Customer Reviews

Rising Tides: Destroyermen

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have no major complaints on this volume. It pretty much keeps up with the prior volumes, and we start to get more and more into the heads of the terrible Grik. Thankfully the book ends with the conflicts being unresolved, which means there will be more to come, and I look forward to reading more.

There was no preface matter, which kind of made it a bit hard to bite in to. At this stage in the story, we're following at least four separate plot lines, and it can be a bit cumbersome at times to keep things straight. For instance: two different crews salvaging two different vessels, as well as a group of castaways. One of the salvage crews meets up with the castaways in a manner which felt rather rushed to me, under circumstances I would normally find unbelievable.

The Kindle edition could use a wee bit more editing, as random capitalization appeared in italicized phrases.

Taylor Anderson has joined the ranks of Harry Turtledove and John Ringo as a master of alternative history fiction. His latest book wraps up neatly the threads spun in his last book, and now his fans are left dealing with the implications. Others have detailed the plot, and I see no need to go into it, but suffice it to say that any history buff, military buff, and World War 2 buff can and should read and enjoy these books! Like many of his fans, I will now wait in breathless expectation for the next book in the saga. Well done, Mr. Taylor, Well done!

WWII USS Walker Navy destroyer Captain Matt Reddy leads his crew to Hawaii. They and his new friend New British Imperial Navy Commander Jenks face a difficult task of rescuing two women from a traitor. For Reddy and Jenks the abductions are personal as Nurse Tucker and Princess Rebecca are the victims. However, their effort to obtain help from the Honorable New Britain Company fails. The pair realizes the New Britain Company is dishonorable and must be destroyed before a velvet coup d'etat occurs. Reddy also must forge the Grand Alliance with the New British Empire; though he loathes the latter's slavery policy as an inhuman abomination.

The pact with the Empire angers the displaced Holy Dominion colonial Spaniards. Worshippers of a blood sacrificial form of Catholicism, they vow to slaughter Matt and his crew. Meanwhile Reddy's junior officers are delegated to having responsibilities that lead to unfortunate and in some cases avoidable deaths. The leaders learn under this under the baptism of fire, but face the moral aftermaths of sending people to die.

As the war remains heated in this parallel Destroyermen universe, the officers of the USS Walker obtain a taste of decision making in combat when they know they will send young people to their deaths. Adding to that gut wrenching horror is inexperience leads to errors compounding the deadly count. Eisenhower understood this when he ordered D-Day knowing thousands of young men would never go home and as president carefully used the military something his successors never learned. Besides the anguish of sending people to die even for a worthy cause, Taylor Anderson provides an incredible battle at sea that will have readers in awe rereading it and ponder nature's involvement in the war with the destruction of Talaud Island.

Harriet Klausner

There is something in this book to satisfy a variety of tastes in SF: military, parallel universe, "modern" techs' affect on more primitive society and more. War is not a glorious, romantic adventure, but it does bring out the absolute best, and worst, traits in human behavior like no other activity invented by mankind. As the "Destroyermen" series has progressed, Taylor Anderson has become ever more adept at showcasing these different faces of armed conflict via continually evolving, multi-dimensional characters. The majority of the beings in these books are sentient non-humans and he does a decent job of getting inside some of their heads in a believable way (I doubt its even possible for any relatively sane human to imagine and describe totally alien thought patterns), even introducing a surprising new race to the mix in this book.

The technical details and operational descriptions of service aboard a destroyer bring an added layer of authenticity to all the books of this series, and there is no let up in "Rising Tides". My own service was in the Naval Aviation community in the Vietnam War; my squadron twice deployed aboard U.S.S. Enterprise and plied some of the same waters as Matt Reddy's U.S.S. Walker, but life aboard a nuclear carrier is very different from life aboard even a modern destroyer let alone a WWI vintage four stacker. Immersed in this book I feel the vibrations, smell the mix of odors and hear the sounds whether in the ship's day-to-day routine or the heat of combat.

There are fewer "flashback" references to events in earlier books of the series which suits me. The Kindle edition does have some "typos" but so do many hard and soft cover books. I've enjoyed every book in the series but I think this is my favorite.

Being a fan of of this genre, with other favourites being the Lost Regiment,Sea of Time, Vampire Earth and other alternate reality offerings, I find this series engrossing. The plot, character development and design of this world spanning tale have all the ingredients for a classic in the field.

I would highly recommend this book and series to any fan of the genre.

Although alternate history series have been done many times, this premise has enough unique features to make a very interesting series. Anderson continues to expand the cast of characters and plot elements in the fifth book of the series, with Captain Reddy and his crew making their way to the homelands of the British Imperial colonies, just in time to become deeply involved in a plot by the Dominion, a Spanish empire in central America.

The net is getting a little wide, with offensives in Ceylon and intrigues in Hawaii, so each plot thread gets a little underchanged in terms of coverage. The most interesting plot thread to me was the recovery of the Santa Catalina, a WW2 freighter with a load of P40 fighters that came to this world at the same time as the USS Walker. The description of the native lifeforms in that swamp was a real highlight of the book.

It is a pleasure to read a book with continuing and well-plotted action scenes. Around the middle, there were a few back to back meeting descriptions that had me worried there might be an outbreak of Weber Disease, but I'm please to say Anderson shows no sign of infection, despite the jacket blurb by Mr. Roberts Rules of Order himself.

Here in volume 5 of the Destroyermen series, Anderson again resumes the very fast pace he held in the first two or three volumes but which lagged a bit in the fourth. Interestingly, much of the action in this book takes place remotely from the focus of the first four.

The reason for the faster pace this time out is that the author doesn't weight the story down with constant flashbacks to remind the readers of what's come before as he did in volume four. In fact, although I have read all five books within a short period of time, I got lost a time or two wondering what previous actions had led to certain dialogs. I think it's time for the author to include a Players List and a glossary so that even constant readers can, from time to time, refresh their memories about who is who and how their previous adventures led to their current relationships.

The series now has grown significantly in texture and complexity. We've met several new sentient or semi sentient species, another human faction and the world itself has expanded to encompass an area from east Africa east to Panama but mostly within about 20 degrees of the equator. Still, there is a lot of area and action along that band with a good deal more of the world left if the author wishes to expand there.

My personal preference would have been for the series to stick to the interaction and internal action of the alien (alternate Earth) species with the first band of humans, but the series has delved well into the tensions among the three or four (depends how you count them) human factions. That said, the author does a fine job writing about the drama within the various human factions as well as keeping the kettle boiling reminding us that all humans as well as their alien allies are under threat from an uber enemy plotting in league with yet another human faction for domination.

I did have a few problems with the behavior and attitudes of the 'good guy' humans. At one point, they shoot an unarmed alien under a truce flag. Another time they kill a party during a peace treaty negotiation and finally, another 'good' human accepts a challenge to a sword fight but then pulls a pistol and dispatches his challenger that way. While I found those scenes to sully the stainless nature of the good guys here, it's insufficient for me to subtract a star.

Five solid stars for this volume and the series as a whole.

Mr. Anderson has created a marvelous series! The naval action and detail of battles makes you want to hunker down behind the boilers with Tabat, a feline/human sorta creature that is hilarious. By the time you are into your first book you are cringing knowing the Grik are still out there, ready to devour animal and human alike. It's difficult having to wait for the next book in the series. Thank goodness it comes out October 4th.

The 5th book in the Destroyermen Series is yet again another great book by Taylor Anderson. I simply couldn't put it down. The hardest part will be having to wait for his next book. I put aside 3 other books that I was reading when this one came in. I will guard the books of this series forever, and have already deligated a place for them on my book case.

Things seem pretty straightforward at first, when USS Walker, an aging naval destroyer, gets caught up in a freakish storm at the beginning of Taylor Anderson's "Destroyermen" series. Skippered by Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy, the ship and its crew are fleeing from relentless pursuit by the Japanese shortly after the attacks at Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, the bewildered men find themselves in an utterly changed world.

Sure, the physical geography looks familiar. The ship is still in the area around what we today know as Indonesia. But the seas are teeming with plesiosaurs and other voracious creatures which should have been extinct millions of years ago, and the islands are infested with equally nasty creatures resembling velociraptors.

By the end of the first book, "Into the Storm", these stranded men -- and woefully few women -- have allied themselves with another intelligent, seafaring species, the Lemurians. Although technically primates, they quickly gain the nickname 'Cats due to their obvious feline characteristics. They are, for the most part, very peaceable -- and yet, their species faces annihilation at the claws of an ancient enemy -- the Grik.

A central plot element of the "Destroyermen", the Grik are berserk, velociraptor-like warriors who attack in swarms and eat their enemies. To them, the world is divided into "hunter" and "prey". So initially, the books have a basic "mammals good, lizards bad" type of ethos. Pretty cut and dry. If it has a tail, a long snout and razor-sharp teeth, and it's armed, shoot first and ask questions later.

But a funny thing happens as the series progresses. It turns out that a mighty Japanese battlecruiser called Amagi has also gotten caught up in the freak storm, and they end up on the side of the Grik. But, although the Japanese commander is insane, not all of the Japanese are necessarily evil. Some are just caught in a situation they can't escape without ending up on the dinner table.

Next, a member of another race of Grik-like beings known as the Tagranesi turns up on an island populated by human castaways. But Lawrence, as he's been named, is peaceable and, amazingly, can even speak English -- though proper pronunciation is hampered by his lack of lips. He is the protector of a real-life princess named Rebecca Anne McDonald from the island nation of New Britain. Yes, other humans have been swept into this bizarre parallel universe over the centuries.

So now we have "good" humans and "bad" humans, plus "good" lizards and "bad" lizards.

But soon the situation gets more complex still, as the New British turn up. Naturally, they're looking for the princess. There are two major factions -- the supporters of the Governor-Emperor, and members of the HNBC (the Honorable New British Company). Even as the protagonists are preoccupied with the ongoing war against the Grik, the HNBC agents kidnap the princess plus a few other important characters -- most notably Sandra Tucker, Matthew Reddy's love interest and de facto fiancee.

Thus, at the start of book five of the "Destroyermen" series, called "Rising Tides", Captain Reddy is now in hot pursuit of the kidnappers. With him is Commodore Jenks, a New British loyalist who has become a trusted friend and ally of the Americans. Somehow, Reddy has to rescue his friends and destroy the HNBC, hopefully without starting a war with the New British Empire itself. He doesn't need the distraction -- not when he'd rather be fighting the Grik.

However, as we'll learn in the new book, there is yet another human empire to the east, and they are inimical to everything the Americans and the New British believe in ....

I enjoyed this book as much as the others in the series. The plot is divided into a number of different parallel storylines. Besides Captain Reddy's expedition, there is the ongoing campaign against the Grik in the west. There is the continuing saga of the kidnapping victims, as they fight for survival. There is an expedition to exploit an exciting and vitally important find on the island of Jaava. And finally, there is the attempt to salvage submarine S-19 from the beach of a volcanic island which increasingly -- and disturbingly -- reminds people of Krakatoa, the volcano which exploded devastatingly in 1883 in our own universe, but not the other.

The various human and Lemurian characters continue to grow, needing to take on new roles as emergencies demand from them all the resourcefulness they can muster. They have to face moral questions as well. Should Captain Ready and the USS Walker attack the HNBC with all guns blazing? Is it acceptable to eliminate a deadly enemy, even under the flag of truce? A parallel question arises one chapter later: Is it wise to show mercy to the pitiful remnants of a vanquished foe? The New British have some customs which Americans and Lemurians both find extremely distasteful. Can they overlook this and make common cause, hoping that the New British will learn from example and end these customs?

And then there is a practical question: When is it prudent to simply give up the mission before more people get killed?

This is a pretty serious novel, with some serious battle sequences, but there is some levity as well. One of my favorite scenes involves an odd "parrot-lizard" creature which learns to talk -- unfortunately, its first words came from the quintessential drunken sailor, Dennis Silva. This critter will never say "Polly wanna cracker."

And then there's the kudzu. It looks so innocent ....

All I can say is, Taylor Anderson has a wonderful imagination when it comes to the various weird and wonderful life forms in this new world.

My only complaint about this series? Just that I'll probably have to wait another year to see what happens to our friends next. I'm seriously looking forward to it.