Customer Reviews

Into the Storm: Destroyermen, Book I

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I was torn between four stars and five, and ultimately gave it four, this is an excellent book that is highly recommended. There are precious few books that leave you disappointed when you're done reading them because there isn't more to read, but this is one of them.

Anderson is a gifted writer. The book is very readable; the story flows; the dialogue is first rate; and the plot is well-conceived with enough twists to keep it interesting without being outlandish.

Anderson has created a fascinating alternate world with two races of non-human sentient beings who are involved in a death struggle. Into this alien world falls an American destroyer from the Asiatic fleet in the early, desperate days of World War II. The use of an obsolete destroyer from the early 1940s was a great idea. No jets flying off a modern day aircraft carrier; just some modest sized guns on a beat-to-hell ship. Anderson does a nice job of filling in some details of the Lemurian society, which gives the book a realistic feel.

Why not five stars? A few reasons. The lemurs are intelligent, fair-minded, inquisitive and peaceful at heart. The Grik are evolved raptors who have gained intelligence but lost none of the viciousness that marked their ancient ancestors. They are the epitome of evil. That is perhaps not far-fetched, but it is rather predictable. There is virtually no description of Grik society other than they are evil killers. It isn't clear that they have language, although they clearly must. The only true criticism is that everything is a bit too convenient. Need oil? No problem. Just happen to have picked up an Australian oil engineer and there are two crew members who worked on the Texas oil rigs. Can't speak to the Lemurians? No problem. They can learn English in about a week. These are really minor criticisms, and don't really detract from the overall quality of the book.

Bottom line: Buy it. Read it. You'll enjoy it.

Consider a person or group from modern times, who somehow get transported to an earlier time, or to a parallel universe inhabited by technologically less advanced peoples. Heck. Stretch this a little and include another case, where the modern group gets dropped on another planet, of backward inhabitants. In all cases, our heroes have an edge in weapons and tactics, but are sorely pressed in numbers. Typically, they ally with local friendlies against dreadful hordes of enemies. Familiar? Think Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (Ace SF, F-342). Pournelle's Janissaries. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time. Forstchen's Lost Regiment. Or, more recently, Birmingham's Weapons of Choice (The Axis of Time Trilogy, Book 1). So Anderson continues a long and popular tradition.

Superficially, this book seems to bear closest resemblence to Birmingham's account of American ships from 2020 plunged into World War 2. But actually Forstchen's works are the nearest prior art. He placed a Civil War regiment on another world, with backward humans oppressed by another vicious race. The regiment mobilises and tries to modernise the humans by industrialising them in the forge of war. Essentially what goes on in Anderson's book. The unique aspects here include the presence of 2 non-human sentient races. The Americans side with the lemurs, against the merciless reptiles. We mammals have to stick together, I suppose. He invokes a hypothesis made in recent years that if dinosaurs did not become extinct, some of them [the raptors] might evolve intelligence. (Cf. Harrison's West of Eden (Eden Trilogy) for a related take.)

Another distinguishing feature is the choice of terrain. Indonesia. With scenes in Borneo, Java and the local seas. I cannot recall the last science fiction story I read placed here. Makes a difference from North American or Euro-centric locales often used by other authors.

For those of you acquainted with the other stories, it can be interesting seeing how Anderson plays out "our" side and their frantic efforts to arm their allies. At some strategic level, you've read this before. So how will the tactics hold up?

The book does have a problem. Its American characters are rather uninspired. The brave commander, struggling with awesome decisions. A few errant but basically decent crewmen. And statutory love interests with some American nurses. The latter romances are by far the weakest of the character interactions. Brings to mind Robert Ludlum's widely derided love scenes for his characters.

In this wise, the book also continues one of the oldest of science fiction traditions. The characters are not especially memorable. Anderson goes through the motions with perfunctory development. So that he can turn to the science fictional themes and narrate the battle scenes.

The second book in this series is due out in a few months. Probably already fully written. Anderson appears very competent in his knowledge of warfare. But can he flesh out his characters more fully?

A Military ship goes thru a menacing storm and comes out either (a) back in time or (b) in a parallel dimension where their technology allows them to aid the indigenous life forms there. How many times have we seen this? Seriously, the final countdown movie with Kirk Douglas, the series about the civil war ship that goes into another world and joins the fight, there are soooo many of these books its almost eye-rolling funny.

But, guess what, Taylor Anderson does a really good job with this. His detail on the WW2 front really set the mood well. I understood well the capabilities of the Walker & her crew and by the time we pass thru the big storm into the other world, we understand the Walker really is on her last leg, this is an old, battered ship. She's low on fuel, low on ammo, leaking like a vegetable strainer and really almost a rust bucket.

Where Anderson really makes this shine is the creation of the Lemurians, rather than give us the usual humans-that-have-been-cut-off-back-in-time that populate our new parallel earth, he gives us 2 alternate races that have evolved on a earth populated with Dinosaurs. A vicious, sleestak like reptilian race and a sea faring mammalian race of evolved Lemurs. I found his depiction of the Lemurs' huge traveling ships colorful and delightful. Seeing the gruff WW2 seamen interact with the Lemiurians was a hoot, especially when romance starts to bloom. I found myself rooting for the Lemurs and looking forward to the next 2 books. Ironically, the humans seem more 2 dimensional that the Lemus characters, lets hope the author can flush them out some in the next books.

If you are looking for some fun summer escapism, this won't let you down.

There are plenty of alternative histories about and quite a lot of time/alternative reality stories where a bunch of people are plucked form our universe and history and fine themselves somewhere...else. And yes, this is indeed one of them.

During a WW2 sea battle with the Japanese an elderly US warship (The Walker) is transported into an alternative reality where the landscapes are the same but man does not appear to have evolved. Almost immediately they have to take sides in a conflict between two races...with overwhelming power but dwindling resources, has the crew of the Walker picked the right side, and can they survive?

Although a theme we may have seen before, this is well delivered and more thoughtful then most. It certainly moves with pace and although you can see where it is going and what is likely to happen over the next few books, it is still written with enough intelligence to lift it above the standard for these types of books.

What a truely fantastic suprise!!! I talked about this book so much my father decided to read it too. He got very upset with about thirty to twenty pages to go. I asked why, and he told me he had figured out this book was part of a series, and now he would have to WAIT and WONDER as to the continuation and conclusion. I must say I agree with him. Very frustrating and exciting to be kept "on the hook" for several months. But in my opinion well worth the wait!!! Thank you Mr. Anderson.

Into the Storm: Destroyermen, Book I (Destroyermen)
As a retired bookstore owner of 19 years, I would recommend this book as a fun and enjoyable read. "Into the Storm" mixes action adventure, sci-fi, and WWII history without botching the history end.
The storyline pits a battle worn destroyer crew into an unreal situation in an alternative plane of existence without knowing how they got there or more important, how to get home. The crew encounters dangerous "Sea Monsters" that sailors in legends would find at the ends of the earth, along with dinosaurs roaming the pacific islands where people should be. Soon they find themselves in another war with very unusual allies and everything at stake.
Also of interest is the author's website [...] which has drawings and diagrams, that did not make it into the book, that gives perspectives of the different ships.
I can't wait for the other 2 books in the Destroyermen series and for other books by this author, Taylor Anderson.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this book, indeed, this series. I picked it up to kill time between releases of "my" authors. What I ended up with was an all consuming need to find out what happens next, something I did not think I was going to find. These Characters are very well defined, the story leads itself, virtually opening doors to further tales at nearly every turn. I find the authors humor to be very quick, and germain. The mixture of sorrow and ferocity is unmatched in my estimation. I'll not run any spoiler information in here, but I will say, that if you are a sci-fi and or fantasy reader, you should try these. The books are not hard reading, not overly filled with useless details, there is some middleing science invloved, nothing overtly egg-headed though, and there is enough fierce action to keep even the most devoted war sci-fi junky happy. I feel as if I'm a pretty finicky reader, I was weened on Heinlien, Tolkein, and Asimov, I have moved in to some mainstream authors in the recent past Bucher, Harrison, sargent, this book has craft that, if not matches all of the above authors, is most asuredly near or in the same class.
Read it!

I discovered Taylor Anderson last year while looking for new reads, and I am glad I did. Destroyermen is the story of a pair of World War II destroyers at the beginning of World War 2 that are sucked into a dimensional rift to a world where dinosaurs didn't die out. Instead they evolved into an intelligence that threatens to destroy the other intelligent race of the planet, the Lemur like Lemurians. Enter the men from our Earth and their obsolete warships, which are ages ahead of anything the two extant cultures on the planet possess. Lt. Commander Matthew Reddy and the crew of the Walker are everyman thrown into an incomprehensible situation and doing the best they can. Reddy, who is over his head as a ship commander, is now tasked with raising a culture and industrial base to 20th Century standards, planning a war, or watching the men he loves go down before the tide of Grik that threatens to consume the world. But the Grik have a secret weapon as well, the Japanese battle cruiser that has also come to this world. A very well written book by a man that understands history and naval warfare, and a great introduction to an interesting series. Highly recommended.

I picked up this book after I got into a fury of buying alternative universe books that were mainly about war. I had read Weapons of Choice, which was one of the best books I have ever read but this series is getting close to topping that. The Author has really come into his self writing this series and I can't get enough of his books. The story is all about a discarded ship and it's crew who is sucked into an alternative universe where evolution was radically different than what happened to us. Just like that storm that sucked up the characters in this story, you to will be sucked up into it.

i am normally a fan of high tech military sci-fi not alternate reality naval books. I bought this book cause it was something different and had very decent reviews. I was not disappointed. Its an excellent story that is face paced and hard to put down. The slow parts( all books have them) don't go rambling on forever. The author doesn't bore you to death trying to justify how some things work in the story. Like how they break down a language barrier, how you refine oil into fuel for a destroyer and does not get bogged down in politics or religion{both are present}. He makes it work and keeps the story moving. the characters are enjoyable even lovable and whats a good book without heroes. i found the book extremely entertaining and order the second book before i finished this one. not hard to get engrossed in the story

I am not a literary critic. I read books for the fun of it. I found this book an exciting and a fun read. give it a try i doubt you will be disappointed.