Akron Public Library

When Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon answer a distress call from a research ship, nothing can prepare them for what they find. A strange and dangerous toxin has left the crew helpless, unable to move or speak. And when another attack leaves hundreds more paralysed, Juan and his team must race to find an antidote -before the damage becomes permanent. Their search for answers leads to a Roman soldier's long-lost testimony, revealing ancient...

Looking for adventure and a new life, Ishmael, the story's narrator, decides to find work on a whaling boat. On arriving at the Massachusetts harbour to begin his search, the only bed available is already half occupied by a "cannibal" named Queequeg. Although Queequeg has limited English, a friendship forms and the two men sign up for work together aboard the Pequod under the infamous Captain Ahab. Consumed by an insane rage, Captain Ahab has but...

The head of the U.S. National Underwater and Marine Agency’s (NUMA) Special Assignments Team unravels a new mystery in the dangers above and below the sea in the latest addition to the long-running series following Fast Ice. A freighter carrying top-secret computers of unparalleled capability disappears in the Western Pacific. While searching for a lost treasure that once belonged to the famous Chinese pirate queen, Ching Shih, Kurt Austin and Joe...

"Samuel Pipps is the greatest detective of his day...but now he's a prisoner, accused of an unknown crime by one of the world's most powerful men. Along with his faithful sidekick, Arent Hayes, they're sailing back to Amsterdam from the East Indies, where he'll stand trial. But no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. Still shackled in his cell, Pipps sends Hayes to solve a mystery that connects every passenger on board....

The only full-length novel by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" was first published in 1838. It is the story of a boy from Nantucket, Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship, the "Grampus", with the help of his friend Augustus, the ship captain's son. Pym and Augustus experience many unexpected adventures and misfortunes at sea, including mutiny, violent storms, cannibalism, and the destruction of the ship. Eventually,...

The East Indies at the dawn of the eighteenth century. And at the farthest edges of the known world, the mighty East India Trading Company suffers catastrophic losses at the hands of pirates on the high seas. Master mariner Sir Hal Courtney, after four years away from service, prepares for his latest and most dangerous voyage - a death or glory mission in the name of the crown. But Hal must also think about the fate of his three sons. Each is very...

"Crisscrossing the Great Lakes onboard her father's freighter ship, the Mary Elise, Elise Wright has grown up cooking and caring for the crew. It is a life she loves. Unlike her estranged sister, Elise has turned down numerous opportunities for a 'respectable life' with their wealthy relatives. And now, because of promises she made to her dying mother, she's bound to the ship and her deeply grieving father more than ever. Nick Clark is grateful to...

"Franny Stone has always been a wanderer. By following the ocean's tides and the birds that soar above, she can forget the losses that have haunted her life. But when the wild she so loves begins to disappear, Franny can no longer wander without a destination. She arrives in remote Greenland with one purpose: to find the world's last flock of Arctic terns and follow them on their final migration. She convinces Ennis Malone, captain of the Saghani,...

Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin sail to Australia with a hold full of convicts, including a dangerous spy, while the crew is decimated by disease and their ship, the "Leopard," is pursued by a Dutch man-of-war.

"Fate is a ship. As the shadows of World War II gather, the SS Lichenfield is westbound across the Pacific carrying eighty thousand barrels of highly explosive naphtha. The cargo alone makes the journey perilous, with the entire crew aware that one careless moment could lead to disaster. But yet another sort of peril haunts the Lichenfield. Even beyond their day-to-day coexistence, the lives of the crew are mysteriously intertwined. Though each has...