The combined effect of unrelenting action, clever plotting and sheer firepower in Buff's latest near-future military thriller (after Straits of Power
) successfully torpedoes any notion that this long-running submarine series has begun to tire. It's June 2012, and America is at war with the neo-Axis coalition of Germany and South Africa. Europe is in German hands, most of Africa has been seized by the Boers, who reinstate apartheid, and with Britain blockaded, only America remains to fight on and in the last battlefield, the oceans of the world. Cmdr. Jeffery Fuller captains the USS Challenger
, the most powerful nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine in America's arsenal. Fuller, a Medal of Honor winner, has fought many battles and now must implement one of the greatest wartime ruses ever attempted. Onboard the Challenger
, a deadly Special Forces team readies itself for what becomes a bloody, gut-wrenching attack against a Russian missile silo. Readers willing to negotiate some difficult technical dialogue—"This new warhead has a miniature gravimetric gradiometer"—will sail through the tough stuff and revel in the meticulously described battle scenes both on land and at sea. Attention, all military thriller fans, report to battle stations, flank speed, superior entertainment ahead. (Jan.)
