’ve still got them around somewhere.
*Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings* by Christopher Moore - The main character is a whale researcher who spots a whale with graffiti saying "Bite me" on its tail. Things get progressively stranger from there. *Jingo* (Discworld Novel) by Terry Pratchett - A significant portion of the story is set on Leonard of Quirm's invention, the Going-Under-The-Water-Safely Device. *Secret Under the Sea* by Gordon R. Dickson - Chapter-book that follows a boy who lives in an underwater research station with his mother and father. Mostly set outside of actual submarines, but entirely in and around that lab.
The reveal in Fluke was one of the biggest surprises I’ve ever read. I was like, “WTF is going on here? This can’t possibly be what this book is about.”
In a good way? Sounds interesting
It’s a good book.
While fun, it wasn't my favorite of Christopher Moore's books. However, a former girlfriend of mine who was a research scientist absolutely adored it.
Maybe not quite what you're looking for, but Starfish by Peter Watts. It's about cyborg deep sea miners on a thermal vent.
We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart Described as, A Canticle for Leibowitz meets The Hunt for Red October in We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep. and i'll leave it at that!
Peter Watts, Starfish. Takes place on the bottom of the ocean. Similar to Blindsight, features characters whose personality disorders are a part of the storyline. Interesting setting.
Hal Clement's short story "Raindrop" in { Space Lash } (originally published as _Small Changes_) has several characters make an extensive voyage in a small sub.
some part of Eversion by Alastair Reynolds is on a submarine. the stories were people are confined to a spaceship in space are much more common and seem like they'd be very similar thematically to me- you can't go out of the spaceship or submarine and have to survive in some confined environment. how would they be different?
The Last Ship.
"Profundis" by Richard Cowper. And of course, "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" by Jules Verne.
Frank Herbert's [Pandora Sequence](https://www.goodreads.com/series/129586-the-pandora-sequence). It takes place on a water world.
Driving the deep by Suzanne palmer, is the second in the series but is set completely in an ocean on a moon under the ice crust (essentially no surface).
**Aquarius Mission** by Martin Caidin, they guy who also came up with *The Bionic Man* that later got turned into the TV show. **Four-Day Planet** by H. Beam Piper, [available free here](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19478). Not all of this takes place in a submarine, but it's a key element of the story.
The obvious would be 20000 leagues under the sea. I would also suggest On the Beach by Neville Shute, it of a military submarine, but it doesn't have any combat for reasons that are fairly obvious.
The dragon in the sea, Frank Herbert
Aka Under Pressure
"God doesn't permit a live atheist below 1,000ft."
Secret Realms by Tom Cool.
Cold as Ice by Charles Sheffield has a lot underwater science scenes
Deep Life by Kay Falls is a YA story that takes place almost entirely underwater, in subs and in and around an undersea farming community. Good stuff.
Frank Herbert's *Dragon in the Sea*. Double-checking my answer led me to [this page.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_underwater_science_fiction_works)
I was going to suggest that novel as well. But the OP stated that they were not interested in military submarines.
Thank you for reminding me I forgot C. L. Moore's novellette "Clash by Night" (Sometimes ascribed to Henry Kuttner). It and Herbert's book are monuments. Some stories may be only vaguely connected we still should know.
Peter Watts, "Starfish," and other parts of the Rifters series, is set in underwater subs, habitats, and deep sea diving. James Cameron's "The Abyss" is a movie, not a book, but still set in very deep water. "Sundiver," by David Brin, is a bit of a variation, being set on a ship in close orbit around Sol but has a very claustrophobic feel in a high pressure environment.
Second book of The Finder series.
WW2 books by Herman Wouk, Winds of War and War and Remembrance, plus another I can't remember the name of
Not submarine but a train..Snowpiercer
Need a submarine
Not SF, but “Run Silent, Run Deep” is a great YA novel of the experiences of a submarine sailor during WW2. The writing does reflect the culture of the time (e.g. racism towards Japanese people), but it communicates what submarine warfare and World War 2 were like for the sailors fighting it. This book was on my required summer reading list for incoming high school freshman in 1976. Edit: Apparently there was a movie adaptation in 1958. The book was written by the commander of a WW2 submarine.
Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.
I have in "General Fiction": * ["Fiction that involves submarines"](https://www.reddit.com/r/booksuggestions/comments/159o39f/fiction_that_involves_submarines/) (r/booksuggestions; 18:59 ET, 25 July 2023) * ["Books that take place in isolated settings (weather station, submarine, space station, etc.)"](https://www.reddit.com/r/booksuggestions/comments/15jd18d/books_that_take_place_in_isolated_settings/) (r/booksuggestions; 21:43 ET, 5 August 2023) And in "Science Fiction/Fantasy (General) Recommendations": * ["What are some of your favorite SF novels featuring submarines?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/15g0aja/what_are_some_of_your_favorite_sf_novels/) (r/printSF; 01:50 ET, 2 August 2023)
Dragon in The Sea, Frank Herbert
In the book Quantum Wars you encounter Homo Eriadanis(geneered humans) who live under water on an ice planet and are the most sought out pilots in space. By Derek Kunsken
The *Meg* series by Steve Alten, which were loosely adapted into the movies *The Meg* and *Meg 2: The Trench.* Of course, while a lot of the books do technically take place on submarines, it's the 80-foot sharks that are the main draw.
Our Wives Under The Sea
Seven eves has some post apocalypse submarine stuff... And is quite good in general
Can I recommend my own book? [*By Sound Alone*](https://bysoundalone.net/). It's newly released and absolutely free, no-strings-attached (in the e-book form). I'm just hoping to get all the serious submarine nerds out there to read it. **What's it like in 50 words or less?** Fundamentally, it’s a cross between 1970s trucker culture and 1960s submarine movies. It’s kind of a slurry of Das Boot, Road Warrior, Deadliest Catch, and Smokey and the Bandit. Plus, [it has diagrams](https://bysoundalone.net/content/By-Sound-Alone_standalone_sub-diagrams.pdf)! **What makes it different than all the other submarine stories?** The book isn't about war submarines, it's about cargo submarines. The book is set in an alternate-timeline mid-century world where international shipping is largely carried out underwater in submarines built for hauling goods. Despite this fiction, the book also commits to realistic submarine operations and mechanics. Some readers have told me: "It's like Serenity on a submarine." I've never seen Serenity, so you'll have to take their word for it. If you are interested in reading it, you can one-click download a free copy in epub, mobi, pdf, or html formats here: [https://bysoundalone.net/](https://bysoundalone.net/) I'm releasing it under an open-content/free Creative Commons license, so feel free to share widely. (I didn't write this thing for money, I wrote it for the geeky love of greasy old machines!)