Crusade

CRUSADE is the second of Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series. It carries on nicely from the first book and the third MAELSTROM is due in February. This entry is strong enough and moves the story forward. One of the foreshadowing elements from the first book that I feared was spelled out immediately at the beginning. But Anderson explained everything nicely and thus my fears were allayed. I do see one similar element coming from this book, but we will see if it comes to fruition.

I've said it before, but what makes me happiest about this series is that it is coming out over a short period of time. While I enjoyed Turtledove's Great War series, ten years is a long time to see how a story will end. Readers will get the entire Destroyermen series in less than a year.

I enjoy Anderson's writing and will look for his future offerings. These books are fun and deserve reading.

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

Here's another cheat of a book. I picked this up solely for the Patricia Briggs and Carrie Vaughn stories and read the Charlaine Harris Harris out of a fondness for her novels as well.

The Patricia Briggs story picks up on a minor character from the second novel. It was well done enough that it stands well on its own and still adds to the mythology Briggs is building.

Carrie Vaughn's story shows us a little of Kitty's isolation following the second novel. Again it adds to the mythology but is not required reading for the series.

I've only read the first two Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, but I did enjoy them. So I decided to add this story to the reading list and enjoyed it as well - even if it did spoil some things from future novels.

I'm sure the other stories were worthy reads, but I was not interested at the time. There are too many other books to finish and not enough time.

Into the Storm

INTO THE STORM is the first book in Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series - a nice little foray into the alternate history phenomenon that, along with urban fantasy, seems to dominate the science fiction shelves at my local book retailer. And despite it's appearance as the now requisite trilogy format so common to SF/F, I decided to chance it because the books are coming out in a nice even spacing between June and February. This means I can take time to digest the book, but do not need to wait a year or more between installments. Nor do I feel the need to wait until all the books are out or pile them up before reading. I wish more publishers would put their trilogies out in such a manner. John Hendry's Lost Fleet series was following this model, but has slowed in recent months.

Now to the book, a couple of WWI-vintage destroyers are thrown into the maw of the Java Sea battles between the Japanese military and the Asiatic fleets of the U.S., Britain, Australia, and the Netherlands. As history informs us, the Japanese fleet was vastly superior to the ABDA forces and the allied navies took heavy losses. The two destroyers, USS WALKER and USS MAHAN, get displaced into another Java Sea following a freak squall and wind up in a land where humans have not evolved. Dinosaurs still roam this earth and the dominant intelligent life is split between the reptilian Grik and the lemur-like People. Of course, the two sides are warring and our heroes will take a side. But it is done with originality and good storytelling. I do think the author may have telegraphed some of his foreshadowing, but the book still kept me engaged.

The second book, CRUSADE, is out and as soon as my library gets it, I will get it and read it. And then later this winter, the final book MAELSTROM will be released. I just hope the author can keep it all together to maintain or exceed what has started as a good series.