Mer-cycle

From Publishers Weekly It is difficult to understand how so slight a book can make for such tedious reading. The prolific Anthony's ( Virtual Mode ) latest novel is about a group of humans bicycling along the ocean floor. Anthony does try to provide a framework for the idea--this novel is ostensibly about a benevolent alien race seeking to save the Earth, along with untold numbers of ''alternate worlds,'' from a fatal collision with a meteor. But Anthony was clearly so enamored with his concept of a waterlogged Le Mans that virtually the entire novel takes place underwater, while the rest of the plot is left high and dry. Anthony slips in some tension, which revolves not around the Earth's imminent demise, but around the question of whether Don, one of the bikers, will find himself sexually attracted to another biker, Melanie, who is hairless. There is also a mildly lewd encounter with a mermaid. The book is careless, too--at one point, one of the characters describes an event that happened to him as having happened to someone else. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Anthony's latest explores the sea's ancient mysteries--on wheels. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. A discreet advertisement brings a group of apparently disparate individuals together to a bizarre rendezvous--on the ocean floor. The reasons for their selection are unclear; Don, an archaeoloist, chronically shy, Gaspar, marine biologist, suffering from terminal directness, middle-aged Pacifica, and Melanie, whose normal exterior masks a strange genetic inheritence, seem, on the face of it, to have little in common--except their feeling that they are part of a greater plan...a feeling that grows as they embark on their strange odyssey across the bed of the ocean... For the underwater explorers, the mystery of being out of phase with the world above water is heightened by that surrounding the mysterious Eleph--a mystery which is ultimately revealed to be more significant and bewildering than they could ever have imagined... By the bestselling author of the Mode series--a magical, fantastic journey from the master of the genre. On Earth with the hope of saving the planet from a meteor strike, an alien from an alternate reality recruits five humans to help him on his mission, using his advanced technology to enable them to breathe while under water. Reprint. An alien from an alternate reality tries to save Earth from a meteor strike with the help of the mysterious merpeople