Book Review: Amazing Diving Stories by John Bantin

Review by Fred Lockwood

Amazing Diving Stories (2012) by John Bantin

Published by Wiley Nautical         ISBN 9781119969297        266pps

Full length novels, with complex and evolving plots, together with twists and turns that keep you page turning, are common. They do, however, require a degree of dedication to continue to the bitter end. Less common are collections of short stories, of a few pages, that invite you to dip in and out; to read as few or as many you want at any one time. Amazing Diving Stories by John Bantin is one of the few collections of short stories, that focus on scuba diving, that have been published.

The author has assembled a collection of sixty-four stories and grouped them into nine parts or sections. Each part contains between four and twelve stories that span a broad range of topics and cater for different interests. For example, there are stories about “Famous wrecks and Other Adventures”, “Treasure Seekers and Finders”, “Deep Diving” and “Tragedies” to name just four parts of the book. He has also supplemented several of the stories with full colour photographs, thirty in total, that are cross linked to actual stories. (However, when colour photographs are at a premium I wonder why as many as seven pictures of sharks are included.)

There is no index to the book, which is a lost opportunity. It could have directed us to detailed accounts upon which several of the short story are based. For example, to The Final Dive: The life and death of ‘Buster’ Crabb (2007) by Don Hale, to the exploits of John Chatterton and Richie Kohler in Shadow Divers ( 2004) by Robert Kurson or the tragic story of the death of Dave Shaw in Raising the Dead (2008) by Philip Finch. Overall there is much to enjoy, and reflect upon, in Amazing Diving Stories.

John Bantin

John Bantin changed careers in the late 1970s when he learned to dive. He subsequently acted as a diving instructor in the Red Sea and ran a diving centre in the Mediterranean. More recently he was technical editor of Dive Magazine and is currently Senior Editor of the US based undercurrent.org magazine.

His books include: The Scuba Diving Handbook (2007) and Shark Bytes (2015)