From Publishers Weekly
Deep under the sea, U.S. submarine captain Jeffrey Fuller is still at it, dodging depth charges, launching torpedoes and otherwise foiling a reinvigorated Nazi Germany from taking over the world. Buff's latest breathlessly paced thriller, set in the year 2011, starts out where last year's Deep Sound Channel left off. The world has been overtaken by a Germany-South Africa alliance. France has fallen. Great Britain is starving. It's up to the United States to prevent nuclear destruction and restore order. Fuller, fresh off victorious duty in the South Atlantic, has now taken over command of the Challenger, the most advanced American sub. His mission is to rescue a disabled sub on the ocean floor near the Azores, then proceed to the Baltic, where he is to lead a secret strike force and destroy a German missile laboratory. Never one to fail, Fuller has only one worry. He knows Germany's high-tech supersub, the Deutschland, is lurking out there. And his arch rival, the ruthless Kurt Eberhard, is at the controls, eager to send Fuller and the Challenger to the bottom of the sea. Long-winded at points and weakened by a silly love affair, the second in the Fuller line nonetheless provides satisfying action for battle lovers. Buff's admiration for submarines and their crews comes across from the start. His meticulous attention to the details of life aboard the Challenger and the obstacles it faces help heighten the drama, particularly during the final fight scene in the Norwegian Sea. The jargon flies fast and heavy, but even readers unfamiliar with the terminology will be able to catch its drift after awhile.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This is the second in Buff's series of technothrillers devoted to a near-future war in which the United States and England are allied against Germany. As in Buff's first novel, Deep Sound Channel (LJ 5/1/00), two highly sophisticated submarinesAmerica's Challenger, again commanded by former Navy SEAL Jeffrey Fuller, and Germany's Deutschlandare the focus of the story. Despite almost nonstop action, however, this novel fails at several levels. The characters are not well developed, and their dialog is stilted. Worse, Thunder and its predecessor include premises that stretch plausibility. The first is that the fossilized Hohenzollerns could somehow regain control of Germany and reinstate both the monarchy and the militaristic Prussian aristocracy. The second is that both sides could explode tactical nukes like popcorn without any real concern about escalation toward mutually assured destruction. The book just doesn't work. For larger collections only.Robert Conroy, Warren, MI
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
