全书以“最”为切入，从科学视角解读生存在海洋中的生物及其生存特性。Stephen R. Palumbi 与 Anthony R. Palumbi 是父子关系，并分别在生物学与文学方面颇有造诣。“小说作家和科学家的交互，比起别的形式的父子交互要有趣得多”，这使得本书在覆盖诸多自然知识的同时又不失文学性。

阅读中值得循着作者留下的参考文献深入研究，本文为你提供一种阅读方式的成果，以供你对本书有一定的了解。文章尾部罗列阅读笔记中记录的文献。

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书中引用的部分文献

封面图片：brown rock formation on body of water during daytime (dogedoge.com)