The Deep Range.

By Arthur C. Clarke.

Synopsis:
Walter Franklin, a spaceman with a mysterious past, is being trained by Don Burley to be a whale herder.

Review:
This was kinda sweet. First published in 1968, back before everyone got bored of trying to figure out how the world could be made into a better place. It was a little disconcerting reading a optimistic version of humanity's future.

The big problem the world was facing was hunger (overpopulation, don't cha know), and to feed the starving masses, huge herds of whales are being farmed for their meat. And the whale herders (I'm sure they had an actual name - Patrolmen or something similar) had to run around in zoomy submarines and chase the killer whales and sharks away. (Brief aside - I didn't know Killer Whales ate other whales. I thought they only ate little tiny things. In the book they only ate baby whales, but still...)

The problem with reviewing this book is that you can't say very much without giving away fairly major plot points... I'll just say I liked this, it managed to include a housewife who didn't piss me off (a rare occurence), and the ending was really unexpected, quite uplifting, and an actual conclusion.