Though not the temporal of clocks and watches, he has neither — he is acutely aware of skytime.

The lift is always out of order.

Yet there began to be insistent tuggings as if from a dream that could not be recalled.

Roberts catalogues the other man-made threats to life in the sea: the introduction of alien species by means of ballast water, such as the warty comb jellies that took over the Black Sea ….