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Destroyermen #1
Into the Storm
Pressed into service when World War II breaks out in the Pacific, the USS Walker---a Great-War vintage "four-stacker" destroyer---finds itself in full retreat from pursuit by Japanese battleships. Its captain, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Patrick Reddy, knows that he and his crew are in dire straits. In desperation, he heads Walker into a squall, hoping it will give them cover---and emerges somewhere else.
Familiar landmarks appear, but the water teems with monstrous, vicious fish. And there appear to be dinosaurs grazing on the plains of Bali. Gradually Matt and his crew must accept the fact that they are in an alternate world---and they are not alone. Humans have not evolved, but two other species have. And they are at war.
With its steam power and weaponry, the Walker's very existence could alter the balance of power. And for Matt and his crew, who have the means to turn a primitive war into a genocidal Armageddon, one thing becomes clear: They must decide whose side they're on. Because whoever they choose to side with is the winner.
Familiar landmarks appear, but the water teems with monstrous, vicious fish. And there appear to be dinosaurs grazing on the plains of Bali. Gradually Matt and his crew must accept the fact that they are in an alternate world---and they are not alone. Humans have not evolved, but two other species have. And they are at war.
With its steam power and weaponry, the Walker's very existence could alter the balance of power. And for Matt and his crew, who have the means to turn a primitive war into a genocidal Armageddon, one thing becomes clear: They must decide whose side they're on. Because whoever they choose to side with is the winner.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published June 3, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 548 reviews
April 13, 2015
Matt Ready and the crew of the USS Walker are on the run from the Japanese when they find themselves transported into a strange new world that is eerily similar to the one they left behind. Although the stars and the land formations are the same, the people and cities are gone. Giant sea monsters swim in the seas and the islands are populated by great lumbering dinosaurs and smaller, faster, more deadly predators. It's truly as if they are on an alternate world where the dinosaurs never went extinct and evolution took an entirely different path.
In this strange new world the Walker encounters not one but two intelligent species - the peaceful, mammalian Lemurians and the viscious, raptor-like Grik. In no time at all, Walker and her crew find themselves taking sides. The Lemurians are an ocean going nomadic people, forced to flee the major landmasses due to the rapacious ways of the Grik. And their involvement promises to turn the tide of what was looking more and more like certain defeat. Although outgunned in the Pacific in early 1942, the Walker is more than capable of dishing out pain against the wooden ships of the Grik.
Pretty cool stuff, except that I'm pretty sure that I've seen it before. What on the surface sounds super, duper original feels to me like a rehash of books that I've read before. Think Harry Turtledove's Videssos series and William R Forstchen's lost regiment series. In the one a Roman legion is transported to an alternate world to fight an unholy evil. In the other, a Union regiment from the US Civil War is transported to an alternate world to fight an unholy evil where humans are on the menu. The lack of originality isn't a deal-killer, but it makes the premise less fresh than it might otherwise be.
Ignoring the whole transition thing, the book was pretty fun (if a bit predictable). The Grik are bad guys you can happily root against. The Lemurians are an ally you feel naturally sympathetic too. The combat is well written and engaging. The tensions on the ship effective.
Four stars out of five. It is good, fast-paced fun but by no means high fiction. If you like your military sci-fi, you will probably like this book. I will be reading the next book in the series.
In this strange new world the Walker encounters not one but two intelligent species - the peaceful, mammalian Lemurians and the viscious, raptor-like Grik. In no time at all, Walker and her crew find themselves taking sides. The Lemurians are an ocean going nomadic people, forced to flee the major landmasses due to the rapacious ways of the Grik. And their involvement promises to turn the tide of what was looking more and more like certain defeat. Although outgunned in the Pacific in early 1942, the Walker is more than capable of dishing out pain against the wooden ships of the Grik.
Pretty cool stuff, except that I'm pretty sure that I've seen it before. What on the surface sounds super, duper original feels to me like a rehash of books that I've read before. Think Harry Turtledove's Videssos series and William R Forstchen's lost regiment series. In the one a Roman legion is transported to an alternate world to fight an unholy evil. In the other, a Union regiment from the US Civil War is transported to an alternate world to fight an unholy evil where humans are on the menu. The lack of originality isn't a deal-killer, but it makes the premise less fresh than it might otherwise be.
Ignoring the whole transition thing, the book was pretty fun (if a bit predictable). The Grik are bad guys you can happily root against. The Lemurians are an ally you feel naturally sympathetic too. The combat is well written and engaging. The tensions on the ship effective.
Four stars out of five. It is good, fast-paced fun but by no means high fiction. If you like your military sci-fi, you will probably like this book. I will be reading the next book in the series.
February 3, 2020
Exciting blend of sci-fi, fantasy and military fiction
A pair of obsolete, unarmored and underarmed American four stacker destroyers escaping the Dutch East Indies after the courageous but disastrous battle of the Java Sea, run into the Japanese battle cruiser Amagi. They launch a torpedo attack and flee into a storm to hide...and go somewhere else. The storm doesn't even look normal but in its aftermath things seem ok. But soon the sailors realize that even though their charts seem to still be accurate and land still seems to be where it should be, there are serious changes. Radical changes - "For a moment nobody moved, but finally the Bosun stirred. “Get the lead out, you miserable girly saps! The Skipper gave an order! Ain’t you never seen a sea monster eat a Nip before?" Well no, they hadn't, but they were to see and experience even stranger things before the end of the first volume in this highly entertaining sci-fi/fantasy series.
A pair of obsolete, unarmored and underarmed American four stacker destroyers escaping the Dutch East Indies after the courageous but disastrous battle of the Java Sea, run into the Japanese battle cruiser Amagi. They launch a torpedo attack and flee into a storm to hide...and go somewhere else. The storm doesn't even look normal but in its aftermath things seem ok. But soon the sailors realize that even though their charts seem to still be accurate and land still seems to be where it should be, there are serious changes. Radical changes - "For a moment nobody moved, but finally the Bosun stirred. “Get the lead out, you miserable girly saps! The Skipper gave an order! Ain’t you never seen a sea monster eat a Nip before?" Well no, they hadn't, but they were to see and experience even stranger things before the end of the first volume in this highly entertaining sci-fi/fantasy series.
December 30, 2013
Into the Storm (Destroyermen #1, Audiobook) by Taylor Anderson -- Kind of like a John Wayne from "In Harm's Way" (movie) meets Anne McCafferry's "Decision at Doona" (book) Simply put:Ìý This book was fun to listen to (read).Ìý Recommended
Ìý
Early in the Second World War, in the south Pacific where the South Coral Sea meets the Indian Ocean a lone allied flotilla seeks desperately for a place to hide and slip past an overwhelming Japanese task force.Ìý Well, two of those ships, the USS Mahan, and the USS Walker found a very unexpected place to hide.Ìý No more Japanese Battleships firing on them.Ìý No more war planes diving from the skies to bomb and strafe them...actually, no more of anything familiar.ÌýÌý Be careful what you wish for...
Ìý
This may fall into the category of "there are only seven original plots and Shakespeare wrote all seven of them."Ìý By that I mean, that people falling through holes in the universe and finding themselves on the other side of tomorrow are nothing new...except that it's always new.Ìý Don't get me wrong here.Ìý All I'm saying is that there are a lot of sci-fi books about "ooops, I stepped on the wrong rock and now, wouldn't you know it, I’m lost in another galaxy."Ìý The question is, how do you get yours to stand out as different, or if not different, better or enjoyable for those reading?
Ìý
I suggest you ask Taylor Anderson.Ìý
Ìý
Anderson's book is no Turtledove*.Ìý
Ìý
The things I liked:
Ìý
First and foremost, as an old retired Navy Chief, I'd like to applaud the wonderful way Anderson managed to capture the character of a Navy Crew aboard a Naval Warship. These guys are neither perfect nor completely flawed.Ìý They are human, with varying degrees of personality and the interaction, teasing, courage, innovative thinking and camaraderie (for good or bad) gives a good impression of what it's like on ship with a small crew.Ìý No two people are alike.Ìý If Anderson brings them in, then they have an interesting story and a remarkably different personality.Ìý We didn't meet every one of ship's company, but this is a series.Ìý
Ìý
There are some that stand out - Gunner's Mate Silva, the mice, and especially Boatswain's Mate Chief Gray. Gray made a wonderful supporting character, able to provide comic relief with a witty comment and very much like the Chiefs I remember from my early days in the Navy when I was just a wide-eyed OSSN trying who was too smart for his own good. In fact, Captain Ready had to warn him to keep his mouth shut it might start an international incident if they all burst out laughing while the Lemurians were introducing them to their gods.Ìý And Silva, well, Silva's kind of like "The SOURCE" from the old, and short run TV Sci-fi Parody "Quark."Ìý To quote: "Is the source dangerous?"..."Well, only if it's on your side.."Ìý Like in the show, Silva somehow manages to be an asset...just barely.ÌýÌý With Matt being a bit stuffy at times (appropriately, but noticably) Gray and Silva balanced the book out and helped make him more likeable...as did Lt Turner...But, that's another part of the story.
Ìý
I like the way the "Nurses" were portrayed.ÌýÌýThe crew was not as respectful as we would want from our sailors and marines now, and their roles tended to be narrow and sometimes trivialized.Ìý BUT, this story isn't set in the 2013 Navy at War with Iraq, it's set in the 1940s at war with the Japanese.Ìý They are as they should be, given the time, and, that role is more or less by mutual consent.Ìý However, I would point out that LT Turner was a "mold breaker" and a force to be reconed with.Ìý I'd also point out that the Lemurians, even though they were not Human, did not reflect the same values and principles that the Human's were trapped in and, that this was noticed in many ways and on different levels.Ìý
Ìý
I especially enjoyed the way the crew (Silva mostly) saw the solution to only having two females aboard (and both taken).Ìý I won't spoil it because it comes at the end of the book.Ìý It turned out to be a funny scene about a serious subject but the beauty of it is, is that it avoided what could be some scenes that, while they may be worthwhile, now become unnecessary.Ìý
Ìý
I loved the villains.Ìý Nothing wrong with hungry cannibalistic humanoid bastards that eat anything and everything.Ìý The Griff!Ìý Hell I'm scared of 'em and I ain't never seen one.Ìý I think we could have had more info on them, or spent more time with them, but one of the factors for the Walker Destroyermen is how Unknown they were to both them and the Lemurians.
Ìý
I liked the world building, Lemurians, Griff and all.Ìý The entire Lemurian Society down to the odd attitudes and playfulness of the Lemurians, and their huge floating islands were wonderful and exciting to explore.Ìý I like that some of the major characters are Lemurian and that we got to see things through their eyes every now and then.Ìý They are a loose knit tribal society with casts built in and good people.Ìý Anderson appeared to go out of his way to develop the unknown and unlikely from real science.Ìý I suspect that his choice of a ship, the same class as USS Walker is because it could run on poorly refined crued oil.Ìý
Ìý
I also love, love, loved the opening battle scene between the DESRON (Destroyer Squadron) and the Japanese Task Force.Ìý That was well done, desperate and got my heart going.Ìý
Ìý
Above all I appreciate the "feel" of the story.Ìý For me the "feel" is created by a complex weave of scenes, attitude, and voice.Ìý It's the way the author folds violence or perhaps romantic even sexual scenes and content and the emotional responses that come up when reading (or hearing for audiobooks) those scenes.Ìý It's how the characters fit together and react and if I get mad when I should or feel heartbroken when I should.Ìý We don't experience these things separately we experience them all at the same time in the same way we remember events in our lives. So it's impossible to say, more of this, less of that and you'll be "okay."Ìý This is where the art of word-smithing takes over from the science of punctuation and grammar.Ìý It's also where stories take on "life" of their own.Ìý IÌýreally appreciate the nature and tone of this story.Ìý It's "Feel" as I read it's passion and vigor and the gentle and careful way difficult subjects were laid out for us to experience the joy of the story, instead of the glory of the act.ÌýÌý
Ìý
It's a story written for adults, with some harsh language, that is where harsh language should be, lots of violence, depicted as I wish violence to be depicted in stories with the right tone and attitude about it.Ìý It just felt good to read.Ìý So I enjoyed it.
Ìý
Things I think could have used more work
Ìý
There isn't much, and the length of this list is getting shorter and shorter as I think about it.Ìý Anderson did a good job of not putting things in his story without meaning and his skill and dedication show.Ìý
Ìý
I do not like how the role of the Japanese POW on parole seemed to shrink.Ìý I thought he was a wonderful, developing character, but as the book drove on he seemed to disappear into the shadows.Ìý He did come back to the fore near the end, but I would have wanted to be in his head more than we were.
Ìý
I also wanted to understand the Grif better than I did. That means a little time inside one of their heads, or, maybe through a captured sailor etc.Ìý There were revelations towards the end of the book but I think the void of information on them worked against the story.Ìý
Ìý
I'm 50/50 on the romance in the story.Ìý Parts of me enjoyed it, while other parts thought it was a bit clunky.Ìý By 50/50 I meanÌý sometimes I liked it and smiled, sometimes I thought it was a bit like watching Ritchie Cunningham on his first date. (Thursday Friday Happy Days!) ask me tomorrow and it'll be the warm romance all sailors wanted to be in...okay, most of em.
Ìý
Overall 4.5 Stars
Ìý
Overall this is a wonderful story.Ìý It's John Wayne in Harm's Way meets McCafferry's Decision at Doona.Ìý The characters are rich and wonderful, the world building as meticulous as it is creative and the wicked villains cold blooded...in this case...literally.Ìý The tone and content are fit for mature readers and there is no reason young adults could not also enjoy this story.ÌýÌý If you are not fond of "military sci-fi" you may not enjoy this as much, but it would be worth taking a chance.Ìý It's well written, fun, exciting and interesting.Ìý
Ìý
Warnings
Generally I don't think there is much to warn about.Ìý Even the things I'm about to liste are generlly ether mild, or appropriate due to the time and place they are set in.Ìý
Ìý
1) This crew comes from the 1940s and the war with Japan.Ìý They use some derogatory nicknames for the Japanese like Nips, Japs etc. If your of Asian descent and sensitive to ethnic slurs, this might rankle you.Ìý I think Anderson did a good job of bringing in a "Hero" who's Japanese in a way that makes him a respectable hero. So, it's not anti-Japanese or Asian or anybody.Ìý It's just how people spoke in the day and age these guys are from.
Ìý
3 of 5 (with 5 high, all the time and 1 as never.Ìý And this is about how often the ethnic slurs are used.Ìý Again, I believe it’s appropriate given the setting.).
Ìý
2)Ìý Language - They are sailors, they use... let’s call it creative sailor talk... what did you expect?Ìý Generally Anderson uses creative word combinations instead of F-bombs or nicknames for excrement but there are some in the book.Ìý It's a well done for Anderson, but, if you are sensitive to foul language, though you might not notice it because there isn't much of it, you might pick up on the few uses of those words here.Ìý
Ìý
2 of 5
Ìý
3)Ìý Violence - The violence in this book is well managed violence, typical of War.Ìý There are some fights and some practical jokes gone wrong in the story.Ìý There is nothing gratuitous or inappropriate about it.Ìý However, it is there.Ìý This is a book where everything wants to eat everything, and some of the inhabitants of this book world intelligent in ways similar to humans.Ìý If that bugs you, be warned.ÌýÌý The warning is stating the obvious.Ìý It's about war... people get hurt in war. We get to experience some of teh fights.Ìý
Ìý
3Ìýof 5 (for quantity of scenes... plenty of them but that's not all the books about)
2 of 5 (for how difficult and squirmy they make me when I hear/read them.Ìý It's all well done.Ìý And that which does make me go.. "ah.. ew..." generally enhances the book in some way (villains have to be scary or... it don't work).
* Turtledove is a reference to, Harry Turtledove who writes a lot of “What ifâ€�?â€� Historical Dystopian Fiction.Ìý In particularly his “Fateful Lighteningâ€� series about a Union Army lost on an alien and violent world.Ìý
Ìý
Ìý
Ìý
Early in the Second World War, in the south Pacific where the South Coral Sea meets the Indian Ocean a lone allied flotilla seeks desperately for a place to hide and slip past an overwhelming Japanese task force.Ìý Well, two of those ships, the USS Mahan, and the USS Walker found a very unexpected place to hide.Ìý No more Japanese Battleships firing on them.Ìý No more war planes diving from the skies to bomb and strafe them...actually, no more of anything familiar.ÌýÌý Be careful what you wish for...
Ìý
This may fall into the category of "there are only seven original plots and Shakespeare wrote all seven of them."Ìý By that I mean, that people falling through holes in the universe and finding themselves on the other side of tomorrow are nothing new...except that it's always new.Ìý Don't get me wrong here.Ìý All I'm saying is that there are a lot of sci-fi books about "ooops, I stepped on the wrong rock and now, wouldn't you know it, I’m lost in another galaxy."Ìý The question is, how do you get yours to stand out as different, or if not different, better or enjoyable for those reading?
Ìý
I suggest you ask Taylor Anderson.Ìý
Ìý
Anderson's book is no Turtledove*.Ìý
Ìý
The things I liked:
Ìý
First and foremost, as an old retired Navy Chief, I'd like to applaud the wonderful way Anderson managed to capture the character of a Navy Crew aboard a Naval Warship. These guys are neither perfect nor completely flawed.Ìý They are human, with varying degrees of personality and the interaction, teasing, courage, innovative thinking and camaraderie (for good or bad) gives a good impression of what it's like on ship with a small crew.Ìý No two people are alike.Ìý If Anderson brings them in, then they have an interesting story and a remarkably different personality.Ìý We didn't meet every one of ship's company, but this is a series.Ìý
Ìý
There are some that stand out - Gunner's Mate Silva, the mice, and especially Boatswain's Mate Chief Gray. Gray made a wonderful supporting character, able to provide comic relief with a witty comment and very much like the Chiefs I remember from my early days in the Navy when I was just a wide-eyed OSSN trying who was too smart for his own good. In fact, Captain Ready had to warn him to keep his mouth shut it might start an international incident if they all burst out laughing while the Lemurians were introducing them to their gods.Ìý And Silva, well, Silva's kind of like "The SOURCE" from the old, and short run TV Sci-fi Parody "Quark."Ìý To quote: "Is the source dangerous?"..."Well, only if it's on your side.."Ìý Like in the show, Silva somehow manages to be an asset...just barely.ÌýÌý With Matt being a bit stuffy at times (appropriately, but noticably) Gray and Silva balanced the book out and helped make him more likeable...as did Lt Turner...But, that's another part of the story.
Ìý
I like the way the "Nurses" were portrayed.ÌýÌýThe crew was not as respectful as we would want from our sailors and marines now, and their roles tended to be narrow and sometimes trivialized.Ìý BUT, this story isn't set in the 2013 Navy at War with Iraq, it's set in the 1940s at war with the Japanese.Ìý They are as they should be, given the time, and, that role is more or less by mutual consent.Ìý However, I would point out that LT Turner was a "mold breaker" and a force to be reconed with.Ìý I'd also point out that the Lemurians, even though they were not Human, did not reflect the same values and principles that the Human's were trapped in and, that this was noticed in many ways and on different levels.Ìý
Ìý
I especially enjoyed the way the crew (Silva mostly) saw the solution to only having two females aboard (and both taken).Ìý I won't spoil it because it comes at the end of the book.Ìý It turned out to be a funny scene about a serious subject but the beauty of it is, is that it avoided what could be some scenes that, while they may be worthwhile, now become unnecessary.Ìý
Ìý
I loved the villains.Ìý Nothing wrong with hungry cannibalistic humanoid bastards that eat anything and everything.Ìý The Griff!Ìý Hell I'm scared of 'em and I ain't never seen one.Ìý I think we could have had more info on them, or spent more time with them, but one of the factors for the Walker Destroyermen is how Unknown they were to both them and the Lemurians.
Ìý
I liked the world building, Lemurians, Griff and all.Ìý The entire Lemurian Society down to the odd attitudes and playfulness of the Lemurians, and their huge floating islands were wonderful and exciting to explore.Ìý I like that some of the major characters are Lemurian and that we got to see things through their eyes every now and then.Ìý They are a loose knit tribal society with casts built in and good people.Ìý Anderson appeared to go out of his way to develop the unknown and unlikely from real science.Ìý I suspect that his choice of a ship, the same class as USS Walker is because it could run on poorly refined crued oil.Ìý
Ìý
I also love, love, loved the opening battle scene between the DESRON (Destroyer Squadron) and the Japanese Task Force.Ìý That was well done, desperate and got my heart going.Ìý
Ìý
Above all I appreciate the "feel" of the story.Ìý For me the "feel" is created by a complex weave of scenes, attitude, and voice.Ìý It's the way the author folds violence or perhaps romantic even sexual scenes and content and the emotional responses that come up when reading (or hearing for audiobooks) those scenes.Ìý It's how the characters fit together and react and if I get mad when I should or feel heartbroken when I should.Ìý We don't experience these things separately we experience them all at the same time in the same way we remember events in our lives. So it's impossible to say, more of this, less of that and you'll be "okay."Ìý This is where the art of word-smithing takes over from the science of punctuation and grammar.Ìý It's also where stories take on "life" of their own.Ìý IÌýreally appreciate the nature and tone of this story.Ìý It's "Feel" as I read it's passion and vigor and the gentle and careful way difficult subjects were laid out for us to experience the joy of the story, instead of the glory of the act.ÌýÌý
Ìý
It's a story written for adults, with some harsh language, that is where harsh language should be, lots of violence, depicted as I wish violence to be depicted in stories with the right tone and attitude about it.Ìý It just felt good to read.Ìý So I enjoyed it.
Ìý
Things I think could have used more work
Ìý
There isn't much, and the length of this list is getting shorter and shorter as I think about it.Ìý Anderson did a good job of not putting things in his story without meaning and his skill and dedication show.Ìý
Ìý
I do not like how the role of the Japanese POW on parole seemed to shrink.Ìý I thought he was a wonderful, developing character, but as the book drove on he seemed to disappear into the shadows.Ìý He did come back to the fore near the end, but I would have wanted to be in his head more than we were.
Ìý
I also wanted to understand the Grif better than I did. That means a little time inside one of their heads, or, maybe through a captured sailor etc.Ìý There were revelations towards the end of the book but I think the void of information on them worked against the story.Ìý
Ìý
I'm 50/50 on the romance in the story.Ìý Parts of me enjoyed it, while other parts thought it was a bit clunky.Ìý By 50/50 I meanÌý sometimes I liked it and smiled, sometimes I thought it was a bit like watching Ritchie Cunningham on his first date. (Thursday Friday Happy Days!) ask me tomorrow and it'll be the warm romance all sailors wanted to be in...okay, most of em.
Ìý
Overall 4.5 Stars
Ìý
Overall this is a wonderful story.Ìý It's John Wayne in Harm's Way meets McCafferry's Decision at Doona.Ìý The characters are rich and wonderful, the world building as meticulous as it is creative and the wicked villains cold blooded...in this case...literally.Ìý The tone and content are fit for mature readers and there is no reason young adults could not also enjoy this story.ÌýÌý If you are not fond of "military sci-fi" you may not enjoy this as much, but it would be worth taking a chance.Ìý It's well written, fun, exciting and interesting.Ìý
Ìý
Warnings
Generally I don't think there is much to warn about.Ìý Even the things I'm about to liste are generlly ether mild, or appropriate due to the time and place they are set in.Ìý
Ìý
1) This crew comes from the 1940s and the war with Japan.Ìý They use some derogatory nicknames for the Japanese like Nips, Japs etc. If your of Asian descent and sensitive to ethnic slurs, this might rankle you.Ìý I think Anderson did a good job of bringing in a "Hero" who's Japanese in a way that makes him a respectable hero. So, it's not anti-Japanese or Asian or anybody.Ìý It's just how people spoke in the day and age these guys are from.
Ìý
3 of 5 (with 5 high, all the time and 1 as never.Ìý And this is about how often the ethnic slurs are used.Ìý Again, I believe it’s appropriate given the setting.).
Ìý
2)Ìý Language - They are sailors, they use... let’s call it creative sailor talk... what did you expect?Ìý Generally Anderson uses creative word combinations instead of F-bombs or nicknames for excrement but there are some in the book.Ìý It's a well done for Anderson, but, if you are sensitive to foul language, though you might not notice it because there isn't much of it, you might pick up on the few uses of those words here.Ìý
Ìý
2 of 5
Ìý
3)Ìý Violence - The violence in this book is well managed violence, typical of War.Ìý There are some fights and some practical jokes gone wrong in the story.Ìý There is nothing gratuitous or inappropriate about it.Ìý However, it is there.Ìý This is a book where everything wants to eat everything, and some of the inhabitants of this book world intelligent in ways similar to humans.Ìý If that bugs you, be warned.ÌýÌý The warning is stating the obvious.Ìý It's about war... people get hurt in war. We get to experience some of teh fights.Ìý
Ìý
3Ìýof 5 (for quantity of scenes... plenty of them but that's not all the books about)
2 of 5 (for how difficult and squirmy they make me when I hear/read them.Ìý It's all well done.Ìý And that which does make me go.. "ah.. ew..." generally enhances the book in some way (villains have to be scary or... it don't work).
* Turtledove is a reference to, Harry Turtledove who writes a lot of “What ifâ€�?â€� Historical Dystopian Fiction.Ìý In particularly his “Fateful Lighteningâ€� series about a Union Army lost on an alien and violent world.Ìý
Ìý
Ìý
June 30, 2014
Well, that was....... easy to read. Probably around the 3.5 star mark.
So what is it all about? Well, imagine if you will, 1940 something. The US navy has been in a pitched battle with the Japanese navy and had its collective ass spanked. Fleeing the Phillipines a fleet of US destroyers, including USS Wlaker and Mahan (apparently this is all historical truth) are engaged against the odds to protect the Exeter. The first 20% is basically a navel shit fight with the future looking grim for our young captain hero.
I have to say Anderson knows his way around a destroyer and knows how to describe an exciting sea battle. Back to the story, when up rises a massive storm that pitches our destroyer freinds into what appears an alternate universe.
Geographically things seem the same, pulling up to Bali however, reveals pygmy brontosauruses instead of half naked village girls. Sharks are like mackerals because giant sea creatures rule the waves.
Once the shock of the new world wears off, or at least becomes a secondary concern, the team find themselves in the middle of a battle between the Lemurians (cat monkey people from Madagascar) and teh crazy ass Lizard people from... somewhere else, probably Africa. The scray lizrds are sailing around in 18th century sailing ships and the monkeycats speak Latin. I kid you not. All is explained as the story progresses.
Is is a fun light read, i was expecting it to be pretty naff, but I do enjoy that ANderson writes very well for the period. The US navy men are very believable with their hatred for the Jappo's/nips, their remarks about the half naked cat women, who will no doubt go from 'furry beast' to 'just like some un-shaved european chick' when the local brew kicks in and the apparent lack of any other human females become an issue (which is about 15 mins after being allowed off ship).
I am not much of a naval battle story fan, but am enjoying the way this is written. As a switch to an alternate world story, I find it a nice break to kick back, use less concentration as I would have to do normally and enjoy it for what it is.
So what is it all about? Well, imagine if you will, 1940 something. The US navy has been in a pitched battle with the Japanese navy and had its collective ass spanked. Fleeing the Phillipines a fleet of US destroyers, including USS Wlaker and Mahan (apparently this is all historical truth) are engaged against the odds to protect the Exeter. The first 20% is basically a navel shit fight with the future looking grim for our young captain hero.
I have to say Anderson knows his way around a destroyer and knows how to describe an exciting sea battle. Back to the story, when up rises a massive storm that pitches our destroyer freinds into what appears an alternate universe.
Geographically things seem the same, pulling up to Bali however, reveals pygmy brontosauruses instead of half naked village girls. Sharks are like mackerals because giant sea creatures rule the waves.
Once the shock of the new world wears off, or at least becomes a secondary concern, the team find themselves in the middle of a battle between the Lemurians (cat monkey people from Madagascar) and teh crazy ass Lizard people from... somewhere else, probably Africa. The scray lizrds are sailing around in 18th century sailing ships and the monkeycats speak Latin. I kid you not. All is explained as the story progresses.
Is is a fun light read, i was expecting it to be pretty naff, but I do enjoy that ANderson writes very well for the period. The US navy men are very believable with their hatred for the Jappo's/nips, their remarks about the half naked cat women, who will no doubt go from 'furry beast' to 'just like some un-shaved european chick' when the local brew kicks in and the apparent lack of any other human females become an issue (which is about 15 mins after being allowed off ship).
I am not much of a naval battle story fan, but am enjoying the way this is written. As a switch to an alternate world story, I find it a nice break to kick back, use less concentration as I would have to do normally and enjoy it for what it is.
April 8, 2019
Wooden characters, borderline cheesy dialogue, just not my cup of tea.
January 17, 2011
2.0 stars. This was a disappointment for me as I was really hoping to like this one. One of the problems with a first book in an ongoing series is that sometimes the author spends too much time on the set up and I think that was the case here. In addition to a relatively slow plot I thought the characters were fairly uninteresting and I didn't really find myself caring much about what happened to them.
Notwithstanding the above, I did like the underlying premise of the book and will probably read the second book in the series. With the set up of the first novel completed, the second book has a good chance to be a lot more interesting. Hopefully, it works out that way.
One final note: I listened to the audio version of the book read by William Dufris and I thought he did a pretty good job with the narration.
Nominee: Compton Crook Award.
Notwithstanding the above, I did like the underlying premise of the book and will probably read the second book in the series. With the set up of the first novel completed, the second book has a good chance to be a lot more interesting. Hopefully, it works out that way.
One final note: I listened to the audio version of the book read by William Dufris and I thought he did a pretty good job with the narration.
Nominee: Compton Crook Award.
January 14, 2014
Hummm....for the first maybe quarter of this book I was interested and thought, "well if it stays like this it's a good solid 4". We open during the battle of the Java Sea an early navel battle of WWII and an unmitigated disaster for the allies. Our hero is the captain of an obsolete WWI era destroyer among the fleet trying to stem the Japanese advance....
Wait...strike part of that. I said the battle was an "unmitigated" disaster. It did interrupt the Japanese invasion fleet so, it wasn't "unmitigated" I suppose. Anyway the fleet was getting it's collective butt kicked.
Anyway...where were we??? Oh yeah. Two American destroyers (one with a Japanese prisoner on board) survive a confrontation in the battle that finally forces them to break off. Pursued by an overwhelming force (including a huge Japanese battle cruiser) they flee into a threatening, dangerous looking squall....
Then after a weird inexplicable experience they exit into sunny skies.
In a different Earth.
I mean it's the same Earth geography wise...but that's all. The stars are right, the land masses are right but that's about all.
By the time I finished the book I'd decided that this is a 5 star read and that I really want to go right to the next in the season. I'm planning to read something else first just because I've got it on my list and "such". But I'm giving this one a high recommendation in the action/science fiction/military/military science fiction areas.
You're going to an interesting take on life forms and how "we" might relate to them and them to us. You also get views of less technologically advanced societies confronting advanced technologies. These are fairly well known science fiction themes but they get handled well here without burying the story.
There's another series of navel novels where a modern day ship gets "jerked" back in time to WWII. That series while being an interesting idea bogged itself down in political and sociological themes. The racial relations and sexual relations stories swamped and (in my opinion) overwhelmed the actual plot of the books (unless of course you see that "as the actual plot" then it did what it was meant to). This novel (however) tells an actual story and draws you in with a plot and interesting characters.
Go figure.
So, great action adventure in a science fiction setting. Enjoy.
Wait...strike part of that. I said the battle was an "unmitigated" disaster. It did interrupt the Japanese invasion fleet so, it wasn't "unmitigated" I suppose. Anyway the fleet was getting it's collective butt kicked.
Anyway...where were we??? Oh yeah. Two American destroyers (one with a Japanese prisoner on board) survive a confrontation in the battle that finally forces them to break off. Pursued by an overwhelming force (including a huge Japanese battle cruiser) they flee into a threatening, dangerous looking squall....
Then after a weird inexplicable experience they exit into sunny skies.
In a different Earth.
I mean it's the same Earth geography wise...but that's all. The stars are right, the land masses are right but that's about all.
By the time I finished the book I'd decided that this is a 5 star read and that I really want to go right to the next in the season. I'm planning to read something else first just because I've got it on my list and "such". But I'm giving this one a high recommendation in the action/science fiction/military/military science fiction areas.
You're going to an interesting take on life forms and how "we" might relate to them and them to us. You also get views of less technologically advanced societies confronting advanced technologies. These are fairly well known science fiction themes but they get handled well here without burying the story.
There's another series of navel novels where a modern day ship gets "jerked" back in time to WWII. That series while being an interesting idea bogged itself down in political and sociological themes. The racial relations and sexual relations stories swamped and (in my opinion) overwhelmed the actual plot of the books (unless of course you see that "as the actual plot" then it did what it was meant to). This novel (however) tells an actual story and draws you in with a plot and interesting characters.
Go figure.
So, great action adventure in a science fiction setting. Enjoy.
August 23, 2019
This is the start of a popular series & it introduces a brand new world with some unique problems. The idea of being transported to another world isn't new, but a destroyer from early on in WWII added a lot as did the natives. I'm guessing (It isn't even mentioned as a possibility.) that the meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs didn't fall on this version of Earth, so there are a lot of more evolved dinosaurs around including an intelligent race. They're the bad guys & a race of cat-monkeys (lemur-like) beings are the good guys & they're locked in a battle to the death on the seas in the Indonesian archipelago.
Our heroes were fleeing an early sea battle with the Japanese in their old, beat up ship when they stumble into this new world & wind up taking sides. A lot of setup words are spent, but they make for a logical story. Good characters, some quite memorable, & they have a tough time ahead of them in the next books. Plenty of adventure in this one, too.
First series books often suffer due to the setup time. I liked most of this, but it made for a much slower story than I wanted. Still, the author tossed out enough realistic trivia to keep my interest. He makes a great point of just how poor our Pacific fleet was at the start of WWII & does so both through old, unreliable ammo & the problem the captain had breaking the men out of their old routines. It's a base of realism that really helped make the story pop & there was a lot more of the same.
I look forward to reading another, but I do hope it moves along a bit better. Well narrated. Not really a 4 star book, more of a 3.5.
Our heroes were fleeing an early sea battle with the Japanese in their old, beat up ship when they stumble into this new world & wind up taking sides. A lot of setup words are spent, but they make for a logical story. Good characters, some quite memorable, & they have a tough time ahead of them in the next books. Plenty of adventure in this one, too.
First series books often suffer due to the setup time. I liked most of this, but it made for a much slower story than I wanted. Still, the author tossed out enough realistic trivia to keep my interest. He makes a great point of just how poor our Pacific fleet was at the start of WWII & does so both through old, unreliable ammo & the problem the captain had breaking the men out of their old routines. It's a base of realism that really helped make the story pop & there was a lot more of the same.
I look forward to reading another, but I do hope it moves along a bit better. Well narrated. Not really a 4 star book, more of a 3.5.
September 19, 2014
A World War II destroyer is sent back in time and joins lemur-people in a war against dinosaur-people.
If that concept sounds awesome to you, then you should read this book. If that concept sounds silly to you, then I've just told you everything you need to know.
Now, to be more precise, it's not entirely clear whether the USS Walker goes back in time or sidewise, but either way, the ship, on the run from a vastly superior Japanese fleet, winds up in an alternate timeline in which humans never evolved. Instead, they find themselves in a South Pacific inhabited by "Lemurians," who sail the seas in gigantic aircraft carrier-sized "home ships," and are currently facing an invasion by the savage, saurian "Grik"... who have sailing ships that are direct copies of 19th-century vessels from our timeline. Obviously, the Grik at some point encountered other humans who wound up in this timeline.
The USS Walker's crew includes a large cast of characters notable mostly for their individual personality quirks, like any war movie, and the Lemurians also get some named characters who will obviously be important in future volumes. The Grik, at least in this book, are just a bloodthirsty horde of nameless monsters, and all we learn about their culture is that they're insanely violent and driven to conquer. They are so mindlessly violent, in fact, that it seems incredible they could even take the time to learn how to operate sailing ships. Hopefully they'll get fleshed out a bit more in future books.
Into the Storm is the first volume in what appears to be a long series. There is nothing deep about it, but the writing, while nothing remarkable, was straightforward serviceable storytelling with brave men (and Lemurians) fighting a vile foe, and a lot of naval tactics, resource management, and inter-species diplomacy. I found it great fun, enough that I'll continue with the series unless and until it loses steam.
If that concept sounds awesome to you, then you should read this book. If that concept sounds silly to you, then I've just told you everything you need to know.
Now, to be more precise, it's not entirely clear whether the USS Walker goes back in time or sidewise, but either way, the ship, on the run from a vastly superior Japanese fleet, winds up in an alternate timeline in which humans never evolved. Instead, they find themselves in a South Pacific inhabited by "Lemurians," who sail the seas in gigantic aircraft carrier-sized "home ships," and are currently facing an invasion by the savage, saurian "Grik"... who have sailing ships that are direct copies of 19th-century vessels from our timeline. Obviously, the Grik at some point encountered other humans who wound up in this timeline.
The USS Walker's crew includes a large cast of characters notable mostly for their individual personality quirks, like any war movie, and the Lemurians also get some named characters who will obviously be important in future volumes. The Grik, at least in this book, are just a bloodthirsty horde of nameless monsters, and all we learn about their culture is that they're insanely violent and driven to conquer. They are so mindlessly violent, in fact, that it seems incredible they could even take the time to learn how to operate sailing ships. Hopefully they'll get fleshed out a bit more in future books.
Into the Storm is the first volume in what appears to be a long series. There is nothing deep about it, but the writing, while nothing remarkable, was straightforward serviceable storytelling with brave men (and Lemurians) fighting a vile foe, and a lot of naval tactics, resource management, and inter-species diplomacy. I found it great fun, enough that I'll continue with the series unless and until it loses steam.
April 1, 2021
Notes:
A little slow to get going but there's a lot of spunk & interesting ideas set up for the series.
A little slow to get going but there's a lot of spunk & interesting ideas set up for the series.
November 19, 2024
The story and the characters:
As promising as the story sounded and as well as it has been executed by Taylor Anderson, his characters didn't nearly keep up with this level. From an objective viewpoint, the story was riveting and suspenseful, introducing a lot of interesting twists and several exciting battle confrontations. Taylor Anderson spent a lot of time on the world building in this alternate Earth, as Captain Reddy (the main protagonist) and his crew entered 'another world, another war' through a squall after a naval battle with a Japanese destroyer. Two unknown creatures were established in the course of the story, the first being the Lemurians, nicknamed 'cat-monkeys' by some members of the crew and represented with a complex social background, the second being the Grik, reptil-like predators who remained mainly unknown to the protagonists and the readers due to their illustration as relentlessly and unscrupulously acting villains. Apart from this entire new world Taylor Anderson made the reader comfortable with, he didn't invest a lot of writing time into characterising his protagonists. Captain Matthew Reddy was simply the captain, confronted with life-changing choices and difficult situations, but still only the captain. A lot of minor characters, e.g. Sandra Tucker, Dennis Silva, Mr. Bradford or Jim Ellis, were one-dimensional and fairly uninteresting characters with no background and no character traits they could be reminded for. Two viewpoints were introduced in order to give further insight into the Lemurian society, which were some of the most interesting parts of the story.
The cover:
The cover is gorgeous! A lot of different colours, yet dark and gloomy. If not for the story and the characters, it is already worthwhile to just look at it.
My reading experience:
This was hard to read, as it took me nearly one month to get through this book. The font size in the edition I own is diminutive, and the scenes were described in such a detailed way it sometimes became hard to continue reading because boredom was easily arised. As the story continued, it became apparent that Taylor Anderson is a master of writing battle scenes and making the atmosphere dominating in the military feel realistic. Finally, two major plot twists smoothed the way for the second installment in the series, . One thing I might want to add: Taylor Anderson should write military science fiction, not romance. Romance was present in this story as well, if only for a minor part, but it remained one of the most predictable things about this book and felt rushed at the end, although the tension between those two characters was clearly visible from the very beginning. I chose to rate the book with four stars because of its plot and its intriguing worldbuilding, although it is more like 3.5 stars.
I don't know yet whether or not I'll read "Crusade". This opening for the series Destroyermen was interesting and investing, but I usually want to read a book because I'm curious about the fates of its characters, which I am not the least after this book. Maybe I will read it one day, but at the moment I will allow the book to rest on my shelves without another companion from Taylor Anderson.
As promising as the story sounded and as well as it has been executed by Taylor Anderson, his characters didn't nearly keep up with this level. From an objective viewpoint, the story was riveting and suspenseful, introducing a lot of interesting twists and several exciting battle confrontations. Taylor Anderson spent a lot of time on the world building in this alternate Earth, as Captain Reddy (the main protagonist) and his crew entered 'another world, another war' through a squall after a naval battle with a Japanese destroyer. Two unknown creatures were established in the course of the story, the first being the Lemurians, nicknamed 'cat-monkeys' by some members of the crew and represented with a complex social background, the second being the Grik, reptil-like predators who remained mainly unknown to the protagonists and the readers due to their illustration as relentlessly and unscrupulously acting villains. Apart from this entire new world Taylor Anderson made the reader comfortable with, he didn't invest a lot of writing time into characterising his protagonists. Captain Matthew Reddy was simply the captain, confronted with life-changing choices and difficult situations, but still only the captain. A lot of minor characters, e.g. Sandra Tucker, Dennis Silva, Mr. Bradford or Jim Ellis, were one-dimensional and fairly uninteresting characters with no background and no character traits they could be reminded for. Two viewpoints were introduced in order to give further insight into the Lemurian society, which were some of the most interesting parts of the story.
The cover:
The cover is gorgeous! A lot of different colours, yet dark and gloomy. If not for the story and the characters, it is already worthwhile to just look at it.
My reading experience:
This was hard to read, as it took me nearly one month to get through this book. The font size in the edition I own is diminutive, and the scenes were described in such a detailed way it sometimes became hard to continue reading because boredom was easily arised. As the story continued, it became apparent that Taylor Anderson is a master of writing battle scenes and making the atmosphere dominating in the military feel realistic. Finally, two major plot twists smoothed the way for the second installment in the series, . One thing I might want to add: Taylor Anderson should write military science fiction, not romance. Romance was present in this story as well, if only for a minor part, but it remained one of the most predictable things about this book and felt rushed at the end, although the tension between those two characters was clearly visible from the very beginning. I chose to rate the book with four stars because of its plot and its intriguing worldbuilding, although it is more like 3.5 stars.
I don't know yet whether or not I'll read "Crusade". This opening for the series Destroyermen was interesting and investing, but I usually want to read a book because I'm curious about the fates of its characters, which I am not the least after this book. Maybe I will read it one day, but at the moment I will allow the book to rest on my shelves without another companion from Taylor Anderson.
July 2, 2018
3.5 - a bit ridiculous overall, in both premise and execution, but actually a lot of fun. I'll keep reading and see what I think.
December 26, 2023
It is a good book to read. Well written. "Produced" to work well. The technical details are not always accurate, but it is fiction, after all. Troop attitudes are realistic, as are emotions and feelings, though somewhat cookie-cutter.
Time tunnels, dimensional gates and the inexplicability of certain space-time situations are normal in this kind of novel and the author uses them well. The "historical" aspect (also political and diplomatic) is intriguing, although the plot has fantastical/scientific twists. But, well, something reminded me a bit of Planet of the Apes, and the prob is that there was no character that won me over or sold me. I found them distant. I also skipped pages, and I almost never do that, but I really couldn't wait to finish. A good book, but not very engaging, at least for me.
Time tunnels, dimensional gates and the inexplicability of certain space-time situations are normal in this kind of novel and the author uses them well. The "historical" aspect (also political and diplomatic) is intriguing, although the plot has fantastical/scientific twists. But, well, something reminded me a bit of Planet of the Apes, and the prob is that there was no character that won me over or sold me. I found them distant. I also skipped pages, and I almost never do that, but I really couldn't wait to finish. A good book, but not very engaging, at least for me.
February 16, 2010
This is a solid first book. I was fascinated to see that the author is a forensic ballistic archeologist- I never knew such a thing existed, and how cool is that!?
The book is a fairly straightforward world-walking premise, with a battered WWII destroyer falling into a world with no humans, but with intelligent seafaring monkey-cats (Lemurians) and a nasty intelligent reptilian enemy. We only get to know things from the crew's perspective, so the lizard baddies are still alien to us at the end of the first book. I liked the fact that the author thought about what the crew could realistically know, and talked about the limits of decision making without good intelligence.
The characters break no new ground, and no one we'd really miss dies. I'm interested to see what the author makes of them in the next book, because I did become fond of them and their devotion to duty and each other.
I gave the book 4 stars instead of five because, while it was solidly entertaining, it didn't move me deeply. More of a popcorn matinee movie that will divert you thoroughly than an Oscar winner. But hey, I love popcorn!
The book is a fairly straightforward world-walking premise, with a battered WWII destroyer falling into a world with no humans, but with intelligent seafaring monkey-cats (Lemurians) and a nasty intelligent reptilian enemy. We only get to know things from the crew's perspective, so the lizard baddies are still alien to us at the end of the first book. I liked the fact that the author thought about what the crew could realistically know, and talked about the limits of decision making without good intelligence.
The characters break no new ground, and no one we'd really miss dies. I'm interested to see what the author makes of them in the next book, because I did become fond of them and their devotion to duty and each other.
I gave the book 4 stars instead of five because, while it was solidly entertaining, it didn't move me deeply. More of a popcorn matinee movie that will divert you thoroughly than an Oscar winner. But hey, I love popcorn!
October 13, 2012
I've had this on my radar for a while, and finally bought the 1st 5 books of the series to read on my annual fall travelling for work.
This one didn't dissapoint! If you're a fan of 1632, this one is just as good.
Lt. Commander Matthew Reddy and his ship., the Walker, get sucked into a portal to a parallel Earth while running from the vastly more powerful Japanese Navy.
They find a semi-prehistoric world, where, instead of humans, two different species rose to sentience... the fierce, Raptor-like Grik, and the peaceful, seagoing Lemurians. From being an outdated, forgotten hulk in the Pacific Theatre, the Walker is now the fastest, most powerful ship in the world, if they can find a way to get fuel, ammo, and supplies.... but whose side while they choose?
While there are a few overly convienent co-incidences in that make things a little easier (like the fact that one of the passengers just happens to have oil surveys of the region, and the oil is all in the same place, or that both races speak a bit of an Earth language, due to a previous visit by an East India Company ship) it's a great story, with engaging characters, and fun alternate history.
Most definitely a good read!
This one didn't dissapoint! If you're a fan of 1632, this one is just as good.
Lt. Commander Matthew Reddy and his ship., the Walker, get sucked into a portal to a parallel Earth while running from the vastly more powerful Japanese Navy.
They find a semi-prehistoric world, where, instead of humans, two different species rose to sentience... the fierce, Raptor-like Grik, and the peaceful, seagoing Lemurians. From being an outdated, forgotten hulk in the Pacific Theatre, the Walker is now the fastest, most powerful ship in the world, if they can find a way to get fuel, ammo, and supplies.... but whose side while they choose?
While there are a few overly convienent co-incidences in that make things a little easier (like the fact that one of the passengers just happens to have oil surveys of the region, and the oil is all in the same place, or that both races speak a bit of an Earth language, due to a previous visit by an East India Company ship) it's a great story, with engaging characters, and fun alternate history.
Most definitely a good read!
January 17, 2016
3.5 stars if it were possible.
What a surprise this book was....and a good surprise at that. When I looked this book up on GR before deciding to read it, I looked no further than the list of main page genres. It had listed: sci-fi, time travel and war. I was sold right there. As this book started rolling along, and the time travel part happened....I was saying, "Oh no. Anything but that." From that point on, I kept expecting it to get hokey and lame, but it never entered those waters. It may have skirted those issues, but never jumped in. I knew I would have walked away if it started falling in that direction, but it didn't. I actually liked this. I also kept expecting it to stall in this alternate world, because what can really happen way way way back then. But the author kept things rolling with some creative twists.
The ending felt a little abrupt, but overall, I liked this. And just because it could have gone horribly wrong, and didn't, I will up the 3.5 rating to 4. This was an intriguing surprise.
What a surprise this book was....and a good surprise at that. When I looked this book up on GR before deciding to read it, I looked no further than the list of main page genres. It had listed: sci-fi, time travel and war. I was sold right there. As this book started rolling along, and the time travel part happened....I was saying, "Oh no. Anything but that." From that point on, I kept expecting it to get hokey and lame, but it never entered those waters. It may have skirted those issues, but never jumped in. I knew I would have walked away if it started falling in that direction, but it didn't. I actually liked this. I also kept expecting it to stall in this alternate world, because what can really happen way way way back then. But the author kept things rolling with some creative twists.
The ending felt a little abrupt, but overall, I liked this. And just because it could have gone horribly wrong, and didn't, I will up the 3.5 rating to 4. This was an intriguing surprise.
August 31, 2023
This book/series answers that time old question: "what if a WW2 battleship got transported to an alternate earth were sentient creatures evolved from dinosaurs?"
This is fun. The author excelled in 1940s parlance. The crew of the USS Walker felt like real people. On their voyage of discovery, we were made to feel like we were right there with them. It was quite the adventure!
How will this crew survive here with no fuel, ammunition, and hope of going home? I don't know, but as part of this crew, I look forward to what lies ahead.
I did this on audio, and it felt like what I imagine a good 1940s/50s radio serial would sound like. Definitely going to keep going on this series.
This is fun. The author excelled in 1940s parlance. The crew of the USS Walker felt like real people. On their voyage of discovery, we were made to feel like we were right there with them. It was quite the adventure!
How will this crew survive here with no fuel, ammunition, and hope of going home? I don't know, but as part of this crew, I look forward to what lies ahead.
I did this on audio, and it felt like what I imagine a good 1940s/50s radio serial would sound like. Definitely going to keep going on this series.
August 6, 2016
With a plot premise of an outdated warship in service during WW2 which gets pulled into an alternate world, this book had the potential to be pretty cheesy. Fortunately, this potential was unmet. In fact, there was a surprising amount of thought put into the book regarding the story. The author could have just created a world were weird stuff happens, actionish things take place, and the book has the purpose of just being entertaining; plenty of authors end there and send their books to print, but to T. Anderson's benefit he didn't just leave it at that. He put a bit more thought into the book, and hence he produced a product that's a little more thoughtful than a typical diversionary flick.
Sure, the ultimate point of the book is to escape into an alternate reality where humans are the minority and the world is simply weird. But, instead of just focusing upon the "what" question Taylor Anderson obviously enjoys exploring the "how" or "why" questions. Through all the WW2 naval speak, and macho-ness with which all military books ultimately color themselves, Anderson explores speculations on topics such as Geology, Evolution, and Culture. There's a genuine attempt at authenticity in Anderson's work that makes up for the foundational simplicity of the plot and prose construction. Into the Storm may ultimately be a book for fun diversion (and is not presented as anything more), but the book also reveals an active mind at work during its creation; this is the only true trait I demand from authors as a reader. Books can always be improved upon, stories and characters always fleshed out more, but the obvious engagement of the author in their own work can often be the deciding factor of a book's intrinsic worth. Anderson is engaged in his work, and it's obviousness in this case makes the book greater than the sum of its parts.
I'm also increasing the rating for musings upon cat-monkey-human sex (don't worry, it's tasteful).
Sure, the ultimate point of the book is to escape into an alternate reality where humans are the minority and the world is simply weird. But, instead of just focusing upon the "what" question Taylor Anderson obviously enjoys exploring the "how" or "why" questions. Through all the WW2 naval speak, and macho-ness with which all military books ultimately color themselves, Anderson explores speculations on topics such as Geology, Evolution, and Culture. There's a genuine attempt at authenticity in Anderson's work that makes up for the foundational simplicity of the plot and prose construction. Into the Storm may ultimately be a book for fun diversion (and is not presented as anything more), but the book also reveals an active mind at work during its creation; this is the only true trait I demand from authors as a reader. Books can always be improved upon, stories and characters always fleshed out more, but the obvious engagement of the author in their own work can often be the deciding factor of a book's intrinsic worth. Anderson is engaged in his work, and it's obviousness in this case makes the book greater than the sum of its parts.
I'm also increasing the rating for musings upon cat-monkey-human sex (don't worry, it's tasteful).
September 3, 2021
Into the Storm, Taylor Anderson, combining real events with fiction, an amazing mash up. The World is at war a small fleet of American warships are running away and being hunted by a Japanese fleet that are superior in every way, being found again and after another futile battle (2nd Battle of Java Sea, 1 March 1942 Japanese victory) and when all hope seems lost suddenly a black storm appears in the distance and the fleeing destroyer USS Walker DD-163 decide to make smoke and run for their lives and the chance to fight again, they escape into the storm. A new world is discovered geographically exactly the same as earth but inhabited by two intelligent creatures Grik descendants of Velociraptors who rule half of planet Earth but armed with late medieval age technology, but with unparalleled numbers (eggs laid in batches of thousands) and ferocity with blood sacrificial religious zeal intend to hunt every other creature into extinction or slavery. The Lemurians a race who have always fled from the Grik and live aboard massive wooden ships and evolved to live out on the open oceans. Non-fiction meets Science Fiction, a whole world awaits I believe this is book one of twenty in the series, and boy is that heaps, a lot to get your brain into. Interestingly one of the main characters is the ship Walker a Wilkes Class destroyer one off over 100 built circa 1917-1919. The story balances a tight rope quite well, a blend of military technical know-how satisfying this history buff, along with voyeurism addiction satisfaction for that other guy alter ego.
September 1, 2019
During a battle in WW2, a pair of WW1-era destroyers enter a mysterious storm and are transported to an alternate Earth where dinosaurs never went extinct and humans never evolved. They run afoul of a ravenous civilization of intelligent dinosaurs, perhaps descended from raptors, and ally themselves with a declining race evolved from lemurs, finding themselves in war where their obsolete ships are the most advanced technological devices on the planet. The destroyers make a difference for a change... until a Japanese battleship arrives.
This is just pure widescreen fun. It's sort of a combination of Burroughs' Land That Time Forgot and the Kirk Douglas movie The Final Countdown, where a modern aircraft carrier is transported to just before Pearl Harbor. Anderson has some quirks as a writer, such as an over-reliance on ellipses, and it's not great literature, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Enough to plunge ahead to the next one immediately.
This is just pure widescreen fun. It's sort of a combination of Burroughs' Land That Time Forgot and the Kirk Douglas movie The Final Countdown, where a modern aircraft carrier is transported to just before Pearl Harbor. Anderson has some quirks as a writer, such as an over-reliance on ellipses, and it's not great literature, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Enough to plunge ahead to the next one immediately.
March 18, 2024
This was a fun read. A WWII ship gets transported to a world where dinosaurs never went extinct and more than one sentient species evolved. What's not to love? Well, maybe the dozens of named characters in the book that I constantly lost track of who they were, but other than that, I really enjoyed it.
May 21, 2012
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.
December 30, 2013
This book honestly felt like reading a novelized Real Time Strategy game. It was pretty boring for the first half and then when they leveled up the natives ships with cannons it had some sparks of interestingness, but still has cardboard characters and things that just were not well thought out at all. It was not horrible, it was just OK.
And per good reads OK = 2 stars.
And per good reads OK = 2 stars.
June 10, 2015
Great concept but I thought it dragged on a bit. Maybe a 3.5 for me.
January 16, 2024
Into the Storm is like a mixture of Twain's Connecticut Yankee and Forstchen's Lost Regiment set in a universe imagined by Edgar Rice Burroughs with a dash of Operation Petticoat and the Sand Pebbles thrown in for good measure. This book starts the story of the U.S.S. Walker and its crew after they get thrown through a time-space rift into an alternate Earth where semi-sentient velociraptor-like Grik and the Lemurians (lemur-cat-people) have inherited the Earth and mankind's only representatives are the handful of humans who have been pulled through rifts at various points in history. Confronted with the all-consuming (both metaphorically and literally) Grik Empire, the Walker's crew choose to aid the pacifistic Lemurians in their fight for survival.
The strongest point of the book is the setting: both pre- and post- world-jump. Anderson starts the book off in the midst of the Battle of the Java Sea, one of the greatest military disasters in the history of the U.S. military. Just weeks after Pearl Harbor and the Invasion of the Philippines, the Imperial Japanese Navy pressed south through the Dutch East Indies towards Australia. Unwilling to simply cede the region's oil wealth, the Allies gathered a hodgepodge of naval forces and threw them at the Japanese, with predictable results. Allied forces were antiquated, their newer equipment was untested and often malfunctioned (especially U.S. torpedoes), air cover was non-existent, and the various national navies were incapable of close cooperation due to differences of language and a shaky (and often incompetent) chain of command. The end result was a wanton waste of lives for almost no appreciable effect, as Japanese forces simply steam-rolled the allied fleet. Anderson nicely captures the sense of desperation of the battle.
After the world-jump, we find a world that is both eerily similar and utterly alien to the Earth the crew of the Walker knew before. I won't go into too much detail because in a book like this, getting to know a new world (and its "people) is half the fun. However, Anderson nicely ties together the two sections with a common theme of defiance in the face of hopeless odds given the Walker's useless efforts to stave off the Japanese advance and the Lemurians helplessness in the face of the innumerable and implacable Grik swarm (and the Walker's part in staving off that horror becomes catharsis for all the defeats it has suffered along the way).
Likewise, it is obvious throughout the series that Anderson is both fond of and extremely knowledgeable about the World War 1 vintage 4-stack destroyers (as represented by U.S.S. Walker) and the book provides a nice look at not only combat function of such a craft but the nuts-and-bolts of the life of a destroyer crew of that era. The Walker, with all its versatility and (even more) limitations, is as much a character of the story as its ever-resourceful crew. The Walker's crew is a smorgasbord of roughnecks, outcasts, and ne'er-do-wells led by Lt. Cmdr Matthew Reddy, who faces the unenviable task of keeping his men on task in a new world and finding a way to survive while forging an alliance with the reluctant Lemurians. Admittedly, apart from Reddy and a couple others, the Lemurians are the real stars of the book as they are by and large less stereotypical and more dynamic.
That, sadly, brings us to the weak point of the story: convenience. In order to make his story of a small American naval force fighting off a massive invasion of lizard-men work, Anderson has to thrown in some convenient cop-outs. Foremost is Dr. Courtenay Bradford, an oil company employee/quirky Australian super scientist, who knows about just about everything and can provide the story with an explanation or a technological solution to just about any problem. Fortunately, the book doesn't play too fast and loose with its technological deus ex machina, but for all his enjoyable quirkiness Bradford is undoubtedly a cheap plot device. Likewise, for the sake of giving the story some romantic interest (and tension since the Walker's crew is from the notoriously licentious China Station and must face a world where the only female humans are (apparently) the half-dozen they brought with them), the Walker just happens to be carrying a group of evacuee Army nurses from the Philippines. Again, while likeable enough characters, the nurses seem like they were thrown in just to round out the cast rather than because it made sense for them to be aboard an antique navy destroyer heading into battle against unstoppable odds. The associated "dame famine" was the most uncomfortable and melodramatic (though not unreasonable) subplot of the book (and its sequels) and leads to some weird human-lemurian pseudo-romance. The third convenience is Lt. Shinya, who plays the lone "good jap", only survivor of a foundering Japanese vessel that was also dragged into the other world and is rescued by the Walker from a grisly fate in the savage seas of the new world. Shinya exists to give the crew opportunities to express their rage at the injustice and cowardice of the Japanese war effort but I can't be too hard on Anderson because Shinya is also one of the most well-rounded and dynamic human characters.
All in all, I liked Into the Storm (and have enjoyed its sequels) as both a historical naval fiction piece and as an alternate history/lost world fantasy.
The strongest point of the book is the setting: both pre- and post- world-jump. Anderson starts the book off in the midst of the Battle of the Java Sea, one of the greatest military disasters in the history of the U.S. military. Just weeks after Pearl Harbor and the Invasion of the Philippines, the Imperial Japanese Navy pressed south through the Dutch East Indies towards Australia. Unwilling to simply cede the region's oil wealth, the Allies gathered a hodgepodge of naval forces and threw them at the Japanese, with predictable results. Allied forces were antiquated, their newer equipment was untested and often malfunctioned (especially U.S. torpedoes), air cover was non-existent, and the various national navies were incapable of close cooperation due to differences of language and a shaky (and often incompetent) chain of command. The end result was a wanton waste of lives for almost no appreciable effect, as Japanese forces simply steam-rolled the allied fleet. Anderson nicely captures the sense of desperation of the battle.
After the world-jump, we find a world that is both eerily similar and utterly alien to the Earth the crew of the Walker knew before. I won't go into too much detail because in a book like this, getting to know a new world (and its "people) is half the fun. However, Anderson nicely ties together the two sections with a common theme of defiance in the face of hopeless odds given the Walker's useless efforts to stave off the Japanese advance and the Lemurians helplessness in the face of the innumerable and implacable Grik swarm (and the Walker's part in staving off that horror becomes catharsis for all the defeats it has suffered along the way).
Likewise, it is obvious throughout the series that Anderson is both fond of and extremely knowledgeable about the World War 1 vintage 4-stack destroyers (as represented by U.S.S. Walker) and the book provides a nice look at not only combat function of such a craft but the nuts-and-bolts of the life of a destroyer crew of that era. The Walker, with all its versatility and (even more) limitations, is as much a character of the story as its ever-resourceful crew. The Walker's crew is a smorgasbord of roughnecks, outcasts, and ne'er-do-wells led by Lt. Cmdr Matthew Reddy, who faces the unenviable task of keeping his men on task in a new world and finding a way to survive while forging an alliance with the reluctant Lemurians. Admittedly, apart from Reddy and a couple others, the Lemurians are the real stars of the book as they are by and large less stereotypical and more dynamic.
That, sadly, brings us to the weak point of the story: convenience. In order to make his story of a small American naval force fighting off a massive invasion of lizard-men work, Anderson has to thrown in some convenient cop-outs. Foremost is Dr. Courtenay Bradford, an oil company employee/quirky Australian super scientist, who knows about just about everything and can provide the story with an explanation or a technological solution to just about any problem. Fortunately, the book doesn't play too fast and loose with its technological deus ex machina, but for all his enjoyable quirkiness Bradford is undoubtedly a cheap plot device. Likewise, for the sake of giving the story some romantic interest (and tension since the Walker's crew is from the notoriously licentious China Station and must face a world where the only female humans are (apparently) the half-dozen they brought with them), the Walker just happens to be carrying a group of evacuee Army nurses from the Philippines. Again, while likeable enough characters, the nurses seem like they were thrown in just to round out the cast rather than because it made sense for them to be aboard an antique navy destroyer heading into battle against unstoppable odds. The associated "dame famine" was the most uncomfortable and melodramatic (though not unreasonable) subplot of the book (and its sequels) and leads to some weird human-lemurian pseudo-romance. The third convenience is Lt. Shinya, who plays the lone "good jap", only survivor of a foundering Japanese vessel that was also dragged into the other world and is rescued by the Walker from a grisly fate in the savage seas of the new world. Shinya exists to give the crew opportunities to express their rage at the injustice and cowardice of the Japanese war effort but I can't be too hard on Anderson because Shinya is also one of the most well-rounded and dynamic human characters.
All in all, I liked Into the Storm (and have enjoyed its sequels) as both a historical naval fiction piece and as an alternate history/lost world fantasy.
April 8, 2023
What a weird book - so good!
It was the perfect brain candy at the perfect time for me - I really needed the escape that this book gave me!
Two WWII U.S. Navy Destroyers (from WWI) escape "Into the Storm" to avoid certain death, gets transported into an alternate universe where an existential bronze-age(ish) war is raging between intelligent, near-human size, lemurs(ish) and dinosaurs(ish), and it only gets weirder from there.
The introductory setup is a bit long, but It's a fun blend of what-ifs, historical military fiction, and sorta science fiction. It shouldn't work, but it does. Obviously, one first has to dial down the reality filter a bit more than usual, but otherwise, if the concept sounds even remotely appealing... why not give this one a try!?
And if this one sounds just a little too far-fetched for you, but you're still kinda intrigued, you could always give Eric Flint's "1632" a go as a warm-up - that one stays in our universe, sorta, at least.
It was the perfect brain candy at the perfect time for me - I really needed the escape that this book gave me!
Two WWII U.S. Navy Destroyers (from WWI) escape "Into the Storm" to avoid certain death, gets transported into an alternate universe where an existential bronze-age(ish) war is raging between intelligent, near-human size, lemurs(ish) and dinosaurs(ish), and it only gets weirder from there.
The introductory setup is a bit long, but It's a fun blend of what-ifs, historical military fiction, and sorta science fiction. It shouldn't work, but it does. Obviously, one first has to dial down the reality filter a bit more than usual, but otherwise, if the concept sounds even remotely appealing... why not give this one a try!?
And if this one sounds just a little too far-fetched for you, but you're still kinda intrigued, you could always give Eric Flint's "1632" a go as a warm-up - that one stays in our universe, sorta, at least.
March 11, 2020
Pretty cool storyline. A time warped adventure, apparently a series with over 14 books. I liked it enough to give the 2nd book a try in a few months. Taking realistic approach to the issues and concerns of the men and women involved in this time lost adventure.
August 25, 2012
I love historical fiction, especially if it is well thought out and we researched. Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series is no exception; while he adds a Sci Fi twist to it, everything about this series is historically accurate and correct, sort of. As with any author a certain level of creative licence is expected and in this case it makes the whole story possible.
Into The Storm is the first book in what was originally a trilogy, it establishes Captain Mathew Reddy; Commanding Officer of the WW2 Destroyer USS Walker DD163, and follows his crew on an adventure unlike any other of the second World War. Taylor Anderson blends seemingly complex scientific theories and paleontology with basic engineering problems and supply issues in a world that's not quite our own; as well as the war...maybe not the same war but a war none the less.
The characters are very believable and well thought out, even the world in which they inhabit, so similar yet very different is remarkably vivid and real. Even USS Walker becomes a character in itself to the point that you feel pain and sorrow for her when bad things happen. The same cannot necessarily be said for USS Mahan; her sister ship that accompanies her to this strange new land. Although her experience is by no means easier than Walker's, her story is somewhat secondary to the plot and in the end ultimately, although she becomes more central later on, has less of an impact on everything; but that comes later in the series.
Without going into too much detail and giving away a key plot point that's as far as I'll go.
I discovered Taylor Anderson's novels on my Nook purely by accident but I'm glad I did. Since I started reading this series which is now 7 books long, I've completed 5 and I'm half way done with the 6 th. I cannot recommend this series more highly than if I shoved it in your face and told you to read it.
5 Stars and very much looking forward to reading book 7 - Iron grey Sea.
Into The Storm is the first book in what was originally a trilogy, it establishes Captain Mathew Reddy; Commanding Officer of the WW2 Destroyer USS Walker DD163, and follows his crew on an adventure unlike any other of the second World War. Taylor Anderson blends seemingly complex scientific theories and paleontology with basic engineering problems and supply issues in a world that's not quite our own; as well as the war...maybe not the same war but a war none the less.
The characters are very believable and well thought out, even the world in which they inhabit, so similar yet very different is remarkably vivid and real. Even USS Walker becomes a character in itself to the point that you feel pain and sorrow for her when bad things happen. The same cannot necessarily be said for USS Mahan; her sister ship that accompanies her to this strange new land. Although her experience is by no means easier than Walker's, her story is somewhat secondary to the plot and in the end ultimately, although she becomes more central later on, has less of an impact on everything; but that comes later in the series.
Without going into too much detail and giving away a key plot point that's as far as I'll go.
I discovered Taylor Anderson's novels on my Nook purely by accident but I'm glad I did. Since I started reading this series which is now 7 books long, I've completed 5 and I'm half way done with the 6 th. I cannot recommend this series more highly than if I shoved it in your face and told you to read it.
5 Stars and very much looking forward to reading book 7 - Iron grey Sea.
May 16, 2012
I enjoyed this quite a lot, well enough to go out today and buy the next two in the series because I was going to finish the first. The first book was a bit slow getting started, but then picked up well and I found myself enjoying it very much.
The series seems clearly influenced by a series published in the 1990s by William R. Forstchen called the Lost Regiment series. In the Forstchen series, while at sea, a troop of Union soldiers from the Civil War is swept through a "time-space" warp to an alternate world where they must help enslaved humans fight a monstrous enemy.
In the Destroyermen series, Anderson has two World War II destroyers swept through a very similar space warp, which is even described somewhat similarly, to an alternate world where humans never evolved but two other races did. These are descendents of Lemurs, who turn out to be the good guys, and descendents of carnivorous dinosaurs (somewhat similar to the Velociraptors of Jurassic Park), who are the bad guys. The American destroyers take the side of the Lemur descendants and, much like in Forstchen's series, begin to teach them technology in order to help them even the odds against the reptiles.
I really liked the Forstchen series a lot so the similarties don't bother me. Heck, maybe Anderson even meant for it to be the same space warp phenomenon as in the earlier series.
The series seems clearly influenced by a series published in the 1990s by William R. Forstchen called the Lost Regiment series. In the Forstchen series, while at sea, a troop of Union soldiers from the Civil War is swept through a "time-space" warp to an alternate world where they must help enslaved humans fight a monstrous enemy.
In the Destroyermen series, Anderson has two World War II destroyers swept through a very similar space warp, which is even described somewhat similarly, to an alternate world where humans never evolved but two other races did. These are descendents of Lemurs, who turn out to be the good guys, and descendents of carnivorous dinosaurs (somewhat similar to the Velociraptors of Jurassic Park), who are the bad guys. The American destroyers take the side of the Lemur descendants and, much like in Forstchen's series, begin to teach them technology in order to help them even the odds against the reptiles.
I really liked the Forstchen series a lot so the similarties don't bother me. Heck, maybe Anderson even meant for it to be the same space warp phenomenon as in the earlier series.
June 25, 2017
I made it about half way through before giving up on this one. Things just got weird for me. Strange animals showed up, there might or might not have been time travel, the ship's crew wasn't sure, so I wasn't either. In the end this one just wasn't for me.
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