||| FROM GENE HELFMAN |||
My 2021 orca novel, Beyond the Human Realm is now two years old. The book won two national awards and continues to receive positive feedback (averaging 4.9/5 on Amazon after 68 reviews, now available as an audiobook). Folks I don’t know stop and tell me how much they like the book. Of course, the subject matter makes things much easier.
People also ask about a sequel. Well, yes. I am working on another orca novel, slowly. But meanwhile, I’ve switched gears and finished a very different book, this one about sharks: FINS, A Novel of Relentless Satire. It couldn’t be more different from the orca novel. It’s frivolous, a spoof on the sharksploitation genre.
Pirates catch sharks in a marine reserve, lop off their fins, and discard the sharks for dead. A series of puzzling, apparently related shark attacks follows, suggesting that sentient, compassionate, maternal, and goal-oriented sharks are cooperating to exact more than revenge. The carnage escalates until a brilliant, beautiful, beleaguered forensic technician, in league with an African-American tech wizard, battle malevolent white guys. Risking probable death and certain dismemberment, the heroes discover the secret behind the attacks, revealing much more than was bargained for.
I wrote FINS to fulfill a desire to right a wrong, namely to counter the influence of the hyped, sensationalist, grossly unfair portrayals of sharks in a few novels and too many movies. Think JAWS (I, II, III-D) and Sharknado (I-VI) and The Meg (I, II). Except FINS is shark-friendly: “The sharks are sick and tired and they’re not going to take it anymore.” It’s intended to be humorous, a short (173 pages), enjoyable read. It’s also eco-fiction, but that’s where any relationship to Realm stops; a friend described it as mind candy with a conservation message. Think of it as a quick beach read that may keep you out of the water.
FINS is now available at the monolithic online corporate entities, and will be in local bookstores shortly. Profits donated to shark conservation.
