Out Of the Sea - Leigh Brackett

Novelette

Number of words : 10000
Percent of complex words : 7.4
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 9.0


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 6.6
Flesch : 76.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 4.8




SETTING

Los Angeles

Fallon is playing volleyball at Santa Monica Beach and girl chasing at the opening, when the attack of sea monsters begins.

West Coast Pacific Ocean

Now full of a lot of sea monsters.


CHARACTERS

Webb Fallon

Out of work reporter and boozer.

Joan Daniels

Woman Fallon meets at the beach while swimming, before they are attacked. Knows Madge, so thinks he is no good to start with.

Einar Bjarnsson

Deep-sea scientific expert and submarine owner.

Kashimo

Japanese leader and unleasher of mutant sea monsters.

Madge

Fallon's ex-girlfriend.

Chuck Weigal

Acquaintance of Fallon's.



ORGANISATIONS

Los Angeles Observer

Newspaper Fallon used to work for.

California Tech

University working on the monster problem.


PLOT

Fallon is playing volleyball and contemplating women in swimsuits towards finding a new girlfriend after being dumped. Suddenly sea monsters attack, and he ends up fighting some off and fleeing with Daniels.

He remembers a recent interview with Bjarnsson, an expert in the area with a small submarine, and goes with Joan to see if something can be done to stop it, given the military is having no success.

Bjarnsson's agenda is unclear, as is which way he will jump, but he venturs out with Fallon after running foul of Kashimo, to decide what to do by putting an end to the source of mutant sea monsters.


3.5 out of 5