The Ghost from the Grand Banks

I'm about 15 pages from the end of this book and I'm giving up.

It's written badly. It's constructed of short (2-4 page) chapters which all follow exactly the same progression. It's full of patronising little scientific titbits where Clarke tells some convenient dimwitted stooge something the reader needs to know. It's clumsy in its building of suspence and it's clumsy in its introduction of characters. The characters don't so much feel fleshed-out as built to meet a quota. In fact, that's exactly what this reads like, a book written to meet a contractual obligation or for a quick buck.