Twenty years...

That's how long I've been looking for one particular book.

In second grade, at the age of six, I read a book that, literally, changed my life. It was something new, something very very different... it was *science fiction*. I loved that book, I read and reread that book many times. I could recall the cover art (on which the fish-eyed green scaled humanoid continually freaked me out), where it was placed in our classroom book display, what the pages smelled like...

Everything but the title, author, and publisher.

I knew that it had to do with an ancient underwater civilization, I remembered a lot of underground scenes, and I *thought* the publisher was Scholastic Publishing, since the vast majority of the books in the public schools in the mid-70's were...

About six years later, when it became obvious where most of my reading expenditure was, I decided I wanted to find a copy of that book. I've been scouring used bookstores, in the children's sections, ever since.

Yesterday I was in a local bookstore, in the SF/Fantasy section, and decided to see what Harry Turtledove they had, just for the heck of it. Found it, started scanning the shelf, and saw this oddly familiar looking spine...

Pistachio green, with _Stranger from the Depths_ in white in that font that screams Scholastic...

I pulled it off the shelf, and...



The cover is well loved, but other than a stamp on the inside for a used bookstore in Anaheim, CA, it is in immaculate condition.

It was $0.25.

I am oddly, deliriously happy.






And it was *not* in the children's section.

Twenty years...

That's how long I've been looking for one particular book.

In second grade, at the age of six, I read a book that, literally, changed my life. It was something new, something very very different... it was *science fiction*. I loved that book, I read and reread that book many times. I could recall the cover art (on which the fish-eyed green scaled humanoid continually freaked me out), where it was placed in our classroom book display, what the pages smelled like...

Everything but the title, author, and publisher.

I knew that it had to do with an ancient underwater civilization, I remembered a lot of underground scenes, and I *thought* the publisher was Scholastic Publishing, since the vast majority of the books in the public schools in the mid-70's were...

About six years later, when it became obvious where most of my reading expenditure was, I decided I wanted to find a copy of that book. I've been scouring used bookstores, in the children's sections, ever since.

Yesterday I was in a local bookstore, in the SF/Fantasy section, and decided to see what Harry Turtledove they had, just for the heck of it. Found it, started scanning the shelf, and saw this oddly familiar looking spine...

Pistachio green, with _Stranger from the Depths_ in white in that font that screams Scholastic...

I pulled it off the shelf, and...



The cover is well loved, but other than a stamp on the inside for a used bookstore in Anaheim, CA, it is in immaculate condition.

It was $0.25.

I am oddly, deliriously happy.






And it was *not* in the children's section.