Rating: 
Summary: DON'T GO IN THE WATER!
Review: "Sea Change", the debut novel from oceanographer James Powlik, has a lot going for it. The plot is eerily realistic and frightening, with a "monster" that is so simplistic in its concept that it's devastation is overwhelming. There are plenty of actions scenes, with plenty of bodies piling up. There is a stalwart Dirk Pitt-type hero, Brock Garner; a stalwart female doctor, Ellie Bridges; a nasty opportunist who seizes the devastation as wonderful PR; and your stock of supporting characters, both heroes and villains. The villains get their just desserts, and even some of the heroes don't make out too well. Kids are even wasted.
Powlik does get very technical at times, and he fails to resolve the character of Charles Harmon to satisfaction. There are many, many cliches, and even the way the monster is dealt with is hauntingly familiar. Yet, you can't help root for the heroes and hiss the villains, especially when you consider Seattle(of all places) is the monster's ultimate destination.
Campy, but fun; serious but witty.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T GO IN THE WATER!
Review: "Sea Change", the debut novel from oceanographer James Powlik, has a lot going for it. The plot is eerily realistic and frightening, with a "monster" that is so simplistic in its concept that it's devastation is overwhelming. There are plenty of actions scenes, with plenty of bodies piling up. There is a stalwart Dirk Pitt-type hero, Brock Garner; a stalwart female doctor, Ellie Bridges; a nasty opportunist who seizes the devastation as wonderful PR; and your stock of supporting characters, both heroes and villains. The villains get their just desserts, and even some of the heroes don't make out too well. Kids are even wasted.
Powlik does get very technical at times, and he fails to resolve the character of Charles Harmon to satisfaction. There are many, many cliches, and even the way the monster is dealt with is hauntingly familiar. Yet, you can't help root for the heroes and hiss the villains, especially when you consider Seattle(of all places) is the monster's ultimate destination.
Campy, but fun; serious but witty.
Rating: 
Summary: Explained a little too much
Review: As a high school advanced Marine Biology student, I was assigned to read a book that involved something about the ocean. Although I did enjoy Dr. Powlik's book, the in-depth explanation of the obvious made it difficult to continue turning the pages. With less than a year's worth of education about the ocean, I felt as if it was assumed that I did not even know that a Jellyfish (Phylum Cnidaria) had stinging cells. I am sure that such information could be helpful to those who know nothing about the ocean, but it spoiled the experience of this book for me. I must say I did gain some information about the ocean, but no more than I could have learned on a field trip to MBARI. I hope that you are not as disappointed as I was.
Rating:
Summary: I definitely will get the sequel
Review: For a first novel I found this to be well written and really well researched. The subject is a reality and very scary! Powlik has created in Brock Garner a new and exciting"Dirk Pitt"like hero(although no one can measure up to Pitt). All in all a very readable book.
Rating: 
Summary: Complete garbage
Review: I'm not going to waste much time ripping this book - just wanted to warn people away from it. The science in it is either stolen directly out of another book (The Hot Zone), or absolutely laughable. (Sarin is not a biological agent, Mr. Powlik) The characters are paper thin, the dialogue is awkward and pathetic... bah!
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent and fast-paced thriller.
Review: James Powlik has pulled off a remarkable feat. He has written a book with a great deal of complicated and technical scientific language, yet he makes the narrative exciting. "Sea Change" deals with an environmental threat that poses a tremendous danger to warm-blooded mammals in an area near Washington State and Vancouver, British Columbia. Powlik has a background in biology and oceanography, and although the book is fiction, there is a factual basis in what he writes. "Sea Change" is frightening in its implications and the action sweeps the reader along until the end. A word of warning--this book is not for the sqeamish. The characters and the dialogue are, for the most part, believable. Readers who love scientific mysteries will find "Sea Change" enthralling and thought-provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing like a good biological scare-mongering!
Review: James Powlik is very obviously a biologist of the oceanic kind. It comes through all too well in this book. It's not that it is not a good read...for most people it will probably be a good read. But I got the feeling while reading this book that Powlik had a book or an outline in front of him telling him what was necessary to write a biological thriller. He has to have a current new problem that people don't know enough concerning, he has to insert a little romance here, an aggravating character there, add in lots of mayhem and an awful lot of deaths (especially of the characters we are not supposed to like). And in addition, he added an epilogue that prior to reading it I just knew what it was going to say...this particular bad strain of pfisteria (yes I've read about it in the science journals and a couple of nonfiction books) was going to 'pick' a compliant new host, and in this case, fly off into the sunset to wreck havoc another day. Just a bit too pat...like I said, I think Powlik is a smart man who wants to be a thriller novelist of the Clancy-kind. Ho-hum.As per usual, mankind fooling around with biological entities tends to lead to disasters as well as possible good uses. I applaud Powlik for his desire to educate the public not only about this organism, but also about the fact there are military and private organizations fooling around with things that they probably should not be fooling around with. Anything to make a buck; anything to one-up other countries in biological and chemical weaponry. It's kind of hard to get away from this lately, with the fiasco in Iraq and the inability to find weapons of mass destruction. My major complaint as always does not have to do with plot. It's the characters. They are too many, too cardboard, and too stereotyped. Robin Cook, and Michael Crichton and Richard Preston have all successfully scared the pants of those who enjoy reading these types of book (and I usually do too)...but this one left a bit to be desired. Oh well... Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh
Rating:
Summary: Why swimming pools are becoming so popular...
Review: Peter Benchley frightened us from the water with stories of humongous sharks. Steve Alten took it up a notch with his action-packed thrillers featuring thought-to-be-extinct megalodons. James Powlik brings the newest aquatic threat to frighten us down to microscopic proportions with no less terror or thrills. With a writing style reminiscent of Michael Crichton (but thankfully less droning with the scientific details), Mr. Powlik deserves his spot amidst the big-boys of fictional techno-thrillers. Sea Change has enough science to make it believeable, enough emotion to make it real, and enough non-stop action to make the story big-screen worthy. More intriguing than preachy, this fiction makes a great read that's hard to put down. I'd tell ya it's a great beach read, except you wouldn't want to linger near any coastlines with this title in hand! I only give it four out of five stars merely because it's Powlik's first jump out of the gate and I strongly suspect his works will only get better while Amazon will still only offer a maximum five stars. A thoughtful, exciting read. Well worth it!
Rating:
Summary: Engaging eco-thriller
Review: Residents of the Pacific Northwest begin to panic as the nearby ocean has turned hotter and deadly. Even some of the coastline has become dangerous to the innocent, as Dr. Ellie Bridges can testify after witnessing the brutal death of a little girl. The media smells a sensational story and descends en masse on the area. The government and the scientific community also migrate into the vicinity of the deadly deaths. Oceanographer Brock Garner claims he has found watery dead zones, but politically he is considered a pariah even among his peers. He joins forces with Ellie in an attempt to learn the truth. What they find is a colony of deadly microbe fish that have merged into a floating tide of poison that transmits through the air as well as the water. The path of the fish makes Seattle a certain target. If you place Jurassic Park floating as a current of the Pacific, readers will have the underlying concept of SEA CHANGE. The story line is fast-paced and menacing with much scientific explanation as to why the danger occurred. Though the lead human characters never fully develop, the audience will feel the rising terror as more people agonizingly die and the colony creeps towards Seattle. James Powlik provides eco-terror fans with an action-packed novel that entertains but warns of dire consequences if society fails to face what's going on around the globe. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Pfiesteria Mystery Satisfies
Review: This book blends real-life science and a compelling mystery that makes for terrific beach reading! The author, James Powlik, takes a true-to-life menace from today's headlines and spins an exciting tale of suspense. In the tranquil waters of the Pacific Northwest, an invisible, indiscriminate killer is loose. As the body count begins to escalate, a group of intrepid scientists is left to make sense of the mystery and find out what has gone wrong. The storyline is quite clever and all the more intriguing because of the possibility that this type of disaster could really happen. I recommend this book to mystery lovers, action-adventure aficionados, and anyone concerned about real-life ecological issues.
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