Camouflage

With prose "as clear and engaging as his ideas" (New York Times Book Review), award-winning author Joe Haldeman blends scientific fact and far-seeing fiction as he pulls readers into a mind-shattering undersea mystery-from outer space... An unidentified artifact, found seven miles below the surface of the sea, stumps the scientists examining it. But it calls out to the two immortal creatures who have wandered the Earth for centuries. Two creatures who have never crossed paths-until now... "The artifact is found seven miles below the surface of the sea and beneath forty more feet of sand. The Navy's efforts to raise a wrecked submarine uncover it - and set in motion a scientific race to retrieve it, to discover just what it is and where it came from. Denser than any substance known to man, it has broken every drill bit they've tried on it and will not budge an inch. It resists every effort to breach it - or communicate with it. So the governmenet turns to marine biologist Russell Sutton for help." "Meanwhile, unknown to any of them, two creatures have wandered the earth for generations. The aliens have no knowledge of each other, but possess a residual memory of the artifact - and an affinity for deep water. One, which calls itself the changeling, has survived by adaptation, by taking on many different forms: man, woman, snake, shark. The other, which calls itself the chameleon, has survived solely by destroying anything or anyone that threatens it." "Now, finally brought up from the bottom of the sea, the artifact calls them both...to come home. For all these generations there have been two invincible creatures on Earth. But the chameleon has decided there's only room for one."--BOOK JACKET.

Two aliens have wandered Earth for centuries. The Changeling has survived by adapting the forms of many different organisms. The Chameleon destroys anything or anyone that threatens it.

Now, a sunken relic that holds the key to their origins calls to them to take them home—but the Chameleon has decided there's only room for one.

The Washington Post - Gregory Feeley

Haldeman's adept plotting, strong pacing and sense of grim stoicism have won him wide acclaim, but for me the great virtue in his fiction lies in its style. His prose is laconic, compact, seemingly offhand but quite precise; one can pull down his earlier novels and reread individual pages years later with undiminished pleasure. Haldeman mostly abjures striking images or similes (the description of how a fish will "flex the one huge muscle of itself" to dart away from enemies is about as figurative as he gets), relying instead on the poetics of compression and indirection. Like the grammar of cinema, it is a mode that looks natural and even easy but requires exacting skill.

An Unidentified Artifact, Found Seven Miles Below The Surface Of The Sea, Stumps The Scientists Examining It But Calls Out To The Two Immortal Creatures Who Have Wandered The Earth For Centuries, Never Crossing Paths Until Now. Joe Haldeman.