Reads Almost Like Fiction - And Should Give Soraya M. Lane Inspiration For A Future Novel. First, this is one of the better researched books I've come across in all of my Advance Review Copy reading efforts - over 1100 books since 2018 - at 45% documentation. Kudos to Lance for being so thorough there.
And she needs it - because this is one of the more fantastical nonfiction books you're ever going to come across. A brother and sister experimenting on themselves - as their father, who also experimented on himself *even with chlorine gas*, had trained them to do - gathering a team of like minded scientists to push the limits of the human condition under extreme environments, later in a direct race to help save their country from annihilation.
Before Jacques Cousteau developed SCUBA, there were the scientists working to discover what, exactly, humans could survive under water. What, exactly, happened as the human body was compressed to ever higher pressures? What happened as that pressure was relaxed - either suddenly or gradually? How could we allow humans to survive at ever increasing pressures, and what, exactly, were the limits?
And then... Normandy.
It had already been tried once, and failed miserably - because the soldiers didn't have the data these very scientists were racing to obtain. Could they get it in time for the next invasion attempt?
They could... and they would change the face of warfare (and, to be honest, some entertainment and other scientific pursuits) forever when they did.
This is their story, told for seemingly the very first time.
Very much recommended. And please tag Soraya Lane and beg her to bring this story to actual fiction.